Settling in at the Fort

Paw Paw has spent a lot of time pulling Micah in the wagon and playing with him.

The hat and shirt were a gift from a friend in SF...thanks Cheryl!
Nana rocking with Gabriel.
Paw Paw talking with Gabriel.
Kim, Thomas, Harrison, and Benjamin with Gabriel. Not a chance of getting Micah in the picture with them.
Micah reluctantly joins Nana and Paw Paw for a photo.

We have been in Arkansas since the 4th of this month. It’s been a little crazy with taking care of two kids and trying to unpack. Thankfully, my parents have been here and have helped tremendously and we have enjoyed them being here. My sister and her family were here to visit for a few days and it was great to see them. I have found it hard to make time to sit down and concentrate enough to send an email or update this blog, but maybe I can be a little more consistent.

We are enjoying our new place and are still unpacking and trying to settle in. Wayne’s job is going well and he is enjoying it. U of AR Fort Smith is a beautiful campus and much bigger than I imagined. We are slowly exploring the town when we have a chance. We have visited two churches now and will visit one or two more and will likely go back to the first one we visited to check it out a little deeper. I have to say Sundays are a little weird because we aren’t going to FBCSF. There is just no place like it. Sure, we miss the bay area as a whole, but our church and the folks there was one of our favorite things.

One disappointing thing that we’ve found out is that the public school programs for preschoolers with special needs is not the best. They only offer a 2 hour per day Mon- Thurs. option and any services (PT, OT, and speech) would be included in that time. So, we are exploring other options. We’ve found that there are two organizations here in Fort Smith that have all day preschool programs for kids with special needs. I am going to meet with the director of one this week. It’s called Kids First and they have a M-Fri, 8-3 program which includes any therapy a child needs. There are only 9-10 kids per classroom with 2 full time staff in each and the school has 2 full time nurses and one pediatrician. It is through the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and is supposed to be a top notch program. Micah will have to be approved to be enrolled, meeting the requirements (which means being developmentally delayed enough, and he is) and being referred by a physician among other things. The lady I spoke to said that it sometimes takes a month before a child can be enrolled, but that sometimes there are exceptions. We’ll find out more about it this week.

Micah is still having a really hard time with Gabriel, with maybe a slight improvement. He got close enough to touch him last night but didn’t even realize Gabriel was in my lap until he touched him. He then got a really scared look on his face and ran back to his room. Gabriel is doing well, but he is spitting up a good portion of almost every feeding in the last week or so.
We will update again soon. Thanks for continuing to pray for Micah.

Not in Arkansas yet

Well, I'm sure some have wondered if we got all moved in and are getting settled. That would be "No." When we called middle of last week to see if our belongings were arriving on the 31st, they gave us the date of August 4th. We weren't happy about that because that's the day Wayne starts work at U of AR Ft. Smith. They had given us a range of 10-17 days and they are taking the full amount of time. When we told them it was really 18 days, they said "Oh, Sundays are excepted." It has been a bit frustrating, but you realize it's no good to stay frustrated in these situations because it accomplishes little more than a bad attitude. So, the plan now is for Wayne and his Dad to drive over tomorrow afternoon, stay in a motel (since we have nowhere or no bedding items for sleep, and so Wayne can have a decent night's sleep before his first day), Wayne will go to work Monday morning and Cecil will be there when the moving company comes. Wayne's Mom and I and the boys will drive over on Monday. We thought it would be best to not have Micah there for all the chaos of moving in.



My parents will be there either Monday or Tuesday. We are excited to see them since we haven't since Christmas! They will get to meet Gabriel for the first time and get reacquainted with Micah.



We'll update more later in the week. We may not have internet access for a few days. The cable internet folks can't make it until Thursday. Why, I'm not sure. I guess these things take a while...it is Arkansas. Just kidding...I'm a native Arkansan so I can make comments like that.

Summer Fun at Grandma & Grandpa's

Well, there isn't much new to share. We are still waiting for our stuff to arrive in Ft. Smith. It may not be there until next Thursday, the 31st. That's a few days later than we were hoping, but what can you do? Our car arrived in Enid yesterday, so that's good. Wayne and his Dad went to Ft. Smith yesterday to meet our landlord, get our house keys, get things set up for water and electric, etc. So, hopefully in a week or less, we'll be there!

As you can tell, Micah is having a blast playing outside. Grandma and Grandpa found this wading pool, which is way fancier than any old circular pool that I was imagining. He has been in it every day. In between minutes in the pool, he loves to get out and roam up and down the yard for a little while and then get back in the pool. Yesterday, he decided he'd just have a seat in the garden, so we had to hose him down before he got back in the pool. I love the picture of him looking through his legs. I had never seen him do that before! So cute.

Not much new to share on how Micah is adjusting to Gabriel. He still isn't much. Still doesn't care for the kid too much. Still cries when he makes an appearance in the room. Still hits and kicks Wayne and me at seemingly random times. We're thinking he might actually be afraid of Gabriel because he gets hysterically upset if we try to bring the baby near him. Sigh. So, we're still waiting and praying for him to be happier and make the adjustment. But, we know he still has more adjusting to do once we move, etc. He does have happy moments, especially outside. Let's just say Grandma and Grandpa (and Aunt Janel until she left yesterday) take him for walks outside a lot, or down the street, or in the little wagon. It's a blessing to have some extra folks to love on him and spread out the attention.

Gabriel's great. He's eating like a champ, sleeping a little longer at night, and I'm sure he smiled at me purposely today. I don't think it was just gas. He's growing and is more alert. He'll be four weeks old tomorrow. I'm sure he has enjoyed being held a lot. There's more of that to come once we get to Ft. Smith and Nanna and Paw Paw come to visit!

We made it to OK

I know many are wondering how the trip from San Francisco to Oklahoma went on Saturday. We made it and are glad that part is over with! Once we got to the airport, Micah was very calm while we were at the ticketing desk to get our boarding passes. We were so thankful because it was taking a long time and the ticketing agent was very graceful. In all of our rush to finish packing last week and get ready to travel, we didn’t even think about needing documentation of Gabriel’s birth. We had nothing… birth certificate, shot records, or anything. We had dumped whatever we had of that sort in one of the last boxes. Apparently, even though they can visibly tell that he was under two (a lap child), they still needed proof. Thankfully, the man let us slide “this time,” otherwise we would’ve had to buy another ticket!

Gabriel traveled great; he slept for most of both flights. Micah did well after we initially were seated on the first flight. For about five minutes, he did not want to be buckled in and was crying and screaming. I was getting fearful that we might be kicked off (as has happened recently on some airlines with unruly children). Thankfully, Wayne pulled out his favorite blanket and he immediately calmed down. We had a 2 hour layover in Phoenix and Micah was so fascinated with the moving sidewalks that Wayne and I would swap kids and take turns taking him back and forth on those. He would squeal and giggle as he stepped on each one. The second flight was good until the last hour and he was quite fussy off and on, but it had been a long day! We made it to Enid around 10:30 on Sat. night.

Micah is still having a hard time adjusting to Gabriel, still having lots of crying, angry fits but we’ve been told by some of his therapists who worked with him in the bay area to expect it still for another month. I honestly think it helps to be at Grandma and Grandpa’s with a few more people around to give attention to him. They got a little wading pool for him that he absolutely loves!

I’ll post some photos soon. Thanks for praying for our travels and for praying for Micah.

First week with Gabriel

A smile from Micah yesterday!
Aunt Paula with Gabriel in Tiburon yesterday. I wanted Gabriel to have at least one photo with him in one of the beautiful spots here.
Cuddling with Daddy.

We finally took some updated photos of Gabriel. It’s amazing how much he looks like Micah when he was a newborn, although his hair is a little darker. The first week and a half with Gabriel has been good, tiring, but good. I am enjoying taking care of him maybe a little bit more than I did with Micah at first since it’s the second time around. With the first baby in the first few weeks of his life, you feel so lost. You worry about every little thing and hope that you’re doing most things right. I’m enjoying watching Gabriel with all of his little stretches and facial contortions and he is opening his eyes more. He is a cutie indeed and I just like the way newborns smell, especially their little heads and his skin is so soft.

The week and a half with Micah has not been so easy. He’s having an extremely hard time with this new person in his house. Some days have been harder than others. He is just really angry, showing lots of aggression and trying to kick or hit Wayne and me at times. He hasn’t gotten near Gabriel; I think that will be much further down the road. He is very clingy to Wayne, wanting him to hold him, pick him up, etc. It seems he gets almost frantic when Wayne is out of his sight. He is having more to do with me (as long as I‘m not holding Gabriel), which I’m thankful for. He was actually a little better yesterday, even tolerating Wayne holding the baby, which he did not tolerate well last week. It’s just interesting because one instant he seems happy and smiling and then will change immediately to getting very upset. There are usually a few times during the day in which the only solution is to put him in his bed in his room with his blanket and a toy. He always calms down immediately.

Wayne’s youngest sister Paula was here this week until this morning and it was so helpful to have her. She took over most of the domestic duties of cooking, laundry, and running to the store. She also took Micah to the park every afternoon and that was great. Janel (Wayne’s other sister) was here two weeks ago and missed Gabriel’s arrival by 2 days! She was extremely helpful as well because she packed up literally everything that could be packed except for what we’ve needed until next week. So, most of that is done and it has helped to not have that added stress.

As for me, I am trying to adjust to about 5-6 hours of sleep pieced together, trying to maintain sanity and not have a meltdown myself when Micah gets upset. Some moments I have succeeded and other moments I haven’t. I hate that his little life is turned upside down right now, but it’s just the way things have worked out. I am praying that it gets better with each day and each week as we leave this area in 9 days. I know many of you are praying as well and I can’t thank you enough or stress how much it is needed right now.

Gabriel's birth story

As Wayne mentioned in the last post, Gabriel arrived very quickly! We were supposed to go to the Kaiser hospital in San Francisco, but when I called at 5:15 am, the nurse told me they had no beds available there and that we would have to go to Oakland. If you're not familiar with the bay area, the Kaiser hospital in SF is about a 15-20 minute drive and Oakland is a little "iffy" with possible traffic on the freeway, crossing the bay on the Richmond bridge, etc, so it can be a 30-40 minute drive. So, I was a little nervous and told the nurse "I delivered my first son an hour and a half after starting contractions," to which she replied "Well, you better get moving, then!" So, Wayne drove 80 mph on the freeway and we even ran a couple of red lights once we got to Oakland. Thankfully, it was early Sunday morning and not much traffic! My water broke in the car just before we got there (nice). We pulled up to the ER entrance around 6 am and he was delivered at 6:33! I think I pushed 4 or 5 times, and out he came! Wayne and Micah had gone back down to move the car and when they walked back into the room, Gabriel was coming out!

He's a tiny, beautiful little guy. Our newborn clothes even swallow him! He's doing well, and I'm doing well. Yesterday, I felt like a zombie. Today, I feel more like a normal person. I think I had about 5 hours of sleep last night which is 2 more than the night before at the hospital. We came home yesterday afternoon. Continue to pray for Micah and for us to have grace and patience with him; he's having a hard time. He seems to have a real attachment to Wayne, following him everywhere crying a lot, wanting him to hold him, and he's not having a lot to do with me and certainly not the baby right now. I think it will take some time.

I'm glad the baby's here and that all went well. Rejoice with us over this new blessing from God!

Gabriel Aaron Womack

Gabriel was born on June 29, 2008, weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and measuring 19 inches.. His entry into this world was very fast. Kelly was wakened by contractions at 4:45 am. We made it to the hospital just in time--after getting there just before 6 am, Gabriel was born at 6:33 am.

Pictures will be posted very soon.

Waiting for Gabriel

One of Micah's favorite things: playing in the water accumulated in dishes in the sink. Yes, he can reach into the sink!
One of his other favorites: opening the microwave. At least now it's only when we are using it and not over and over for 8 or 10 minutes at a time.
One of the photos at "Breathe." I talk about that event toward the end of the post.
He's sitting in a pool of plastic balls. He had a great time at this event!



A couple of weeks ago I had asked you to pray that I would make it at least to week 37 and that’s right where I am now! My doctor said he could come anytime and it would be fine. So, we are anxiously awaiting Gabriel’s arrival. I even have my hospital bag packed, and if you know me and my habits of procrastination, you have to be proud of that. Wayne’s sister Janel is coming on Sunday, and so it would be perfect if the baby decided to make his appearance then.

I do want to put out an appeal and ask for you to please pray for Micah to adjust well to his new baby brother. I can’t describe to you how anxious/nervous I am about this. I am trying not to be (Philippians 4:6-8); trying to pray about it and remind myself that God’s mercies are new every day and will continue to be once the baby is here. It’s just that Micah is SUPER SENSITIVE to crying babies, crying children, even laughing adults. Yesterday was a strong reminder of that. One of my dearest friends from college and seminary was going through town on her way up to the northwest. Micah cried almost the whole hour and a half that she and her brother were here. The scene involved him crying hysterically, so loud that I couldn‘t hear Rebecca or myself talking, and crawling up and down out of my lap (which at 37 weeks pregnant is not so comfortable). He had moments in which he would settle down, but would always start up again at the slightest laughter.

It has been a really hard week for me in terms of dealing with Micah. He has been out of school for a week and a half and I think he had gotten so used to going that he’s been bored at home. And, of course, I’m limited as to how much I can do with him right now. I have gotten frustrated with him more than a few times as he has gotten handy at throwing little temper tantrums and has been into just about anything he can get into. He will start his summer school session next week and will be going from 8-11:30, M-F until we move.

Our church hosted a respite event last Saturday called “Breathe” for families of kids with special needs. It was free event for the kids and their siblings so that parents could go away alone for 4 hours. It was hosted by an organization called Green Pastures out here in CA. This was the first time of hopefully many for our church to host this and I’m so glad. It was and will be a great ministry in San Francisco.

A lady from our church took lots of photos and sent the ones of Micah to me. As I watched the slideshow of photos of him, I could only cry. I don’t know if I can even describe why. I think part of it was once again being reminded that our son is a child with a disability. He is developmentally delayed and some of his physicians/therapists have even used the term “mentally retarded,” which in this day and age is hard to hear even if it’s true. Part of the tears though were tears of compassion, realizing he can’t help that he is so sensitive to noise, and he can’t help his lack of understanding of so many things or that he can’t communicate with words just yet. And lastly, part of those tears were just realizing what a beautiful little boy he is, how we and many people love him so much, and how he brings so much joy to others and to Wayne and myself. We covet your prayers as we continue to be loving parents to him as we wait for and then welcome our new little one.

Funny story

Last night Wayne had gone into the bathroom and turned on the water for Micah's bath. Anytime Micah hears the water come on and start filling the tub, he runs for the bathroom. Usually, Wayne quickly follows behind and redirects Micah's attention to his bedroom to take his clothes off first.

I was in the bedroom doing something and Wayne says "Where's Micah?" "I don't know" I reply. He says, "Oh, I thought he was in his bedroom but NOW I know where he is." Micah had gotten into the tub, shirt, sweatpants, socks, diaper, everything! He was happily playing in the bath as usual, just fully clothed this time. We both could only laugh for quite a few minutes and then began taking his drenched clothing off. I should have gotten a picture, but we were too involved in the funny moment.

Arkansas, here we come!

Micah loves plastic; it must be a texture thing.
Suds gotee.

Micah with his backpack; Wayne was lucky to get a few pictures along with this great shot in the thirty seconds he had the backpack on!

Most of you know we have been trying to move closer to our families since Micah was diagnosed with TS. Many of you have been praying for that and though we have very much enjoyed the bay area, we are moving on.

Wayne accepted a job earlier this week at University of Arkansas, Ft. Smith as the registrar there. Though this is a somewhat similar position as he is doing now at GGBTS, there are about 7,000 students there and he will have some different responsibilities. He is excited about the new challenges.

As far as location, Ft. Smith is in the northwest part of Arkansas right on the border with Oklahoma. Though I grew up in AR, I’ve never been to Ft. Smith. Wayne was there last week for his interviews and said it is a pretty city located in a valley on the Arkansas River. I have been a little further north in the Ozark Mountain area and it is very pretty part of the state. It is almost centrally located between our families; Wayne’s parents are about 3-4 hours away in OK, and my parents are about 5 hours away in northeast AR. We are excited about being able to see our families more than once or twice a year. Ft. Smith is the second largest city in AR, so we are hopeful that there will be good services for Micah.

When is this happening? Glad you asked. The job starts August 1; Wayne plans to work at Golden Gate until mid-July and we will likely move in the few days or week following.
The baby is due July 8th, but I really think he will come early. At my last Dr. visit, she said if I can “make it” to week 36, that would be ok. I am at week 34 now. Please pray that he stays in until week 36 or 37, I just want him to be as healthy and “cooked” as possible! Though there is much to do, I am trying to take it as easy as possible.

Praying for Micah's speech

This past Monday Micah had an EEG followed by an appointment with Dr. Raja. The great news is that the EEG revealed no seizure activity. He hasn’t had the horrible infantile spasms (which he had since 4 months old) since last April of 2007. On occasion he has some staring moments and other suspicious looks that have made us and his teacher at school wonder if he might be having what are called petit mal seizures. Anyway, so none at this point (at least none that happened during the EEG), Praise the Lord.

The appt. with Dr. Raja was fairly typical with the usual examination and questions about his development. He asked about Micah’s speech, if he had any words yet, and we said no. When we probed a little further, in terms of timing, his future development, etc., Dr. Raja said that if he has no speech by age 5, it isn’t likely he will get it because the brain is fairly set at that point when it comes to speech. My mind immediately went back to the first week of his diagnosis in August of 2005, when we asked what life would be like for Micah. Dr. Raja had said, “Oh, these kids (with Tuberous Sclerosis) walk and talk, though it’s often slow to develop.” So, needless to say, we were a bit surprised by the possibility that he might not develop speech.

This was very upsetting to me and I feel like I have been processing it all week. We have such a longing even now to communicate with Micah. We want to know what he’s thinking, what’s going on in his mind. We want to know what he’s so obsessed with outside that he stands at the sliding glass doors saying “EEEEEEEE!!” and flapping his arms for minutes at a time. We want to know what is making him so upset when there seems to be no obvious reason, as well as what makes him laugh so suddenly. I realize that even if he could say a few words right now, he probably wouldn’t be able to communicate these things to us. Yet, I never considered that he may never talk at all.

He is getting some speech therapy within his class at school, but we may be looking to get more one on one therapy for him in the near future.
What I want to ask of any of you who may read this is to consider being committed to praying for Micah to develop speech in the weeks and months to come, or however long it takes. I know many of you pray for him anyway, but it never hurts to pray for something specifically. I feel like Wayne and I have sort of lived between a tension of faith and reality. We absolutely believe God can do anything and we can and have prayed to that end for many things concerning Micah. We also believe, and have seen, that God sometimes chooses to give a “no” answer. So, we are going to pray and ask for God to do this in him with the understanding that it might not happen for reasons we may never know.

I have been reading (slowly over the past several months) “Prayer” by Philip Yancey and would highly recommend it. In a chapter called ‘Unanswered Prayer: Whose Fault?’, he says “…prayer does not work according to a fixed formula: get your life in order, say the right words, and the desired result will come. If that were true, Job would have avoided much suffering, Paul would have shed his thorn in the flesh, and Jesus would never have gone to Golgotha. Between the two questions “Does God answer prayer?” and “Will God grant my specific prayer for this sick child or this particular injustice?” lies a great pool of mystery.’

Better school days

Micah with friends Madeline and Lillian ( friends' Ryan and Marian's girls)

Micah and Olivia on Easter Sunday (Olivia is 4 month old daughter of friends Stacey & Elijah)

The boy sure loves bath time!

Sporting his shirt that friends living in India sent.

If you read the last post, you know that Micah was having a hard time adjusting to school. Thankfully, he is doing so much better at school. In fact, his teacher called me last week to say that Micah had a great week. He said he was engaged in what was going on, was grabbing books and pointing to pictures in them (pointing is very new, and he doesn’t do it a lot), and that he had laughed some too. He still gets a little upset when he first gets into the classroom, but they have a little routine for him now. There’s a cow puppet in the classroom he’s attached to that they give him and they put on some classical music. He sits in a certain place for a few minutes and then he’s fine. So, thank you for praying for this!

Another note of encouraging news is that Micah is learning to do some things on his own. He has started to feed himself with a spoon and fork. I went to his class for an open house two weeks ago and the parents were to have snack with their kids. So, I started feeding Micah his yogurt like we always do at home. One of the teacher’s aides looks at me and says, “Oh, Micah had been feeding himself the yogurt.” I was so surprised and said “You mean he knows how to dip the spoon in, get some out and everything?” To which she replied “Yes, it isn’t always pretty, and doesn’t always completely make it to his mouth, but he’s getting it, he understands the concept.” So, we have been so excited and have let him feed himself more and more. He still isn’t great with the mechanics and coordination, but that will come!

He is also understanding how to help us when we are putting his clothes on. He isn’t quite coordinated to pull his pants up yet, but likes to try and thinks it’s funny. He also understands what it means to brush his teeth though it will be a while before he can do it by himself.

All these things are very encouraging and hopeful to us. I think Wayne and I have both wondered how long it would be before Micah could have some self-care skills, just like we wonder how long it will be before he can talk. What I’m learning is to be thankful for little bits of advances and progression. I have to say, I think him being in this half-day school has been great for him. It’s been since he started that we have seen all these new developments. I was also reminded recently of what one mom said in a book called ‘The Elephant in the Playroom’. It’s a great book about raising kids with special needs. She said “I need to remember that my son didn’t ask for this. I need to remind myself that it is harder to be a child who struggles with a disability than it is to be that child’s parent.”

3 Micah!

At Golden Gate park

St. Patrick's Day outfit

3 Micah

Since the last post, Micah turned three years old on St. Patrick’s Day! In some ways, three years has gone by quickly and not so quickly in other respects. The “Three Micah” cake is because I forgot that when you buy icing in the store, you also should buy the plastic cake decorating tips. Well, I didn’t even think of that. I just thought we could make a nice, decorative Happy Birthday message with the icing. It would have helped if the icing hadn’t been so hard I could barely squeeze it. I think it must have been living on the shelf for a while at Safeway. Anyway, Wayne squeezed with all his might to make the “Three Micah” message, it was the best we could do for the moment.

He had a nice birthday; Grandma & Grandpa Womack were here to celebrate and we drove up to a little town in Sonoma county. We looked in shops and ate at an Italian restaurant. Some ladies at a shop told us about a little grove of redwood trees off the beaten path that probably only locals know about. I think the grove of trees was the highlight of the day for Micah. He ran (rather, walked quickly) all throughout, so much so that I could hardly get a photo. We stumbled upon a little swing and that’s where this one photo at the right came from.

Micah was dressed in all his St. Patrick’s Day gear, courtesy of his Aunt Kim who also has a son with a St. Patrick’s Day birthday. He has his shamrock shirt, “Top O’ the morning’ to ya” green bear, and his socks which look like little leprechaun shoes on the front, but he refused wear his “Lucky O’Days boys club” hat .

After church on Sunday, we went to Golden Gate Park. It was a beautiful, warm day in San Francisco. We had sandwiches and then went over to the massive children’s playground. Micah had so much fun there and did not want to leave.

Three days after his birthday, Micah started preschool at Marindale, a school for kids with special needs (ages 3-5). He started out with a hard adjustment for a few days and then got better. He was only in school for 12 days and then had spring break last week. He was sick this past weekend, Monday and Tuesday. So, he went back yesterday and is not adjusting well to being there again. He cries a lot and doesn’t want to participate in group activities with the other students. His teacher told me that the only successful times have been one on one with a therapist or taking him outside on the playground.

I have spent some time on the phone with his teacher the past two days trying to offer some suggestions or help. I really feel at a loss though. We’ve had similar experiences with different therapists or his class that he used to go to in San Francisco, in which he would cry every time for weeks on end and then one day he adjusted and was fine. It’s hard for the teacher and aides because Micah can’t communicate with them and they don’t know why he’s so unhappy. Wayne and I fully understand that frustration. All we can figure out is that it’s a strange place with people he doesn’t know and who don’t know him, in addition to the fact that he’s going five days a week for half a day and riding a little bus to and from school. I would ask that you please pray for him and that he adjust soon to all of this. Going to school is now his only way to get any kind of therapy; they do physical, occupational, and speech there, all of which he was doing one on one before his birthday. Once a special needs child turns three, the school district takes over and it’s the only way for him to have help, aside from us paying out of our own pocket for therapy which is not an option for us right now. Anyway, thank you for praying. I believe God knows his little mind and what’s going on even if we can’t.

Another Womack Boy!

We’re having another boy!!! So many people have asked if I wanted a girl, and sure, it would be neat to have a girl. I know my parents were sort of hoping for a granddaughter since they have FOUR grandsons already and will now have a fifth! However, I got teary eyed as I heard the news on the phone that it is definitely a boy. I think it will be great for Micah to have a little brother, and great for the new one to have Micah.

Other great news is that everything with the baby is normal thus far. I had a procedure done in late January to test the baby for any chromosome abnormalities. None were found whatsoever and there are 46 chromosomes like there are supposed to be. The baby was also tested for tuberous sclerosis (the neurological disorder that Micah has) and we just found out at the end of last week that he does NOT have that either! I honestly wasn’t worried much about it as I knew the chance was small (one percent-the same as anyone else). Of course at all this news, I breathed a sigh of relief and praised God.

I am now in my 21st week and the baby is doing well. I had the major sonogram last week and all his organs and everything looks great. I feel him move a lot, but it was so amazing to actually see him move around during that.

As for Micah, we tell him all the time that he’s going to be a big brother, but he doesn’t understand. He probably won’t understand until he’s here and then he will wonder what just invaded our home! He’s making lots of new sounds and will sometimes imitate sounds we make if we prompt him. He is understanding more words and phrases and we pray this happens more frequently in the months to come. One of the most frustrating things is not being able to communicate with him, especially when he’s upset. It’s always a guessing game.
Some of his favorite things right now are peek-a-boo ( he knows how to do it himself now), baths (he gets so excited that he beats on the bathroom door wanting in while we are filling the tub, and he loves open spaces outside. We don’t have a lot of space outside our apartment, so when we go somewhere with a lot of open, grassy space he runs around and squeals until he wears himself out.

Soon to be Four Tall Womacks!

Yes, it’s true, the three tall Womack’s will soon be four! And just to put your minds at ease, I’m not one of those women who go a long for 4 or 5 months not knowing they are pregnant. We have actually known for quite a while, since the middle of October. I haven’t necessarily been purposely keeping it a secret, I think I have just been cautiously excited because of having had a miscarriage this past summer. The due date is July 8th. We should be finding out the gender in a few weeks. I am about 16 weeks along. The first trimester I was nauseous a good portion of the time, but that has pretty much passed. My days now consist of feeling tired and persistently hungry. One exciting little fact is that four of my friends (three from seminary and one with whom I went to China in ‘99) are also expecting in early to mid July!

We had a great time visiting our families over the holidays and arrived back in the bay area just in time for the storm that hit northern CA. We had no electricity for four days. There’s nothing like being without that to make you appreciate having it! We have gas heat and water, so that was a blessing. We attempted to read by candlelight and small flashlights. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Micah is doing so well; he still is seizure free (as far as we can tell). I can’t believe he turns 3 in March! The day after he turns 3, he will be going to a pre-school! It is strictly an early intervention school for special needs kids age 3-5. We met with our case worker and the principal of the school two weeks ago and we were very impressed with the school and their commitment to the students’ individual needs. There are 10 kids at most per class with one teacher and two aids in each class. What we have been told by several of Micah’s therapists who currently see him is that many families who have kids with special needs from San Francisco move to Marin county just so that their child can attend this school.

We are still seeking to move closer to our families, but still have no lead of a job for Wayne in sight. It can be discouraging because Wayne has consistently been looking for a job for 7-8 months, has applied at numerous places, yet nothing happens. We are praying something happens within the next few months. It would be nice to make that transition before the new baby comes. We would appreciate you praying about that with us. I know many of you are. We are asking God to show us clear direction. I feel like much of the time I am consumed with the fact that we still haven’t been able to move. As I’ve said before, the bay area is not a bad place to live; it’s beautiful. Expensive, but beautiful. However, we feel that we are to move on. I know though that God doesn’t want me to be consumed with this, so I am asking for His help in this area and to be content until we do have an answer.

These are just a few pics from time with the Womacks's. I don't have any of my family b/c our camera was not working. When I get some from someone in my family, I post those!