We decided to have a little fun with Reece and Marisa today. They really have been very flexible this past week. They have been tired but have not complained about having to take Iliana every day to therapy, or as Marisa says "perapy". We took them to a local park. We had a picnic and then rented a bike. After that we took them to the playground. They should sleep very well tonight.

I stopped giving Iliana the 3rd seizure medicine yesterday to see how she did this weekend without it. She has had several seizures today so we will begin giving it to her again tonight.

Please pray for all of us. This week has been exhausting on every level, but we know that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.

There is a chorus I learned many years ago and it says:

God is going to finish just what He started

Even though the waters have got to be parted

Lift up your head and don't be brokenhearted

God is going to finish what He started in you

These are pictures from Friday's session:

We're on our way.

She not only has to lift herself up on the ball now, but reach out for an object. She just continues to improve.

I think I can, I think I can...

These crunches are a piece of cake.

Iliana is in a swing here. While she is swinging, Lauren holds her head in position. When they stop, it's Iliana's turn to pick up her head.

This is basically the same exercise, except she is facing down.

I'm SUPERGIRL!

She is in a crawling position here. Both Lauren and Nancy are helping her with her form and trying to keep her in the same position. She held her head up here in the same position for a long time. It was a proud moment.

I love this picture!! She looks so happy.

This exercise helps her to go from laying down to sitting up.

Daddy made her work on her sitting in between exercises.

It's been a long week...

I didn't get a chance to update her blog yesterday. So the next set of pictures are of Thursday's session .

Nancy is helping Iliana get warmed up and get moving.

Help!!!

She really fights during this exercise, but she finally gets it done.

She is in the spider cage here. I gave her the pacifier to try and distract her from how difficult this was.

She is fighting so hard to get out of this position. I held her hands at one point and she was pulling her hands so hard that I thought I was going to hurt her.

Taking a rest before continuing.

You can see she isn't too thrilled about standing in the spider cage with the ball, but she goes along with it and gives it a good try .

This is the same exercise without the ball, she's such a trooper.

Thursday and Friday went well. I believe she is finally getting used to the schedule and is understanding what they need her to do during some of the exercises. The seizures continue to be under control and she is eating well and keeping it down. Dwight and I have said several times, how quickly she has adjusted to the therapy schedule. We are looking forward to next week. I am not going to have the same internet access as I have had this week, but I will do my best to update as often as possible. As always, thank you for praying. Please pray that she will stay healthy and that she will get stronger.

I have included a lot of pictures in today's entry, but I wanted everyone to see what it is that Iliana is doing for 4 hours. I hope you will enjoy them.

This is the beginning of our day at Therapies4Kids. We usually take her in her pj's and change her into a onesie. Here I am giving her some medicine so that she can start her workout. You can see Dawn in this picture, she is ready to begin. Marisa's head is at the bottom of the picture. She loves to be around her sister at all times and is her biggest cheerleader.

This is a sit up, frame by frame. Dawn has a towel across her, just in case Iliana decides to spit up. Anyone that has spent time with Iliana can understand why a towel instead of a burpee cloth.

Remember the ball? She has to roll from side to side on it, working her core. I won't say that she was happy to do it, but she was certainly willing to without complaining. She must have found out that I posted that picture from yesterday's session.

She is in a crawling position here. The point of this exercise is for her to bear weight through her knees and arms while keeping her head from going back. In this picture, her form is perfect!

She is in the same crawling position as she was above. However, in this picture you can see she is tired of holding her head up so she drops it down. After trying to stimulate her to pick it back up, we had to use the cold gel packs (the pink item by her head). This worked and she finally brought it back up.

In this picture, she is bearing weight through her arms. Going from one arm to the other. She doesn't seem to mind this too much.

She is doing her squats here. Her lower body is pretty strong. She was able to do some of these with little help.

Iliana is in a crawling position in this picture. She is learning to bear weight through her arms and knees while trying to keep her head in a neutral position.

This is the belt that is used on the "spider" cage in the previous pictures. You can see that the belt needed some fine tuning in order to have it fit her. Dawn had to fold a towel and then wrap it around her waist. Otherwise, the belt wouldn't fit.

She is doing her bench press exercises here.

She has 1/2 lb weights on each arm. Dawn and I are giving her support by holding her hand to the bar. This exercise is being done at the end of the 4 hour therapy session. You can see how alert she is and she was still able to give us some pushes. Every 1 out of 3 times she would actually lift this herself.

In this picture Iliana is doing sit ups. She goes from laying down on the ball to being face to face with me. My hands are behind her neck in order to give her head some support should she need it, but she was able to do a few of these by herself. By the way, just yesterday she was needing support all the way through the sit up.

Iliana was able to work out for the entire 4 hour session. She also only took a break at 10am. She amazes me each and every day. Dawn mentioned today that she is a tough little girl. Although some of these exercises may appear simple, because she is so weak, even lifting her head is a challenge. So to do 4 hours of exercising is HUGE. We know she is being covered daily in prayer, thank you. It was even mentioned today that we could possibly start working on some crawling exercises next week. We can't wait!

It was a long day...

These are the splints that you saw on her legs in yesterdays pictures.

Help me daddy!!

Did I mention she doesn't like the ball?

Here she is trying to lift her head without arching her back.

In this exercise, her head is hanging off of a wedge, better seen in the next picture, and she is to try to raise her head and bring it forward. We couldn't seem to get her motivated to lift her head, she was quite happy just letting it hang, until we broke out the bottle. It was the perfect motivating tool.

This was the first exercise. Dawn is trying to instruct Iliana on how she wants her to lift her head.

Iliana was so tired from yesterday that she slept all the way to therapy. It takes us a little more than an hour a day. Praise the Lord, she didn't spit up the way she did yesterday and her seizures seem to be under control for the time being.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers fo the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"

This is the verse that came to my mind as I began to think about yesterday's challenges. I started to think about how Iliana is fighting not only a physical battle but a spiritual one. Dwight and I became even more aware of how it is up to us to fight this battle for her. We believe that yesterday's events, the spitting up and the seizures, was something that the enemy wanted to use to dishearten us. However, in all things, we choose to praise him, good or bad.

Iliana was only able to work for 3 1/2 hours today instead of 4. She was so tired that we couldn't do anything to wake her up today when she fell asleep during therapy.

Thank you so much for loving her and lifting her up in prayer.

This is at the end of the 4 hours. You can see she is not too happy.

Iliana is so small that the braces around her legs are normally used for the arms.

This piece of equipment, the ball, is her least favorite, but she didn't seem to mind too much today.

Lauren placed what I can only explain as huge bean bag pillows on both arms and one leg in order to have Iliana concentrate on moving one leg at a time. Each of these "pillows" weighs 10 lbs. However, most of it is not on top of her. She did these exercises well.

The yellow outfit she has on above is the TheraSuit that is mentioned throughout the Therapies4kids website. I had been told she would be too little for it, but it seems they wanted to give it a try.

Iliana received 4 hours of therapy today. We honestly expected her to tolerate an hour, maybe two if we were lucky. But she allowed them to work with her for most of the time. They normally give each child a 15 minute break after 2 hours, but since she is a "featherweight", they have allowed her smaller breaks, more frequently.

Please pray for her health. She has been having seizures today. We have begun a 3rd medicine which I pray will help her rest well tonight and take care of any seizures tomorrow. Also, she has not been able to keep down much of her food today. Partly due to the seizures, but also from being congested from a cold. It is so important the she be able to eat well, more so now that she is "working out" 4 hours a day.

Reece and Marisa also tolerated the 4 hour session well. They are very happy to see their sister exercising and were always peeking in the room to make sure she was ok.

We have waited for this opportunity and this day for some time. Today has been a long day, but we look forward to what God has in store for us tomorrow.