Well friends, we’ve hit that point in time where the stress-free waiting period is over.  Annabelle is well now and she finishes up her last dose of her antibotic tonight.  It’s scary to think that “the call” could be any day now OR several months from now.  I’m so glad we got Annabelle’s MMR vaccines the past two months because we knew she couldn’t get a call due to the vaccine waiting period. It made the first two months of her listing a little more stress-free knowing we had some time to get things together.  I think we’re as prepared as we’re ever going to be at this point – bags are packed, dog sitters are lined up, house keys have been distributed and travel arrangements are in place.  It’s been a whirlwind these past few months and I think Mike and I are just ready to get up there and get this done so we can move past this season of life.  Obviously, we aren’t looking forward to the craziness that will happen those first few weeks in Pittsburgh but the waiting is almost as hard.  Living on pins and needles for a phone call is harder than I thought it would be!

Annabelle is doing really well now.  As mentioned in my previous post, we thought she had strep throat.  It turns out that she didn’t!  As crazy as it sounds her strep throat culture came back negative even though the rapid strep test came back positive.  Regardless, the doctor kept Annabelle on an antibotic because she thought Annabelle might have the start of a sinus infection.  We think that’s the case because since being on the medicine her conjestion and cough has now gone away.  Yay!  She’s finally getting back to normal.  If you haven’t seen her lately she is such a big girl and is sitting up all by herself for minutes on end!  She wants to be active and moving but hasn’t figured out how to crawl just yet.  Even though she’s 9 months old we still haven’t seen any evidence of teeth yet either.  We are slowly starting some solid foods with her and she’s doing well taking food by the spoon though she won’t take a whole lot at one time (kids with PA don’t seem to have much of an appetite). 

Please continue to pray for the following:

1.) God would provide the right liver and the right time for Annabelle (we prefer sooner rather than later but we know God’s plan is best).

2.) Pray for peace for the family whose liver Annabelle will receive.

3.) Pray for peace for Mike and I during this season of difficult waiting. 

4.) Pray for Annabelle to stay well and for God to place a hedge of protection over her to prevent any future illnesses.

5.) Pray for Daisy (our sweet dog) who is having a hard time adjusting to Annabelle and whom we’ll worry most about while we’re gone.  She’s part of our family too and she an older adopted rescue dog with high anxiety (the summer storms don’t help any!).  Pray we don’t get “the call” on July 4th because that’s Daisy’s worst night of the year with all the fireworks. I don’t want to leave her alone at home in a rush without someone being here to watch her. 

6.) Pray for God to provide what we need finanically through this time, and pray for our amazing team of COTA volunteers who are sacrificing so much to help make sure we are well taken care of during our time in Pittsburgh.