Friday, December 5, 2014

Hospital Visit


Sam had a liver biopsy this week. It went well! We are so thankful for all the wonderful staff at the children's hospital! 


Before procedure


All done, resting in the PICU (where we stayed overnight)


Awake in PICU and feeling pretty good

After spending the day and night in PICU, I got new perspective on how much we have to be thankful for. My heart is heavy for all the struggling children and fearful, exhausted families we left behind there. 

Now, we wait on biopsy results. The overall impression we got was that things looked pretty good (yes!) but we really will have to wait on the results.

Sam is home and feeling spunky. You'd never know he had been at the hospital except for his bandages. We are THANKFUL! 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Soccer At The Beach

We were excited to go on a mini family-get-a-way to Wimington for a soccer tourney. I LOVE the beach but it was a bit weird to be there with the palm trees, wearing my winter coat! Brrrr! It was cold! 

But, we had FUN! We visited a wonderful, kid-friendly aquarium and the older boys also toured the S.S. North Carolina with John. There was time for us to loll around our hotel room and watch movies together too. So nice. 

Luke's team played very well and came in second for their age group!  Whoot! Whoot!  


Here they are. Aren't they cuties?! Love those boys! 


This is how Sam spent a lot of his time on the green. 


He is loving stuffed animals right now. So, so cute! 

Monday, November 10, 2014

Lately...

Yes, we are trying to process horrible news. God is helping us. It's messy though. I mean, seriously, I have questions and things I am so NOT OK with right now! I think God is totally OK with our messiness & I am so very thankful for that. 

Besides that though, we are LIVING! 

If you don't know Nathan, you are missing out. He is hilarious! This is what he decided to do today. It's nice out but NOT that nice. I love his zany sense of humor! 



We also had some Fall fun with dressing up, candy and pumpkins and several photo bombing incidents. I thought this one by Juneau was so funny! 




Another photo bomb by cute-dimpled-Luke! 




Thursday, November 6, 2014

Sam's Health Update

We've been concerned about Sam's health for awhile now, maybe eight months, and have been doing labs every four weeks to monitor his liver. It all came to a head this week at the children's hospital when we met with his specialists. 

He will be admitted for a liver biopsy in the next week or two and then will begin six months of treatment/therapy with a chemo med. We will have to give him multiple injections at home every week that will very possibly make him feel awfully sick. Oh my, it hurts even to type that. My son. My sweet little son.

To be fair, we expected the biopsy would be scheduled. We were prepared for that, but we thought the therapy might not happen, that the biopsy results would look OK and that we could put that off. I mean, he is only four. But, his doctors are amazing, and very, very thorough and care about him, so we trust their decision that he should begin the meds too. 

So, we are trying to process it all. Our kids know what is going on, of course. We talk about everything. They asked, "Is Sam going to die?" We told them, "Not any time soon." That is what they wanted to know, the bottom line, so now they are fine. We are going to face it all together as a family with our ever faithful God.

So, I am relating to this God I know, and that I love, and that I trust, and that I also BEGGED not to let this happen to my son. Tough stuff! I have been down this road before though and I know I can process and be angry and have a big, big fit (and I will) and that God is plenty big enough to handle that. I also know I will continue on trusting Him. Implicitly. My only other choice is to not trust Him and that is not even an option for me. Not at all. 

So, we're preparing for battle around here. Battle for our son's health, battle to keep life as joy-filled and normal as possible, battle for our hearts to stay close to our Comforter and Strength. 




Sunday, October 19, 2014

Messes or Miracles?

I read this wonderful quote on FB today. It was a kind of a warning to not miss out on the miracles surrounding you because you are focused on the mess. What good advice for me! I love it and perhaps will put in on a wall somewhere in our home. 

It is very easy to become discouraged as I daily trip over the shoes, soccer gear, pets, toys, dirty laundry piles, swim goggles, dishes, construction zone (our addition project), school supplies for both the home schoolers and public schoolers in our family and more, knowing that I will not be able to conquer/fix it all since it will just keep on growing. 

If the mess is all I let myself see, I will be missing out on such pure, dear treasure. I live in the middle of so many miracles! John and I have been happily married for 19 years now, despite having been born and raised in different countries. I mean, what were the chances of us even meeting one another? Mark is our miracle baby. Luke and Nathan are our beloved treasures from Ghana. The story of how our little Sam came to us from Ukraine is incredible. Really, we are crazy, crazy blessed! 

So, I will still try to clean up, but I will keep my eyes & heart wide open and remember. 


I adore this saying that I found on Pinterest.


So, thank You God for blessing me with a home full of love, and energy and life. So it's very messy...and loud! So what?! I am blessed!  

Friday, October 17, 2014

Big Mac & Nathan's First-Ever Presentation


Nathan did his first-ever presentation at a public speaking class he goes to. Big Mac, his bunny, came along as the best prop ever. Nate did a good job and Mac surprised us by loving all the attention. 

Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Fair

Every year I work with the kids on their fair projects and it is such a lot of work (and often very frustrating!!!!!) that I always wonder if it is even worth all the effort. But then we all go to the Fair and see their work on display and all their ribbons and we all enjoy it so much. So, I guess I'm convinced to try again next year too. 


Our littlest, Sam, won the purple rosette for his age group with a Christmas tree he made from a pot from Goodwill and some painted egg cups. 

All of us ribboned, even John and I. Fun! 



Luke and Nathan got to be in a play.


We went to a Colton Dixon concert (I was impressed.) and Sam got hilariously happy and kept trying to plant big kisses on his unwilling brother's face. So funny!