SIX month past due update!!

Hello Everyone - this is your long OVERDUE update;-p

This has been the craziest year of my life, I think! I have very little time to write which saddens me greatly. I will always have you all in my heart, but can't write much under the constraints of my current life!

Kat turned two in May and has stolen our hearts in the best way imaginable. Travis adores her and makes me/us so proud. He turned 6 in July and is going on 16 most days. He is very smart...made a '100' on his very first spelling test in 1st grade....makes a mama proud ;-) He has lost three teeth and grown even taller. He learned to swim this summer after Kat 'outdid him' in the bathtub one night;-)

The diagnostic health journey with Kat continues. For a quick review: we spent 6 weeks in houston in Feb/Mar in an effort to get a diagnosis for pancreatic insufficiency (PI). She has responded well from enzyme treatment and has gone from 14-1/2 lbs to right under 20lbs (~29.5 in)...praise God!! She is still so small for her age but completely perfect in every way. She has so much charm and personality.

She has been standing/holding onto furniture and is beginning to take steps with support. She recently was signing something we weren't familiar with, but once she said 'bir' we realized and looked it up in our 'sign' book. She was making the exact sign for 'bird'. She has rhythm that won't quit whenever she hears a beat! I told someone recently that I think she will end up in Hollywood at some point!!! I am SO BLESSED to have the most beautiful kids in the world and a dedicated husband.

Paul and I stay very busy with a two-career life. I am just returning from a professional conference where I presented the Down syndrome research I have been working on this past year with a colleague of mine; who also has a child with DS. We are analyzing the data of over 375 completed survey responses from other parents. We are planning to develop a brochure that all parents will be given when they receive a DS diagnosis. We also hope to begin offering training to medical residents on doctor-patient communication of poor pre-natal diagnosis (hate that term) b/c there is nothing 'poor' about Kat!

Our next step is to figure out what is going on with Kat's IGF-1 and hGH levels. She either has a deficiency of one or both and ultimately will probably receive a diagnosis of 'dwarfism'. She is truly one in a 6.8 BILLION girl!

I will do my best to update more often, but at least once we get her next testing done in October. I know many of you have prayed for us since the pregnancy with Kat. You can't fully know the great impact you have had on my faith!

Love and hugs to all,

Nicole