Ashton's Virus Update

Many of you know I was diagnosed with CMV during my first trimester of pregnancy. Ashton was born with the virus, which can cause many mild to severe complications such as blindness, deafness, cerebral palsey, mental retardation, learning disabilities, seizure disorders, neurological issues, etc etc...the list goes on and on! But God has shielded her and protected her so faithfully from this virus. She is doing great and has shown no signs of the virus other than her small head and small body size. That is one of the symptoms. I often think people must be wondering how a person of my large frame produced such a teeny tiny girl, but it's all part of the virus, not genetics. Lord knows, we don't even have small dogs in our family! She has endured lots of tests lately at the request of a neurologist. She passed her speech therapy and Occupational Therapy Evaluations with flying colors, as well as an EEG of her brain and vision and hearing screenings. This Thursday, she will have her final test of the year, an MRI, which can detect whether or not there has been brain damage and if so, in what parts of the brain. Please keep her in your prayers on Thursday morning. She won't go in until 11 a.m. for a noon appointment and she can't have food or milk 8 hours prior to the test. She can have clear liquids only up till 3 hours before. But for those of you who have kids, you know this will be a MAJOR ordeal...no morning milk or cereal, no juice in the car, this could be bad. So please pray for her compliance...and my tolerance...teehee! She will have an IV with anesthesia. They will come and take her from me to do all of this, so I will not be with her during the IV or the MRI. I can't imagine how frightening that will be for her, so please pray for her to be as comfortable and relaxed as possible. I don't anticipate any bad results from this test, it's really just standard procedure. I think I'm dreading the actual events of the day much more than I am getting the results. But this too shall pass, and will only serve to remind us further down the road what an AWESOME God we serve! He has an amazing plan for this little girl and what an incredible testimony she will have one day. We give Him all the glory!