The Long and Short of It.

I took this skirt I paid 50 cents for at a thrift store and chopped off the bottom tier and transformed it from frumpy to cute and sassy. I like it so much better. I left it unhemmed so that it can fray naturally. I put in a line of stitching 5/8ths of an inch in so it doesn't fray too far. With the material I cut off, I made a skirt for Emily, Age 11. Basically gathered and attached it to elastic and used the existing hem. Then made a couple more to sell at the Christmas market we have at church every year. This was a quick and easy self-gratification project; but it just felt so good to sit in front of that machine again after having the baby and just sew something, anything, and I really needed a new skirt anyway because I'm still not back in my regular clothes. I'm already dreaming of what I can make next. I would like to get back into the habit of doing a little something most every day so I can have regular creativity going on in my life. In time, in time.

Skirt before: (The following three photos were taken by Martin, Age 8)

And after:

(Closeup of hem taken by Emily, Age 11)

Whoa! Look at all of this fabric from the bottom tier! It would be a shame to throw it away. (Photo taken by Martin.)

Three skirts I was able to make from this fabric, one for Emily and two to sell, and a skirt for Emily's sock doll that she has started. (Photos taken by me.)

And now, for the grand finale, the sweet and adorable Emily Callan, modeling her new little skirt. (Photos taken by the one and only Marty Callan, my husband.)

   

Parting Shots:

Recent photos of our youngest children taken on and around Thanksgiving by my husband, Marty.

Baby Shower for Sweet Samantha

Sunday before last our church threw us a baby shower for Samantha. It was scheduled before she was born, but she came too early, three and half weeks too early. It was really special having her with us. This was the most touching and meaningful baby shower I have ever attended. We could sense God's presence. There was so much love coming from everyone there. Donna Rodgers of Comin' Home lead a beautiful devotional that she wrote. The ladies laid hands on Samantha and I and prayed over us. It was mainly a diaper shower, but there were some very special gifts that a lot of thought went into them. One that comes to mind was a scripture quilt from the Brenons. Another, which is pictured, was from Donna Rodgers and her daughter Rebecca, who stayed up late the night before making a beautiful flower wall hanging  of her own design. Her inspiration came from a dress of the same colors that Samantha wore when Donna was over for a visit. The majority of the photographs were taken by Shannon of Blu Bambu and some were taken by my husband, Marty Callan. Marty took the cake shots and the feet of the ladies praying for Samantha and I. The cake was made by Terri Smith. Don't you just love the smocking on the dress? Thank you so much, Terri,  for this special cake. We have had so much support from our church during this time -- meals, visits, letters, emails, phone calls -- and from our family and all of you as well. Thank you all for being there for us. It is nice to know we are not alone in this journey. 

The Monday directly after Thanksgiving I have a real live sewing post coming out. I'll see you then. And in the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week spent with family and/or friends.

A Few Photos Followed by a Video of Our Beautiful Baby Girl at Seven Weeks

Samantha has been such a blessing. I love holding her. She is so sweet. She smiles often and is very expressive now. God has been so gracious to us. She is perfectly healthy. She is strong, and has so far met the milestones of any typical baby. It is just so amazing the way He has answered our prayers. I am so thankful. Below is a video I shot of her when she was seven weeks' old. She is now 14 weeks old.

Update on Baby Samantha

We are home from the NICU now. Samantha spent eight days in there. What sent her there is she had stopped breathing in my room. We were both resting. She in her crib next to my bed. The lady that does the hearing test came in to test her hearing and found her unresponsive. She was gagging and not breathing. I didn't hear her gagging. She wasn't making a sound. I looked over, and her face was blue. She pushed the emergency button. A nurse came running in and started working on Samantha. She wasn't able to get her breathing so she called in another nurse. There ended up being several nurses in the room with lots of yelling. I sat in the bed with my face buried in my hands thinking I was losing my baby because they couldn't get her to breathe. But thank goodness, they finally did.

They don't know what caused this to happen. It has not happened again. They think it's possible she was choking on phlegm, that babies have a lot of mucous when they are new. Another theory was that there was fluid in her lungs because she was born so quickly that it didn't get all squeezed out. Anyway, they took her to NICU for observation. She was found to have jaundice while there. She missed a feeding and her blood sugar levels dropped. One particular day her breathing was too fast and they were concerned if she ate she would aspirate; so they fed her through IV or a tube. They ran lots of other tests to check for different things, one being an echocardiogram to check the condition of her heart. She was having trouble nursing; so I was nursing and pumping round the clock and spent hours with lactation consultants. All of the hard work paid off for she is now nursing beautifully at home, and all of the pumping kept me from losing my milk supply.

She is currently stable, but she still needs your prayers. She was diagnosed to have down syndrome. I have been grieving something terrible. This was such a shock to our family. I have been a ball of nerves, so anxious, hardly sleeping. I need prayer for peace and that I can meet the needs of my sweet baby as well as all of my other children, including being able to keep up my housekeeping and homeschooling the children. Please also pray that Samantha will not develop any health issues and be in and out of doctor's offices and surgeries, and that God would bless her with a high IQ and a strong body, that she would be able to lead a normal life and develop normally, meeting the milestones at the same rate as other babies and that she would have good speech. I would also ask you to join me in praying for a miracle healing for her, that God would miraculously bring her chromosomes in balance with the proper number and that he would basically take her down syndrome away. I know this is a tall order, but nothing is too hard for God, and he still does miracles; so why not my little one? I need some true prayer warriors that would continually lift Samantha and our family up in prayer. Do you believe that God still performs miracles? Can you stand in the gap for Samantha and believe God for a miracle for her? If you can commit to do this for and with us, maybe even a specific day and time each week or day, please let me know so that I can be encouraged that there are people out there praying.

As you probably know, we are a one-income family with six children.We do not qualify for government assistance to help us with the various therapies and doctors' appointments that Samantha will need, nor do we have insurance to cover these expenses. I have placed a secure Paypal donation button below if you would like to help us ensure that sweet baby Samantha gets the best of care. Thank you so much and may God bless you.