33 and New Adventures with LOTS of Pictures

As you can see, I am officially 33 yrs old now. My brother-n-law also shares a birthday in August, his is the day before mine. So, for our birthday we all decided to go to a Dash Baseball game at the new stadium in Winston. We had a GREAT time as you can see below but it was sooooooo HOT. This was Matthew's first baseball game and we will definitely be going back before the season is done.

We also took our neighbors kids with us, Corey and Lawrence and yes we all 8 fit into the van. This is just another part of our Marshall clan.

Matthew stayed so sweaty the whole ballgame. While we were watching the game, Matthew was sneaking some sips of soda out of our cups.

Boy, is it HOT!!!!!

This is Matthew's new way of cooling off during the game. Isn't he so CUTE!!!

Corey and Lawrence

I can say looking back since I've turned 30 that when a person hits 30 life truly begins. At least it did for me. My mom always told my sister and I that your 30's are your best years. So far mine have been a test of my faith and I can say that I'm somewhat still standing strong, with God's help of course.

Matthew too is starting out on his new adventures, he starts preschool in 2 weeks going 2 days per week.

This week has been another reminder that God has His best in mind for his children and that he goes above and beyond when he answers prayers.

Let me explain. This past Monday we had our annual eye appt. for Matthew at Baptist with Dr. Weaver. If you ever met Dr. Weaver he would remind you of a very strict drill Sergent who is very sure of himself and can scare you to DEATH. He pretty much had to hold Matthew down to examine his eyes (we were there an hour), anyway, I just said a small prayer the whole time during our visit that everything would just be normal with Matthew's sight and no sign of nothing. Finally, at the end of our visit I explained to Dr. Weaver about Matthew's diagnosis from Dandy Walker back to Joubert and about our upcoming trip to NIH. He put his hand on Matthew's knee and told me to get a second opinion, two heads are better than one. He told us that Matthew's eyes are perfectly HEALTHY and NORMAL with no malformations,etc. He also said that he didn't want to see him til he's 4yrs. old. WOW!!!!!, but that's not all.

Our next destination at Baptist was to Brenners', I hate going there, it's so heartbreaking. I requested Matthew's genetic report and it had been 12 weeks and we hadn't heard anything. We waited and waited and I prayed like never before for nothing to show up but if something did that God would help me to accept His will and have hope. The nice lady at the counter finally led me to the phone where Dr. Jewett's assistant was waiting for me on the other line. She explained that there were 8 major genes that help determine Joubert Syndrome and that they found all 8 of Matthew's and that they all showed NORMAL with a negative result for Jouberts. However, this still doesn't mean that he doesn't have it, but maybe only a mild version. We'll get a confirmation yes or no when we go to NIH.

Next, I've been trying to find a preschool that would allow part-time attendance instead of full time. All I needed was 2 days. My last preschool on my list to call did accept part-time and they had exactly 2 days available for Matthew's age group. He starts in two weeks.

For those of you, including myself ever doubt that God doesn't answer prayer or isn't always there. HE IS!!! God answered my prayer beyond my imagination.

God is GOOD!!!!

P.S. Please keep us and Matthew in your prayers as we approach our trip to NIH.