a new blog

my dear friend lizzie has assisted us in better communicating with our loved ones by creating this blog/journal--

we will be using this to update everyone as we begin our journey through this messy chapter of our lives.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/claywooten

we continue to covet your prayers

update on our familia

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God..."

Philippians 4:6

clay my dear husband, hazel my sweet little baby and i have been through quite the whirl wind these last couple of weeks. clay has been diagnosed with an aggressive kind of lymphoma. we are in desperate need of prayers. only before we go there we would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all the love and support so many have shown us. we are so thankful for it, b/c the only thing worse than having to go through all of this is having to go through it alone.

the biopsy this week revealed the cancer was lymphoma the non-hodgkins kind. more specifically they think its burkitts lymphoma which is a very rare and very aggressive type of lymphoma. the doc said there are about 12 different types of lymphoma and burkitts makes up about 1 to 2 percent of those types. It is typically found in smaller children and do to its aggressive nature needs just as aggressively. since it is so rare we all decided that going to MD Anderson in Houston is probably our best bet and the treatment plan that Clay will be going through is one week in the hospital of constant chemo and one week off. the time frame of this treatment is unknown. the latest that we will have our appointment at MD is in a little over a week the earliest is early this coming week. our oncologist, Dr. Nugent, spoke to the head of the lymphoma department at MD and i believe he will be our contact over there his name is Dr. Heigemeister. On top of chemo we will need a bone marrow biopsy and maybe another biopsy on my abdomen. If after all the chemo treatment there is a recurrence he will probably need a bone marrow transplant.

Things to be praying for:

-Quickly getting an appointment and first treatment at MD

-Strength and faith to endure the intensity of the treatment

-That everything would work and the cancer would be gone completely from clay's body

-Strength and faith for me during this hard time

-That God would be known more, worshiped and glorified throughout all of this

my love

does it get any more precious than this boy impressed with this catch but not interested in getting too close to touch it?

ugh this boy has stolen my heart...only i didn't know him then. i met him when i was 14. we went to different high schools. but we had some mutual friends, and i had heard of his name before. my friend actually liked him at the time. she used to call me after school to tell me about the times that she talked to him and how cute he was.

then as many 14 year old relationships do it fizzled. then i was a sophomore and saw him at a party. he was so cute. i had to get a picture with this boy. i sucked up the courage to ask him to get a picture with me. he was sweet and humored me, luckily knew who i was and agreed for the picture.

that night i went to my friends house loving that i had gotten to hang out with him and that he knew who i was! we continued on with our very separate lives until that fall, he still hadn't really left my thoughts...and for some reason i decided that enough was enough i was determined to date this boy. now don't get me wrong as though i was this aggressive teenage girl. quite the opposite. my parents were very adamant in raising me and my sisters to be lady, never calling boys and the boys responsibility in regards to girls.

then he came to one my high school football games, with a mutual friend. i. died. i could not believe it. we talked. even flirted. he invited me to church. i told him to call me and i would come. he said he didn't have me number. i told him it was cause he didn't ask for it. it was only the beginning....

and slowly as the Lord held us in His hand growing us in Him, challenging us in different, hard, unique ways we somehow still ended up together. that was almost 11 years ago...

here we are. the man of my dreams. my soul mate. the man who is not perfect but is perfectly made for me.





i love him so dearly

and now he has become a father. and what an amazing father he is to our little girl.
i know that this maybe late but he is my valentine, my hubby, my love.

she is here!!!

she is here! she is here! hazel's beautiful cousin charolette bradly wooten!! i. die. and oh my if this picture would only do justice to those lips, you would die too! we are so in love with this new little family--and hazel is just dying for her cousin to play with her :)

1 month

on feb 14, my baby girl will be 1 month old. i read a quote on a friends blog that continues to resonate with me"the days are long, but the years are short" and although we have not experienced a year...a month sure flown by!

my sister {who is so talented} and i had a little photo shoot with hazel yesterday. we sorta went a little crazy but here are some fabulous ones...

look at that smile! she has grown so much. i am doing my best to take pictures and write things down that she is doing, she is changing everyday. i saw somewhere in the blog world about writing a sentence everyday about her on a calendar, i'm not good at being consistent like that but i may give that whirl. even if i remember to do it here and there i know i cherish to look back on it. i'll let you know how that goes ;)