Liver Transplant Update

My mother-in-law didn't get that liver on Dec. 11th. I kind of left the story hanging, but she got to the hospital and did all her surgery prep. She was on the table, ready to be cut open, and the transplant team called a halt to the transplant. Something on the donor liver didn't look good. We were all very disappointed, but knowing that kind of thing happens, not too discouraged.

She ended up getting a liver for real this time, on Dec. 28th. She had a rough go of it for a couple days after the surgery, but she's home now and doing very well. She's feeling SO much better, it's amazing. We are very thankful for God's care over her. She's got a new lease on life. For those of you praying for her, thank you so much.


Here's a picture of her with our little girl, taken about 1 1/2 yrs. ago.

We Did Go!

A little update concerning my last post. And thanks, guys, for your kind words regarding this situation. It's certainly very exciting for me.

We did all go to church together Sabbath, our hubby/dad included. We were on the road by 8:00 a.m. sharp, and probably the first ones ready for first service, which starts at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Here are a couple pictures. The one of me is a rarity, since I'm always the one behind the camera. Hubby declined a picture, as he usually does if I ask him before I snap the picture!

So, now I am praying that this will become a regular occurrence for us. I have so longed for our church-going to be a family affair.

I'm Hopeful

My husband quit attending church with me 3 years into our marriage. He has not been anti-Christian, and has remained an honest and moral person, but has not been practicing what he believed religiously when we were married 14 1/2 yrs. ago. It has been pretty hard for me to hold my tongue these past 11 or so years.

Imagine my surprise when he told me several days ago he would attend church with me and the kids this Sabbath. We'll be digging into his closet tonight, to find something that fits, so we don't have to worry about it tomorrow morning. I am holding my breath, and praying, hoping that nothing comes up to sway his decision.

I Thought Our Time Had Come.....

Yesterday, I wondered if our middle child (8 yr. old boy) had broken his ankle. It got hit really hard by the edge of a metal scooter. He wouldn't walk on it for probably 40 minutes, and I figured it was our turn to head to the emergency room for an x-ray to check it out.

I kept trying to get him to even try and stand on it, and he wouldn't. All I could do was give him some Tylenol and put an ice pack on it. We got Dad on the phone, and he had him do all kinds of goofy stuff. Before I knew it, C was standing on his bad foot/ankle only, with both hands on his head, and bending over at the waist, as if bowing. He started laughing it was so goofy, and we knew he would be alright. I am SO glad it wasn't broken. We've been pretty lucky so far. With 2 boys, both of which can be quite physical and daring at times, I always figured it would happen by now. Thank Goodness it hasn't.

Incidentally, the kids' dad had broken several bones by the time he was 6 yrs. old, and nearly cut his tongue off as well. The accidents didn't stop as he grew up. He cut his thumb off when he was 17, working on the farm, but they were able to reattach it.

Major Progress in Reading

We are celebrating today! As some of you know, our oldest son had some major difficulties learning to read. We discovered that he had some intolerance to both gluten and casein (milk protein) about 1 year ago. Once those were removed, he started to read by leaps and bounds. We were quite excited to find him reading at 2nd grade level, 3rd month at the end of May 2007. I just now had him take the same reading test online, and he tested at 4th grade, 3rd month. That means he progressed 2 whole grade levels in 6 months!! This also means that H is so close to being on track with his reading level, since he is in the 4th grade based on his age (when birthday fell, etc.). I am so excited I have tears in my eyes again as I write this. I cannot tell you how hard H has worked for this and I am so proud of him. Now we just have to work on his confidence and his endurance when it comes to reading. But it is major progress. We didn't forget to pray our Thanks to God, because He definitely helped us through the rough times with all this. There were many times we prayed 3 or 4 times just to get through a reading lesson. I am so excited, and we can't wait to tell hubby/dad when he gets home. He knows we have been working hard to catch H up to grade level. Thanks for sharing our joy at this good news.

Also, a little follow-up to H's goal to finish his math book by tomorrow. He is on track! He only has 15 math pages left to finish the whole book. He did 26 pages today so he would be "ahead" of schedule. It's wonderful to see him taking more initiative in his own learning.

So Much to be Thankful For

Each year at this time I like to reflect on the things I have to be thankful for. I have so many that I don't know where to start! And I'm bound to miss a few, but here are the bulk of them:

I am thankful for a God who loves ME, of all people. I am, after all, just a speck of dust in the Great Scheme of Things, but He sent His Son to die for me. That is something that I will spend an eternity contemplating.

I have a husband who loves me, and is faithful. He's smart and determined to make his way in the world. We can rely on him to take care of us. He's also good at what he does. I'm thankful he values me for my abilities as well without much criticism. I am thankful that my hubby allows me to stay home (for the most part) and homeschool our children. It's very important to me, and I am so glad he's supportive in this matter.

I am thankful for 3 wonderful children, each very different. This gives us a lot of "spice" in our lives. I am very thankful that we have discovered some health issues where all the kids are concerned. Although we may have a long way to go in certain areas, we have come very far in the past year. Progress is so important, especially if it helps to insure against much worse conditions in the future, which would definitely have resulted if not for our (partial) understanding of what was going on.

My own health is greatly improved. This may be one of the most prominent items in my mind right now concerning my thankful issues. It is amazing to me how sick I really was 2-3 yrs. ago (gluten intolerance, undiagnosed hypothyroidism, and hormonal deficiencies/imbalance.) Now that things are much improved, I find myself enjoying life SO much more. Not a day goes by that I don't marvel about all this. So, yes, I guess in a big way, I am even thankful for my illness because now I am more thankful for health itself.

I am thankful for our country home, which we just built this past year. It is not quite finished yet, but we are living in it. And we are thankful that it is in a rural country setting. We enjoy a lot of freedom that we value greatly, in part due to the stifling conditions of the particular subdivision and area of town that we came from farther south.

I am thankful for various family members and numerous friends.

And finally, some more superficial things to be thankful for:

• The public library system, which supplies audio books on CD and mp3 format
• An mp3 player to download free mp3 audio books onto
• Air conditioning in FL
• Modern bathroom facilities
• The Internet which sports "fast-food" information retrieval
• Tried and true gluten-free recipes and the GF pioneers who created them
• Homeschooling pioneers to learn from, so I don't have to "invent the wheel"
• Stories of our past; history to learn lessons from others' mistakes
• A second family car so I can run errands and attend field trips whenever I want

Well, that's quite a list. There are lots of other things that I am thankful for, but I have to call it quits sometime. It's getting late and I am thankful for a comfortable bed that is calling out my name.

Nothing Short of a Miracle!

My eldest, is by nature, unmotivated. Some would call it laziness, but I know in my heart it's something different. He seems to walk to the beat of a different drum. He does not fit anybody else's "box", but is always thinking, pondering, wondering about stuff, and off in his own little world. I have seen him get passionate about things before, and when he does, whew! Look at him go! I never know what is going to strike his fancy, and how long it will last, but it is always a whirlwind when it does hit. I know that these character traits can be a good thing if he so chooses, but that's the tricky part. He needs to be brave enough and motivated enough, and then actually choose the right way. I have done some reading about people like Thomas Edison. In fact, we saw a play about him about a year ago. H is so similar to him in so many ways. Edison even had trouble in school, was misunderstood by his teachers, and his mother pulled him out of school to homeschool him!

Now, H has never been in "real" school, but I shudder to think what it would have done to his self esteem if he had. I don't believe the average teacher would understand his differences like I do. Yet, do I even understand?? (And how could they? They are quite busy with 24 other kids to worry about. A friend of mine actually taught 33 second graders, without a teacher's assistant!! H. could very easily just slip through the cracks.) Then add to that H's sense of perfectionism, and he would be devastated if he were compared to other kids all day long.

I have to admit, even I get frustrated at times, since I can be quite stubborn, plodding along with my own blinders on about the way things *ought* to be! It's hard for me to get him motivated about anything. I have trouble determining the fine line between where he is, vs. where I think he should be, vs. where the world thinks he should be. Yeah, I know I shouldn't look at the world's perception of things. True enough. But now I am faced with wondering if I am doing right by him according to God's standards. He values the work ethic of the ant! The Bible states over and over how important it is to seek wisdom, to be productive, to do everything you do with all your might. But what if I can't get him to do *anything*? I mean really, sometimes it can take him an hour to complete a 10 minute job. He reminds me of a turtle or a snail, he's so slow. The sloth also comes to mind when describing him!

When it comes to school work, please don't get the idea that I am pushing too much too soon for him. He is a grade or two behind where he should be for his age. A large part of the reason for this was undiagnosed gluten and casein intolerance. He would get headaches and couldn't think straight. He was lethargic, complained of fatigue, and was quite mopey and even acting depressed! We took the offending foods out of his diet, and he began to read by leaps and bounds. His headaches were gone, and he reported a clear head as well. So, although things are much better than they were, it's still an issue to be dealt with, especially since we have to catch up, making up for lost time!

I have prayed long and hard about this for some time now. We have had discussions about how he is getting old enough that he needs to consciously pick his own path in life. Mom and Dad can't be with him 24 hrs. a day, for the rest of his life, to continually prod him along in the right direction. Choose productivity; choose a higher path; choose friends who encourage and build you up; choose excellence in all things! Just don't embrace apathy. Choosing nothing, by default, is choosing failure.

Well, I have good news to report. I have noticed improvements in this area. They may be nearly imperceptible at times, but they are improvements none the less. The other day, while I was in the shower and then dressing for the day, he sat down to do some school work all on his own. One subject had him stumped after a few pages, so he started on a second subject. He even influenced his younger brother to work on his school work too! (We have also longed for him to take a more active roll in encouraging his younger siblings instead of criticizing them.) This was just amazing to me, and I told him how proud of him I was. Now, just today, he told me he wanted to finish his math workbook in 6 days. We got out the calender and marked the days, giving him the weekend off. We did the math on the pages remaining in his book, and he has to do 22 pages every day to reach his goal, and thereby finish the book. I was a bit nervous with him setting such a lofty goal for himself. I know he doesn't need more failure. But today, he kept coming back to his open math book throughout the day, and actually completed 25 pages before he quit for the day. I corrected everything, and there were only a couple things that were incorrect.

So you see, I am quite excited about all this. I have been praying about his character flaws, and he knows it. I see him praying too, I just haven't asked him about what. But it's working! Yeah, it's starting to pay off. And thanks be to God above for these improvements. So, I will continue to pray for myself also; that God will grant me a few things: wisdom, patience, understanding, and LOVE for my son.

Family Dynamics

B has been called by others, "the rose between two thorns". I have mixed feelings about that saying. Yes, she is definitely a rose, so innocent and sweet. But my boys aren't necessarily thorns. However, being the youngest of 3 kids, and the only daughter of our family, she does indeed hold a special place in our hearts.

Before B came along, my hubby was known to say that, for us "Two kids is more than enough!" Once B joined our family, we certainly wouldn't ever dream of sending her back, but I am awestruck at God's wisdom to send her our way. People would often tell me that I needed a little girl because I "only" had 2 boys. I used to get a little upset by that. First of all, I had 2 wonderful, healthy boys, and a husband who loved me. What more could I want? That is so much more than some people have. I am so blessed. Secondly, what were they saying about the boys, anyway? That they weren't terrific kids whom I loved with my whole heart? When we found out we were expecting again, baby #3, H said that God would send us a girl because He knew that we needed a sister. Oh, the wisdom of a 5 yr. old boy! Yes, we needed a girl in our family, and we had yet to find out why.

It's amazing what she does for our family dynamics. She's still such a little girl, yet her influence is tremendous. We needed rescuing, of sorts, at least I did. How can one little girl accomplish that huge feat? Well, she helps bring our family into balance. With a husband who is very strong and "manly", and two hearty boys following in his footsteps, I might have been highly misunderstood. Add to that the fact that my hubby never had any sisters, so his understandings of the female gender were probably somewhat lacking, to put it mildly. : ) And I have never been good at explaining things to hubby. Somehow I feel like he should just *know* in his heart what makes me tick! That's horrible on my part, I know, but I can't help it. I still have lots of scars from childhood that are healing. But now, my husband can see how different our daughter is from our sons. This translates into how different I am from "the guys", because I am a girl too!

And the reverse is also true. Because we see how different B is from the boys, I can understand my boys so much better than I ever could have without her in our family. I also appreciate my husband a lot more too since she arrived. In truth, a lot of this lack of understanding about gender differences is because I didn't have a brother growing up, nor did I have the influence of a reliable, encouraging father figure for most of my upbringing. (I had a step-dad eventually, but not during the formative years. The damage had already been done.) How thankful I am, that God saw the gap in our family, and knew that we needed B. She helps my husband and boys appreciate me more, and she certainly helps me appreciate them too!

Now, I am by no means saying that other families have the same requirements, or needs that we had. I never tell someone that they must have a girl (or boy) in their family to make it complete. It really is a God-thing. He knew what was best for us, and provided it for us, even before we even knew what our need was! I also believe that sometimes God provides in very different ways, whether it be via understandings, healing, friends, or experiences, to fill in the gaps. It is not always with another child. Every family, every situation, is very different.

Bits and Pieces of Today

We had several things happen today that I can write about. First, we attended our last orchestra class. Today targeted the strings section. The gentleman holding the class brought his cello and his violin. He was very good and the kids could tell he had a genuine interest in them. He said his cello was worth $82,000.00 dollars. Yes, you read that right. His cello is also 215 yrs. old. That's amazing to me. The most expensive violin (or was it cello? can't remember!) sold for almost 10 million dollars, which is even more amazing. The most entertaining thing the teacher did today for the kids, was to play samples of all manner of different types of music: jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, heavy metal, and of course, classical. The kids, as well as the parents, had a great time trying to figure out what he was playing. Some of the songs were pretty deceptive and hard to recognize, since he could only play one line of the song, unlike the actual recorded piece like it may appear on the radio.

Before we left, the official orchestra people discussed with us HS moms that they may be willing to start some orchestral shows at a discounted price here in our county. They would be held in MD at a certain church which can hold quite a few people. So, we will be watching for those developments.

We came home, ate, and then did some school work after lunch. We were temporarily interuppted by a plethora of birds outside our window. We tried to identify several species of small birds, all catching bugs in the grass. We also saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds. We are glad to see them, as we have seen them before, but sparingly. We need to look into getting a birdhouse for them and see if they will move in. A couple hours later, we discovered the Robins have migrated through! We see them every year about this time. We counted upwards of 100 Robins in our front yard alone. It is common for them to be in a large group when they first come through, but then only a handful remain near our home the entire winter.

We also saw some escapees from our front window. Our neighbors across the way had a couple goats he had to relocate to another neighbor's property. (I can't tell you their names because then you would know where we live! They are named after the town....) Anyway, I knew they weren't supposed to be back so knew they must have escaped and come back home. We drove over to the new owners' house, and sure enough, they had gotten loose. We volunteered to help capture and relocate them, and proceeded to do so. It went well, and went back home for supper.

No sooner had we gotten started with supper preparations, when hubby came home and announced he had to go pick up our neighbor's teenage son's car. It was sitting stranded a couple blocks away. I later discovered, by talking to his mother, that he had just had an entire brake job completed on his classic car. New disc brakes, maybe? Evidently, the installers botched the job. While he drove it home, the father, who was following behind him, called on the cell phone and frantically informed him of a fire ball shooting flames from under the car! They pulled over, and managed to put the fire out with an extinguisher and massive handfuls and kicking of dirt that they threw on the flames. My hubby loaded up the car in his trailer and hauled it back to their house. They are next door neighbors to us. So, we are thankful that he is safe. It could have happened on the interstate, but happened close to home, on a dirt road, no less. Thankfully it did!

And finally, B caught a lizard on her own. She is quite proud and excited about the whole thing. She is no stranger to critters, and likes to hold all sorts of stuff. Must be that having 2 older brothers wears off on her.

Close Call, But Safe

This afternoon, we took a drive to visit my husband's parents at their home. It was a nice visit, and too soon we were on our way home. We had no sooner gotten on the freeway when somebody veered into our lane and sideswiped us on the road! C pulled the truck to the side of the road, and both vehicle's drivers got out to inspect the damage. I admit, I was a little nervous to see the other car was an "ex-cop car" with a spot-light mounted above the driver's-side side view mirror. It was dark outside, and for some reason I had visions of road rage or something. I calmly told the kids to offer up their prayers for safety, and sweet little B said her prayer out loud while I said mine silently. There is nothing that warms my heart like a little child's sweet prayer to Jesus. As it turns out, there was no damage to our truck, but there were plenty of black tire scuffs down the side of the other guy's car. My husband always says he feels safer with us in the truck. In this instance, it was definitely so. Thank you, Jesus.

Then, after we were back on the road, we witnessed a car weaving all over the road. I really hate to see drunk drivers on the streets. And it was only 8:30 p.m. Just another instance of why it's good practice to pray for protection on the roads.

And speaking of prayer, I am happy to know that my oldest son has his very first prayer partner. He's another boy his same age, and they have issues that are very common to them both. H is taking this promise to pray for his friend seriously. It warms my heart. I have noticed H taking more of an interest in heavenly matters lately, and I am so thankful for that. I am so blessed.