Please Pray for Michelle and John

It has been a very long week for my entire family. My sister in law, Michelle, (Leonard's wife) who is 26 weeks pregnant, had a sickle cell attack on Sunday, the 3rd. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sickle_cell_crisis/article_em.htm She received a full blood transfusion. This is something she has had before, and the blood transfusions have always done the job, and Michelle always recovered. For whatever reason, this time, her liver stopped working, and started dying. Wed morning Michelle slipped into a coma. She was put at the top of the national transplant list, and within 48 she had a new liver, and a newborn baby. John Jakob Mattingly was born 8-8-08 at 11:03am. (due date 10-31) He is 2 lbs 9 oz. & 40 cm long. He is in the NICU. He had to have a blood transfusion as well due to the toxins in his blood from the bad liver. They are both in stable condition. Michelle is still in the coma.

This is Michelle's blog, so you can get to know her better. http://babymattingly.blogspot.com/

This is the website that you can leave them messages and find out updates.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/michellemattingly Mean while, Mike had to work in Tallahassee on Tuesday and Wed, so the boys and I drove up with him.

All of the houses in the area are built like this. We found this tiny playground. It helped the boys get out some energy before the 4 hour drive back home. The sail boat in the background ran into the beach (it was low tide) and got stuck. We saw the entire thing. We got back from Tallahassee Wed evening, then headed out Thursday morning since Mike had to work in South Miami on Friday. Christina brought Catelyn with us. She is the one that is like a second teen daughter to us. Mike got done at work at 1pm, then we headed down to Key Largo.

I didn't get any pictures of us snorkeling. I left my phone in the truck, and I was too busy enjoying watching the kids snorkel. Zachary got it down the last time. So he was off and snorkeling before we could get in. Caleb has been practicing wearing his goggles in the hotel swimming pools lately, so he was excited to try it in the ocean. He got in, ducked his head under, and swam around for a few minutes, taking a breath, and looking down. Then he decided to try the snorkel. 1 minute later, he got the hang of breathing, and spent the next hour swimming all over and discovering all kinds of fish and crabs! It is so incredibly fun to watch them discover something like snorkeling, and to watch them enjoy it so much.

These birds came right up to him looking for food, so we threw them some cracker crumbs. Our gramma Ginny and papa Bill wanted to buy the boys a Big Electric Truck for Christmas. (they bought my brothers one years ago, and I was soo jealous I was too old for it.) So, even tho it is a long time until Christmas, they wanted me to keep my eyes out for one we liked. While shopping with Zachary for his birthday presents, we found one. It was originally 379.99. It was on clearance for 299.99. We had a coupon for 20% off, so after taxes and etc, it was only 268.42. I called gramma, she agreed, good price good time to buy. So we did! The boys got their Christmas present a few months early. Oh well, more time for them to enjoy it!

And are they ever enjoying it!

They have already driven circles around our house!

You soooo know I am going to add NASCAR decals to it!

It has a trunk to carry stuff, so it will be perfect at the races in Feb.

Another reason why parents go gray....

We are praying very hard for Michelle, Leonard and Jakob. Please continue your prayers for them, as they will need them for a long time coming.