Adventures with Heaven…
04 Aug 2011 4 Comments
Okay, so I am bursting with funnies and praise this morning, and I don’t know which one to start with…lol.
I guess I will start with the PRAISE!!
Our first night was a huge success, Heaven didn’t cry or seem to be too upset being away from home. They did prepare us by letting me know she is super sensitive. Yes, Brandy Orrange, Heaven is another “Sensitive Sally” bwaahahahahaa. Her only issue was that she got up and laid by the front door and not in bed with Tay. If that was her only way to cope the first night, I am ok with that. I will ask Jeremy the trainer to confirm. Here’s where the praise comes in, at some point last night from the front door, Heaven detected a sz scent from Taylor. I know this because out of no where I was being trampled by a huge dog being pushed off Taylor, and Taylor was yelling. I quickly got my wits about me (yes, I have wits..lol) and was able to see Heaven licking Taylor intensely. Not knowing exactly what to do, I called Heaven “off” the bed and brought her into the kitchen for a reward, then loved on Tay. I know Taylor was restless all night as she kept waking me up. I am curious to know if her typical restlessness or 3 hours that she is usually awake at night is seizures, because that is what Heaven was alerted to and it was definitely Taylor because she didn’t go to anyone else. PRETTY COOL HUH??? I am curious to what Jeremy will say. Yesterday, we learned that the scent that comes from the kids is room temperature, and we all know heat rises. We also learned that if the dog is not in her bed it can take about 15 min for the smell to hit the floor. So it is absolutley amazing to think that the scent travelled from the bedroom to the front door……how amazing is that!!!
Now for my funny story…I should title it “You need better aim kid”
So last night, it was our mission to get Heaven to poop, which she did and I was like a proud parent of a child pooping in the potty for the first time..lol. The problem was it wasn’t a potty and after I scooped it up, I had. O idea what to do with it. I was certainly NOT bringing it back up to the room and the only dumpster I saw was gated in. So I decided to toss over the fence and in…but I throw like a girl and it went all the way over and to the other side. It was dark and it landed in a area where they had fenced off because they were fixing the sidewalks. Nice huh? So I figured I tried and would assess the situation in the morning. This morning I convinced my sweet Matthew to go for a walk with the dig and I…lol. As we walked down I saw the poop bag clear as day, so I sent Matthew to throw it in. Needless to say, the same thing happened, except of course this time a business man was walking on the other side (the landing side) as it was in the air I headed over just in time to see it land and the man do a double take, laugh and praise God, kept walking to his car. So with the man gone I threw it again and thankfully it went in!! So now Matthew and I were headed in to the dining area to get momma some much needed coffee and as I got my good girl Heaven in a down position, handed Matthew the leash and poured my coffee, all the while giving Heaven a couple treats for maintaing her position…in walks a man who hits Matthew on the head with a newspaper and walks away laughing. I didn’t know who he was or what he said because by now, Heaven, broke her posistion and is now at someones table. I quickly got her leash corrected her and asked Matthew what that man said???? He laughed and said “He said I needed better aim” I laughed so hard because I thought, the guy was gone and I realized how BAD that situation could have been, if the poop bag had hit the man. I was thankful for his sense of humor, which we all had a good laugh about it when we met up again in the kitchen.
So I hope you all have a great day filled with humor…not poop!!
Love to you all!
Day 1 & 2 of training…
03 Aug 2011 2 Comments
What an amazing couple days. We have learned so much, I feel like I am on overload. Taylor is already bonding with Heaven. More than that, Heaven has already detected one seizure. Yesterday morning around 11ish Heaven started licking and sniffing Taylor’s ear…very intensely, come to find out that when a child has a seizure the ear and mouth are the places that give off the scent. This was fascinating because when Heaven did this, Taylor showed no symptoms of a seizure…so we just made a mental note that Heaven did this…twenty min later Taylor started saying her tummy hurt, we figured she was hungry since it was almost lunch time, then twenty minutes after that, she had a mild seizure. Once we put it all tigether, we were in awe, the cool part was that after lunch we still had more obedience training to do, but Heaven kept looking over at Taylor who was still passed out from a seizure, as if to say, I can do this, but my girl is over there and she really needs me. 
Taylor woke up just as we were wrapping up for the day, which was great because it was just enough time to say good bye to Heaven. We don’t get to take the dogs home the first night as it’s just too much too soon, for everyone.
******
Today was another long and amazing day! Taylor was seizure free which was great because she was able to interact with Heaven more and Heaven was just as great. We learned so much that my head was spinning by the end of training. Matthew was super excited because we learned the dig can give a high five, a low five and shake hands…lol. Jeremy talked about how when he goes to schools and talks to kids about a dog that is trained in detecting explosives, all the kids ask about are the tricks..playing dead, rolling over, shaking hands/paws…lol. And yes, my eight year old was no different.
I am happy to say that we were all so excited to bring Heaven back to the hotel with us. She is doing great! They told us all that this would be a hard transistion because it’s their first night away, but so far so good! I will be posting pics soon! 
I am super tired and going to bed now. Tomorrow we are starting the “Track & Rescue” training…I can’t wait!
Love to you all!!
Today is the day….
02 Aug 2011 2 Comments
I can’t believe that we are here. I was just telling Mia, how grateful I am to her. It was a little less than a year ago that she came to me with this idea of getting a service dog for Taylor. At the time, we needed one but I just really didn’t want to believe we would still need one in a year. Well here we are and aside from all the seizures we are still having, the airport incident was absolutley the reminder of how much we need this dog to survive. I praise God for this whole process, even yesterday. He does have a plan, He is faithful and rewarding! In two hours we will be sitting in the training circle watching 5 families, receive their dogs…each one with their own story, each one with their own Praise! God has brought each one of us here and He gets the glory, after all he designed these dogs to specifically care for each one of their partners.
I love you all…it’s time to start waking everyone up over here…today is the day!!
Here is our song for the day….click here…
We made it to Ohio!!
01 Aug 2011 5 Comments
here we are 30,000 feet high in the Sky…on our way to meet Heaven! With all the excitement, anticipation and prepping Taylor, I was not prepared for one of the biggest public meltdowns of her life. She started getting anxious when we got to the airport and everyone did a good job of keeping her mind off her anxieties. That was until we were trying to go through security and it all hit her at once, she was getting on a plane and didn’t want any part of it. She laid on that floor screaming as if someone were hurting her, picking her up sent her into a violent rage, Skye, Mia, Matthew and myself did everything we could to just get her through the metal detectors. After what seemed like 30 min they brought EMS out to help, I think they were just as lost as to what to do. Finally, they let us go in a door way and they patted her down while she screamed and kicked. Someone escorted us to the monorail which was a whole other hurdle…but I kept telling her we were going to try and find Daddy (keep in mind Matt, Mary, Brian & Adam were all on the other side of the security check point feeling so helpless. However, I would have said anything at that point to calm Tay down…and it started to work. As we sat on the floor consoling her and telling her the monorail is just like the one a Disney and from where we are we might be able to see Disney. She asked if I would pick her up and she slowly started to calm down. Pretty soon a smile emerged. She still wasn’t ready to calm down, but she was calming down enough to listen to reason. And now here we sit, next to each other and she is playing her iPad.
Thank you for those that prayed for us, I know it was Gods peace that flowed through her body and right on into mine…lol. I needed it too. My praise in all this were the TSA workers. They gave us grace and could really see she was terrified. Of course there were people standing in line making rude comments like”this is why you leave children at home!” or my favorite..”what a brat” I was so consumed with Taylor I just tuned it all out. It didn’t matter to me what they thought…so I just prayed and asked God to put it on one of the hundred of hearts that were watching this go on, that someone would feel led to pray silently for Taylor…and that gave me peace.
So now Taylor had a small sz (under a min) on the plane so she is now passed out. We are starting our decent into Dayton and should be arriving soon! Please continue to pray for us as we go about this journey. Please pray for Matt who won’t be able to be here till Friday.
I will post soon!! Love to you all!!
*********
Okay, so now we are here at the hotel having some down time. My parents met us at the airport with a car so that was one less thing to worry about while we are here. We also got to sound some time with my niece and nephew that my kiddos adore! Taylor has been sleeping on and off all afternoon…but it looks like she is starting to wake up and may stay up this time.
Love to you all!!
Theresa
Team Taylor
Phillipians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!!”
Devotional..
16 Jan 2011 1 Comment
First let me say last night’s praise and prayer service was beautiful and amazing. I will be updating on that as well as posting the video for the service in the near future.
For today, I really feel led to start a devotional. It started out awhile back that I was praying Beth Moore would do a bible study for mom’s of special needs kids. As quickly as the thought comes in my mind, I am reminded of how I feel when someone says something like that. “If it’s on your heart, then God is putting it there for a reason and maybe that reason is for YOU to start it.” So here I am starting a new devotional for anyone…not just Mom’s with special needs children although when you think about it, all children have special needs…in fact, don’t we all? I bet that is how God feels with us. We are all special to him and we all have needs that he wants to help us with.
As I mentioned last night was beautiful, sadly it wasn’t without a seizure for Taylor, she had a drop sz while with my friend and several mini ones while asleep in Daddy’s arms at the reception. With last night being rough for Taylor, it is usually rough for Matt and I during the night and depending on how she wakes up…the morning too. Over the past few months when this happens on a Saturday night, we usually don’t make it to church on Sunday, or I will come to teach my Sunday School class and come home. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not breaking any commandments or disobeying God by doing this…but I am missing something, my family is missing something and that is worshiping Him with His family! I feel like we have gotten in a rut these past few months…while we have had legitimate reasons, today I decided Matt can stay home with Taylor but Matthew and I are going to church as Taylor was not feeling well and I didn’t want to fight her. Let me just say as much as I hate going to church without my husband, it felt good to be there singing and worshiping God for all he has done and hearing His word! I felt like I was home again! Funny thing happened, Matt and I have been sitting in the same spot for 6 years now and my crazy friend (just kidding) jokingly says “you stole my seat” we laughed about it and I said “well, I am reclaiming my spot” and we laughed again. Shortly after that to my great surprise Matt, walks in and sits next to me..I ask about Taylor 1. is she ok? and 2. what is she wearing. He answered the first one but ignored the second..lol. As we sat there I was really in awe once again at how God works. How he uses our own circumstances to see the bigger picture. Pastor Allen even talked about how you can’t get this feeling from sitting on your couch…and he is right. These past few months I have missed being in His house, hearing His word and worshiping Him! After the service I went up to see Taylor who didn’t make it through children’s church and was with Ms. Gwen reading a book in the next classroom. As I looked at what she was wearing; a dress that was too big for her and pajama bottoms..lol…I realized she made it here and it didn’t matter what she was wearing, or that she didn’t make it through all of children’s church…because she is surrounded by family here at DLBC and it felt good to be home again! I love that we can come as we are and worship Him as a family! I love my family at Deltona Lakes and I pray that everyone will find a church where they feel like they are amongst family…for we are all apart of God’s family!
Catching up…and Celebrations….
15 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
Last week….
Taylor had a 48 hour EEG….normally we have a 24 hour EEG because they can capture more than enough activity to see what is going on. This time however her EEG looked great….why do I not sound so excited? I am, but it’s like taking your car to the shop and saying “it’s making a funny sound” and then the mechanic takes it for a drive and hears nothing. UGH! Well, with Taylor’s EEG, it does show sz activity, but she did not have any drop sz, so they could not pinpoint where they were coming from, or for that matter anything about them. In the end the question/theory is that maybe when we tried the sz diet, it sent her brain for a tailspin causing uncontrollable sz. We really don’t know, all we do know is that she is leveling out. Her EEG that was done in October was full of sz activity and this EEG shows marked improvement. Taylor is also sleeping better which also helps her sz disorder. Having said all that, we are still having some breakthrough sz….but NOTHING like the past few months!!! PTL!
While we were at the hospital, Fox 35 came and did a follow up story….check it out here:
This Week….
Oh this has been such a great week!! Princess Taylor turned 6 on Tuesday!!! We went to Disney of course and she had a wonderful time with her Auntie Mary, her cousins and her big brother…oh and Mommy too . We ended our day with a surprise party at Beef O Brady’s which was absolutely awesome! It was so cool to see Taylor so full of excitement. It truly was a celebration of life…and I praise God for giving me such a beautiful, loving little girl!
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Tonight…..
I also wanted to remind you all of the Praise & Prayer service tonight at Deltona Lakes Baptist Church. Here are the details:
Saturday, January 15 ยท 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Deltona Lakes Baptist Church 2886 Elkcam BLVD Deltona, FL 32738
More Info Please come join us for an evening of Prayer and Praise for the journey of the Merriam Family. If you have supported this family in any way(prayer,financially, getting the word out,etc), please join us for a time of celebration and prayer.
The family believes in the power of prayer and truly has a lot to be thankful for with the recent fundraiser, and seeing how God brought so many people together for a common cause.
If you have any questions, please contact Caryn Carson at rcswife@gmail.com…please forward to anyone you think is able to make it, this is a public event!
*There will be no offering taken or donations accepted at this event*
Added: We will now be having a time of fellowship after the prayer/praise time in the fellowship hall! Please join us for refreshments and conversation!
Prayer and Praise Evening! 1-15-11
09 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
We are SO pleased that God has provided the Merriam’s needs in this situation in less than a MONTH! Praise God and to Him be the glory!!
Please join us on Saturday, Jan 15th at 7pm at Deltona Lakes Baptist Church for Prayer and PRAISE!! We will have time in the sanctuary for prayer, praise and a story on the journey the Merriam family has had throughout this whole situation. There will also be some time after in the fellowship hall for conversation, coffee and some dessert goodies.
If you have helped in any way, (prayer, spreading the word, donating, etc) or if you are just now hearing of this; please join us for a WONDERFUL night of celebration! Everyone is welcome
Deltona Lakes Baptist Church is located in Deltona, FL at 2886 Elkcam BLVD.
There is also an Event post on Facebook if you would like to RSVP there, we would love that! You will also be reminded as it approaches If you would like to add yourself to that list (and please feel free to share the link to all of your friends! All are wanted and welcome!) Click —>HERE<— to go to the Event on Facebook!
We hope to see all of you there!
If you have any questions, feel free to email Brandy at: brandyorrange@gmail.com
*There will be no offering taken or donations accepted at this event*
Road trip to meet two special people…
31 Dec 2010 3 Comments
Yesterday was the day the my friend Brandy and I met a very precious couple, Mr. & Mrs. Thacker. The story is one only God could have orchestrated, you see, Mr. Thacker is blind and he was the one (listening) to the news the night Taylor was on Fox 35. He told us how moved he was by her and told his wife to look it up on the internet, she did but it wasn’t online yet. He reminded her the next day and she watched it. They immediately knew they wanted to help, they prayed about it and contacted us about a financial contribution.
My friend Brandy, who is also the treasurer for the fund-raising has been talking to her for a few weeks now and Taylor and I talked to them for the first time on Christmas morning. They were happy to hear we wanted to meet them, so we made the trip yesterday. With us was Taylor and her friend Hannah and baby brother fisher (Brandy’s little ones), Matthew stayed home with Daddy for a guys day. Our road trip started out great and then poor Tay had a drop sz. to which she cried and moaned not feeling well. We stopped at a gas station and Brandy went to get her an icee and nerds (2 things that ALWAYS cheer her up) while she was in the store Taylor had another. When Brandy came out Taylor was up long enough to enjoy some of her treats but then passed out, her sweet friend Hannah was there to make sure her head didn’t fall forward (she was also tending to her sweet baby brother.
After we got lost a few times, we finally arrived. The Thacker’s were more precious than I could have imagined. We talked, hugged, laughed, and yes, I cried! Before we knew it, 3 hours had passed and it was time to go….I must say that I didn’t want to go. They gave us a check that I am sure will cover the rest of our expenses (I will figure all that out today and see where we are). We ended our visit with a time of prayer that will stay with me forever. I sit back and look at how God brought these two precious people in our lives, it is not about the money…but it is about seeing Christ in them. They, like a lot of the people who have donated, do not even know us, they gave because they felt led to give…and it was God that put that on their hearts. I am more blessed today than I was yesterday. I am more in awe of God today than I was yesterday. He loves each one of us and he wants to take care of all our needs…sometimes he does it in His way, but he always takes care of us. I love that he brought the Thacker’s into our lives and I am glad he has brought all of you into our lives. This is what he loves, this is what he wants….to see his people work together and realize it is all HIM!! We are so blessed to be able to be a part of His work.
My friend Caryn posted this on her FB and I had to share…
In looking over the last year, I am thankful that The Hands that helped me through the hard times are the same Ones that will carry me through the coming up year! “For You, Lord, have made me glad…; I will triumph in the works of Your hands”
WOW….really? How perfect is that.
Here is a slide show from our trip yesterday.
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Praying you all have a fun & SAFE New Year’s Eve tonight and a God filled 2011!!!
Catching up..
29 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
I hope you all had a very blessed Christmas! I want to thank each and every one of you for helping us make our Christmas wish come true. Funny thing is that, it wasn’t a Christmas wish for us, I thought it would be a very long time before we met our goal. It was all your posts of encouragement in getting the funds by Christmas! I am once again reminded how amazing God is, and how He moves people to do great things.
Last night was a rough night for me, I couldn’t sleep at all. Taylor was in her bed and I desperately wanted her in mine, I just feel she is safe lying next to me. The good news is that she has been doing better this past week. She has still been having seizures but not as frequent and not as hard. Having said that she has had a few nights in her bed. My wonderful husband has been thrilled to be back in his bed and not on the couch.Taylor made it till 1 am before coming into bed with us. I was worried Matt would make her go back to her bed but instead he was so relieved to see her so he too cuddled with her. I feel like we are leveling off a bit with the seizures and I pray it only continues to get better. All this craziness can make you forget the everyday real world. It will be nice to focus on my marriage, work, home-schooling, church!! I kept thinking last night how easy it is to get sucked into surviving the day and forgetting the little things, which are pretty great!
Last night, as I was getting ready for Kid’s Night at Beef O Brady’s, Taylor looked at me and said “Mommy, I want to be Cotton Candy’s girl” I said to her “You are Cotton Candy’s girl” and then she said “No, I need you to paint me like Cotton Candy’s girl” I did and was thrilled Matt brought both the kids up. It was a quiet night so Taylor was able to cope better. Hopefully today will bring a beautiful day for all of us in Him!
I love you all, and pray for all the eyes that read this today.
This is a song from when we were celebrating Taylor’s 19 weeks of being seizure free. Even though we are back to the struggles of seizures, this song still has the same meaning for us and describes perfectly who He is and how we get through this.
In honor of Josh…
24 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
We have created a Fan Page on Facebook for Taylor…we will be updating the rest of our journey, here on the blog and on FB. Take a moment and click on the link and “like” it.
