Dear Family & Friends,

Two quick birthday-related things to mention…

1)       We got an incredible early birthday present.  Sunday afternoon I came into the babies’ room after I heard them talking at the end of their nap.  To my amazement, one of the babies was standing in the crib.  Couldn’t believe it.  My jaw dropped, I ran to tell Lisa, and when we both got back to their room this particular baby was sitting down at that point.  But what a great early birthday present.  And oh—in case you’re wondering which baby it was, you’ll have to scroll down to see the re-enactment picture.

2)       We’re having a birthday party at the Roberts house on the babies’ actual birthday, which is Saturday, November 4^th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with lunch and cake and ice cream provided.  If you’re getting this, you’re invited (kids too), as long as you’re willing to RSVP by next Wednesday, November 1^st, and as long as no one in your house is remotely sick (not even a runny nose, please, because of the babies’ high susceptibility).  You don’t have to bring a present.  Just come if you can make it.  But definitely RSVP.

We’ll send out an e-mail, with pictures, on or right after the big day.  Thanks for loving our family, praying for our family, and helping us to survive and thrive this wild year.

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey & Danielle

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Because of Danielle’s grade IV brain bleed that she sustained on her second day of life, it was uncertain whether she would ever be able to walk.  Two weeks ago, we were concerned that she might be falling behind her brothers, in that she hadn’t sat up by herself at that point.  To see her master sitting up since then, and standing in the crib before her brothers, is an amazing thing to us, and such an answer to prayers.  Still a long way to go and a lot to be seen, but we are so grateful for the personality and abilities that God has already allowed her to have.  And she’s setting the bar pretty high for some brothers of hers too!!!

l-r:  Ashley at the beauty parlor, Ashley waking up, Danielle smiling, Danielle worming out of her jammies

l-r:  Benjamin, Benjamin, Benjamin, Casey, Casey, Casey

  l-r:  Benjamin, Danielle & Casey watch TV; Benjamin, Casey & Danielle play on the floor; Benjamin, Casey & Danielle; Danielle, Casey & Benjamin; Danielle and Benjamin, with Casey in the background; Benjamin and Casey sitting up; Casey and Benjamin sitting up; Benjamin in the exer-saucer, with Danielle providing comic relief

  l-r:  Daddy entertains Benjamin, Danielle, Casey & Ashley; Ashley, Casey, Benjamin and Danielle maul mommy; Ashley and Grandpa and Conchita

Dear Family & Friends,

The countdown to the big birthday is now down to 30 days, and we thought we’d update you on how everyone’s doing…

Benjamin is just now starting to pull up on things; he and Casey are both sitting up on their own, and Danielle is close; Danielle is the fastest crawler, Benjamin a close second, and Casey is a fine crawler but more of a stay-in-the-same-place kind of guy.  Casey has top teeth that are coming in (hard to see because of his lip hemangioma), and the other two can’t be far behind in that category.  Casey says “da-da-da” (to which Ashley says, “Daddy, Casey’s talking about you”), Benjamin occasionally throws out some consonants, and Danielle’s a vowel and raspberry girl.  We have a corral of sorts made out of baby gate material—it is big, and has lots of toys in it, but usually evokes crying from Benjamin and Danielle, who pick up quickly that they are being contained and semi-ignored by adults whenever they are placed in it.  Danielle is eating great, Benjamin is eating great, and Casey is eating great—for the first time ever!  (Thank you for your prayers.)  We are down to three bottle feedings a day, followed by three solid food feedings, which are going very well too.

Now, without looking at the last paragraph, see if you can keep straight which baby was doing what.  If you can’t either, then we don’t feel so bad.  Life is moving fast, but very enjoyable.

Ashley got her first hair cut at a beauty parlor the other day (just her bangs) and was very proud that she was a big girl and didn’t cry.  She is a pretty excellent potty-user, is in love with her three siblings, and craves adult attention too (the first thing I hear when I get home is usually, “Daddy, you wanna play Lego’s/vegetables/Potato-Head/books/you-name-it wit’ me?”; Mommy hears the same questions all day long!).  A couple who help in Ashley’s class at church just had triplets two days ago (very big, very healthy), and so now we are telling her about Mr. Willy and Mrs. Odie’s three babies.

Lisa has done an incredible job with the whole gang, thanks to many wonderful helpers (a whole bunch of which just went to Poland on a mission trip—wow have we missed them!).  Next week my parents will be with us, while Lisa takes a few days to get away.  This is a much-deserved getaway for her—since June 14, 2005, she really hasn’t had a real, full day of rest.  I am very excited for her, and proud of her.

At the end of this month, we plan to head six hours away to Milligan College in Tennessee for our alma mater’s Homecoming Weekend.  We’ll stay with my family, see a lot of family and friends, and enjoy true fall weather.  Then we’ll head back here for the birthday—a small party probably, and certainly a day of great thanksgiving.  Be sure that we will send out an update with pictures.

After that point, we will “head underground” with the kids for RSV season.  The babies will each get a shot of Synagis (about $1,000 per shot), which is vitally important in helping them avoid RSV, a respiratory virus that is incredibly dangerous to a preemie under two years of age.  Until about April, the babies and Ashley will need to avoid: anyone with a cold, other children, and crowds.  The biggest change for us with this is that Ashley won’t be able to go to church during those months, just because she’s so prone to bring something home to them.  The Lord will reward for her sacrifices too, we are convinced.

The website has new videos on it if you would like to see what life in our house looks like.  Go to www.expandingrobertses.com and then to the “kid videos” page.  Also, additional pictures are on the site.

We are still working through Project Seahorse organization issues (just revamped the website www.projectseahorse.net ).  Our test run of 50 packets at Memorial Hospital in Savannah and Phoenix Children’s Hospital has received a good response thus far.  10 packets are going to Banner Desert in Phoenix, to honor two-year-old Madison Graham’s big birthday (today).  Thanks for praying for and helping with the project.  We are thrilled to see other fragile NICU families receiving this kind of encouragement.

Thanks for loving us, lifting us up, and cheering us on during this past year.  We are very blessed…

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey & Danielle

Dear Friends & Family,

Here’s the latest on the Roberts gang, just two months out from the big birthday...

First and foremost, Casey did not have to have a feeding tube surgery!  We had one scheduled for Friday, August 25^th (the same week he had two full-anesthetic MRIs), but thanks to many prayers his feeding suddenly and dramatically improved during the week leading up to it.  While we knew that the feeding tube would not be a terrible thing, and had even been looking forward to it in many ways, we were thrilled to be able to avoid it.  As if on cue, Benjamin recently began taking an unreasonably long time to eat, with a lot of screaming and resistance, due to his reflux.  Please pray for all three of the babies, that their reflux will be kept in check until they outgrow it, hopefully in the next few months.

Casey’s MRIs showed great results from his May brain fluid surgery!  They also, however, showed a potential up-the-road issue, which is a Type 1 Chiari Malformation.  Rather than attempt to redefine this in non-medical terms, I will yield the floor to the more official explanation which you can read about at this link… (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/chiari/chiari.htm)

Now the fun stuff…We have six new teeth in the Roberts house, all bottom teeth, starting with Benjamin, then Danielle, then Casey.  Benjamin’s hair is curly, and mostly present in a mop on the top of his head, which we refer to as his toupee.  It is crazy and cute.  Benjamin is a scooter/crawler, and can chase anything anywhere very quickly.  Danielle and Casey wheel around, reach out for things, and scoot themselves just a little but never very far.  Both of them get a weekly visit from physical therapist Kim Chapman, who is fairly pleased with their progress and does great work with them.  They have all three been sleeping through the night for months now, and all three of them wake up in very good moods, and have a great temperament for pretty much the whole day (except when eating or teething are painful).  They are eating solid foods, with Danielle eating anything in sight, Casey hit and miss, and Benjamin the non-conformist.

To get an idea of how much fun our little crew can be, you should check out the videos on the website (www.expandingrobertses.com), particularly of Casey laughing at Mommy (http://www.expandingrobertses.com/kid_videos.htm#smilin%20laughin%20casey) and of Danielle laughing hysterically at big sister Ashley [do not drink milk while you watch this one] (http://www.expandingrobertses.com/kid_videos.htm#crazier%20danielle).  We hope you like these e-mail updates that we send out, but the videos on the site are a hundred times better than anything we could write.

That last video will give you an idea of how much the babies love their big sister, and how much she loves them.  We are working on gentleness boundaries with Ashley, as she would gladly and lovingly smother any sibling if given the opportunity.  She is still working on shyness in public and potty training, and making good progress in both—she loves to get a snack of potato chips for going “p.u. in the potty!”

Lisa is such a great mother, always working hard, and very well organized.  We are still grateful for the many who help us out, and who are as patient with the parents as they are with the babies.  We are having a hard time believing that September 14 will be the one-year anniversary of our pilgrimage to Arizona.  With each significant date on the calendar, we can look back and see how good the Lord has been to us throughout our journey.  And through the ups and downs, what a journey it has been, and one that we wouldn’t have missed for anything.

Thanks for joining us on it…

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey & Danielle

P.S. If you are the praying kind, some things that you could pray for:  Lisa’s mom just returned home from visiting us this weekend so that she can have the first of two eye surgeries tomorrow; another Savannah family, expecting quads, just landed in Arizona this past week; 50 packets from Project Seahorse have gone to the hospitals in Phoenix and Savannah, to be tested out on NICU families there; also, Project Seahorse IRS paperwork is the next big task to complete, before figuring out our direction for 2007

Dear Friends & Family,

Here’s the latest from our world…

July went by quickly with some much-longed-for downtime at Tybee Island, the beach next to Savannah, with my parents and my brother and sister and their families.    We now feel prepared for any hurricane evacuations after readying and loading four pack-&-plays, beach stuff, diapers, clothes, formula and the actual babies into our van.  Lisa did an amazing job of organizing it all, and friend Michelle Green helped us immensely on leaving and returning days.  It was also a whole lot of work to get all four kids 100 yards from the rental house down to the beach, but we were able to do so, with help from Grandma and Grandpa, on four of the days.

We were humbly reminded that the God who oversees the vast ocean has watched over and provided for each of these little ones, from their tiniest moments and now through their not-so-tiny moments.  You can see a condensed slideshow/video of our trip on the website by clicking here:  http://www.expandingrobertses.com/beach%20roberts.wmv .

The babies are nine months old today, the equivalent of six months old developmentally.  Casey was weighed yesterday at 16 lb. 4 oz.—the other two we’re not sure exactly, but Danielle is definitely heavier than that and Benjamin is definitely lighter.  Rice cereal is part of the new morning routine, and they handle it just like they do their bottles—Danielle is incredibly efficient, Benjamin can be great or not so great, and Casey has a pretty steep learning curve and sometimes gives back more than he receives.  (Please pray for Casey, as he is gaining weight okay, but not eating well—we and his doctors will make a decision this month about inserting a feeding tube in his tummy until he learns to eat efficiently.)

All three of them roll over both ways and prop themselves up on their arms.  Even though Benjamin has been able to do so the longest and is the one who never had any neurological issues, it is both Casey and Danielle who have shown some motivation and ability to scoot themselves forward.  Both of them receive weekly visits from a physical therapist, who seems pleased with how on-track their development is.  We probably shouldn’t be excited about the prospect of three family members gaining mobility…but we are.

Ashley recently has had a shy streak in public—the exact opposite of her behavior at home.  She’s so much fun, and still very well-behaved, but has occasionally shown signs of having a will of her own (though we’ve pleaded with her not to).  Potty training has generally been going very well.  She loved the beach, especially hanging out with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  And she still loves the many wonderful people who help out in our home and preserve our sanity.

We are so grateful for so many of you.  Thank you for prayers, encouragement, countless kindnesses, and the recent onslaught of diapers.

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey & Danielle

P.S. Project Seahorse is still moving forward…slowly.  When one particular item arrives in the mail, we’ll be able to provide 25 packets to the NICUs in Savannah and Phoenix.  Please pray for the families who will receive them.  We are sad to share that Hailye, the little girl to whom we presented the first packet, passed away just four days later, due to sudden complications from NEC.  Please pray for her family during this time.  Although it made us very sad, it was a reminder of one of the biggest reasons why we’re undertaking this.  The website is www.projectseahorse.net and we are still actively seeking the stories of families who have ever had a preemie in the NICU.

(l-r:  Casey, Danielle & Benjamin lounging; Daddy & Ashley; Ashley and buddy Kathryn Cook)

(Hailye receives the first Project Seahorse Packet)

 (l-r:  Casey, Danielle, Benjamin; Aunt Bev with Casey, Danielle, Benjamin; Daddy with Ashley, Benjamin, Casey, Danielle; Casey, Danielle, Benjamin)

(Benjamin shows off the wriggle look; Mommy entertains the troops [Casey & Benjamin])

Dear Family & Friends,

Today marks the one-year anniversary of breaking our crazy news to the world, and we wanted to let you know how everyone is doing…

Benjamin, Casey & Danielle are now eight months old (five months developmental age) and are all three rolling around quite a bit, which is a great thing especially for Danielle and Casey, who have had brain issues and who see therapists.  It is becoming more fun to watch them interact as they now “collide” on the floor.  Benjamin sometimes Houdinis his way partly out of his jammies in his crib and has bruises on his arm from sucking—we call him The Leech.  Danielle lays on her back in her crib and grabs her toes and grins—she seems to be the one who likes to play with baby toys the most.  Casey is now bashfully smiling and babbling quite a bit, especially when we repeat his name.  His six-week follow-up neurosurgeon appointment is tomorrow—so far, it seems that his head size is right where it should be, and most of his issues have to do with digestion and reflux and taking forever to feed, and sometimes even then with “feed-back” involved.

All three of the babies are over 15 pounds and seem to be very healthy and progressing developmentally.  On Father’s Day, they participated in Baby Dedication Day at church, which was pretty special.  With help from friends Laura and Kathryn Cook, we took all four of the kids to the beach a couple of weeks ago, which was quite a bit of fun.  In two weeks, my parents and siblings and families will be with us at the beach for a week (the beach is just half-an-hour from home for us).  We also got them down to the neighborhood pool last week.

Ashley is almost completely potty-trained, is still a much better-behaved kid than we deserve, and is pretty happy just about all of the time.  She loves to ride in the jogging stroller, and looks forward to saying night-night prayers in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, where she can bounce and hide under the covers and such.  She wears us out, but keeps us looking forward to the babies’ development.  She enjoyed a week-long visit from her great-great-aunt Bev and a meal with passing-through Uncle Adam (Lisa’s brother-in-law).

Anne Hart of the Savannah Morning News did a very nice story on our family in the June 18 Father’s Day Accent Section (http://new.savannahnow.com/node/98635)*.  And tonight, Betsy Nolen of local ABC affiliate WJCL is doing a “Power of Parenting” segment that mainly focuses on Project Seahorse (if anyone has one of those newfangled DVR contraptions, could you record it for us?).  Project Seahorse is now officially a corporation that can legally operate and receive donations, and we even—almost accidentally—gave out our first Seahorse Packet the other day at Memorial Hospital to a just-over-two-pound little girl named Hailye (http://projectseahorse.net/hailye's_page.htm).  Right now, our biggest need is for families who have had preemies (ever) to submit an account of their little one on the www.projectseahorse.net website, which is free and takes about ten minutes.

Lisa and I are doing pretty well.  Most of the day, every minute seems to be spoken for, but we knew that that was part of the deal, and we have had such wonderful volunteers helping us out.  Looking back on the last 365 days is sort of a bizarre thing, and sometimes it seems like a big blur, but we are constantly reminded that we could not have survived without so many incredible people looking out for us.  Thanks for being among them, especially in prayer.

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey & Danielle

*P.S. Several paragraphs of the Morning News article were devoted to the topic of “selective reduction”, in which a family aborts some of their multiples in an attempt to pave an easier way for the remaining ones.  We would love to discuss this topic with anyone you know who might be urged to consider it, even if they don’t share our same faith or have any faith at all.  The doctor quoted in the article made the very debatable statement that there’s no right or wrong decision, and failed to mention that they wait until 12 weeks gestation to do the procedure, that there is at least a 5% chance of killing all the babies in the process, that it can’t be proven to improve anything for the mother or the other babies, and that there are inevitably long-term psychological effects when someone voluntarily makes “Sophie’s choice”. 

Dear Family & Friends,

We wanted to share with you the latest…

Casey has gone almost three weeks since his surgery, and has recovered very well.  He saw his neurosurgeon on Tuesday to get his stitches out and to do an initial follow-up.  So far, his head has not grown since the surgery, which is a good thing.  It will probably be another six months before we could say with confidence that the surgery was a success and that he won’t need a shunt.  You can still pray for Casey:  he has had problems with eating and holding down food since he was diagnosed with medical NEC back in February.  He can be very hard to feed, and slow in eating, and on some days throws up a significant amount of most of his meals, often times with great discomfort because of reflux.  This whole scenario is very frustrating for Mom and Dad, and sometimes makes us wonder if something not good is happening—thankfully, he has gained weight somehow and otherwise seems to be doing very well.  He is rolling over from back to side, and is “talking” a lot.

Danielle is also rolling from back to side, which is so wonderful.  Because of her brain bleed issues, there are question marks about where she might hit some developmental hurdles that will require a lot of physical therapy.  Every time we see her achieve a small age-appropriate milestone like this, it is a huge thing.  She is alert, smiles a lot and sometimes even laughs, and moves her arms and legs fairly easily.  Danielle is the only one hanging on to her midnight feeding—and since Jody Blazer comes every night at midnight and wants to do this feeding with her, it’s no problem.  Other than that, all three of the babies sleep soundly from 8:30ish until 7:30ish.

Benjamin is a rolling, smiling maniac.  He can pull his head up very well when he’s on his stomach, and just may be crawling very soon.  Benjamin has had very few problems, and so to get his fair amount of attention he has manufactured his own brand of problem.  Rather than sucking on his thumb to comfort himself, Benjamin chooses to suck various places on his arm.  When he wears long sleeves, this yields a drenched sleeve at the end of each nap.  Because he sometimes doesn’t wear long sleeves, Benjamin has a series of what we lovingly refer to as “arm-hickies” (not a medical term).

Ashley made history yesterday as the first Roberts child to use a potty (#1).  She was quite proud of herself, especially when Lisa put her first sticker on her “Royal Potty chart” on the fridge.  Ashley’s potty (compliments of friend Janet McGuire) plays a tune when any substance makes contact with the bottom of the potty.  It makes us wonder how any of us ever got potty-trained before these fancy incentives came about.

The last two weeks have also included:  out-of-town visits from both sets of grandparents, from the Newland family and from my Uncle David and incredible Cousin Melissa; a Daddy-Ashley date to Chuck E. Cheese; the San Diego Marathon; traffic court; work; a backyard inflatable pool outing with Ashley and Mommy; and much, much more.

Project Seahorse ( www.projectseahorse.net ) is getting off to a slow start, thanks to the State of Georgia Corporations Division, which was supposed to certify it as a corporation within 5 days of filing.  Six weeks after the filing, they still can’t predict when that certificate will be completed, but they seem not to be losing any sleep over it.  We can’t process any contributions until that certificate arrives.  The one thing you can do to help right now is to ask anyone who had a premature baby (at any stage and with any result) to visit the site, leave their story/stories, and give us constructive feedback.

We are still standing, thanks to the Lord, to your prayers, and to the world’s most amazing volunteers/friends who always seem to be here when we need help the most.  Thank you for loving our little ones…

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey & Danielle