Wow it has been 17 days since our last post. I have to say it’s been some of the busiest days of my life this June. But that only means I have so much to tell you all!

Let’s start with the most important, and I’m sure what most of you are wanting to hear about – Kylah’s hemangioma (we will call it “birth mark” from now on). As a bit of a side-story, Laura and Kylah went down to the city today to welcome Laura’s sister Steph back from her 6 month missions project with YWAM Maui (more on that some other time). We hadn’t heard from Sick Kids hospital for some time (refresher: Laura had been speaking with a nurse there who was working in our interest to get Kylah in ASAP to see the opthomologist and dermatologists on the same day)… so Laura called in and it turns out they were trying to get a hold of us on LAURA’S cell phone (no idea why) and they wanted her in TODAY!! So they went down, completely missed Steph at the airport (Steve, Sarah & Abbey and the Peneycads were there though), and Kylah was able to see all the doctors she needed this afternoon! What an amazing answer to prayer! The diagnosis: it is not affecting her vision AT ALL, it is WAAAAY smaller than most of the other kids that were in there (on the phone Laura said to me, “You have no idea!!”… in Laura-speak this means some kids had gigantic birthmarks – pray for these families too!), and she is booked for a follow-up end of July. They have also ordered an MRI just in case, but there is every possibility that the doctor will cancel it after next month’s follow-up visit. At this point they are not going to do anything with it, so no steroids for Kylah… which is good for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that she is SO STRONG already!! haha just kidding

Wow so thank you all so much for all your support. Please keep praying because if it is not treated (which would actually be preferable in a way), it could take years for it to disappear. The great news is she is still so healthy and smiley all the time! She was apparently smiling like mad at all the doctors today. So cute!

I might as well continue on this major update then we can get back to regular smaller updates which are much better, don’t you agree? I’ll summarize and if you want to hear more detail then you’ll have to leave a comment

a) As of June 21 we have moved up to Muskoka Woods for the summer! They put us in this amazing mobile home (we live in a Trailer Park … so funny!). It is so nice – I’ll post some pictures of it soon.

b) I finally got my laptop back just before moving up here to Muskoka Woods for the summer.

c) “C” is for CARSTEN!! My long-lost brother from Germany and I have been emailing back and forth! Check out his blog (link is on the right). Carsten was an exchange student that Bree (Brianne) had back in high school. Congratulations to Carsten and Maria (his beautiful wife!) on their first wedding anniversary!!
d) The reason we haven’t posted earlier is because this is the first day I have had internet here at the trailer. Just set that up today with a little help from my friend Taylor.

e) Laura has some news about her hair. I won’t say more because she’ll probably kill me and will want to write a post of her own.

e) Laura has been doing very well here toting Kylah around. The location of the trailer is much further away from everything than we are used to, so this means two things: 1) we are getting our exercise, and 2) it’s harder to ‘hang out’ with everyone especially when you’ve got baby in tow… schedule and all.

f) Kylah now has a North Grandma (Cathy), and at least 300 babysitters (summer staff). I think this has something to do with her cuteness, and her mastery of the Bumbo.
g) Funny story. .. Laura was joking about this summer being in a trailer and becoming “trailer trash”, saying that we were going to get a couple broken down cars for our front lawn, lawn chairs, john deere baseball hats, and a tire garden… so Noonie (Grandma Liz) on Saturday night came home and saw the neighbours were throwing out their tire swing, so she brought it up with some flowers… Laura got her tire garden

h) Grampy (Grandpa Steve) took cousin Abbey Wakeboarding! Video to come…

i) And Chris Evans is looking amazing. Last check he had dropped something like 30 lbs!!!

Well I think that’s all for now. Thank you for reading the lengthy update, and I’ll leave you with a photo album for June! So much happened, so these will just be highlight photos. Thank you again for all your prayers for Kylah – God is certainly listening!

Hello again!!

I just first want to say a big huge thank you to all of you who are a constant support to us as a family. It’s sometimes overwhelming to think of how much you love us all… especially Kylah.

We had Kylah’s appointment this morning with the pediatrician from Sick Kids. It went really well! She’s pretty sure that it’s a vascular birthmark (known as a hemangioma). She told us that she wouldn’t be concerned at all if the mark was somewhere else on Kylah’s body (like her leg) but because it’s by her eye she wants to follow it closer. She decided to take on the “case” herself down at her clinic at Sick Kids and then get the pediatric opthamologist involved as well. This will probably happen in about 3-4 weeks, we just have to wait to hear from her secretary. She’s just a bit concerned that it might be affecting the development of Kylah’s eye which if not caught in time could leave permanent damage. If caught, they would likely perscribe Cortisone (a sterioid) to speed up the healing process. She also told us that there’s a possibility that they may need to do an MRI to see how deep this hemangioma goes. Josh and I are hoping that they do so we know for sure what’s going on and if it really is affecting her little eye. We asked how long this hemangioma could last and we were told that it often gets larger, plateaus and then eventually goes away. That process could last 10 years… some go away earlier than that.
Josh and I both left the appointment feeling very positive. God has certainly placed us in the best care there is so far and we have no doubt in our minds that He’ll continue to do so.

Please continue to pray for our family… again, we so appreciate all your support and care.

Love and hugs.

p.s. Sorry we haven’t put up pictures recently! Josh’s computer is in the shop once again and this computer I’m on is way too slow and annoying to even attempt putting pictures on it. We’ll add some as soon as we can!!!

Hi Everyone…This is Laura.

I just wanted to quickly ask for a favour from all of you faithful Lake website followers. Over the past couple of weeks, Josh and I have been watching this little bruise on Kylah’s nose. We thought at first that it might be a blackfly bite or something since we first noticed it on the May long weekend when we went up to Joy Bible Camp. I didn’t want to be the freaked out new mother who brings her baby in for the smallest things so I decided to wait it out to see if it would go away on its own. Well, it hasn’t… it’s actually even more swollen. So, today we went to the doctor. We had an appointment for tomorrow (Tuesday) for her first immunization shots but I was able to get one for today. I didn’t want to hold off another day in case it was some kind of infection that needed immediate attention. Dr. Sonshine (yes, that’s her real name) wasn’t sure what it is so she referred me to go see the pediatrician in the same building. After poor Kylah got her shots, we left with her wailing. The pediatrician brought us straight into his office. After asking be a bunch of questions and looking at it for a while, he decided that it could possibly be two things. 1. A blocked tear duct or 2. a vascular birthmark (go to www.birthmark.org). At this point, he still really doesn’t know so he wants a second opinion. It just so happens that a pediatrician from Sick Kids works out of his office a couple times a month. They did everything they could to squeeze us in on Friday for her to look at Kylah. I’m not sure what will come of this appointment but I sure hope that everything will be ok.

So… please pray for us… pray for Kylah’s little eye… I am very worried but trying to take things by stride. This kid thing is hard!!!!

Love to you all

Yesterday was an eventful day. We were supposed to have some friends over for dinner but they called in sick (get better man!) so we were able to go over to Laura’s Aunt Mary’s 40th birthday party. It was there that Laura caught on tape for you, the most amazing martial arts moves you will ever see. Performed by cousin Josh Masson… he sure lets the walls have it! (and at one point I think the wall hits back ):

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After that we were on our way home and Laura decided, hey! – let’s go visit Noonie! So up to Uxbridge we went. Turns out mom had a tonne of photos she found so we got to looking at old albums all night. I took these shots of the photos – about 100 in all, but there are some good ones of me as a baby and toddler, also mixed in with some random other photos. Enjoy!

Baby Bree & Josh