Gracie's 7th Birthday

Grace's hospital picture. She was such a beautiful baby, with perfect skin color and big bright, dark, eyes!

Grace completed our family, Austin and Waveney were thrilled to finally have her out of Mommy's tummy!

Grace was a happy child, always wanting to be held and craving physical affection. It's hard to believe she has been with us for seven whole years! She has truly blessed and enriched our lives.

Grace woke up Friday morning, 4-24-2009 not feeling very well. She was not cooperating with the morning routine. I could tell something wasn't right. She said her throat hurt, but she didn't have a fever, ...yet. I told her lie down while I packed her lunch and finished getting Austin and her ready to leave for school. A minute later Grace was asleep. I determined that she was really sick, but didn't know what exactly what was wrong with her. I took Austin to school, while Grace rested. I took her temp. again once we got home from dropping Austin off. She finally had a fever of 101. I let her sleep, when she woke up her fever was 102, and she said her throat hurt real bad. We thought it might be strep throat. For a strep test to come back positive, symptoms need to be present for more than a day. I prayed that if she did have strep that it would present itself to us within the day, and we'd know to get her tested and treated. Since it was her birthday and we wanted to celebrate with her the next evening, I wanted her to get better quicker rather than later. Not to mention the next day being Saturday and harder to get into a clinic for testing. I gave her Tylenol to make her comfortable. When the medicine wore off her fever climbed to 104. This is a picture of her with a fever of 104 and before her visit to the clinic for the strep test. This was the best she could give me. It's so pitiful.

We gave her Tylenol again before her Dr. visit. The strep test was positive and she got her antibiotics, and started it right away. She stayed home with Daddy, resting and watching movies, while I took the other kids to soccer practice. When I got home from practice the Tylenol had worn off. I went straight to Grace. Her face was flush, and she was real hot. It didn't surprise me that her fever went up high again. I took her temp and what did surprised me is that it read 105.5. I took it maybe 5 more times, all of them reading some where in the 105's, and once at 1o6! She was alert and coherent, and understanding of how high her fever was. Jarrod and I carried her to the bath tub, stripped her down, and put her in it. Of course she shook and shivered. We also gave her Motrin and a Popsicle. Jarrod continued to take her temp while in the tub. It continued to read 105, and again once at 106. I was worried about her, but felt the calming spirit of the Holy Ghost also tell me she would be okay and that her fever would come down. So we patiently waited for that to happen. And it did. It was down to 104 an hour after later, and an hour after that, it was 102. By the time we put her to bed it was 101. I set my alarm to wake up at 2am to check her temp in case it spiked to that uncomfortable level again. At 2 am, she had no fever. I felt again the comforter tell me it was okay to sleep the rest of the night. She woke the next morning with no fever. I went about our day coaching the 3 soccer games, while Jarrod stayed home tending to Grace. In the early morning she rested and ran a small temp at 100 for about and hour, it went away on its own. Around 1pm, she started perking up and becoming herself again and started making plans for her birthday celebration.

The hair was first. This is how Grace wanted to have her hair done for her celebration. Then I had to give her a manicure and pedicure!

Then she set up the table cloth, napkins, and plates. She had many more ideas of what would make it perfect, but we didn't have the supplies or time. In the end, she LOVED the way everything turned out.

Here is the cake she picked out from DQ. It is an ice cream cake, her favorite! She wished we had a silver platter, with a silver dome lid, so that we could "present" her with the cake by removing the silver lid to reveal the cake. She is very much the princess in her imagination.
Here are two of her best friends, Megan on the left and Marissa on the right. We were so thrilled they got to join us to celebrate Grace!

We went to IHOP for dinner, and had fun making faces and practicing our goofy talents. (Check out my facebook albums for the pictures)
After IHOP we came home and Gracie opened her presents and enjoyed cake with her friends and our family! The next morning while Grace was getting ready for church, she told us that her birthday celebration was perfect! We were so glad and thanked the Lord that He allowed her and us to have an enjoyable day on Saturday, even though Friday was not so enjoyable for Grace. We adore Grace and she is a precious gem in our family, one we could not live without. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!