summer, birthday and fun!

at the Putt Putt place

he realized that he was going to have
the Imaginext castle he wanted when
he got back to Pennsylvania!

well the last few weeks here have been uneventful until the last week or so. In the past week, Tony flew down and we spent a few days at the beach, Fred turned 5 (FIVE!!! Can you believe it!?!?), the boys have gone back to Pennsylvania, and we are getting ready to start a new round of treatment for day in a couple of weeks.

Tony flew down for the week of the 4th and we spent a few days of this time at the beach with his family. We do this every year and it was spent with the cousins playing, the adults chatting, and the rain POURING! We were able to get a beautiful cousin picture as we try to do each year and Chip had the best time at the beach! He hung with it for the entire two days that it was pretty and had a blast! That Wednesday that we were down there, we had a birthday party for he and Doug with cake and gifts! Thursday we left and came back to Headland where we had another 'party' on Friday for him that had my and Tony's gift and mom and dads gift. Saturday the guys got up and drove to Atlanta (not without Chip vomiting in the rental car and spiking a 104 fever!) to fly to New Jersey to drive home and got home without incident. All Saturday night, poor Chip Sharp ran high fever and was sick and then by Sunday early morning it went away - TOTAL WARFARE, FOLKS!!! Well, they are home, and Chip has played with and touched each one of his toys probably 10 times and he is so excited to be home.

All the Sharp cousins with GaGa and PawPaw

love this boy!

my sweet boys

We found out last week that dad's case had NOT in fact been reviewed by the board in Birmingham and that it wouldn't be reviewed in July either, but it would be in August which took the wind out of our sails a little. We kept faith, though, and knew/know that the Lord is in total control of all of this. After many an un-returned phone call to the doctor's office asking for answers, we finally received a call directly from dad's neurologist. He couldn't and really didn't explain the hole in all that had happened but did tell dad that after further thought and speaking with a few other doctors, he really felt like dad should start the process of a Baclofen pump. This is the process that my brother and i were most in favor of in the beginning but after lots of prayer, thought, and consideration, dad opted against - which was fine. But the doctor seemed to think that the 'kind' of Dystonia my dad has would benefit from the pump. Well, we are willing to try anything right now and so on the 18th, we have a re-evaluation with the physicians about  the pump and tentatively on the 23rd, we will have a trial run of the pump in Birmingham. We are all very excited over the prospect of this as well as the fact that we are actually DOING something now, instead of just sitting around and waiting.

who is Mr. Incredible without his
bicycle and his helmet!?!?

The Lord is still in control over this and my dad has adopted a new scripture and claim lately, after a friend sent a beautiful card with the verse on the front of it.
Psalm 121:1-2 says, "I lift my eyes up to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth."

Papa with a 5-year old boy!

We truly believe that the Lord is in ultimate control over all of this and we are just waiting and watching for His timing. We have found ourselves to be experiencing the Lord in a way we never thought we would and have been beyond blessed at His provision and grace! He is a God that is bigger than us, bigger than Dystonia and bigger than this world! Praise the Lord that we serve this big God!