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BerlinettaGal
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Name: Myklin
Interests: I enjoy being a homemaker, part-time student, freelance writer and website marketer for our online ministry and business (www.HeartofVirtue.com). I also love serving my Lord and Savior, spending time with my wonderful husband Travis, and our sweet baby boy Clarke (who entered this world January 11, 2007). :)
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/10/2006
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| The Lord's goodness never ceasesWait! Don't give up on me ever posting again! I apologize for giving
ya'll such deep news about Travis last time (3 whole months ago), and
then practically falling off the face of the planet. Our life has had
so many, many, MANY things going on this year that I can literally barely keep
up. But, I DO want to share the tremendous news that we have concerning my
hubby, even though it's a little late in coming.
After the overwhelming and semi scary diagnosis of an immune disorder,
God sent us the PERFECT doctor for Travis. At long last, we were able
to sit down with an allergist/immunologist who looked at ALL of Travis'
health history and was able to see the whole picture. He had no doubt
that all of Travis' problems were a direct result of a severe allergy
to something that triggered an acute case of adult onset asthma. Going
without a diagnosis on this type of thing for so many months had only made
everything worse, causing more and more problems. Yes, he did have low
IGG levels, which means his immune system was having some difficulty,
but this doctor assured us it was totally within normal limits and that
with the right type of focused asthma and allergy treatment, Travis
would be able to bounce back without having to go through the costly
and extremely complicated IVIG infusions.
That was six weeks ago, and praise the Lord from whom all blessings
flow, Travis is now almost completely back to normal! Whatever special combination of asthma/allergy medications and treatments that
this new doctor gave Travis finally did the trick. Just two weeks
after the initial consultation with this allergist, Travis told me he
actually felt like SUPERMAN! 
Can you believe that? I nearly wept for joy when he told me that because it had simply been
ages since my baby had felt healthy, let alone like a super hero!
Travis continues to improve, with only relatively small set backs along
the way. The adjustments now are coming because he is learning to
live with asthma. He was able to go back to work a week ago and he
seems to be right back into the swing of things. He even finished up
another college semester with three more A's under his belt! 
We truly feel that it is GOD who has done a
tremendous work in Travis' health and we give HIM the praise for
everything that has happened in our lives these last six months. We
also cannot tell you how much everyone's sweet prayers and
encouragement have meant to us. The love we have experienced from
the phone calls, notes, gifts, comments, etc., have
utterly overwhelmed our hearts.
This has definitely been a journey of faith, trust, patience and
seeking the Lord's face like nothing we have ever experienced
before. I cannot begin to explain how many times our prayers have been
directly answered as the Lord has provided for us in ways we never
thought possible. It is amazing how our family has been
strengthened through all of this, as well as our faith in our most
gracious heavenly Father. Of course, our journey of faith is not
complete, and will not end until we at last meet our Lord face to face,
but this one stepping stone along the way has taught us so very, very much.
There is still a great for us to learn (and most definitely re-learn!),
but our gracious Heavenly Father has most certainly revealed His love
and mercy to us in ways we will never forget.
~//~
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| My Man...Hello dear ones!
It seems that I have been completely MIA these last few months when it comes to correspondence and family updates, and for that I am terribly sorry! Some of you may already know a little about the ongoing health saga we have been experiencing since November. Well, just yesterday, after months of Travis being mysteriously sick, having countless doctor and various specialists visits, ending up in the emergency room twice, being hospitalized twice (the most recent of which they kept him for nearly a week), a million needles poked in his body, and too many different tests run on him to count, it seems our prayers for a diagnosis has been found. (But now that we know what he has, in some ways I think it would have been easier NOT knowing... :)
The official diagnosis for my hubby is hypogammaglobulinemia, also known as Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID). Essentially, it is an auto-immune disease (appearing to be genetic in nature, although it has been acquired later in life) that is the milder version of the "Bubble Boy" disease where children have to live in plastic bubbles because they do not have enough immunities in their bodies to fight off germs and sickness. The dr. told us it was the opposite of leukemia, meaning he doesn't create enough of the components in his body known as IGG, where as someone with leukemia has too many of these in their body.
While there is no known "cure" at this time, the treatment is very expensive (it can be up to as much as $8,000 a shot) intravenous gamma globulin infusions, which normally people need every month for the rest of their life in order to stay healthy and out of the hospital with every little cold that simply won't go away. It takes 12 people donating blood to make one shot. Without these infusions, people with this disease are completely susceptible to sickness because their bodies have no way of fighting things off, which means they are chronically ill and in and out of the doctor's office or hospital.
The doctor was very honest with us about the serious implications of all of this for Travis and our family, but he did say he had a gut feeling Travis would improve, especially since he is so young. He said he has seen that happen before, but only a couple of times. He suggests doing the IVIG treatments for a year and then taking him off of them so they can see if Travis' body is able to take care of itself again.
So, we are praying and discussing our options and waiting to hear from the insurance company to find out if there is a possibility they will cover the IVIG infusions. In the meantime, they are also doing a little test for the next 5 weeks to see if there is any way that Trav's body can bounce back on its own when given a few small virus challenges to overcome. This will be the extra proof they need that he indeed has hypogammaglobulinemia.
Because this can be a hereditary disease, there is a possibility that Clarke could have the mutated gene as well. This is something we will be watching for as he grows, but thankfully it appears he doesn't have any of the signs right now.
I do have to say thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, giving us sweet cards, making phone calls, coming to visit, making dinners for us, leaving kind comments, and helping us watch Clarke during doctor's visits and hospital stays. Ya'll have been so sweet and encouraging with everything going on in our lives. We thank the Lord for you with all of our hearts!
While this is a new and seemingly daunting road that we are traveling down right now, we praise the Lord we do not have to do it alone! :) When I am tempted to worry about the future, the potential struggles ahead of us, I have to remind myself that our God is so faithful and loves us more than we could ever possibly know. He is our strength when we have no strength left at all (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
How grateful I am for His unfailing love. :)
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| Where did October go anyway?Hey there!
Well, yeah. So it's pretty much going on 2 months since ya'll last
heard from me. (My, my! Does this life never slow down? ;) Really,
all's been quite well with the Vinsons these days, minus some of that
sickly flu junk going around. My husband is working, working, working,
and when he's not doing that he's schooling, schooling, schooling. I
am blessed beyond words to have such a diligent, hard-working, selfless
man as he. We are both excited to be nearing the end of our
semesters. We have big plans to rip out our dated old carpet in the
living room and hallway as soon as school is out and replace it with
some lovely engineered hard wood floors. We cannot WAIT. It'll be our
Christmas present to each other this year. I'll have to post before
and after pictures so ya'll can see the beautiful transformation that will be taking place. ;)
Now, onto all of the fun new antics of our bouncing 10-month old boy...
Clarke is truly growing and developing in leaps and bounds. (And yes, I am following close behind him as he leaps and bounds from wall to wall!  )
Every day I'm amazed at the new thing he's learning. For instance,
he's picking up sign language now. He's getting better at asking us
for more to eat. It's precious!
He's also toddlin' all around these days, gettin' into literally
everything. He has almost convinced himself that walking is more fun
and nearly as fast as crawling. But, until this revelation truly hits
him, he'll still do a combination of crawling and walking.
Clarke has decided that he is such a big boy when he sits in his
rocking chair. He'll sit for the longest time and rock back and
forth. (His daddy and I love those moments of stillness because he
rarely stops long enough to stay in one place for very long. )
Also, he simply ADORES his daddy! He'll chant to himself "Da da da"
and make a be-line for the door when he hears the garage door open
every afternoon when Travis comes home. He's usually standing in the
kitchen, waiting excitedly and squealing with delight when his Daddy
walks in. This is their chase each other around the house, wrestle and
play time and Clarke knows it. I love sitting back and watching my
boys have such a great time together.
Now, did we name our son Clarke, or Mr. Friendly? Our little man
is SUCH a people person! There's hardly one person that he won't talk
to or give a huge ol' smile. My goodness, he just won't stop flirting
with and charming all the ladies. (*whispering* Hopefully that part
will only be a phase.... :)
As my dear boy is now needing some attention, I shall have to close
this entry. We are anxiously anticipating the start of the holiday
season this week. We are planning on spending some time with TX
family, thinking of our dear KS family and hopefully just enjoying time
together as our own little family of three.
May God bless you all and keep you safe this Thanksgiving! May you
take the time to reflect on all of the Lord's wondrous blessings.
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| I miss bloggingAhhhh, for the days of yore when I used to be able to find time to actually blog...
*little sigh*
*big grin*
Of course, running hither thither and yon all day after my nearly walking baby boy is something I wouldn't replace for anything. In the mean time, I guess the luxury of blogging will just have to wait. 
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