We came home today. What a relief! Thank you for your prayers. Although it was disappointing to have her be in the hospital for a week, it had been 5 months since her last hospitalization. I was talking to my friend Michelle today and we were discussing how sometimes things seem so bad, but if you start naming your blessings and thanking God for them, then all of a sudden you go from feeling sorry for yourself to recognizing just how blessed you are. Now, we just need to work on breaking that 5 month record!

I promise I will post some pictures this coming week. Hopefully, this week of laying on her back will not have had a big effect on her therapy. We'll see...

Although most people already know, Iliana is in the hospital. I took her to the ER late

Saturday night because she was having a hard time breathing. It

turns out she had Pneumonia. She was working very hard to breath and

was put on a respirator. She was transferred out of the ICU last night to

the regular floor so I hope to get the green light to come home today, we'll see.

Please continue to pray that she will get better so that she can continue taking steps forward.

I hope to update her blog soon with some pictures of her exercising at home.

These are the therapists with all of our children.

From left to right: Nancy, Dawn & Lauren

I believe that the therapy was an even bigger success because of these three ladies. They too were a blessing from God and we could see the passion that they have for the work that they do.

Thank you to all of you for your friendship and encouragement these last three weeks. We enjoyed getting to know each of you. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

-The Wilkins family

These pictures are from our last session on Friday

Iliana was laid back most of the time.

This is the only exercise we could get her to participate on.

These are pictures from Thursday

Look how strong she is.

Finally, making peace with the ball & giving it a big hug.

She's come a long way.

She was pushing up with her legs here, trying to stand up.

On Friday, Lauren went over the at home program with me for Iliana. Basically, we went over the exercises that I could do at home with her to help her continue to get strong. It's as though she knew it was her last day and she wasn't willing to do anything. The only exercise we were able to get her to do was to sit. It was a little discouraging, I wanted to get a feel for how the exercises were done correctly, but there was nothing we could do to motivate her.

Thank you for all of your prayers during these past weeks and months as we were making preparations to come to S. Florida for therapy. I believe that if you look at some of the first pictures posted and compare them to the final ones, you will see how much stronger she is now. Please continue to pray for us as we try to raise the money to return for therapy. We will try to give updates of her progress as they happen.

It is late Thursday night. I am not able to sleep so I thought I would just write tonight. These last three weeks have been incredible. Today, Iliana used her legs to initiate standing up. She couldn't stay up of course, but she showed that she wants to. It makes me cry to think of how far God has brought her. I wasn't sure what to expect after 3 weeks of therapy. I think I just didn't want to expect too much and be disappointed. I can't possibly explain the excitement, and even relief that I feel when I see her do something that in

the past almost seemed impossible.

With God all things are possible.

I've heard that said so much. But the greatest thing about it is that not only are the big things possible, but He cares about the little things just as much. What a loving God we serve.

I used to think to myself, "why did Iliana have to be this way, why her". But why not her? All I can say now is what an honor. I'm honored that God chose her and I'm honored that he has allowed me to take a small part and witness His loving and miraculous work first hand. The great thing about it is that it doesn't stop here. His hand is at work all around,

not just in Iliana's life.

Our last day is tomorrow. We will leave for Jacksonville following her therapy. Please pray for our safe return. We will see all of you soon.

I couldn't download the pictures, so I will post both Thursday and Friday's pictures this weekend.

Nancy is helping Iliana with some arm exercises.

Standing in the spider and supporting her weight on the bench.

Trying to decide between two of her favorite toys.

I'm still standing.

Nancy is helping Iliana do her final exercise of the day.

I wrote many days ago how I felt that we were on the brink of seeing God's power manifested before our very eyes. I can say that we have seen it more than once. Just take a look at the picture above. She couldn't do this before. Her upper body strength has improved tremendously allowing her to be in a crawling position for some time before collapsing. She is strong only because of what the Lord is doing in her life. We have two more days left. Please pray that we will be able to finish the therapy strong and that Iliana will continue to make progress at home.

Iliana in the spider cage. She stood for 20 minutes!

Still in the spider cage. Did I mention 20 minutes?

More spider action, but this time in a crawling position. You can see there

are no hands helping her. It's just her and the spider.

I put this picture in here because Dwight and I keep telling people how much she has changed. What do you think?

This is during her walking exercise. Iliana is not being supported by me at all. If you look closely, you can see she is holding on to me. Lauren is helping to keep her from falling down. She is the closest that she has been to standing in this picture.

This is at the end of the day. Normally, Iliana is able to sit holding herself up with both arms. The interesting thing about this exercise today is that she shifted her weight to her left arm and picked up her right arm to play with the ball. It may sound silly to some, but I was so excited that it brought me to tears.

Today has been a rewarding day because I was able to see her do some things she wasn't able to before. Iliana worked very hard yesterday. She did a lot of upper body strengthening exercises. I wasn't sure what she would be able to give us today. About an hour into the session today she got very mad. Normally Iliana has a quiet cry, a lot of people can't even tell she's crying. Today, however, there was no denying she was mad. She used it to her advantage to help her with some tough moves on the ball. Later on she did some leg lifts in the "cage". (It's not as bad as it sounds) There is a noticable change in how she is doing the leg lifts now compared to when she did them her first day. Later on she went to the spider and stood for 20 minutes!! AMAZING!! After all of that hard work she had to take about a 10 minute nap. When she woke up she kept on working. She did some crawling and walking exercises, and then finally some sitting. Today was another physically tough day for her. She continues to be seizure free and eating really well.

There is another little boy, Garrett, that is doing the intensive therapy treatments. He is 2 and began the same day as Iliana. I was able to see his first unassisted steps today. It was such a joy and a blessing for me to see him. It was such an encouragement that I thought, one day, we too will celebrate Iliana's first steps.

My baby girl. Looking good, right?

Dwight is trying to keep Iliana entertained so that she can maintain this position longer.

She looks like Popeye here with the arm weights.

We are down to the final stretch this week. Only four more days. Iliana continues to be in good health. I took her off of the third seizure medication last Friday. I was concerned that her body could become dependant on the medicine. She had a couple of seizures over the weekend, but I still felt that she should go without it. She has had no seizures thus far today and worked hard for 4 hours this morning. Another answer to our prayers. We are looking forward to being home this weekend and can't wait for everyone to see Iliana and what God has done.

As promised, here are some pictures from Friday...

Working on those biceps.

Time for a break and for a refill.

She is standing behind this small bench supporting her weight through

her arms with the help of the spider.

These are a few pictures from Thursdays therapy session.

I love this picture.

It shows how far she has come in just 9 days.

Taking a stroll around the room.

Lauren and I are helping her with a crawling exercise. You can see by the look on her face that she wasn't too interested.

This is at the end of the session. You can see how tired she is.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and there are three above that capture everything I would like to say about her success with this therapy. I'm so anxious to see what next week's pictures will look like. We are at the Ronald McDonald house this week so I should be able to give updates daily. This is the part of the trip where the newness and the fun of being away begins to wear off. Reece has asked to go home more than once. We all miss being home with our family and friends. God must have known we would need to see some familiar faces this week because on Monday my family came down for a surprise visit. They were able to see Iliana during a portion of her therapy session. Even my brother was here. On Friday, we were able to spend time with Jeff and Erica Pruett and their children. It worked out that they would be in South Florida during our 3 week stay, it was a fun time for all of us. Iliana is making what might appear to most as some small strides, but she is gaining strength daily. I know this is becoming redundant, but we are so blessed to be here and to have found this therapy for her. Our prayer is that we will be able to return for a second therapy session within 3 to 4 months. We feel that this will give us enough time with her at home to help her gain strength before returning. Donations have already been made directly to Therapies4Kids for her second trip. If you or anyone that you know would like to help us, you can do so by making a donation either to Hillcrest Baptist Church or Therapies4Kids. I wasn't able to post pictures from Friday's session. I will try to do so in the future.

I've included a couple of pictures from the last three sessions. You can begin to see some great changes in these pictures from last week's pictures.

This is today's session:

How's my hair?

Do we have to keep working?

She is doing a walking exercise here. I am supporting her upper body while Lauren helps Iliana to walk.

This is her session from Tuesday:

You can see the improvements she has made in this picture. She is doing this with no help from Lauren or Nancy. What a difference a week makes!

You can see her eye contact is improving.

These are pictures from Monday's session

She is enjoying her thumb.

WEEEE!!

She has been working more with the TheraSuit this week.

God has continued to bless us and answer our prayers. Iliana had a bad day on Sunday. She had many seizures and started running a fever that evening. It seemed as though she was not going to be able to have her therapy session on Monday. I asked Dwight if he thought we should take her and his response was "Absolutely. God did not work it out for us to be here for her to get sick and not be able to go. This is not God's will for her". With that said, we prayed for her not hoping that she would be ok, but believing that God would allow her to go to therapy and participate. Monday turned out to be a great day. Dawn worked with her that day and said that she worked hard. Tuesday and Wednesday were also good days. We are beginning to see some great improvements in Iliana. God has been good to us.

I hope to update this again over the weekend. Thank you for the comments that have been left. They are an encouragement to us.