Go ahead and say it...I'm crazy!

It's been a crazy weekend. And that's an understatement.

After locking our keys in the van at Walmart on Friday night (read more about that here), we laid low on Saturday. Mainly because it rained or threatened to rain all day. Needless to say Joel did not look at the battery on the truck.

After all the excitement of Friday night and the wiping of three different goopy noses on Saturday, I decided to take a home pregnancy test Saturday night. To our astonishment but pleasure it was positive.

It appears all those jokes I've been making about this being the longest I've gone in 5 years without being pregnant were not entirely accurate.

Our families have been told. Our kids have been told. Will is beyond excited and full of questions as only a four-year-old can be. We are still adjusting to the idea. O! Baby should come late June (by the book) or early July (by past experience times 3).

For those trying to do the math, that will be 4 babies in 5 years, 1+ months. Their ages then will be 5 years, 3.5 years, 22 months. The age spread will be 21 months, 18 months, 22 months.

So if you don't hear from me regularly for a while just assume I'm hugging the toilet or passed out in bed. You can pray that this one is a girl - with Ellie I barely got sick at all. With the boys? It wasn't pretty! And the Lord knows with this gang I can't spend all day in bed, even if I'd like to!

Little Miss Emily

If you are new to Emily's story go here to start at the beginning.

"See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright - but the righteous will live by his faith ... Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights." Habakkuk 2:4;3:17-19.

Hello all,

For the past few weeks we have been telling you all the great strides that Little Miss Emily has been making. She was moved to an Intermediate Care facility yesterday. She practically has her own room now. It is set up so that the parents can spend as much time there as possible. It has a recliner and a long bench to sleep on, but best of all, it has a television with cable and a DVD player.

I had a Men's Breakfast at my church this morning and it was a tremendous success. There was a lot of food and a pretty good turn out. When I got home, Dawn and I decided to try to spend as much time with Emily as possible. We brought a few DVD's and were ready for our nice long visit. We arrived at about 2:00 and she was sleeping (like a baby). We decided to leave her alone and let her sleep without disturbing her. She finally woke up around 2:45 and started to cry. We concluded that she was hungry, seeing meal time was 3:00 and had the nurse give her the food, via the tube.

The meal didn't stop her from crying! As a matter of fact, because of her crying, the meal took and hour to go down. She literally cried for an hour and a half. We did all that we could to calm her, but it was to no avail. Most of the time, it wasn't only Emily that was crying. I don't like to see my girls hurting, but there was nothing I could do.

When we asked the nurse for some suggestions on how to calm her down, she told us it was "neuro." I didn't really know what she meant, but at the same time I did. She was saying that there was nothing that we could do because it was something that is wrong with her. This hurt like a bullet going through the heart. We were devastated! We knew all along that eventually we were going to find out what her limitations were, but we didn't think it was coming this early. The doctor came in to talk to us and let us know there are some drugs that could calm her down without knocking her out. It broke our hearts to do it, but we believe, and know that she is much more comfortable on the drug.

We stayed there long enough for her next meal and she started to fuss as she had the meal before. The nurse gave her the drug and she almost immediately calmed down. She finished her food in half the time as before and remained calm the entire time.

As we were talking to the doctor, we came to realize that although she has eaten a few meals through the bottle, she has not been improving in this area. It has gotten to the point that only the speech therapist is now allowed to try to feed her. This is a major set back. They will try for two weeks to train her to bottle feed, if after two weeks she is unsuccessful, she will get the "G-Tube." Tube going directly into her stomach) As I mentioned, this was a major blow, but one that we were expecting. We had a long talk over dinner about how we can still trust God through the storm. The answer was easy, HE has provided us with everything and HE will continue to provide us with everything! HE knew this was coming and HE has prepared the way before us.

During the Men's Breakfast, I was sharing with the men how God is an amazing God. HE has truly blessed Dawn and I in so many different ways. HE brought us through back surgery, incredible indebtedness, unemployment, and so many other trials; HE will get us through this.

Let me explain to you how faith works. We have trusted God thus far in this trial, but in the back of my mind I know that there are immense medical bills piling up. We have good insurance, but it covers only 80%. That leaves a huge chunk for us to cover. I brought this to my pastor and asked him to keep us in prayer. Last week after service the pastor took up a special offering for Dawn and I. This was not my request, but he did it on his own. It came to almost $2000! The other day a friend of ours felt that she was to give us some money. We didn't ask for it, she just volunteered to give it to us, no strings attached. The amount...$1000. Last night, Dawn was reading through our insurance policy and there is a cap on the amount we have to pay out of pocket. Can you guess how much?...

$3000!!

We have a God who provides; that's how we can have the faith to know that we will make it though this storm in our lives. I have given my life to serving God and HE has blessed me beyond measure. It is my wish that all who read this email come to know God in the same way, so that HE may bless you as HE has blessed me. Some people may see this trial as a curse. "God is punishing you by giving you a child who is not healthy." To them I say, what child is not a blessing to their parents! I AM blessed beyond measure.

I mourn for what I will not have with my daughter, but I rejoice that I was blessed with a daughter to begin with!

Please continue to pray that Emily continues to get stronger so that she can come home soon. That is our biggest struggle, having to leave her every day. I also ask those of you who already have a personal relationship with Christ to pray for those who read this email and don't know HIM. Pray for hearts to be softened and eyes to be opened.

I thank you all for your prayers and love,

Mike

Eph 2:4-7

What do we do all day?

Back at the beginning of the month my friend, Charity (you will find her at Cardiff Central), sent an email asking what the kids and I do all day. She also asked about any good websites. Well, me being the slacker that I am, I have never answered her questions. (Sorry, Charity!) I've decided just to do a post about it. Keep in mind my kids are currently 4 + years, 2.5 years, & 14 months old.

First let me say I am trying to be more disciplined about scheduling our activities. It's slow work. By schedule I don't mean going by a clock. In fact, God showed me last week that I put too much pressure on myself and my chickadees to follow a clock. If 10 am comes and some of us are still in pajamas and beds aren't made what difference does it make?

Back during the summer I bought a great book, Managers of Their Homes: A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Homeschool Families, about this very topic. I made a schedule but it has never really worked for us. Trying to make my children follow the schedule had me frustrated, aggravated and angry. Totally not the purpose. After prayer God showed me I was trying to use too many good ideas in my schedule and to relax and stick with the basics.

Just getting everyone dressed, beds made, and teeth brushed takes at least an hour in the morning for me. Remember my little troop requires a lot of my help. I try to send the boys outside to play when weather permits. Our backyard is completely fenced in and they have all manner of fun toys back there. This helps me a lot! When they are outside I do housework or computer time.

Rest time in non-negotiable around here. At one o'clock all three go to bed. The 2 little ones sleep for about 2 hours. Will lays on my bed (the boys share a room) and listens to Adventures in Odyssey cd's or reads books for an hour. It has taken a lot of training (and spankings) for everyone to learn they must stay in bed during this time. I really need that hour to recharge (and so do they).

The nice thing is I also have an hour alone with Will. Sometimes we read books together. For a while I read a chapter book to him. I really need to get back to that. We have also cooked together (remember the Apple Pie?). I learned after one attempt that I can't cook with both boys. My kitchen isn't big enough for separate work spaces and they compete and argue over who gets to do what. Sometimes we each work on our computers. We have an old laptop that has Wordpad and Paint. Will likes to "type" and draw on it.

We all do a lot of coloring. Plain paper & crayons are my friends. So are coloring books, scissors, glue sticks and play dough. The boys like to cut so I give them paper and let them go crazy. I have been working more with Will by drawing lines on the paper and having him cut on the lines. I've also been giving them catalogs to cut.

My recent discovery was the dollar store. I got tons of foam animal stickers, foam paper, foam beads, water color paint sets, and regular stickers for very little money.

My kids do well playing independently but it has taken a lot of training on my part (ie. ignoring the wailing and gnashing of teeth). Like now Ellie gets gated in her room by herself to play while I wash dishes or some other housework. I did the same with the boys and now they will play alone or with each other pretty well.

Here are some websites I like for coloring pages, games and activities: First-School Preschool Activities, Kids Answers, Preschool Activities, Preschool Printables, Simply Charlotte Mason, Teaching Mom.

I hope I answered your questions, Charity. We are a work in progress around here. Nothing is hard and fast (other than nap time). I'm always trying new things. I guess that's just part of being a momma.