3 months old!

This is very cliche but where has the time gone?

You have already proven to be a fighter and have overcome so much. Your daddy and I are certain that there is an anointing on you that is unexplainable. It was prophesied over you when you were in my womb and it's evident considering all that you have gone through. We know that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy but the ONE has come that you would have life and have it more abundantly.
So,we will uphold our duty as your parents to train you up in the way of the Lord.

Just some things that you are doing:
1) Smiling
2) Sitting up in your bumbo
3) Making noises
4) Plenty of funny facial expressions
5) Pulling on momma's hair. OUCH.
6) Grasping for things
7) Fist pumping! ;) Now we just have to teach you the fireworks move!
8) Putting your fingers in your mouth...not sure about the whole thumb just yet.
9) You can hold something but not for very long.
10)You like to put objects in your mouth if I put them to your face.
11)You can sleep at least 8 hrs. through the night.
12)You drink about 5oz. every 3.5-4 hrs.
13)You suck a paci for soothing...other than that you want no part of it.
14)There is a cry you make which reveals frustration but only proves determination.
15)You are drawn to the light. I think I will be buying you sunglasses soon!
16)You love to sleep with your arms and hands straight by your side, tucked under the covers!
17) You are cutting 2 teeth...they look like your side incisors! Most babies cut there two front teeth (top or bottom). You are doing it your own way! ;)
18) You are focusing a whole lot better!

I think I got it all...

Some things you are having to overcome:
1) Getting your head into a straightened position...you favor your left side!
2) Getting your head nice and round...it's going to take some time...
3) Getting fitted for your hearing aid next week. I'm sure you will do great!


We love you lil' champ and look forward to seeing God's MIGHTY, HEALING HAND work in your life!

2 years ago...

I said "I do" to the man that I knew I would spend the rest of my life with!
If you were to ask both of us we would tell you that it feels like it has been more like 20 years. We say that not to say the past 2 years have been dreaded and long, but because we have been through so much.

The first year of marriage: in-laws, opinions, letting go of "it's all about me," sacrifice, leaving and cleaving, learning what to say and what not to say, dealing with each others "habits" etc...I'm sure you can relate?!?!?!
On top of all that we lost our first baby. By far the hardest thing I have ever endured. From seeing our lifeless baby on an ultrasound screen to actually experiencing a miscarriage, it was all a very emotional time for us.

The second year of marriage: lost our jobs, got pregnant AGAIN, some issues during my pregnancy, possible move, our sweet baby boy is born (after a long and complicated labor) and a family in the process of being restored...

The birth of our son was by far the greatest event that occurred during our 2 years of marriage; Trey would concur. So much so that after minutes of giving birth he looked at me and said, "we can have 15 more of these "things" if you want!" haha Definitely was not the time, but I was letting him bask in the moment.
Barington Stephen Sheneman was born on Dec. 9th, 2010 at 12:20 am 7.3lbs and 19.5 inches long! He overcame so much during the first week of his life. We were thrown with so many scares, it wasn't even funny. As his parents, Trey and I both held onto our faith and onto each other and Bear came through a champ!

Now here we are...celebrating 2 years of marriage! Considering all that the 3 of us have endured, we can rejoice singing the lyrics of this song:

We have overcome and as a result we are stronger and more united then ever!

To my love, I look forward to living my life with you for the next 70 yrs.-God willing! I truly believe that God has allowed us to go through all that we've gone through to one day help other young couples in their marriage! So, here's to our past, present and our future! Let's continue to praise Him for all that He has done and all that He is going to do...

All my love,
Your "Jenni-Bug"

Overwhelmed with gratitude...

by God's goodness and faithfulness in my life!

Today was a BIG day for our lil' man...but let me back track to bring you up to speed on a few things.

The Sunday before Bear was born Trey and I spent the evening at church worshiping our Heavenly Father. After worship was over, a sweet friend of ours (who was sitting behind us with her husband) came to me to tell me she had received a Word from the Lord for me. Now, if anything like this freaks you out, I would encourage you to KEEP reading because afterwards you will have goose bumps running up and down your body! There's no denying that we serve a risen Savior. :)

At this point, we had no idea that Bear had any issues with his ears because that is not something they can detect on ultrasound. Got it? Ok. So, she proceeds to tell me that the Lord told her, "Bear will be quick to hear and slow to speak." I really was in shock, not knowing how to respond. I mean how do you respond to that? My thoughts, "of course my son will be able to hear." Ok, so he is slow to speak, no biggie.

Goose bumps yet? haha.

Bear is born and "ta-da" we have a son who is born with "supposedly" no ear canals and small ears. The Dr.'s inform us right off the bat that Bear CAN NOT hear and they didn't even bother doing a hearing test.
From there, they ran a BUNCH of genetic tests. We just got the results back from Emory and he has no SYNDROME'S (but his chromosome 13 was inverted-No biggie, apparently).
We were advised to get genetic testing as his parents and we will do just that!

Speed up to the last week or so...I keep getting a Word from God about the number 20 regarding Bear. All I could think was that he would only have 20% hearing loss...so, I finally said something to Trey and lo and behold Trey was getting the same thing. Coincidence? I think not.

With that being said, during his test they measured Bear's response to various different frequencies. Starting from 20, they worked up to 45. Basically, 20 is the lowest, softest sound that is emitted from the hearing test and 45 is the loudest. With me?!?!?

After an hour and a half of holding my son, the test was finally over. Mind you, I was praying over my son the entire time, "by Your stripes my son is Healed in Jesus name." What else would or could this momma do? I was helpless, so I did what I only knew to do, lift high the name of Jesus!
I also was taking glances at the 2 audiologist's faces trying to figure out what each facial expression meant...I couldn't help myself...the suspense was killing me!

I passed the time talking to the other audiologist about cases such as Bear's. The many questions I asked were: "Have you seen this in many children? Were the children born with it in both ears or one? More common in girls or boys? etc....She then proceeded to say the job is rewarding but can also be sad when babies come in with no nerves whatsoever. GULP. There's no help. NOTHING. GULP again.
While fighting off the attack from the enemy, I kept going back to the Word that was spoken over me, "Bear will be quick to hear, slow to speak!"

Once the test finished, the other audiologist said, "Your son hears at a NORMAL level!" The 20 you see is the softest setting and he can hear that at a normal level.

PRAISE THE LORD! Seriously. She went as far to say that Bear could very well have developed canals with a skin flap covering them! Now that would be an even bigger miracle!

For those of you out there who doubt that prayer works, you need to rethink your approach!

God IS AWESOME!

Please continue praying for fully developed ear canals and we look forward to sharing in that victory.

To God be the Glory!

Daddy Bear, Momma Bear, Baby Bear

7 weeks...Are you kidding me?

It seems like yesterday we were leaving the NICU with our 1 week old baby boy. Although a lot of that time was spent a blur, so have these last 7 weeks. Seriously. I have blinked a few times and here we are.
He is the greatest little bundle of joy! He does my heart good. Ya know?

Our little man is starting to focus more (if there isn't a bright light distracting him), he's smiling from ear to ear, and wrapping his momma around his tiny little finger. He does great holding up his head. It's incredible to me. He loves to sleep snuggled on his daddy's chest while they sit on the couch. He loves the sound of our heart beats. I'm convinced of that. He most definitely will be a tummy sleeper which scares me just a tad-bit...ok, how about a WHOLE lot. We have the angel care monitor but, well, there is still some slight apprehension on my part. I have tested it and it does work but...I'm not fully trusting it just yet. So, for now, he will continue to sleep on his back waving his hands around (yes-he does that when he sleeps). I have even caught him with his arms and hands straight up next to his face. Quite cute if I do say so myself. I have a picture to prove it! See...

I told you!

At his last ped. appt., on Jan. 18th, he was in the 50th percentile for his weight and 65th percentile for his height. He weighed in at 10.5 lbs. and was 22.5 in. long. Can u say, "GROWING BOY?"

All in all he is a great baby. He sleeps very well. We try to keep him awake from about 6pm until his last feeding around 11. He typically falls asleep around 10:30pm...

His Great Aunt got him this swing and he LOVES it!

These are just a few Bear updates. I will do my best to stay 

more on top of this blog esp. since the majority of it will be all about him! 

That is one sweet face right there! 

The 'What-Ifs' of life...

This was taken from one of my devotions...I can certainly relate. Can you? 

Generally, I consider myself a person of great faith but recently after doing some self reflection I realized my faith may not be quite as strong as I thought. In fact I actually have what I have coined as the “what-if syndrome.”

It seems I ask God a lot of questions about the things I believe He calls me to do.

What if I fail?
What if they don’t listen?
What if it doesn’t work out according to my plan?
What if this...?
What if that …?

All of my “what ifs” cause a delay in my obedience which is in fact disobedience.

When God says move, my faith needs to activate and cause me to move immediately. If God says I am healed, I should embrace that and walk in my healing. If God says, start that business, I should trust that the provisions to make that happen will come.

Whatever He speaks is already done. Yet, many times I try to analyze the situation and control every step of the process. However, my Christian experience reminds me that we are never in control; it’s all in God’s hand.

So why do we continue to stress, worry, fret, etc over our situations? It’s time to let it go and give it completely to God. Trust and believe and walk in faith knowing He always has us covered.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

To me, both of those statements say the exact same thing and both of them require me (and you) to get rid of the “what-if” syndrome.

Do you realize how much we could accomplish if we REALLY operated in faith? Fear would have to flee and peace would overcome us – no matter what our physical eyes saw in front of us.

My “what ifs” have held me back long enough … I’m ready to cover my eyes and just walk wherever God tells me to go. Won’t you join me? We’ve tried to do it without faith, let’s try something new for a change. Let’s truly activate our faith and apply it to EVERY situation in our lives. I guarantee the outcome will be completely different. We have nothing to lose, and EVERYTHING to gain.

1st ENT visit!

We were up bright and early on the 30th of December 2010. We are always up bright and early but this particular day required us to get dressed and head out the door VERY early. Thankfully, school was still out and so the traffic was minimal and we arrived at Children's in 50 mins. We had breakfast at the little deli inside of the office building and prayed for a great visit!

Bear slept and slept...until it was time for him to be poked and prodded AGAIN. Bless his little heart, he has been put through the ringer and I hate it for him.

Dr. Sipp is who Bear will be seeing from here on out. He was absolutely WONDERFUL! He had a positive outlook on the situation and had nothing but great things to say...considering.
He did say that there were 3 different cases of microtia (small ear): mild, moderate and extreme. Bear has a moderate case (grade 2). What makes Bear even that much more special is that he has it in both ears-bilateral- versus unilateral which is more common.

We loved the fact that Dr. Sipp was very candid with us about Bear's future and potential surgeries that could follow if we so choose to have his external ear reconstructed.
Trey made mention that we were people of faith and Dr. Sipp looked at us and said, "I am a man of faith but you are people of GREAT faith!"
That's exactly what we want people to say when they come into contact with us. We want Jesus to radiate through our family no matter what we face!

We met with the audiologist and she scheduled us for his ABR hearing test on the 25th of January. So, we ask that you begin praying now for the outcome of that test and that Bear sleeps for 3 hours during the test. It is making me nervous just thinking about it. If he doesn't sleep the entire time then the test can not be considered accurate and we would have to schedule another visit to try again. Ugh. Not fun.

Once Bear completes the test then Dr. Sipp will fit him for hearing aids. He will have to wear a head band with the hearing aids attached to it until he is 5. From there they will fit him with bone-conductive hearing aids.
The head band will have the bone-conductive hearing aids as well, it's just that when he gets old enough they will attach to his skull and he won't have to wear the head band any longer.
By the way, my husband can do a much better job describing all of this. As his momma, all I want to do is just give him my undivided attention and love on him ALL.THE.TIME. He deserves it.

Someone asked me if I was concerned about the expense of what may lie ahead. My answer? NOPE. Trey and I will do whatever it takes to see that Bear gets the best from this life. Now that I am a parent there is nothing that my child will lack esp. when it comes to his ability to hear and speak. I'm reminded that God will never give us more than we can handle and every time I look at my love bug's face...I believe it!

He is our angel baby and is beautiful in soooooooo many ways. We.Are.Blessed. PERIOD!
Every time you see this sweet little face please say a prayer for him. We are believing that God is going to do something great through Bear and that Bear will grow up with an amazing testimony!

Bear's 1st Christmas!

This Christmas brought on a whole new meaning to me and Trey. We obviously kept it real and informed Bear what the real meaning of Christmas is all about.

It was just the three of us Christmas morning. Our own schedule. Ummm....well, I should say, Bear's schedule! :)  And it was centered around two most precious gifts I have ever received-the birth of my Savior and the birth of my little miracle, my son! Who needed any presents when I already had all I needed?!?!

Before Bear ripped his presents open his daddy read the Christmas Story to all of us. It was beautiful to me! I know it will be the start of many memorable Christmas' to come!
Unfortunately, I'm not real sure how much Bear heard, he fell asleep shortly into the story. In his defense, I know he wasn't bored because he even fell asleep during the unveiling of his presents. Who does that?!?!? ;)

After we opened his presents it was about time for him to eat. So, Christmas was short lived....until we headed to Gigi & Poppa's!

Trey and I exchanged gifts long before Christmas. I gave him a new GPS & a Norelco shaver-both were super cheap & I never left my house to buy them!!!
Trey SURPRISED me this year (I'm not the surprising type)! During the laboring of our son, my sister-in-law had been taking pictures with her camera...not realizing that it wasn't her new one, she ended up giving us her old camera and Trey went and bought a lens for it. In MY defense, I would have realized it had I not been breathing in between contractions! ;) lol I also got a FlipMino-LOVE it! Once again, got to love deals on the internet a week before Christmas!
Anyways, it was great and I am loving using both of them. Pictures and videos are priceless and I can't wait till Bear can enjoy them!
I do need to get another lens to take close up pictures. It's driving me crazy that I can't get close up's of my "love bug!"
Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!

There's nothing sweeter than my 2 boys!

Daddy Bear (with Bear's hat that his "Mo" gave to him) and Baby Bear about to read the Christmas Story!

Mak and Tripp lovin' on their cousin!

3 generations of Sheneman men!

For the record, I am his mom regardless of there not being any pictures of us. :( I will definitely makeup for that...

Christmas at Gigi and Poppa's was GREAT! Gigi and Poppa got him lots of clothes and toys!

Overall, it was a blessed day! I only hope next Christmas my family will be able to enjoy what we enjoyed this Christmas!

In His Great Love,
Jenni