Holt...Party of five!: 2009

Everytime I actually sit down to post to our blog, I am amazed and a little embarrassed at how much time has passed since the last post. Okay, so it's been three months since I last updated anyone on our life through the blog. You know you don't realize how many people actually look at your blog, until you don't post and they let you know that they're waiting. :o)

Wow, a lot has happened since my last post on January 25th. Let me hit the highlights. Huston turned five on March 19th!!! It was such a big milestone...he's growing up SO fast! He had a hunting themed party complete with a camo cake made by me. It was a lot of fun watching Huston and his friends shoot the BB gun at paper targets...with adult supervision of course! We may have some more little hunters out there. ;o)

Mia is just becoming such a big, beautiful girl. She's talking more clearly all of the time and adding more "big girl" phrases to her vocabulary. She loves prancing around in pretty outfits and shoes and LOVES having her hair done and reminds me every morning that she needs a bow.

Alli has definitely grown and changed a lot in the past three months. She has started eating baby food (her favorite so far is carrots), she can roll over (but doesn't like to), laughs out loud, babbles and picks up toys.

We are getting ready to go on vacation and the destination is a secret to our kids. I'll blog and post pics about it when we get home or a few months later ;o). Anyway, here are some recent pics of the kids.

Alli enjoying her carrots

Huston showing off an Easter egg find

Mia posing with her "Easter purse"

Huston stopping to check out a turtle

Mia all dressed up for Easter

Huston decked out for Easter

Mia's close-up

Huston and Mia

For every serious pic, there must be a silly one --

that's Huston's rule :o)

Our little ones dressed up for Easter

While January 25th may not be a day of special significance for most of you (well except my sister, it's her birthday, Happy B-day, Amy) four years ago, January 25th became a day our family will never just pass on by again. Let me take you back to an e-mail I sent out in January four years ago.

***
Dear family and friends,

As some of you may know, Huston has recently been diagnosed with a very rare and serious brain disorder. The initial diagnosis came from a doctor in Odessa after Huston had a CT scan performed. Since then, the diagnosis has been confirmed by a pediatric neurologist and pediatric radiologist at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth. We will be leaving Sunday after church for Cook's in Fort Worth (again) to have a sedated MRI with infusion performed to confirm the type, location and severity of the disorder. Our appointment is Monday morning at 10:00.

We are asking that you pray for Huston's COMPLETE healing. We know that God can heal Huston, and if He chooses to do so we will give Him ALL of the glory!!! But if He chooses not to, we will still give Him glory through our actions as we learn to live life with Huston's disorder. God has truly blessed our lives with a beautiful, special son and we are so thankful for the opportunity to take care of Huston for Him. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers, and ask that you forward this message on to anyone you know that will lift Huston up in prayer.

Love, Rusty, Patty & Huston Holt

Trials are not enemies of faith, but are opportunities to prove God's faithfulness.
***

First, let me tell you how touched we were by all of the prayers that were being said on Huston's behalf. Our e-mail was forwarded all around the country and people that we didn't even know began lifting up our son in prayer. This was the most challenging time for Rusty and I ever. We had made it through Huston's double hernia surgery at five weeks old and his unsuccessful balloon valvoplasty to treat his heart defect at eight months, but now we were faced with thinking about our son's deteriorating health that would ultimately lead to a very premature death. I don't know how many times, Rusty or I would ask the other during the middle of the night, "are you awake?" and "yes" would always be the reply from the other. It was stressful, heartbreaking, and overwhelming at times. Yet in the midst of the bad, we watched as God gave us some important reminders. God reminded us that no matter what the outcome, we WOULD be okay. He also reminded us that our children are ultimately His and we are blessed with the opportunity to love and care for them no matter what that might entail or for how long that might be. With every doctor appointment or hospital visit, we were shown (with images we will never forget) that while what you are facing may be difficult, there are lots of people facing difficult situations and many of them much more difficult than you can imagine. With this understanding, we are also reminded that while we face the difficulties in our lives, we have our faith and the knowledge that God is there for us. What about the people that face these challenges on their own, not knowing the comfort, peace, and hope that faith in God can provide? We're blessed.

As the days went by and we awaited our next doctor's appointment, a peace only from God settled over us. My prayers had been primarily for strength to face the challenges of taking care of Huston medically while still trying to be the best mom I could to him. I also prayed for peace and strength for Rusty and I and our marriage; we felt our son and marriage were too precious to let Satan use this situation to try and break us down and tear us apart. It may sound strange, but I had an overwhelming feeling in my heart that God might not "want" to heal Huston and that I should just pray for us to make it through the challenges that lay before us not for healing, not now. But as the days passed and more and more prayers went up, my personal prayer changed. I was suddenly overcome with only three very powerful words to pray and they became my only constant prayer to God..."Please heal him". No "Dear God" or "in Jesus's name we pray", or even an "amen"...just "please heal him" over and over. I don't know how many hundred times I recited that prayer every day but it consumed me in a strange but peaceful way. I now felt that this was all God wanted me to pray and the feelings that God might not "want" to heal Huston were replaced with "just believe and ask", and so we did.

Now here is my e-mail from four years ago today.

***
PRAISE GOD!!!! We got a call from our pediatrician this morning with the MRI results. Huston's MRI was normal, clear, perfect, free from any fluid or brain disorder!!! We want to thank God first of all for granting us with Huston's complete healing. Next, we want to thank all of you, our family, friends, church, and those who you forwarded this e-mail to for lifting Huston up in prayer. God heard the prayers and answered with a YES!

We know that it is a miracle that the same hospital that confirmed Huston's diagnosis can now confirm that he is totally free from any neurological problems whatsoever.

Thank you again for all of your prayers! Please forward this e-mail to the same people as you did before. We want them to know how much we appreciate their prayers and to see how God worked in the life of our son.

We are still in Dallas for one more appointment first thing tomorrow morning...Huston's getting fitted for his helmet (to fix the flat spots on his head) but we will be back in time for church tomorrow night!

Lots of love and appreciation!
Rusty, Patty & Huston Holt

***

God is amazing, isn't He? We were so humbled (and still are) that God chose to heal Huston. How many sick children and their parents had we sat next to in childrens' hospitals that might not ever get well and their parents would have to bury their little ones way too soon? Why our son? Why us? But just as we can ask these questions when the prayers were answered, many ask these same questions when things first go wrong...why us? Well, why not us? God loves us but that doesn't mean we will be free from pain...God loves us and that also means that He can free us from pain. God definitely gives us both more and less than we deserve. As we look at Huston today we're reminded of the love shown to us by others, and the awesome power of prayer and God's healing hand. So while we're humbled, we're thankful that God chose to let us watch over Huston for Him a little while longer. Thank you, God. :o)