Help Needed!

Ok first off hello everyone, I still exist and I do still get on the blogs! haha. It has just been a while since I've had a chance to leave an entry. Micah used to be so busy with Gabi that I had to leave the entries and now this is an extra outlet for her, so thank you so much for continuing to read our blog and keep up with us and the families that we have gotten so close to.

So here is where we need your help.

We are still working on the legal issues with setting up "Gifts of Gabi's Grace." Imagine that...getting caught up in paperwork when lawyers are invovlved! (No offense Laurie) haha However, we can still accept money in the form of a donation to her memorial fund and then we can give people money in the form of a personal donation. Her is why I mention this. Gifts of Gabi's Grace is being built to help families that are having to sacrafice so much to take care of their kids in the hospitals. We want to introduce you to the families so when you donate money you can read about them and follow along with the families you are helping. So many of you that have already contributed can feel comforted that you have helped little Bella's family at http://isabellagudde.blogspot.com/ and now you've helped little Chelsea's family at http://cbranam.blogspot.com/. Another family that may need our help in the very near future would be Kaden's family at http://kadenboeckman.blogspot.com/.

A website has been set up at www.giftsofgabisgrace.org it is a little rough around the edges but operational. We have also just set up a paypal account to accept donations that way as well and will have a button on the website very soon. In the meantime go to the website and click on the link to contact us if you would like to make a donation. I know many of you have already donated but if we could just get everyone that logs on here to send $5 it would make a huge impact in the lives of families like Isabella, Chelsea's, Kaden's, and many many more. We do currently also have the ability to accept credit cards. So if there is anyway that you have something extra from $1 on up it will be put to good use to help these families that again have to sacrafice so much to take care of their children.

Us better than anyone know how things can get tighter than you would like and if you can't donate please donate a prayer. Hop on these families blogs and leave a comment to let them know you are praying for them.

If you have any questions leave us a comment or go to the website (www.giftsofgabisgrace.org) and contact us.

Love
Jason, Micah, Gracie, ANGEL GABI, and Belly Baby Acker

Prayers for Chelsea

Chelsea is a little girl we have become very attached to. She is who I refer to as exactly what my Gabi would have been like. Her birthday is 1 year and 2 days before our little angel. They never had the chance to play together, but in our hearts they will be life long friends. Her Mommy and Daddy, Carey and Ryan, was the first couple we met with a child that has T21. They spoke to us several times before Gabi's arrival and helped ease us of our fears. She has a big brother Logan who is such a caring little guy. Well Chelsea has had some issues with being extremely tired, falling down, bruising all over, and not eating very well. Carey noticed these changes in the last week especially. Today they had some blood work done and the diagnosis was Leukemia. This saddens me because this little girl and her wonderful parents do not deserve this. They are at Childrens Mercy tonight I haven't had the chance to speak with Carey, but we are working on that. They will be doing a bone marrow test tomorrow. Jason and I plan on visiting them first thing tomorrow morning. Let's just say we have not been to the hospital once since our incident, but Chelsea and her family mean that much to us that we will face our worse fears and see them. Please please add them to your prayer list and pray that God will take care of this precious little girl.

Carey keeps a blog on Chelsea as well, please visit the address for updates

http://cbranam.blogspot.com/

We love you guys, extra hugs, kisses and prayers! Gabi will be with you, she will protect Chels!!!

IT IS ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE!!!

God and Gabi knew what we needed in our lives! I have spoke to many of you, but I have not made the official announcement here. We have been blessed yet again, we are pregnant. We have known for 2 weeks, but wanted to wait to make the big announcement until I got the official word from the doctor. Well there is no need to wait, all the sign are there, not to mention the 3 positive pregnancy tests! My doctor appointment isn't until October 8th, I just couldn't wait any longer. I am guessing I am around 5 weeks, that is why the doctor wants me to wait to visit, they want me 8 weeks before I see them.

I cannot tell you how excited we are. With all the excitement there is much fear as well. I have told everyone that knows I do not fear down syndrome, I fear the heart defect. Although it is not genetically related I am still scared to death. Jason and I had been talking about getting pregnant, when would be a good time to start trying and like many other situations in our lives we did not have to make that choice, it was made for us! It's not like we were trying, but we were not trying to prevent it either!

We really don't care if it is a boy or girl, all we care about is the baby's health. I will tell you though life sure would be easy if it was a girl, we have so much stuff that has never been used. We already have a few names picked out, but I am sure those will change throughout the next 9 months. So please keep baby Acker in your prayers...thank you!

BUDDY WALK: Gabi's Grace

Saturday was our first Buddy Walk. We had a team of 27 participants...thank you soooo much for making our first year a year we will NEVER forget. We had a great time and it was so good to see those who were on our team, your support means so much to our family! Our team raised $1775, I was extremely impressed considering all I did was advertise on the blog and my
myspace page. We did decide that we want to do this every year. Gabi had such an impact on so many people and I want to continue to share her story and be a part of a community that we had only just been introduced to.

I work on the foundation a little everyday. We are kind of at a point that we can't do anymore till we figure out who we are going to umbrella under until we are able to turn it into a 501 C 3...which in plain english, we need money to start a 501 C 3, we do not want to use the foundation funds to get that going, so we are checking out our options. Although I am very proud to say that you all are the first, other than those who saw the banner on Saturday, to see our logo. It is the beautiful picture on the left of our banner. Gabi's Uncle Freddie designed the logo, we are so thankful he was able to be a part of such an important piece. Notice the cross through the middle of the butterfly, obviously the butterfly, and then the sunshine, after all she will always be our little sunshine! The only change is that the name Gifts of Gabi's Grace, will be stacked...using only one big G...make sense, if not it will be up on our website soon. Our web address is under construction, but you can still save the address, http://www.giftsofgabisgrace.org/
It is up now, but not much to it, we wanted to reserve the name before it was not available. Papi is working on the design, but he has been a little pre-occupied!


Thanks again for all of those who participated not only in the walk but for your generous donations. It was such an amazing day and Gabi shined!!!

Love to all!

221 Days with Pink and Squishy

And here we have model Chelsea with a stunning bracelet, white with embedded hot pink writing
GIFTS OF GABI'S GRACE

It came to my attention today that Gabi spent 221 days here on earth. Those 221 days were the absolute best days of my life. She gave life a new meaning and I will forever have my special angel in my heart. Even though her physical being is gone, her spirit lives on and I promise to share that joy of my angel everyday for as long as we are apart.

Tonight our dear friends Ryan, Carey, Logan, and Chelsea came over for dinner. At first Ryan came in with the kids we were thrilled to see them. Chelsea reached for me as soon as they walked in the door. My heart melts every time I see her. She is exactly what I picture my Gabi would have been like if given the chance. Chelsea is so full of life...I just love her to pieces. I do not want to forget about Logan. He is such a great little guy! He really enjoyed watching Spiderman 2, what little boy doesn't? And he really liked dessert:)

So Carey finally came in after sitting in the car for a bit...she had a basket of goodies for me...sorry Jason this stuff was for me:) She and my T21 online group of friends had been putting things together for awhile now. There was an amazing scrapbook, they put the pages together, all I have to do is add pics, and there are a few places for journal entries. Then there was a gift card so I could go develop my pictures...great idea! Then there were 2 DS bracelets with a charm that has Gabi's birthstone hanging from it, one for me, one for Gracie. And then my most favorite Carey made me a quilt. It is pink and green camo, there are even pictures of Gabi all over it and there are 221 tulips on it. She counted out how many days Gabi was alive and that is what the tulips represent. I have one other quilt my Gram made (which I LOVE!) when my mom was born. It has me, mom, and Gabi's name on it with our b-day. So this one with the pics on it is extra special I am gonna have to display it somewhere in the house.

I cannot thank Carey and the girls enough for the amazing gifts. And then there was a check for the foundation. Ladies I am so glad that you all have become apart of our lives. I will never be able to express the appreciation my family and I have for each of you and your families. Our children's extra gift is why we all came together and I am so proud of my angel for taking care of me with such a great group of support.

Carey and Ryan, we had a great time tonight...thank you! I hope I didn't load up Logan on to much sugar. And Chelsea baby, I am so sorry about your new ouchy...I still feel terrible. I will send Gabi her way to take away her pain. Can't wait till Saturday!

Love to all!

P.S. In the pics you will notice Chelsea has not had the best week, she fell and got a black eye yesterday, then she hit her month of the edge of our coffee table tonight...poor girl!

CHEERLEADER: GRACIE

Last Friday Gracie had her annual cheer night with the local high school. She loves cheerleading...I am definitely encouraging that one, tonight she even said she wants to do it in college. Talk about a girl after my own heart. Here's a few pics...ENJOY our little cutie pie!

Check out those motions, pretty good for a 6 year old...she has potential!!!

Renaissance Festival

As many of you know my mommy and step daddy work as pirates at the Ren Fest. We have gone out there the last 2 weekends. First time we went my in-laws...they have never been and then last weekend we took Gracie and she got SPOILED!!! Here are many pictures of the festival...we always have so much fun out there. I must say the people watching alone is enough to get me out there about every weekend.

Finally some good news...

Big news today for our friends Matt and Megan...Bella went home today! They have been in and out of the hospital since February. So this is a huge thing and she is doing much better than any other attempt before. She is still a sick baby, but I believe being at home may be exactly what she needs. She has 2 older sisters who haven't gotten to be with her much and I know they were ready for sissy to be home! I know I have posted their blog address before, but check out some of her recent photos...she is such a doll! http://isabellagudde.blogspot.com/
Scroll down to an entry titled Micah these a for you...we gave Bella a few things of Gabi's.

Fred, my father in-law, got results from his CT and Bone Scan and... he has a hot spot on his hip. A hot spot means it could be a fracture, could be arthritis, or it could be cancer. He will have to see the oncologists, Dr. Stein, that was Jason's doctor. Luckily we know he is a very good doctor and he will take very good care of Big Daddy Acker:) There was nothing in the lympnodes ( I am sure I spelled that wrong). We are definitely looking a lot more positive than we were last week. I told Papi Gabi would watch over him. Last night Fred, Phyllis, my mom and step dad, and Aaron came over to celebrate...we played cards (Pitch) till 3am. I cannot remember the last time we stayed up that late, needless to say I was worthless today!!!

Thank you for the continuous prayers. Please keep praying for Fred and Bella!

Love to all!!!

P.S. Gabi is 8 months old today...wish I had a picture to post... LOVE YOU ANGEL!!!

HEART BROKEN...

Yesterday was really rough! We went to church and it was so good to be back with our congregation. Then it hit me, Gabi will never be there with us...it was a terrible feeling. The sermon was great but of course I felt like Jim was speaking directly towards us...Is There A Tomorrow? Geeeesssssshhhhhhhhhhh! My best friend said we will see many signs, this being one of them and we will cry a lot, mostly referring to me. Right now we are obviously grieving and it is still so very fresh, but someday when the pain is a little easier to cope with, we will smile at the signs instead of get upset. It's Gabi's way of letting us know she is ok! I want to believe that and someday I hope I will but right now I am at a lost...my precious baby girl is gone. All I want is a few more moments with her, I want to hold her, kiss her, hug her, tell her how much I love her! I do talk to her all the time, some may think I am crazy I still sing to her every night...after all she IS and ALWAYS will be my sunshine!
Last night I couldn't sleep every time I closed my eyes I could see Gabi, but it was the last time I saw her...I had to open my eyes to stop the horrible nightmare! So needless to say not sleeping much these days! I have noticed though Sunday nights are the toughest as far as trying to go to bed, because it means another week has passed.
I finally cleaned up all the dead flowers this passed weekend. Talk about a job, we got so many beautiful fresh cut flowers...Thank you everyone! The unfortunate part is they die so quickly...I wish I could of kept them forever, but my house would stink, now the garage stinks...oh well trash day is tomorrow. I am hoping that I don't kill the plants we received...I have never been one to keep live plants, so I am trying it out. My mother in law is great with plants so I call her and then of course her and my sister in law remind me to water them:)
What would I do without my wonderful family???? I would definitely be way more insane than I already am!!!
Hopefully today is a little easier...
I love you sweet angel!

Gabi Girl - Precious Gift from God

Many of you have read the poem on the side bar. Well I wanted to make a special post because I finally added the end to the poem. It touches our hearts so deeply. It was written by a very kind woman, whom we've never met. Phyl if you are still reading blog, Thank You! We are actually going to print it for our families to frame...it is beautiful. God Bless You!


Gabi Girl – Precious Gift from God

Little Gabi Girl – precious gift from above
Chosen by God to remind us of His love
I don’t know that you will ever know how much
Your very life – so many lives it has touched

Your sweet smile, your innocent face
From my memory it is hard to erase
As it is with so many others far and near
Who have spent hours praying for you, my little dear

The heart wrenching stories your parents did share
Sparked an outpouring of love to show we care
Daddy’s little girl, Mommy’s sweetest prize
Brought people to their knees and tears to their eyes

He gave you strength and would not let your spirit leave
Your heart kept beating and we all began to believe
In the power of prayer, faith and love
An inspiring miracle – precious gift from above

We ask ourselves how much can one so little take
But we have to have faith--in you God would not forsake
Somehow by your determination and desire to live
You’ve spread hope to others – a wonderful gift to give

God Bless you, little Gabi Girl and your family
Much strength and prayers for a full recovery

~Phyl McCune 7/26/07~

Alas, It breaks my heart Gabi’s recovery was not to be
As hard as we had all prayed endlessly

God chose from her earthly body, her soul to release
Giving the ultimate recovery – one of everlasting peace
Reminding us all Gabi was indeed a gift from above
On loan here only temporarily for all to love

Sometimes we forget that life is a gift to be treasured
And the number of lives it touches cannot be measured
And so too, this little angel with her sweet little smile
Touched so many others, although for just a while.

Much heartfelt gratitude I extend to the family
For sharing one so beautiful – this angel named Gabi

~Phyl McCune 8/24/07~

A Special Dinner

Tonight we went to dinner with Matt and Megan. It was such a good time. I just cannot thank my sweet angel enough for bringing such an amazing family into our lives. We feel blessed to have them in our circle of friends. Bella seems to be doing really good. They have actually said next Wednesday she will be going home...Wahooooo!!! We are so happy for them to be able to take their angel home. She has been through so much and I think the best thing for her at this point is to be at home with her 2 big sisters, mommy, daddy, and the rest of their family. Even though she is going home she will still need a lot of prayers, she has a long ways to go before she is completely out of the woods, this is definitely one step closer to that though. We have put our faith in the Lord that he will do what is best for her.
It was difficult driving the old route, we did it for so long and then haven't in the last couple of weeks and tonight, well it was tough. But we put that aside because we wanted to be able to be there for Matt and Megan. They are so far from home and we think of them as well...extended family. I mean we have gone through very similar situations and you form a bond between parents that no one could ever explain unless it happens to you. Megan said tonight, Bella got sick again and had to come back, but that was her way of making sure our families got to become so close. I hate the fact she got sick, but like they say the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Matt and Megan, thank you so much for being such wonderful parents to your sweet angel. Your strength in the Lord will see you through these difficult times. Our children are the true definition of us...they will fight and we will be there every step of the way. Everyday with Bella is a gift, never take that for granted. Some days will be tougher than others but put your faith where it needs to be and that day you will get through too! WE love you guys!!!

Love from our special angel above!

SO I PROMISED PICTURES...

I found the camera and well...here it is, Jason won't let me publish our karaoke act, but maybe I will secretly email it:) ENJOY!!!

STL...See the arch!!

Aaaaahhhh....

MARTA

Hooters... gotta hit that one up.

Thai Restuarant....YUMMY!!!

The hottest chicks in ATL!

Our most favoriteChocolate Diva:)

Love you baby!

As the night goes on... Tearin it up with Travis

I put my pictue away.....

The cutest kid in all of the south...

Brayden!!!

And so here we go again...

I tell ya when it rains it pours in our family! I am starting to wonder if we will ever get a break? Last Friday my Father in-law found out he has prostate cancer, it is at stage 10 which is the most severe kind. He has been having a lot of health issues lately and no one found this. Makes you mad because they have checked his prostate before. Next Monday he goes in for CT and Bone Scans, this will be a huge day. His prostate is so swollen that he make wait for it to go down some for proper treatment. The scan will see if it has spread. We are saying extra prayers for him! So we'd appreciate it once again for your prayers! I know that Gabi is watching over her Papi right now. She had a special bond with him. At first he was scared to hold her for the fear of breaking her, but boy did he get over that quick...she loved to just stare deep into his eyes, I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact he wore glasses:) Anyways Papi you strong positive that you CAN and WILL kick it in its bootie! We will be with you every step of the way, love you!!!

I can't find my camera to post the pics so as soon as I unpack I will share!

Labor Day

We are in Monroe, LA...I am so glad we decided to take this road trip. We have done and seen quite a bit. We are trying to go out on Jen and Kim's boat, but the weather may hold of back from doing that. We got here yesterday afternoon our plan is to leave in the early am...Jason likes driving when we don't have to fight traffic, I have to agree.

We had a great time in Atlanta. We ventured out on the public transportation system, Marta. It was a good idea, or so we thought. We were gonna go to the aquarium, but from the stop is was about a 5 mile walk. I definitely did not wear shoes for that! So we spent more time on Marta than we did in the city. Oh well, it was a first for Jason...public transportation. Saturday was a much better day, we went to a spa and had an hour couples massage...I must say if you haven't had the chance to do that, I highly suggest you do. It was AMAZING!!! After that we decided to go to White Water, Six Flags water park. Talk about being a couple of kids, we had a blast. We went on several slides, one of them was called the Cliff Hanger...I was so scared. It literally was a 90 ft. drop and for about 60 ft. it was a straight fall down...did I mention I was SCARED to death. Needless to say we did not go onto the Cliff Hanger again, but we can say we did it:)
I almost forgot, we went out Saturday night with Erica and one of her friends and you will never believe what we did. Jason not only danced with me and really well I might add, but he and I karaoke. Jason has NEVER karaoked, me it has been a few years. So this was a huge thing for Jason! We had to convince him the people would never see us again, it was so much FUN!! I have to say that was probably the best part of our trip...we both just let loose! We sang Picture, by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow...one of the most over sung karaoke songs ever, we mostly did it for Gracie she loves that song and we knew the words so that made it a bit easier on Jason.

In the next few days I will post some pictures and possibly the video of our world premiere of PICTURE:)