Almost ready to go!

The countdown is on! Departure date is November 2nd. I am trying to get last minute details taken care of, but so far we have been so blessed. We have found a children's minister at a local Church of Christ who has offered us a place to stay, and has also offered us the use of his second car.!! I am overwhelmed by the love that people have inside. That takes so much of a load off of us, and makes our financial goal much more attainable. We are very grateful to this family. It finally feels a bit more real. I always knew this day would come, but now its in sight, and tickets are bought, lodging is secure, and now all we are doing is waiting. I have plenty to do between now and then though. I have booked some work for each week, and I have two birthdays to take care of before we go. Karessa turns 7 on October 24th and Makinna turns 3 the day we leave. I am deciding how and when to have their combined birthdays. I wanted to have a little get together "thank you/birthday" right before we leave, but I'm not sure I can do it so close to the date. Maybe keeping busy will keep my mind from the long airplane ride. It will be the longest I have ever flown. I am quite claustrophobic, and the idea of being stuck in something that could spontaneously combust for no good reason, in midair, at 25,000 ft, makes me a bit nervous. I think I will need a large sedative.

Anyway, everyone has been doing well, and just getting ready for fall to hurry its self up and relieve us from this heat! I hope everything is great for all our friends and family out there. Please keep the approaching date in your prayers. I will need all I can get to make it through the "getting there" part! The rest sounds easy after that. But you can pray for it all! :)

Makinna saw Karessa posing for a photo and decided she wanted in on the action. She kept shifting back and forth like a little model, she even gave us her serious face!.. They were too cute not to share!

Sweet Sounds for Makinna

Makinna's Benefit Dinner and Concert was incredible. We had a great time listening to great music and eating wonderful food. There were over 300 guests at one time. Thank you to everyone who made food, or helped out in some way. We are very moved by the love and care we have been shown by our friends, family, and community. The Lakeland Ledger wrote an article about Makinna in last Saturday's paper. It was very nicely written and helped bring awareness to our Lakeland area. Below are a few pictures from Saturday's event. Thank you all again, you will never know how much your support and prayers have meant to our family. I know that one day when Makinna is older, she will feel the same way.



A big thanks to Kayla and my mom for making Makinna's board.

The Plunger's did an amazing job and many thanks to them for donating their time and talents.

All the guests in line for dinner.

It really looked great and sounded even better!

CMD performing. Everyone wanted more! The kids really got into it.

Mommy and Makinna

Thank again for all the prayers and support. We had a great time and we are very close to our goal. The surgeries feel real now, and we are less then 2 months from our departure date. Now all I have to do is get past my extreme aversion to flying. :)

Makinna's Benefit Concert and Dinner...

Benefit Concert and Dinner!

Makinna's benefit concert and dinner is scheduled for Saturday, August 29th. It will be held at Highlands Church of Christ in Lakeland Florida. For directions or questions you can call the church at 863-646-6228. Doors will open at 5:30pm and dinner starts at 6:00pm. CMD will be preforming as well as The Plungers. Dinner is provided and the event is free, but donations will be appreciated and accepted throughout the event. It will be a lot of fun, and I am so grateful to all the people donating their time and efforts to pull this off. For information on Makinna, or for a chance to see how you can help, you can visit www.helpmakinna.com Please invite your friends and family to the concert. I think it will be an incredible night!

Some New Pics!!

Well, it has been busy in the Sherwood house! We have swam, and visited family, and swam some more. Makinna loves the water, she is a fish. She keeps asking if we are going to the pool today. We got to visit the beach before Dakota left for the summer. Makinna just wanted to stand in the ocean the whole time, she wanted to be lifted up from the waves, so we got quite tired of lifting her, but she loved it so much we couldn't resist! There are also some pics from the visit to my moms house, and 4th of July. I will be posting information about the fundraising concert soon. Save the date if you can, it will be August 29th.



July 4th fashion show.


The girls used about a bottle of bubbles..



Aww, I love my sissy or "KiKi" as she says.

Our trip to the beach on Sand Key. Makinna loved the water. It really was beautiful that day!

Our family, poor Dakota had sunscreen in his eyes the whole time. It was my fault by accident. I felt really bad.

This is Logan, Makinna's betrothed future husband. I love the look he's giving..

"Honey, just ask for directions already, we are so late!"

The Results are In!!

Hey everyone,

Praise God, for He is so good!! The scoring system for the cat scan is on a 1-10 scale. Makinna scored a 9!! The only thing she lost a point for, was the outside malformation. They said that her situation was as perfect as it could be considering. They said that they have only had one surgery that was unsuccessful who had scored a 9. It will give her the highest level of possible hearing that he can provide. They said it will never be as high as her normal ear, but it would be as close as he was capable of getting it. We were so happy, yet not too surprised. I felt in my heart that it would be good news. I have always believed that she could hear at least sounds on that side. I would whisper in her ear, and she would seem to know I was saying something.

New news, the surgery date was put in wrong, so it is now November 5th instead of the 9th. That actually makes the stay shorter anyway.

Thank you all so much for the prayers about this test. Obviously prayer is powerful. We would have been thrilled with an acceptable score, but this exceeds all hopes and expectation.

Awesome Web Page!!

Thanks to Auntie Jessica,(my lifelong bf & cousin), courtesy all the way from England, We have a professionally designed web page for Makinna! We are going to keep blogging for the up to date information, but this page is incredible. Jessica is an artistic wonder. She put her whole weekend and some of her week into making this incredible gift for Makinna. Our family is so grateful, and I just wish so badly that I could jump on a plane and give her a huge hug. Please check it out, on the web at,

http://www.helpmakinna.com/

You will see just how much effort and love went into the page. We love you Jess, you are truly one of a kind!!

The results are.........LOST! Yes, I said lost. The office either lost them (of course, they say that's not the case) or the post office lost it. Long story short, we had to express mail it so that her results could be to us before the Dr. is out of the office again. I am positive that they are good results, it would just be nice to hear that from someone with actual medical skill, rather than an overly optimistic mommy!

Surgery #2 has an official date now, it is February 2nd, 2010. That will be the outside, and brace your selves, the surgeon called me personally! I know, I almost asked her to give me her medical license number so that I could confirm that an incredibly well known, and busy surgeon called me without me asking, to discuss a surgery that is months away, and if that wasn't enough, she emailed me complete instructions on pre/post opt, and success pictures, and theres more!, she gave me her personal cell phone number and said if it was better for me, we could talk on the weekend!!! I know, and shes from California. I almost died. The great news, she confirmed for me that there isn't another person I would let do her surgery. She was humble and kind and understanding. She told me that we have to choose which skin graft site we would use, between the head and the inside of her arm. There will be a long scar on the inside of her arm, and it will never go away. The down side to the scalp is that there may not be enough good skin, in which case, they take it from the arm anyway. The arm has far less return rate then the split graft in the scalp. The scalp, when perfect, is beautiful she said, but it has a 25% revision rate because of the thinness of the skin. So we have to really pray. She cant choose, and I don't want her to be upset that she has a large scar, yet, i want the best for her ear. I guess life is a trade off sometimes. Thankfully we have until Feb 1st to decide. She said we would make the final choice in office together. Down side to this surgery, its minimum of 8 hours long!! Someone please sedate me too!! I could use a good sleep. Well, anyway, thanks for the support in reading, and praying. I have beach pictures to come. Makinna loved the beach, the water was her favorite. She wanted to stand in the shallow water and just be lifted up when the waves came to smack her, which was about every 3.5 seconds. I think we got an arm workout for sure!

I will post results next week!

New pics, and no results :(

Well, we took a few new pictures of Makinna for some stuff coming up, and they were so cute, I couldnt help but share. Hope you enjoy. Also, our test result is in, its just not in to us, its sitting on someone's cluttered desk, someone who hasnt waiting 2 1/2 years to see the inside of their babies head! :) I guess they are overwhelmed with work, and no one really knew who had Makinna's scan, so they are in the procecss of asking Dr. Roberson if he has indeed seen it, and if he has scored it as of yet. All of that to say this, Im supposed to hear for sure on Monday! Pray they are as good as we hope! We have lots of stuff in the planning stage and in the works for Makinna right now, so check back when you can to see whats going on next.

Mommy, Daddy and Makinna. My mom took this, and if you had grown up with her you would laugh right now, because even though my husband is not vertically overbearing to say the least, she still cut off half of his head. That was the best we got. Some were missing eyes!

Once again, you can be sure my mom took this. She comes up with great little shots, but then whacks the head! still too cute to keep to myself!

Makinna getting to enjoy the swings for the first time at a new park. She really liked it.

This was my favorite! She was hushing us because she saw birdies. It was so sweet!