(Ashley shows off her "spaghettiquette"; Ashley hangs out with Ohio buddy Faith Williams)

Dear Friends & Family,

Another week has gone by, and we wanted to fill you in on what’s happening with us.  Today was a big doctor’s appointment—our 24-week appointment (24 weeks, 0 days will actually be this Monday).  Some of you in Savannah may remember that back in July, when we first announced our news, I passed out some little cards that asked you to pray for the babies’ survival through week 12, then their ongoing development through week 24, and then their (and Lisa’s) stamina from week 24 until week 34.  And so we are at that new landmark point.  Here’s why it’s important…

Week 24 is actually the first point at which the babies could potentially survive if they were to be delivered.  Finding ourselves at that point is a huge relief.  At the same time, we are working and praying toward getting them all the way to week 34, if possible.  Every day past week 24 increases the likelihood of their survival, and overall health, and freedom from potential limitations due to prematurity.  (Please understand that we believe that—regardless of when they’re born—their wellbeing isn’t some roll of the dice that’s subject to chances and odds and statistics, but is ultimately in God’s hands…which is one of the reasons that we pray, and ask you to too.)

We had several pieces of good news today…

--The babies all looked really great on the ultrasounds, with the boys being the biggest and the girls (identical twins, sharing a placenta) being the smallest, which is typical.  Their projected weights were 1lb.2oz. (Emily), 1lb.4oz. (Danielle), 1lb6oz. (Casey) and 1lb.9oz. (Big Ben).  The fact that their weights are fairly similar is a good thing—most importantly, the twin girls have good similar weights and good similar fluid levels (meaning that twin-to-twin transfusion, where one twin gets more nourishment to the detriment of the other, doesn’t seem to be a factor as of yet). 

--Lisa’s contractions have still not been excessive.  She did have an hour in which she had 6 contractions, and one in which she had 5, and one in which she had 4, but her average is still less than 3.5 per hour, meaning that she doesn’t need to be on heavy-duty medication or be hospitalized.

--This morning Lisa had an FFN test, basically a swab that tests for the presence of a substance called fetal fibronectin.  Dr. Elliott describes it as the glue that holds the placentas in the womb.  If a quad mother tests positive for fetal fibronectin, then there is a 50% likelihood that things are starting to come unglued and that she will deliver in the next 14 days.  If she tests negative, then things are fairly stable and there is only a 6% likelihood that she will deliver in the next 14 days.  If Lisa had tested positive today, they would have hospitalized her, and given her steroids to prepare the babies’ premature lungs in case they ended up being born.  Fortunately, Lisa tested negative! 

--Lisa gained more weight, which is a good thing.  I am proud to say that the difference between Lisa’s weight and mine has never been smaller, a trivia fact of which I remind her often!  But she still looks amazingly great.

Thank you for your prayers and kindness.  The folks in Phoenix that we’ve met have all been incredible, and First Christian Church continues to outdo themselves in serving us.  Faith Williams (from the church where we served in Ohio) has been with us, and if she doesn’t leave Monday, as planned, Lisa and I may get replaced on Ashley’s “favorite people” list—she has been such a huge help and humble servant.  Our church family in Savannah continues to shower us with cards, calls, e-mails, prayers and more.  And people around the world are praying for these babies.  We are truly blessed, and we thank you for your part in that.

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey, Danielle & Emily Roberts

www.expandingrobertses.com (for past updates, prayer requests, pictures and more)

P.S. Our Bush’s Baked Bean story was featured in the Food section of this past Wednesday’s Arizona Republic.  Feel free to check it out at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/food/articles/1012people1012.html .  Barbara Yost did a great job on the story.

Dear Friends & Family,

A few of you have been clamoring for an update.  The rest of you are probably happy to have a break.  The update people win. 

Thanks again for your prayers, cards, e-mails and such.  It means more to us than you’ll ever know.

We’re glad to report that there’s not a whole lot to report.  Lisa’s contractions are monitored twice a day for an hour and then faxed in to home health folks, who call us back with the report of how many contractions she had. She’s always had either 2, 1 or 0.  Only if she starts averaging 3 ½ over the course of a week will any medication need to be started to slow them down.  So all is well, we are at home, and we did not have a doctor’s appointment this week.  We are at week 23 on Monday.  Some of you will remember that the babies need to be born at at least 24 weeks to have a 50/50 chance of survival, and we are praying that they will make it all the way to week 34, which would be December 26^th.  Our next doctor’s appointment is this coming Friday.

We have had a lot of wonderful visitors.  Last Monday, our wonderful helper Janice Townshend left after 11 days with us!  Immediately replacing her was Lisa’s incredible aunt, Anne Hair, who came from New Braunfels (near San Antonio) and will be returning tomorrow.  Before she is gone, her replacement will arrive tomorrow, who is Faith Williams, a wonderful friend of ours from Northside Christian Church in Wadsworth, Ohio (where I was an associate minister before coming to Savannah).  Over this past weekend, we had another Ohio visitor by way of L.A.—Karen Hood, who was a superstar Bible Bowl player on the team I coached in Ohio, and is now an almost-graduate doing an internship.  Earlier in the week, Lisa Corridan, a friend of a friend of Mary Brown’s, came by and brought us lunch and dinner and a nice gift for Ashley.  And then on Friday, we spent a couple hours with Frank and Jan Straight, friends of mine from Northside in Ohio who moved to Phoenix eight years ago.  In addition to all of these connections, the choir here at First Christian Church has been bringing us wonderful meals on an every-other-night basis—this church is really amazing in the way they’ve dealt with almost complete strangers (and they’ve never even asked for an ultrasound to verify our story!).

We realized last night as we were heading to church that the previous time Lisa had left the house was a week before to go to church.  She has been a true champion in observing her bedrest without going insane.  Not only is bedrest the best thing for the babies and the best thing to carry them as long as possible, but the doctor told her that the more she stays down, the less time she’ll have to spend in the hospital.  Obviously, she’s taken it seriously, and I’m proud of her.  She gets up for meals and to shower.  She’s uncomfortable a good deal of the time, and has had a stuffed-up nose, and occasionally some nausea, but overall, compared to other quadruplet pregnancies that we’ve heard of, things are going as well as she could reasonably hope for.  She’s done a lot of reading!

Ashley has enjoyed all the attention from our guests.  Fortunately, the doctor has not ordered bedrest for Ashley—she would not be a good candidate.  She has just learned to climb up onto the couch or easy chair on her own, and wants to stand up once she gets up there.  She is always running around, wants to be outside, loves to sit in the front yard and watch traffic on the busy four-lane street where we live, and has discovered that she is in love with fire trucks, which have replaced buses on her list of cool things.  She can do a pretty good fire truck imitation, and the other day the two of us walked down to the station (less than a block from us) to see the trucks up close.  She loved every moment.

I have been getting up early to read, and then to run, and then to help with Ashley, do household chores, and cook breakfast for Lisa (waffles, or eggs, depending which day it is).  As some kind of supernatural sign, possibly, I won an apron from the ham/pork people in a contest that I was some kind of runner-up in.  It has helped me get into character for my breakfast job.  With the help that’s been here, I usually spend the next few hours of the morning and early afternoon working on some projects that need to get done, and researching my new position chosen for me that I’ll assume upon returning to Savannah Christian Church, which is Spiritual Formation Pastor.  In the afternoon, after Ashley’s nap, I try to spend some good quality time with Ashley, sometimes swimming or going for a walk or going to a store or to get something for supper.  In the evening, I help get supper taken care of, and get Ashley down, and then usually return e-mails.  I’ve tried to be somewhat active at the church, since Lisa can’t be, doing some hospital calls, helping with 3^rd & 4^th grade Sunday School, going to a small group, and working on a special community service day yesterday, which was outstanding.

At any rate, that’s more than you probably wanted to know, but it might help answer your question, “So, what do you all even do out in Phoenix while you’re not having contractions?”

We would really appreciate your prayers for a good week and for ten weeks of stamina after that.  We don’t know what we would do without you.

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey, Danielle & Emily Roberts

www.expandingrobertses.com

Dear Friends & Family,

 We’ve had another good Phoenix week.  Thanks for your prayers and all your e-mails/calls of encouragement.

 We had a good doctor’s appointment this morning—21 ½ weeks is how far along we are.  The babies looked good; Dr. Elliott is pleased with the few contractions that Lisa is having; and Lisa gained a good deal of weight in the last ten days, which (only for this odd period in our lives) is a really good thing.  We had a quick ultrasound, but came away with no pictures, which is okay, since it’s harder and harder to get a good picture these days anyway.  Check the website (www.expandingrobertses.com) for lots and lots of good ultrasound pictures from earlier.  We had a good visit with Dr. Elliott; he fielded a whole bunch of questions that we had for him.

 Before the doctors’ appointment this morning, a lady ran into my vehicle while I was sitting at a stoplight.  She was with her ten-year-old daughter.  Her pick-up truck scratched the plastic on the bumper of the vehicle that we were borrowing—not very badly, but I told her that I wanted to fill out a police report in case it still cost some money to fix and I needed to do an insurance claim.  She pleaded with me not to call the police, since she had a suspended license and her daughter was late to school.  I decided that I needed to do it anyway, and so I called 911.  They said they’d send someone over.  While I waited, and waited, and waited, the lady and her daughter cried, and I tried to explain to an only-Spanish-speaking man what had happened, and then the lady pled with me that she had no money and no insurance and no job and no license and then called me heartless and…finally I called 911 back, got put on hold, asked them when a policeman would come over, was unable to get an answer, told them I had to get my wife to an appointment and not to bother, told the lady that I had to leave and chided her for calling me “heartless,” for which she apologized and then thanked me profusely, and then I took Lisa to the appointment.  It was kind of a sad thing, but fortunately Lisa wasn’t with me, and no one was hurt, and the vehicle was pretty much undamaged.

 Tonight we had the long-awaited Bush’s Baked Bean cookout to celebrate Lisa’s title as “America’s Biggest Baked Bean Fan,” compliments of the essay contest run by Bush’s and All You Magazine.  It was a special night for us, because we had the opportunity to say thank you to several small groups of people who have really helped us—some of the folks from First Christian Church that have housed us (we wish we could have invited more—this church has been so incredibly nice to us), the Milling family (who has loaned us the vehicle that got rear-ended this morning), my cousin Melilssa and her friend, Dr. Elliott and his wife Laura and some ladies who work at Good Samaritan Hospital, the Crandell family (whose quadruplets were born this past March, and who have been very helpful to us) and some of their family and friends, and some really nice folks from the Bush’s Baked Bean company, including spokesman Jay Bush and his dog Duke.  The Crandells hosted the event in their backyard, Fabulous Foods catered it, and it was a nice laid-back event.  Ashley loved meeting Duke (re-named “Doggy” by her), and the Bush’s folks were extremely down-to-earth, nice folks.  The Arizona Republic (newspaper here) sent a photographer and reporter to cover it, and it should be in the Food section on October 12.

 We are very blessed to be here, and we pray that Lisa’s contractions remain few and far between.  Our friend Janice Townshend has been here helping us for ten days now, and leaves tomorrow.  We’ll miss her greatly, especially Ashley, who has been her great buddy.  Yesterday, I did a couple of hospital calls that the folks at First Christian said that I could do.  One of them was at Good Samaritan Hospital, which gave me a good chance to see the hospital where the babies will be born.  It looks like a great place.  While there I met Karen Remmetter, a Christian woman from Idaho whose 18-year-old daughter Cory was in a terrible car accident a month ago, just a week after starting her freshman year of college.  Cory’s body has made some great improvements, but the extent of her brain injuries is unclear at this time.  While you’re praying for us, if you could say a prayer for Cory and her mom Karen, that would be a great thing.

 We thank you for your prayers and concern for us.  We have received a great number of encouraging e-mails and cards and calls, and can’t tell you how much that has meant to Lisa and Ashley and me.  We’ll keep you posted on what’s happening with us, and pray that life is good wherever you are too!

 In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey, Danielle & Emily

 P.S. The voice mail on our phones is all messed up here.  At the point where you would normally be able to leave a message, you will be told that our number is no longer in service.  That is not really the case—our numbers are still active, and we can make and receive calls.  We just don’t receive voice mail at this time.

Sorry for the long delay and the long message.

We are safe and alive and even well in Phoenix, thanks to your prayers.

If you don't want to know the details of our trip or accommodations, or if you just don't read well, or if you really like pictures more than anything, skip the rest of this and go to the Phoenix scrapbook [actually, the scrapbook has been phased out; all pictures that were in the scrapbook are included at the top of each post].

We had a long but overall good day flying out here last Wednesday.  Julia Wingfield and Marie, Sydney and Sophie Jobe saw us off at the airport, and then we were on our first flight to Chicago.  Lisa did well, and so did Ashley.  In the past, I have been observant enough while preaching to know that a nodding head doesn't make for a good nap, and so on the first leg to Chicago, I was paralyzed holding Ashley's head in place while she slept…but…she got a good hour nap in.  In Chicago, we are pretty sure that our cable company worked with O'Hare and United to make sure that the gate where we landed was several miles away from the gate where our connecting flight was taking off.  Once the wheelchair guy came, he pushed Lisa, and I pushed Ashley's stroller, and somehow we got them and several carry-ons to our next plane, which was already boarding.  From there it was almost four hours in the air until we got to Phoenix.  Ashley did very well, and seemed to enjoy turbulence (she actually said "whee"!)--her only disturbances took place when other babies cried, and she was codependent enough that she had to start crying on their behalf.  Lisa also did well, with some fast heartbeats and trouble catching her breath (which are normal, but still scary when you're 35,000 feet in the air somewhere between Phoenix and Chicago), and--as if to say that she was done with flying--she was in the midst of throwing up as the plane touched the ground at the Phoenix airport.  It was nice to be at our destination, though we still had a long way to go before bedtime.

We were met at the airport by Jane Crandell, the mother of two teenagers and four six-month-old quadruplets, who has been a wonderful support to us since we started checking into coming here.  We barely got all of our luggage into her van, and got to visit a little (Ashley crashed) while she drove us to our new home.  When we got there, we met Ted Reynolds, the business administrator from First Christian Church, who has graciously allowed us to use this nice three-bedroom home that the church owns.  The home is very nice, well-maintained and extremely comfortable, and is close to the hospital--we couldn't be more blessed.  We got our suitcases onto the floor there, and then were out the door and heading to the hospital in the vehicle that Rich & Terri Milling (friends of Kevin and Mary Brown) have graciously allowed us to use.  On the way we stopped at McDonald's to replace Lisa's lost meal and then made it to the hospital for the checkup.  Ashley woke up and charmed everyone in the maternity area while we waited for Lisa's monitoring—with Ashley, it was something like giddiness and delirium and pent-up carseat energy all waiting to say "bye-bye" to everyone that she came across.  Lisa's check-up went smoothly, with no signs of contractions(!) and four great heartbeats(!).  The beds here are very comfortable, but even if they hadn't been, we were bound to sleep very, very well on Wednesday night, especially with three extra hours added to our day.

In the last week we've worked very hard at keeping Ashley moving and Lisa not moving.  On Thursday, we had dinner with my first cousin Melissa, who's finishing grad school here.  Friday, we picked up our first full-time helper, Lisa's mom's friend Debbie Shadix from Snellville, who was a huge help.  Saturday we had dinner at the Crandells (the family with the six-month-old quads), and it was incredibly good.  On Sunday, we attended church at First Christian, which had an outstanding church service.  My cousin Melissa (our mothers are sisters) came with us to church, and found out to her shock that her dad’s cousin and husband are actually longtime members of the church that is helping us (small world).  Also, Kenyon Ackeberg, the father of a college friend of mine (Robyn Ackeberg Horton) is on staff at the church.  We can tell that the Lord’s taking care of us!

On Monday morning, we drove up to Scottsdale (about half an hour away) for our first appointment with Dr. Elliott.  He and the staff members that we met were super-nice, and—obviously—incredibly knowledgeable about what we’re dealing with.  Ultrasounds and other measurements all looked great, but he was very up front with us about some of the things that we are up against, some of which are only in the Lord’s hands.  Please pray in particular for the delicate balance between the girls, identical twins in the same placenta whose blood vessel lines could possibly get crossed).  Lisa really needs to be laying down all the time and eating all the time.  She will spend two one-hour periods each day with a uterine monitor, which monitors her for contractions that she might not even be able to feel.  The monitoring is faxed over the phone line to a home health place, which tells us what her activity is.  As long as she is averaging less than 3 ½ contractions per hour over the period of a week, she is fine to stay home on bedrest with no medication.  If it gets higher than 3 1/2 , she can stay home and receive medication (probably through a terbutaline pump).  If it’s higher than that, she would need to go to the hospital and probably get hit with the really hard stuff.  Her monitoring last night showed no contractions, and the monitoring this morning showed just one.  Keep praying.

When Dr. Elliott introduced himself to us, he said that he had sort of a “weird introduction.”  A new show on ABC called “Grey’s Anatomy” (a hospital drama, we think) needed some ultrasound footage of high-order multiples for an upcoming episode.  He asked if we’d be willing to let them use some of ours (with a small stipend for the footage thrown in from ABC).  We said yes.  So we’ll see how that goes. 

Yesterday we said goodbye to our wonderful helper Debbie Shadix, and we picked up our good friend Janice Townshend, who along with her husband Will is a member of Live Oak Christian Church up in Bluffton, South Carolina (our one-year-old church plant).  We have already been blessed with two wonderful friends who have shown Ashley a whole lot of love and care.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support.  When we began to research the ins and outs of the quadruplet pregnancy and the pros and cons of going to Arizona, it was not a particularly hard decision (though it was hard to leave home and church and friends and support system).  What we didn't anticipate was that some of the details of our relocation would work out so nicely--God has been good to us in this regard, and we are grateful to Him and to the many, many people that He has used.

We will be in touch as we are able.  We love (and miss) and appreciate all of you, and have never doubted that we have been in your prayers.  Thank you so much.

In Christ,

Phil, Lisa, Ashley, Benjamin, Casey, Danielle, Emily

P.S. The weather here has been on the hot side, but mostly very pleasant, especially in the mornings.  The terrain is more mountainy and scenic than we had pictured, though we still have not seen any scorpions or tarantulas or rattlesnakes or cowboys or stagecoaches or saloons.