Little Miracles!



Little miracles come in such delicate packages.  Our little Madison arrived five days early and she's so beautiful!  She's perfectly healthy.  Matthew is such a good big brother, he helps us do everything with her and at this point he's not one bit jealous.  Madison is perfectly healthy also, still no sign of Joubert Syndrome which we are so very thankful and we are so thankful that each day we watch Matthew grow and we see less Jourbert Syndrome and a perfectly normal 3 yr old.

Matthew's speech is getting much better he still struggles with his articulation but he's very, very smart.  This week Matthew and his daddy have been practicing riding his tricycle and he now wants to do it all by himself.  Something he's never suppose to do he can do and within the normal milestone limit. 

Praise God!!

Our Family has been so blessed with Matthew and having Jourbert's and little Miss Madison who is just the angel we need.  We are living proof that if you pray to God for a miracle and you trust him most of all he does answer you, of course not in your time but his.

Having shared our ups and downs I've decided to end this blog with the birth of our little Madison who is such a precious gift to us and to Matthew. 

Thanks to all who have read our blog!

Christmas Memories 2011

Picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Halloween 2011 & An Update

As you can tell Matthew enjoyed his Halloween, each year it gets better and better.  He loves doing things by himself and he likes to help out too.  Bradley and he had a good time making Halloween cookies the easy way and it also made Matthew feel like he done it all by himself.  He's maturing by leaps and bounds, we're so proud of him.  My grandma had to have a little talk with him about wearing his costume, I don't know what she said but it worked, he kept his Indian feathers on the whole night.

And then there's this side of the preschool years that I'm thankful for but yet I'm pulling my hair out!  Especially while going through my third trimester of pregnancy.  Matthew is at a stage now where he's doing things on purpose, like refusing to clean his plate or eat, peeing in the floor on purpose besides going to the bathroom or for goodness sake go outside.  He is ALL boy!!  His speech is getting much, much better.  Everything is still no or he either mocks what we say.  Counting and time out is getting to the point where it's not working now and we're having to resort to taking away his toys, which is working for now.  Matthew however is completely potty trained at school he can even pull his pants and underwear up and down by himself now. His walking is better now without the braces than with them and he's starting to run everywhere.  He still struggles a bit with the steps but we're more comfortable with him going up and down them without us near so we've taken down the baby gate for now.
Speaking of baby, little Miss Madison's prenatal MRI for Jourbert's Syndrome came back normal with no molar tooth sign-Praise God!!  Her CPC in the brain have now resolved also ( fluid cysts in the front part of the brain), she's weighing in about 2-2 and 1/2 pounds now. 
Matthew just has gotten over Fifth disease at school which left me in a mad rush to my OB- thank goodness I'm immune and it doesn't effect the baby. 
All in all we're enjoying God's blessing and Bradley is doing well after his hernia operation.  :)

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
Love,
The Marshalls

Matthew's First School Year



Matthew has now made the transition into the school system, YIPPEE!!!  I should be nervous but Bradley and I took time to meet with the school advisers and we interviewed our options of school and teachers, and we had our choice of school.  We chose to put him close to where I work and Ms. Penny, his teacher is AWESOME and our neighbor,  Rebecca is the Kindergarten teacher.  So everything is a plus.

Matthew LOVES to ride the school bus.  This is a picture of his first day on the bus, as you can see he needed a little assistance.  However, now he can get on the bus and into his seat and off of the bus all by himself.  He still needs help with that first step because of his short legs.  He is now ready to start potty training at school and is finally doing good at home now.  The only problem now is that he knows if he tinkles in his big boy underwear he gets to change them and his new found joy is taking off his clothes and his underwear.  I am so thankful for this part, he still needs a little help but does it majority of the time by himself.  He is definitely Mr. Independent.

While in school, Matthew's preschool class consists of 18 kids, all boys.  They also have their own speech therapist and his teacher focuses alot on speech.  So he gets speech everyday and 2 days with a one on one speech therapist.  His words have came by leaps and bounds.  He now has 250-300 words, he can say 3-4 word sentences, but still mostly uses two word sentences.  He repeats everything Bradley and I say.  He can say his body parts and names colors, he can say part of his ABCs and count to 6.  It's AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  His articulation is still off some but getting better.  He gets homework once a week that consists of 4 sight words with pictures where he has to name the picture and point to the word and say, he now has it memorized.  He somewhat enjoys homework but I have a feeling he's going to be like Bradley when it comes to school work.

Matthew has been truly touched by God, he is a darling little miracle and Bradley and I cherish every moment with him.. He just recently had his yearly scans at Baptist and all tests came back better than normal. (Thank You God!)  He even peed in the cup so we didn't have to put the horrible urine bag on him.  

Bradley and I are definitely enjoying watching Matthew grow and mature but miss him being a baby, but that's what kids do, GROW UP and get ATTITUDE.  Matthew's new favorite word to everything is "NO!" 

Happy 3rd Birthday Matthew!

It's so hard to believe that my baby boy is now 3.  Time does fly by so fast.  Matthew has grown and matured this past year in amazing ways, ways that we weren't sure of course would happen.  Here are a few of Matthew's milestones he's accomplished by 3.

1. He walks with a more heel to toe motion and can pretty much keep up without losing his balance.
2. He can say 2- 3 word sentences, still not too clear but clear enough for us and can sing some parts of his fav.songs.
3. Can do most wooden peg puzzles all by himself  & matching all the picts. correctly give at least 10 items to choose from.
4. Recognizes the spelling of his name and he can pretty much hold a pencil correctly now.
5. Can go up and down stairs unassisted but still takes one step at a time.
6. Can operate most mechanical toys.
7. Can follow a 3 part instruction most of the time.
8. Loves to pretend play and help mommy and daddy out around the house.
9. Pretty much stays dry through out the day and will willingly use the potty or pee outside. (until pregnancy occurred)
10. Has started to make friends.

So as you can see our little toddler is growing up.  This year will mark new adventures for Matthew and we're sure he'll continue to grow even more.

Below is a slideshow of Matthew's party.

A free photo slideshow by Smilebox

JS Conf. 2011/Vacation

Well we've made it back from Orlando and now time to play catch up.  We attended the Joubert Syndrome Conf. for two days and then decided just to spend the rest of the time vacating.  The conference was ok, we met lots of other families and their kids.  We are truly blessed with little Matthew and all the things he can do and say.  Parents, never take your kids and their abilities for granted.  Each child no matter how they are made are truly a little miracle.  For parents with "special" children there are no words really to describe the patience, love and joy that these parents bring to their children's lives.  Bradley and I are glad we went, however we probably won't be going to the next one.  The downside to the conference was the sessions, we got more out of going to NIH than these sessions.  In part I think because at NIH it was more one on one.   However, we met some amazing families (35 total) who gave helpful advise about school, etc.

Now time to vacation picts.  We took Matthew to "Magic Kingdom" and he LOVED IT!!!  We will definitely be going back. Hope you enjoy the picts.



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The night show was the best along with the fireworks.

Food Poisioning

So, let me get to what I said in my earlier post that, "I'd explain later" bit.  Bradley and I have had alot going on these past few months which will explain why my break in blogging.  First, we had Matthew's school evaluation to go through and fight for what therapies we felt he needed and he also started a new preschool for the summer which we LOVE.

Second, we're working on adding onto our house which is too greatly needed.  The economy sucks by the way if you haven't already figured that out which makes borrowing money like an act of congress.  But finally we've prevailed after 3 long months, we will be starting on our house in a couple of weeks which as you soon will find out is a God send.

Third, preparing for Vacation Bible School and working in the garden, canning greenbeans, etc.  Is very, very exhausting.

And now to our wonderful story of "Food Poisoning"  The week before Bible School, I barely made it home, I was so sick.  I called Bradley and he was just as sick as I was.  Food Poisoning as I thought is HORRIBLE, but that wasn't it at all.  After a few ours of this sickness not letting up, I got to thinking, I just wonder, but knew there was no way.  SO I THOUGHT!!!!!!!

YEP, you're looking at it right, we're going to have a baby!!!  What a surprise, Bradley and I had somewhat been trying for the past couple of months but when Matthew came down with the "Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease" from school  we didn't try, so I thought.  Anyway, what we thought would take a 1yr or more like it did with Matthew, took less than 3 months. 

God is so gracious to us when we least expect it.  This time around I've not had to take any hormone meds to get pregnant or to keep from miscarrying.  I just have to take a nausea medicine only when needed and of course the prenatal.  We went for our first ultrasound this past week when I think it hit us that we're really having another baby.  We're due Feb. 15th.  Valentine's Baby.  Heart this week was 167 which is really really good.

Please, please continue us in your prayers, with Matthew having Joubert Syndrome we have a 25% chance of it reoccurring.  We have to go through more blood work and ultrasounds and a prenatal MRI.  This is kinda scary not knowing but FAITH is a remarkable thing.  I know in my heart that if this little one wasn't suppose to be here and have a purpose then God wouldn't have allowed it. 

Please pray that God with bless us with a strong and healthy baby.