that I borrowed from someone else! I read this and just had to share. It put so much so beautifully, so well. So, I am borrowing from someone else. I have been so blessed by this particular blog, I follow so many that are such blessings!
The 30 Day Journey for Hope
I know that we have seen so many blessings from God even during what can feel like hard times. Today we were visited by yet another angel, a dear friend who is teaching us "goat farming" and putting up with all our mistakes and supporting us throughout. She has been such a kind teacher and always uplifting, not only in our efforts with our goats, but in our family life! She always has such a kind an encouraging word and it blesses us immensely.
I am trying a new thing, aiming to read one book a week and comment on it. I read a lot, I mean, a lot! I have so many books surrounding me that at times either I will never finish them in my lifetime, or I will just be really busy. By the way, that is what I do when I cannot sleep or am worried about something. I love books! Quite literally. My idea of a great date with my hubby was dinner out and a trip to our local bookstore! LOL!
Today I just finished "Gifts 2: How People with Down Syndrome Enrich the World" Edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper. It is wonderful. Lots of stories from people whose lives have been touched by Down Syndrome - parents, grandparents, siblings, other relatives, friends, teachers, therapists, etc. It was really encouraging to see how positive people can be, to look at all that really matters in the world and all the blessings each individual can and does offer. I enjoyed each and every story and would highly recommend it. There is a book "Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives", edited by the same person. I am going to have to go and look for that book! I highly recommend Gifts 2, whether your life has been touched by Down Syndrome or not. It really makes you think about the blessings of everyone in our world!
Goodnight!
A life of love
Everyone should have a Great Pyrenees
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Pray with us???
We are all doing really well, this isn't one of those prayer requests because things are hard. Some things are always hard - like winter in Wisconsin, especially on the farm. But God has been so good and has many "angels among us" that have really blessed into our family, even as we deal with the harder times of life.
The kids are all wonderful! Healthy, active, busy, silly, wonderful. I cannot imagine life without a single one! I would love to share with anyone our positive experiences with older child adoption and adoption, raising children, etc in general. Feel free to leave me your email and I will try to answer any questions you might have. I am sitting here listen to my kids practice the song several of them are singing for the nursing home church service we help with. Talk about making a mother's heart just swell with love, gratitude and pride!
We have an interesting situation that we are in process with and I ask for your prayers with that. I am not ready to share the details yet but hope to at some point. So, now if you could just pray that God's will be done and that we simply listen to his voice and follow his leading. God has given me such peace about a situation I adamantly had said I would not be able to work through. I see so much positive and blessing. Each step we take into this situation has resulted in more blessing which to me is a confirmation. I am again humbled and in awe of God's tender mercies to all his people!
So.
"Sing sing sing,
and make music with the heavens,
we will sing,
grateful that you hear us
when we shout your praise,
lift high the name of Jesus!
What's not to love about you,
heaven and earth adore you,
kings and kingdoms bow down,
Son of God you are the one,
you are the one we are living for."
This is what Kiley and Faith are singing while Alex is playing guitar for them. Such sweet music, something I have dreamed of for so long! How can you not just sob as you see God move. I am so very grateful. I so hope it blesses those who hear half as much as it blesses me!
Now, off we go to our Wednesday adventures!!!! Horse back riding lessons, guitar lessons, helping with the nursing home church service, a quick dinner and our own church service! We are always exhausted by the end of Wednesdays but they are so great!
The kids are all wonderful! Healthy, active, busy, silly, wonderful. I cannot imagine life without a single one! I would love to share with anyone our positive experiences with older child adoption and adoption, raising children, etc in general. Feel free to leave me your email and I will try to answer any questions you might have. I am sitting here listen to my kids practice the song several of them are singing for the nursing home church service we help with. Talk about making a mother's heart just swell with love, gratitude and pride!
We have an interesting situation that we are in process with and I ask for your prayers with that. I am not ready to share the details yet but hope to at some point. So, now if you could just pray that God's will be done and that we simply listen to his voice and follow his leading. God has given me such peace about a situation I adamantly had said I would not be able to work through. I see so much positive and blessing. Each step we take into this situation has resulted in more blessing which to me is a confirmation. I am again humbled and in awe of God's tender mercies to all his people!
So.
"Sing sing sing,
and make music with the heavens,
we will sing,
grateful that you hear us
when we shout your praise,
lift high the name of Jesus!
What's not to love about you,
heaven and earth adore you,
kings and kingdoms bow down,
Son of God you are the one,
you are the one we are living for."
This is what Kiley and Faith are singing while Alex is playing guitar for them. Such sweet music, something I have dreamed of for so long! How can you not just sob as you see God move. I am so very grateful. I so hope it blesses those who hear half as much as it blesses me!
Now, off we go to our Wednesday adventures!!!! Horse back riding lessons, guitar lessons, helping with the nursing home church service, a quick dinner and our own church service! We are always exhausted by the end of Wednesdays but they are so great!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Listen to this!
Click Here
Click the link above! Who says that kids can't do a lot, or you need to wait until you are grown! I am amazed and humbled!
Me
Click the link above! Who says that kids can't do a lot, or you need to wait until you are grown! I am amazed and humbled!
Me
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Surgery day!
Of course surgery day dawned with a winter weather warning! Ugh. But we made it in, got the kids to my mom's and got to the surgery center. Add in a bunch of hours and some sedation and waiting and recovery and now we are home, back through said storm.
All went well. The doctor found two big floaters that he thought were causing most of the trouble, and a few small ones, some tight scar tissue that he was able to release, and a couple other little things that he was able to "clean up". Steve responded well to the whole thing and I am carefully timing his pain meds so we keep him comfortable for the next day or two. He is non-weight bearing until he sees the PT on Monday. But all is going well so far.
So, he is now tucked gently into bed, current with medication dosages, leg elevated, ice on and playing with his computer. What more can you ask for?
One of he kids - Aman - has had what appears to have been possibly nervous about all this - has thrown up the last couple days off and on. Not sick at all, but vomiting a couple times. The first time I thought it was because he ate too many cookies at 4H, then he was fine until the next afternoon when he had a muffin (he had eaten in between), then was fine until early this morning, then was fine and then threw up again this afternoon. He has been absolutely fine otherwise, playing, eating off and on, no fever, nothing. I am seriously wondering if it is a nervous reaction to Dad's surgery. I am hoping so as then he can calm down now and settle down. Otherwise I will be calling the doctor soon.
Well, I hope you all are snug and warm and safe in your own beds! I am looking forward to snuggling down in mine!
All went well. The doctor found two big floaters that he thought were causing most of the trouble, and a few small ones, some tight scar tissue that he was able to release, and a couple other little things that he was able to "clean up". Steve responded well to the whole thing and I am carefully timing his pain meds so we keep him comfortable for the next day or two. He is non-weight bearing until he sees the PT on Monday. But all is going well so far.
So, he is now tucked gently into bed, current with medication dosages, leg elevated, ice on and playing with his computer. What more can you ask for?
One of he kids - Aman - has had what appears to have been possibly nervous about all this - has thrown up the last couple days off and on. Not sick at all, but vomiting a couple times. The first time I thought it was because he ate too many cookies at 4H, then he was fine until the next afternoon when he had a muffin (he had eaten in between), then was fine until early this morning, then was fine and then threw up again this afternoon. He has been absolutely fine otherwise, playing, eating off and on, no fever, nothing. I am seriously wondering if it is a nervous reaction to Dad's surgery. I am hoping so as then he can calm down now and settle down. Otherwise I will be calling the doctor soon.
Well, I hope you all are snug and warm and safe in your own beds! I am looking forward to snuggling down in mine!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Prayers please
Hi all,
Well, we are anxiously awaiting tomorrow. Steve (dh) injured his knee - again - while we were loading a horse in the beginning of December. He has had problems with this knee for many years. This makes the tenth dislocation, but only the third since his last surgery fourteen years ago. But this one was really bad. Really bad.
Imagine someone the size of a professional football player unable to walk - I am only five foot five and our oldest two boys are both just about my size. And a farm, and eight kids, and a job, and general life. Ugh. Walking did improve, but there is great pain involved.
Well, following MRIs and all sorts of stuff, surgery has been scheduled to clean up the knee. Steve's pain level has only increased over time and our normally pretty jolly hubby and dad is reduced to chronic bad pain. He has a very high pain tolerance, but this is bad. Last night it just was all over his face.
So, tomorrow is surgery day - outpatient. The kids will go with my mom (thanks Mom!) as I really don't want them sitting at home worrying and being a half hour away from where we are. I will feel better with them with Grandma.
I would greatly appreciate any prayers you might think to send. I am anticipating given how things have deteriorated in the last week or two that they will find more than they first saw on the MRI. At the very least, this will hopefully improve things and get Steve finally on the road to recovery. I just cannot think too hard about it all as the worries just pile up - how will we get him back into the house, how bad will it be, how will the kids and I manage the outside work without him (though we have been doing most of it since the injury), and on and on. I just have to not think about it and take it a step at a time. It doesn't help that another large adoptive family in blogworld just lost the daddy to a tragic accident, leaving the mom with ten kids, some with special needs. Cannot even imagine myself there. So, breathe.
I cannot imagine how Steve is feeling - I know he is ready and looking forward to it in hopes that the pain will be improved and he can finally work towards getting better. He is doing his best to shield all of us from it, but it is there. I am sort of frozen and just keep going, so probably have not been the best helpmeet to him through this. I am looking forward to being able to focus on this once we get our usual crazy Wednesday done. I have been making sure floors are cleared and give him as much room as possible, that the bed is comfortable, that we have everything arranged to keep him as comfortable as possible.
Anyway, we are off to donations, to pick up a wonderful gifting of a microwave as our is dying and unsafe (thanks Deb! what a blessing when it just isn't in the budget this month to replace), to run by a doctor's office to drop off things for labs, to guitar lessons, to help with a church service at a nursing home and then to a riding lesson before church. Somewhere in there will be a really fast dinner! Then we can focus on tomorrow.
So, thanks for reading!
Well, we are anxiously awaiting tomorrow. Steve (dh) injured his knee - again - while we were loading a horse in the beginning of December. He has had problems with this knee for many years. This makes the tenth dislocation, but only the third since his last surgery fourteen years ago. But this one was really bad. Really bad.
Imagine someone the size of a professional football player unable to walk - I am only five foot five and our oldest two boys are both just about my size. And a farm, and eight kids, and a job, and general life. Ugh. Walking did improve, but there is great pain involved.
Well, following MRIs and all sorts of stuff, surgery has been scheduled to clean up the knee. Steve's pain level has only increased over time and our normally pretty jolly hubby and dad is reduced to chronic bad pain. He has a very high pain tolerance, but this is bad. Last night it just was all over his face.
So, tomorrow is surgery day - outpatient. The kids will go with my mom (thanks Mom!) as I really don't want them sitting at home worrying and being a half hour away from where we are. I will feel better with them with Grandma.
I would greatly appreciate any prayers you might think to send. I am anticipating given how things have deteriorated in the last week or two that they will find more than they first saw on the MRI. At the very least, this will hopefully improve things and get Steve finally on the road to recovery. I just cannot think too hard about it all as the worries just pile up - how will we get him back into the house, how bad will it be, how will the kids and I manage the outside work without him (though we have been doing most of it since the injury), and on and on. I just have to not think about it and take it a step at a time. It doesn't help that another large adoptive family in blogworld just lost the daddy to a tragic accident, leaving the mom with ten kids, some with special needs. Cannot even imagine myself there. So, breathe.
I cannot imagine how Steve is feeling - I know he is ready and looking forward to it in hopes that the pain will be improved and he can finally work towards getting better. He is doing his best to shield all of us from it, but it is there. I am sort of frozen and just keep going, so probably have not been the best helpmeet to him through this. I am looking forward to being able to focus on this once we get our usual crazy Wednesday done. I have been making sure floors are cleared and give him as much room as possible, that the bed is comfortable, that we have everything arranged to keep him as comfortable as possible.
Anyway, we are off to donations, to pick up a wonderful gifting of a microwave as our is dying and unsafe (thanks Deb! what a blessing when it just isn't in the budget this month to replace), to run by a doctor's office to drop off things for labs, to guitar lessons, to help with a church service at a nursing home and then to a riding lesson before church. Somewhere in there will be a really fast dinner! Then we can focus on tomorrow.
So, thanks for reading!
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