Greene Turtle Fundraiser

Dear friends,

As many of you are aware, the Lowe family has been going through quite a trial over the last few years, and more specifically the last few months. Matt had recent surgery to remove a brain tumor, but is still dealing with the effects. With medical costs adding up, we are seeking to do all we can to help them out with medical bills. Matt and Helen have 5 wonderful children, and are expecting their 6th child in late November.

This coming Monday, October 27th, friends of the Lowes will be hosting a fundraiser in their honor at the Greene Turtle Restaurant in Columbia, MD. The Greene Turtle will be giving 10% of the all the proceeds for the entire day back to Matt and Helen. So simply coming in and having lunch or dinner will help in the fundraiser. In addition, we will be having a raffle throughout the day to raise more money for them. The gifts range from restaurant gift cards, a framed redskins jersey, golf packages, Wii bundle package and photography packages. If this sounds familiar, it is because this is exactly what my brother and his wife did for Jen and I!

The location of the Columbia Greene Turtle is 8872 McGaw Road, Columbia, MD 21045. The Greene Turtle has a large restaurant area that is family friendly, so feel free to bring the family. Matt and Helen will be there for most of the day, as will Jen and I, and I know they would love to see you all there!

Another ER trip

This time it was not Sarah....Caleb was playing in the playhouse in the basement and fell and hit his head on the wall. It was obvious pretty quickly that we needed to go to the ER. So, off I went to the peds ER at Montgomery General. Once again they were great. I think I was only gone at most an hour and a half total. Amazing!! Caleb blew me away. He was sooo brave. I was so proud of my big boy. He only cried during the three staples and just buried his head in his blue sheet. He cried for a bit after, and then was charming everyone in the place!

Better late than never

Well, with all that's been going on around here I am VERY far behind on the blogging. I was midway through vacation when things got crazy with Sarah. I'm going to make an attempt to get caught up with that, and then all the other happenings around here. 
Day 3 of our vacation was wonderful. It started with a boat ride from a man in the community that took us fishing and sightseeing on his private boat. Almost all of us had a great time. I'm sure you can tell who wasn't so sure about this whole experience!


Caleb's fish

Alethea's fish...we finally got her to stand up and try a little fishing

sweet girlie

the whole crew


everyone got a chance to drive the boat

all tired out

Our day ended with a wonderful cookout with all the other Believe in Tomorrow families that were there that week. The volunteers provided such a wonderful evening. Great food and drinks, make your own sundaes for dessert, a clown, and arts and crafts. The night ended with a photo shoot of each family on the beach. I will post a picture of that when I get them.

arts and crafts

strawberry daiquiri's!

a new friend

fun with the clown

learning from a professional

beautiful!

Sarah

Sarah has been having some difficulty lately keeping her shakiness under control. It is most likely the result of her brief battle with the flu a couple weeks ago (that landed us in the hospital). We knew that any virus is a big deal for Sarah, and brings with it the potential for the OMA symptoms to come back more acutely. Our doctor is concerned about this, and is responding by increasing her steroid dosage for 1 week with an attempt to "knock out the bad immune system "clone" that is cross-reacting with her brain" (our doctor's words...not ours!).
So, we increased her steroids and are praying that her OMA symptoms start to dissipate. Yesterday, our good friend Kenneth Maresco initiated prayer for Sarah in our weekly pastor's prayer meeting. It made me freshly grateful to God for the gift of prayer and how that helps us know his nearness, and made me grateful for friends who hold my little girl up in prayer.

Here are some more pictures of Sarah!



I love this picture for many reasons. I took it with my phone while holding Sarah. This was taken in Shady Grove Hospital just minutes before the doctor came into our hospital room to give us the worst news any parent could hear ("the MRI shows that your daughter has a tumor"). So much is captured in this picture. We had no idea of how much our life was going to change just minutes later. We were all hanging out that morning, expecting to go home and resume life, not knowing that just a couple hours later, we'd be sitting at Johns Hopkins Hospital getting briefed on Sarah's surgery and treatment plans. At the point this picture was taken, we were completely unaware that this day was going to be one of the most difficult days of our lives.


Pictures of Sarah's 2nd birthday. Her love for ice cream hasn't subsided!


Beach picture from last month!

Pictures of Sarah

These pictures were taken at a cookout on our vacation. This was the vacation given to us by a wonderful organization called Believe in Tomorrow! They had a cookout in the honor of all the families with kids with cancer. They were amazing!