Support the Adams!

(Totally unrelated photo of how I bribed, I mean encouraged Lily to stay quiet during the messages at the winter retreat!)

This will be a quick post. I have had several people ask me for updates on the Adams' twins.

Henry was discharged last weekend! Praise the Lord! He is now staying with his mom and big brother at the Ronald MacDonald house at the Pheonix Children's Hospital.

Ian has been improving, but is still heavily sedated and on a ventilator. He is receiving medication for HLH, a genetic syndrome that the doctors suspect he may have.

You can read all about it at the Adams' website. Yes, they have created one to keep everyone updated, post prayer requests, and also give people an opportunity to support them financially.

The link is www.supporttheadams.com

Keep praying!

Cousin Love

Around Here

Before I begin, please continue to pray for the Adams family that I posted about last time. The twins right now are holding steady, but they are not out of the woods. Thank you.


What have we been up to? Well, we recently had a date with the Flowbee and RID shampoo because Dave discovered lice (blech!) on all three boys. Made for an interesting and memorable day after Christmas activity!

And a bike ride with friends. . .

Lily believes that the purpose for boxed presents is to sit on them! Doesn't matter if there is Lego inside, or Little People, or play food - this girl LOVES to sit down on any box!

I finally finished the 7 Hour Toddler sweater with my own modifications. It took me 3 weeks! But I like the result.

We learned about the ear in our homeschool. Look at Aarbear and his cutting skills! Woohoo!

We are off to attend the winter church retreat part time today up in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Urgent Prayer Request

There is a family who needs your prayers.

Please pray for Ian and Henry Adams. They are twin toddlers (i believe they are not yet 2 years old) who were airlifted to Phoenix Children's Hospital yesterday with viral pneumonia.

Their parents, Joey and Ginger Adams are asking for prayer. Dave and Joey grew up going to retreats together.

Ian is not doing well and is in very very critical condition in the icu.

I don't want to go into all the details as I don't know how much their family wants to share, but I know that they urgently need prayer and are asking for prayer.

Please, please pray for these little ones and their parents and big brother Caid.

The twins also have an older sister Gwyneth, who succumbed as a toddler to the flu a couple of years ago and is with the Lord now. You can imagine how difficult this is for their family.

The Lord is mighty to save.
May He surround, protect, heal and deliver these boys.
May He give peace and His presence to their whole family.

If you want to receive updates via text, please email me at chenningpeng@ yahoo.com with your number.

Catching up!

Yes, we are still here :-). Have been very busy, feeling better, and enjoying the season.
I had some trouble lately uploading photos, so the next couple of posts should be catch up posts.
You can see Lily rocking the arm splints (she has been arm splint free now for 2 weeks - yahoo!), and some Christmas crafting and baking. I know I said in my last post that I was going to take it easy this year and not make cookies so I feel the need to explain that this was store bought cookie dough from Costco. The awesome thing was that Aaron really got into it this year! He had fun baking and painting magnets (inspired by dear friend, Ivy, who made these for as handmade gifts in a previous year).

How has your holiday season been?

I know that everyone wants to know how Lily is doing. In a word - FANTASTIC!

Now that she is 3 1/2 weeks post-up, she is practically eating everything again. She does not seem to be in any pain at all. She has stopped snoring!

She is back to getting into everything and keeping us all on our toes!

One thing that I have realized. I guess I expected her speech to improve overnight. What I have realized is that it will take some time. I guess I was being overly optimistic, or had unrealistic expectations. Her stitches have not even dissolved yet, and I was hoping that she would have marked improvement in being able to make different sounds and enunciate. That has not been the case. I guess that it is like learning to use your mouth all over again, and learning to speak from the beginning again. And we know that that takes time. I knew I was never good at waiting!

However, Lily had a blast last weekend in Los Angeles. We visited friends and family, and not she can identify her cousins and grandparents. When I mention them by name, she perks up right away and knows who I am talking about. It is cute.

Now I Will Praise the Lord

We went to Lily's follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon yesterday. She was 11 days post op. Here is a picture of her playing with the doctor's swivel chair in our exam room while waiting for Dr. Hoffman.


Dr. Hoffman looked in her mouth with a tongue depressor (she was not pleased), and said that everything looks great! She is healing well, and told me that she should still eat liquids and wear her no-no's until Saturday. I had some questions about the leakage that I had seen when she would eat yogurt (a teeny bit would come out of her nose still) and her vocal tone (which is better, but still nasal). He explained that he had to leave two small holes right at the gumline to allow for her jaw to grow properly. Those holes will be there until she gets her bone graft surgery when she is 9 or 10 to fix her cleft gumline. I will seriously try to draw a diagram or take a photo so all of this is a little clearer. Anyway, it is possible that there will be some minimal leakage until that time. However, he said that as her palate heals up and moves and stretches more, she will be able to control that better. As far as the nasal tone, part of that is that she probably will need speech therapy to help her learn how to make proper sounds. Already, when Lily laughs now, it sounds much more normal - like a baby giggle - instead of how it used to sound (throaty and nasal). Well, one step at a time, and it definitely seems to me that this is a process that involves intervention, but also a lot of growth and adjustment and development that should happen naturally over time for Lil.

Ok, so UCSF hospital and clinics are on this street called Parnassus. But if you drive just a couple of blocks on Parnassus, it turns into Judah Street.


I love that because it struck me that Judah means, "Now I will praise the Lord." And I do :-). He has been so very kind and gracious to Lily and the whole family.

Christmas Love

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."
John 1 :4-5

P.S. These were actually taken before the surgery, so we are a little out of order. Please read the post right before this one for our updates about the surgery and our family.