Annabel Grace meets Annabel Leigh

We traveled this weekend to watch Tara play in a tennis tournament in Dallas.  I was very lucky that our nurse Debbie offered to travel with us. The tennis was great to watch and fun to be with old friends. The tennis format was team tennis and it was mixed doubles.  She played 2 matches a day and I was able to leave Annabel sleeping in the hotel with the nurse and return early afternoon. The first afternoon we went out to my brothers and was able to see my niece Shauna who is wonderful with Annabel. She was leaving for a church camp but was sad that she couldn't be there longer to visit. James my nephew was there and we took Annabel for a swim before the cool front arrived. Thank you to Carl my brother, who thought ahead to warm the water for us. My parents had traveled to Dallas on Friday and were staying at my brothers for the weekend. Carl and my mom prepared a great dinner for us. Thank you mom and Carl it was yummy. Megan, my niece and her friend Matt came for dinner and we enjoyed the company. Carly and Colette came in for an unexpected weekend and stayed at the hotel with us and made it in time for dinner. With all of this activity and attention, Annabel was in heaven and full of smiles!

Now for a highlight of the weekend, my Annabel got to meet our blog friend Annabel Leigh. She has full Trisomy 18 and is 3 years old. I remembered they lived in the Dallas area and was surprised to find they were only 3 1/2 miles from the hotel!!!! So we scheduled to meet her Saturday afternoon. I had promised I wouldn't stay long. I held her sweet little Annabel Leigh and just didn't want to leave. As always when we meet another Trisomy 18 child there is so many similarities and is so hard to share in a short time. We didn't get to meet Jorge, her daddy but we did meet her two years old sister Ava. Thank you Carrie for being so available to meet with us.

My parents...

Carly, Colette, Megan (my neice)



Megan playing with Annabel...




Annabel and Mommy swimming any chance we get...




We are actually in the hot tub since it was warmer than the pool!




Annabel playing with her cousins, James and Shauna



Nurse Debbie, she made this trip possible for Annabel to travel with us!Thank you Debbie

Annabel was waiting for Shauna when she returned from school.



This is Annabel Leigh!! We have followed her blog for a very long time and so happy to have the opportunity to meet her face to face! 




Annabel Grace and Annabel Leigh meet for the first time...



Me, Annabel Leigh, Annabel Grace, Carrie and Ava ....



NO quite sure what is going on....

Annabel was sick almost two weeks ago with high fever, cough and much congestion. She has lots of loose stools.  She was placed on Zithromax and they fever subsided along with the loose diapers. But her cough and congestion continued so she was placed on mucomyst, changed from albuterol to xopenex. Her mucous is still very sticky, almost like glue... She has it coming out in her stools, up through her mouth with the gagging/coughing and out of her g-button. She has an excessive amount of gas. Her tummy has begun to distend. There are some questions to maybe it could be her formula (ElaCare). She has trouble with most all of the disacarides. Last time we talked with GI prior to her surgery, we were told ElaCare is basically the end of the road, that Annabel had tried most everything, including the RCF that was carb-free.
We are going to give her a little more time but she seems tired and mostly disinterested in all the things that made her the happiest.
She is still getting the 1200 mls. of Ela Care except when she was the sickest a couple weeks ago which we had to switch to pedialyte.
Wish I had something more inspiring to write but it is hard to see her not feel well and not know how to help her. We had to cut back on the swimming till she felt better. Hoping we get to swim before it get too cool.
   

Needing to be Chloe like....



This is the first time Annabel met her cousin Chloe



This is the 2nd time she has seen Chloe



I have been thinking about the times Annabel has met her sweet cousin Chloe. She is actually my first cousin Terri's daughter.  Chloe is 6 years old.  So I guess that would make her Annabel's 3rd cousin. But in my crazy Cajun family our cousins were like our best friends.  Before pre-schools, play groups and daycares our mom would get together and us kids would play and spend time at each other homes. Also my grandparents lived locally so it was nothing for my grandparents to have us all over together and we could play for hours with each other. 

Chloe's parents are a good church going family and aren't afraid to share their faith. A couple of months ago Chloe asked her mother about Annabel. She said momma "when am I going to get to meet my cousin Annabel who I always pray for?"  So Terri text me and told me what Chloe had said and asked could they come see Annabel one weekend for a visit. We arranged to meet on a Sunday afternoon at our home. Chloe walked into our home and it was like she had always know Annabel. She wasn't scared of any of the tubes coming out of Annabel's body. With the sweetest child like attitude she just picked up some toys and began immediately interacting with Annabel. This went on for a few hours. She asked very sweet, innocent questions about Annabel and about her limitations. But she never stopped treating her like a "normal child." She threw balls to her, she would bring toys over, sing to her and just play!

This was our first meeting....

This past weekend another of my cousins had a baby shower at my moms house. I knew it would be crowded, lots of people and maybe germs, and my excuse was there really wasn't room for her wheelchair....

My sister called and reminded me that people wanted to see her who prayed for her in the past but didn't get many opportunities to see her. After an evening of thinking I decided that my sister was right and that I would load her up for the trip to grandmas for the shower.

After about 30 minutes of arriving, Annabel was sitting on the couch and being entertained by adults. She was happy as she always is....

Then the doorbell rang and the next thing I heard was a child like voice spotting Annabel when she walked into the room. She said "Momma Annabel IS here!!!" She played and entertained Annabel the entire time. She clapped over and over and made Annabel smile from ear to ear. I was happy I brought Annabel so other family members could see but what struck me most was how Chloe views Annabel....

You see Chloe doesn't see Annabel as handicapped, sickly, a child of a different race. Chloe truly doesn't see Annabel as any different from herself. Yes, maybe she prays a little more for Annabel than others because she needs more prayer.

My thoughts lately have been that I wish I was more Chloe like....My prayers is that we would all see each other like Chloe does. Really, no different from each other, that we are all created by God no matter our race and that some of us do need more prayers than others.

Kuddos to Terri and Ken her parents. You are doing great things with Chloe and she is teaching an old dog like me, new things!