Photos from the Phone [Friday.]

It's been a week of doctors; a week of appointments.  Mabel was in all her glory, rolling side to side on the exam tables and tapping the 'dr. paper' as we like to call it.  She's at the height of her glory at an appointment.  

Yesterday we made the long trip to Chicago.  It was exhausting, but this time only physically.  For the first time since beginning of this journey with Mabel, we received some good news.  News that was hopeful and only of God.  

With Mabel's 'retinal dystrophy diagnosis there is little hope for a person's vision to get better.  Usually it remains the same or progresses quickly.  Even our specialist yesterday reminded us of this.  And then we had Mabel's ERG.  We compared yesterday's to the one we had last summer.  

"Although it's not normal by any means, her tests are better.  At this point, I would call her condition stable and not progressive."

And for the fist time in a very long time, I felt hopeful.  I didn't just say it, or think it.  

I felt it.

When you're in the throws of something like this it is all consuming.  

The tests, the results, the doctors, the appointments, the therapists, the phone calls.  

It is overwhelming and consuming.  

And in the thick of it, it feels very hopeless at times.  Very very hopeless.

So when you feel a tinge of hope and it reminds you that God is still bigger, you cling to it like a desperate and fragile masterpiece.  Because God is still better.  Although none of this is about me, at all--I still believe that if I learn what I'm supposed to in this time with Mabel, God will fulfill a much greater purpose in it than I can ever imagine or dream.  

He still is.  He still can.

More on this to come.  But for now, here's this weeks photos from the phone...

 Binky girl!

 Slippers:)

 This guy is a ladies man.

 RED hair!

 ♥

 lovely...

 up since 5 am.  tired, tired girl.

 We got to sit next to doctors (some brain surgeons) and color these amazing photos that will be posted in the new Chicago Children's Hospital later this year!  How awesome, right?

 Best mexican food EVER!

 dessert from the fudge shop in Chi town:)

Happy Weekend, friends!