Melody’s Debut With the Melody Jean Fan Club

Melody’s latest adventure was a trip to California to see her grandparents.  She loved the beach!  It was sweet to see how much she enjoyed playing with the sand.

Sister time in the sand

We had a wonderful time enjoying God’s creation of the magnificent ocean.

We were able to visit with many relatives.  Melody loves her cousin Jeff! She treasured all the attention he gave her and was delighted to be his little buddy.

It was a treat to spend time in Grandpa’s chair.

One of the members of the Melody Jean Fan Club

When Melody was first born, testing was done to see if she had Trisomy 18.  The day the results came back confirming full Trisomy 18 many tears were shed.  We called Melody’s grandparents to inform them of this news.  We were planning to name Melody’s middle name after her Grandma Jean and wanted to see how she felt about that given Melody’s potentially short life.  Jean was honored to have Melody Jean as her little namesake!  During that phone call there were many tears of both sorrow over the the prognosis associated with full T18 and the joy of having Melody named after her.  We happen to have called Melody’s grandparents right before they were about to walk out the door for their Bible study. Melody’s Grandpa suggested that perhaps they would not be able to make it to the study that evening.  Jean was confident that she could pull it together and still attend.  Well, sometimes in life the goal of pulling it together fades.  That evening the Bible study group cried together, prayed together, and encouraged Melody’s grandparents.  This was a sweet picture of how the Lord designed us to live in community with others (as opposed to isolation) and walk along side one another in our ups and downs of life. This precious group of people has continued to follow Melody’s story and pray for her throughout her life.  They had never met the little lady… that is until our recent trip to California.  We affectionately refer to them as the Melody Jean Fan Club.

The fan club member pictured above is a former kindergarten teacher.  She sure knew how to read books in a way that resonated with Melody!  Melody was full of smiles and on the verge of laughing for quite a bit of this special story time.

Melody had a precious time with her grandparents, her relatives, and her fans.  We are thankful for the countless people who have loved her and prayed for her throughout her life.

Grandma Jean with her little namesake

Melody’s grandparents have been immensely supportive throughout Melody’s life.  We are grateful that Melody has had them to love her, pray for her, rejoice in her successes, make the long trek out many times to visit her, and help with her enormous birthday parties.

Melody was an excellent little traveller for her California adventure!

She is home now and working diligently on her developmental progress.

We are so thankful for all the Lord has done in Melody’s life!

I Thessalonians 5:18: …in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

For an outstanding commentary on I Thessalonians 5:18 see: Precept Austin. Precept Austin is an amazing tool for studying and meditating on Scripture. Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s Word!