Praise

We got back a little while ago from the hospital. I am wrung out but so very grateful to God that he saw us through this little trial. Every request of my heart was not only answered but met with more than I could have hoped for.

Sweetpea handled not eating or drinking all day long remarkably well. We were kind to not let anyone eat in front of her so that it was not testing her endurance. She handled the intake and prep very well. When it got to the real stuff she started having great anxiety but never to the level she has shown in the past! We were also so pleased to find a wonderful Child Life Specialist at our disposal with lots of things to engage her and let her play doctor, she even got to place a real live IV line into a doll!!!! What a thrill for her.

She resisted her own IV line going in, but again not as much as in times past......in took only 4 adults today instead of the 6 of last time to hold her down. She also resisted falling asleep and started to get wild instead, which they said was a normal variable. Once asleep she wanted to stay asleep through recovery. We had a hard time waking her up. We could only get her to come around after enticing her with food, cookies and lemonade, which she snacked on and rolled back for another snooze!

We got her home and she was jello girl. Watch her wiggle, see her jiggle....if it weren't so serious it would have been comical. We had to help her walk and escort her everywhere. She really wanted to go out to dinner afterward and do something special but after all was said and done she barely made it to bed without becoming one with the floor.

Thank you to each one of you who held us up in prayer and encouraged us throughout the day. Your care eased our burden and pointed us to the only real peace there is, the peace offered by Christ.

Happy Birthday Big Brother

Wishing my big brother a very happy birthday.......

may you forever be outstanding in your field!

Big Day Thursday

This week has been really busy and I have been thankful for the activity because it has kept my mind from worrying about tomorrow, and yet tomorrow is looming large before me now. Sweetpea is going into Children's Hospital for a proceedure and will be under sedation and this bears risks for her more so than other children. I feel the pull to worry, and yet we have faith that God is in control, leading us and protecting her......so why am I in a funk over the risks?

I would be really blessed to know that people were praying for her. We go in at noon and they are saying that we cannot expect to be discharged before 6, if all goes well. Pray that I will walk in peace and that I will be able to give that peace to Sweetpea as she is not the most relaxed kiddo in a medical environment given her history. Pray that God is glorified in all that He wills and that our faith will grow as we tend to our beautiful little princess and her needs.

Also please pray for pleasant staff as each time it is difficult to explain our unique situation and each person has a spin on our situation, oftentimes it is not a positive or healthy one for Sweetpea to overhear. We are constantly challenged as to our position as her parents because it is the norm to see us as "foster parents" with no long term stake in the care of this child, rather than her full parents who are waiting for the legal machines to catch up with the realities of the heart.

o, the lengths we will go

Happy Anniversary T and G, we celebrated your day your way. Can you guess?

We went all in for cow today and for our endeavors we were rewarded with delicious food. We also were rewarded with meeting lots of friends who equal if not exceed our strangeness with their own brand of "unique". Some identities have been concealed to protect their dignity.

................that's the END, and I'm not telling any tall TAILS.

Blueberry picking

We were invited by some friends to join them in a clandestine raid on a blueberry patch. Even after 2 hours I think the blueberries were winning. We ate as much as we could hold and put the rest into buckets to carry home. The blue in our hands may eventually wash off, undeniable evidence that we were indeed the culprits of the blueberry scandal!

A 5K Fourth of July!

The day dawned early and we were up and getting ready to run the first race of our careers, the 5K. The 8 year old, the 6 year old and the 5 year old coaxed their dear old dad to run with them and we were off to the races!!!

These 3 buttons were the races youngest contenders. They were mighty proud to pin on their race numbers and line up at the back of the pack. There were some serious "out-for-blood" runners in the race and then there were some that had definitely just showed up to run with no training or serious thought about it.

The girls were briefed as to the water stations and looked forward to being able to "stop" at the 2 of them to take a break. When the time came there was no stopping and much to their disgust people where throwing their cups on the ground!!!! NO WAY - LITTERING!!! They were aghast. Seriously, their Baba had to command them to throw down their cups, otherwise they would have run the rest of the race with cups in hand! Too funny. I assured them later that the water station people gladly picked up all the cups and not a cup was left, it was the rule of the race....don't know if they really believed me though.

After tailing them for the start of the race and making sure they made it up "Killer Mountain" where I was afraid littlest button would take a fall and seeing blood not be able to continue the race (which of course she did fall but having been told to wear capri's and gloves the knees and hands were saved from injury and she went on unscathed) we wiggled into the middle of the race course to meet them at a corner to cheer them on. My Beloved was so happy to see Top Button and I as they came around that corner. He said it gave everyone an energy boost and they sprinted to go past us giving us thumbs up.

It was the perfect weather for the race and even one family had a sprinkler on the coarse to coll down the runners who wanted to run through it. The kids enjoyed their time. They enjoyed most seeing their rooting section pop up around corners where we could get to the race coarse. They knew when the end was near and they put their all into it to cross that finish line with their time recorded. Second Button was first in our group and then littlest Button, then Baba, lastly Sweetpea. Their best training time for a 5K has been 50 minutes. On race day they all came in under 38 minutes, which was Sweetpea's time. What great progress, all new personal bests!

After the race they indulged in liquid refreshment and bananas.......the reward of champions. Then we went to the parade and had an excellent but quiet 4th of July. They are already talking about their next race and planning how they are going to do it differently. We will have to see, this racing thing can get out of hand and poor Baba will have to really start loving running to encourage such optimism.

We missed the fireworks as everyone was ready for bed long before sunset. This year we only dreamt of pyrotechnics.

Beauty and the .......exhausted tribe

It was jubilant and wondrous, fabulous and grand. I am so thankful that God gave my button this opportunity to participate in this program and as we soar on the heights of a job well done we also recognize that it has been so exhausting.

We ended the 2 live performances today with a break down of the set and a total clean up of the building we were using before everyone headed over to a cast pool party where they indulged in excesses of sugar and giddy laughter. I was grateful that the car can drive itself home because by the time we we leaving we were melted.