A Sweet Note

Today was a hard day.  The past few days have been hard days.  Two days ago our washer temporarily flooded a few rooms in our home as it decided to not stop filling with water.  Thank goodness I was in the kitchen as it happened so I was able to stop the water almost immediately.  It took every towel in our house and a few from the neighbors to get the water mess cleaned up.  It turns out the only way our washing machine will stop filling now is if it is on the smallest cycle.  It's probably time for a new one. Daniel has not been feeling well and yesterday he threw up all over his bedding.  Having his bedding, along with every towel in the house, along with sports uniforms and our normal laundry make the days harder when you are stuck washing small  loads.

It was also hard because some days home schooling is just plain hard.  Household tasks and home schooling have become more challenging to do together as the school stuff of five different kids in five different grades takes most of my time.  Doing laundry is especially challenging as I feel like I need to baby sit the washer so we do not have a major flood.  The kids have attitudes and demands that need to be taken care of and some that need to be corrected.  I have my own attitudes and responses (that also sometimes need correction :)). combined with expectations and often the days do not go as planned.

Today did not go as planned.

As I mentioned, Daniel is not feeling well.  But neither is Drew.  I took them both to the pediatrician today.  Daniel had an ear infection and Drew needed further treatment for his cough, so it was good that we went.  However, it took up most of the day.  I got me ready, Daniel ready and fed everybody lunch, then we headed to the doctor appointment.

As we were walking out the door on the way to the doctor, my sweet Lizzy starts lecturing me on how she can't believe I haven't corrected her math yet...oh sweet child.  Oh sweet, sweet child.

The doctors office was crazy as Daniel wanted no part of being examined today.  He tried to bite me as I held him for the doctor to look in his ears.  It took three of us to hold him to get his throat swabbed.  I was sweating by the end.  I think the nurse and doctor may have been too.  Drew just kept saying "wow".  Yes, wow. I know the sweet boy is just over doctors offices and being examined and touched, but sometimes it is necessary and sometimes it is hard.

As we entered our home again it was nearly three.  So I corrected that math!  And tried to sit down and relax for a minute.

Then off I went a little bit later to take the boys to church activities while Brent stayed back and took Abby to softball practice.

Sometimes when days are like today they do not seem so hard.  But today felt hard.  I felt weary, I am sure partly from being up a lot throughout the night before. So the sweet note I found taped to my door tonight was especially sweet.  It was from my Abby,

I love how she added "...and for doing the laundry...".  Sweet girl.  Laundry has definitely been one of my challenges the past few days.  I  am so thankful that she took the time to write this tonight.  It was just the encouragement my weary heart needed.  

Lizzy's Love for the Orphans

Some of you may remember me posting in the past about Lizzy's love for orphans.  She has had a sweet and care filled heart towards kids without a mommy and daddy since the tender age of four.  This first came from sweet lullabies by Twila Paris that my girls used to listen to every night when falling asleep.  One night, about thirty minutes after I had tucked the girls into bed, I heard Lizzy start crying hysterically.  I went running into her bedroom panicked and said "What's wrong sweetie?"  Her sweet tear filled response brought me to tears as she said, "Who wouldn't have a mommy or a daddy?"  I crawled up into her top bunk and held her and said, "Honey where is this coming from?"  I will never forget her little four year old voice saying, "The song just said, 'And if you don't have a mommy or a daddy He'll take care of you. But who wouldn't mommy?  WHO wouldn't?'"  And so our first real talk about orphans took place in that little bunk bed, late one night, and Lizzy's heart to want to help the orphans was born.

She has been hard at work ever since.

Here is a blogpost I wrote about one of her projects from 2012:
A Heart for the Orphans

And here are some photos from the Harrison's visit last fall with the two sweet kids her project making efforts helped to bring home in 2014!  Ruthie and Seth grew the Harrison's from a family of five to a family of seven!!

I LOVE all of these kids pictured so much!  My heart was overwhelmed watching Seth and Ruthie play and interact and just be there with us.  Seth was found on a riverbank in China, naked and starving as a newborn infant.   He is a miracle boy as it is amazing he survived.  He struggles with seizures, but how wonderful to see him now being cared for and loved on by such a wonderful family.  Praise God for his sweet life!  And dear Ruthie's too.  Her middle name is Joy, the Harrison's said inspired by our family and also shared by our own Lizzy Joy.

Lizzy is still hard at work helping the orphans.  Her latest creation has been cute little pot holders.  And this past month for the first time, Lizzy has some of her wonderful craft creations put in a retail setting.  My friend Francesca has a fabulous little store at the Mercantile in our city and she has let Lizzy put up a display to sell her creations to help the orphans!!  This has been and incredible opportunity for Lizzy and I am so proud of her hard work!  This is what her display there looks like:

May God bless your efforts sweet Lizzy!  I love your desire to help orphans.  You have such huge heart!  I love you so very much and I am glad that I get to be your mommy.

"Discover Dallas" Part 1

About this time 9 years ago, Brent attended a "Discover Dallas" day at Dallas Theological Seminary. Before attending, he was pretty certain that if he was accepted this was what he wanted to do for the next step in his life as he felt God leading in this direction.  He was a pharmacist with the heart of a missionary after Jesus forever changed his life.

Let me back up a little, when Brent and I were first married we were regular church attenders and even in leadership positions within the church we attended.  However, it was not until I was invited to a bible study and began to read and study God's word for the first time that I realized I did not know the God of the bible.  I did not know Jesus.  And I knew that Brent did not either.  I was 23 years old at the time and for all of those years before, I had heard about Jesus, knew of him (like as an outsider looking in), and most definitely would have said "yes" if someone asked me "Do you believe in Jesus?".  The problem was I didn't know what believing in Jesus meant.

My now dear friend Shawn attended the bible study I was going to.  My dear friend Kristi had invited me and I remember how it took me nearly three weeks to get up the courage to ask her what kind of bible she (and everyone else!) was using because mine sounded nothing like that!  This was because the only bible I had was one given to me at our wedding, and it was an Old King James version still with "Thee's" and "Thou's" and different language.  What a relief it was when I finally had an NIV Life Application Study Bible!!  I remember meeting Shawn here for the first time, she was pregnant (and would be for almost all the rest of the time I lived in Grand Forks as she has 10 beautiful children!)  and was always so relaxed.  One week I politely asked her how many kids she had and she told me this was her 5th.  I said something like,  "FIVE!  You have FIVE kids?!?  Oh my goodness, I have ONE.  And I am freaking out.  How are you always so calm?"

From the time I met her I envied her peace.

From the time I met Kristi I loved her genuine care and concern.  And how she loved to laugh!

I was seeing Jesus in these ladies.  And I am forever grateful for how God used them along with His Word to help draw me to Himself.  When Shawn had her sweet fifth baby boy a few weeks later, I signed up to bring her a meal.  I was so excited to be going to her house!  I did not know what it was about her, but I just wanted to be near her!!  Looking back now and having some knowledge of what it like to have your fifth baby with four others running around, Shawn was probably not necessarily wanting me to stick around upon delivering her family a meal!!  If you know Shawn though, the gift of hospitality is definitely a part of who she is, so if she minded that I stayed around a little longer than the average meal deliverer she did not let on at all.

 We ended up sitting together at her kitchen table and while we were talking she asked me, "So how did you come to know the Lord?"

How did I come to know the Lord?

How did I come to know the Lord?

Ummmm, How did I come to KNOW the Lord?!?

My mind reeled.  What on earth was she asking??  Know the Lord?  Ummmmmm, Hmmmmm, well I've always gone to church. These were the things playing through my mind.

Shawn must have sensed my distress and started to offer suggestions and I nodded to one of ones she threw out there.  And our conversation went on.  But my mind was still on that question.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  And I did not have a the courage to ask.

I continued to go to bible study and as I read God's Word I was amazed at what I saw, what I was learning, and I was so excited!  If any of you reading this were in that first bible study with me, thank you for being so gracious to me!!!!  I was a mess, I know!  This was in the spring of 2002. In addition to the bible study, I had also begun reading a book called "Praying God's Will for Your Life" and on the 2nd day's reading there was a clear Gospel presentation.  I read the explanation of how all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and how that sin separates us from God.  In order for God to bring us back to himself, He sent His son Jesus who took our sin and the punishment for our sin when he died on the cross at Calvary.  And three days later He rose from the dead, conquering death once and for all! I read that if you place your faith and your trust in what Jesus did for you, you will live forever with God in heaven.  Then there was a prayer you could pray telling the Lord how you realized you are a sinner and need Jesus to be your Savior.

On that very day, May 8th, 2002, I got down on my knees in my bedroom and asked Jesus to be my Savior.  I had said His name throughout my whole life, but had never truly known what it meant to know him as my Lord until this day.

And knowing Jesus has forever changed my life.

I was hoping to share how that lead into Brent's trusting in Jesus a few months later, but I guess that will have wait until next time.  I have to go pick up my boys!  With two teenagers, it seems I am always in my van these days.  :)

So I guess this one is To be Continued...it may take awhile to actually get to the "Discover Dallas Day"...  :)

Make-A-Wish BNSF Railway Train Ride

Today our family went on a train ride.

It was a first for all of us.

In November of this year, Daniel is going to have his wish granted through Make-A-Wish.  Almost every day for the past 7 months, Daniel has asked us to "go".  He wants to go back to Disney World and kiss Minnie Mouse, give Goofy knuckles and spend some time with his buddy Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates). When we went to see Dr. Ivy in Colorado this past August, he told the team there that he wanted to "go" too.  We have known since Daniel was 2 years old that he was eligible to "make a wish".  However, Brent and I have wanted to wait.  We wanted to wait until Daniel was old enough to make his own wish, even if it meant that we might not have the opportunity.

Many doctors never thought Daniel would turn 5.  2 for that matter!  Now he is almost 6 and clearly asking to "go".  So with the gentle suggestion of Dr. Ivy's Nurse practitioner we decided it was time.

As we have met the people responsible to granting Daniel's wish, we have found out that in North Texas there are other events that "wish" kids get to participate in for the rest of their lives!  One of them being this awesome train ride event that is put on by BNSF Railway.  We had such a fun day.  Daniel had such a fun day!  My big boys were skeptical about how much fun it would be and had so many questions leading up to it, but 2 seconds on that train and everyone was talking about "next time"!  They all loved it.  I loved it.

The staff from Make-A-Wish handed out little "prizes" to the kids.  Most of them were from the Oriental Trading Company.  Really not meant to be more that a couple hours of fun for one afternoon.  However, Lizzy chose a miniature Boggle game.   Daniel loved that tiny little toy (in the photo below...the very corner of the photo sitting on the table...and in his hand with his new friend Jackson) as much as anything else today.  It was a permanent fixture for the 3 plus hours we spent on the train and even again at home tonight.

In fact just the mention of the word "BOGGLE" and Daniel fell apart laughing.  So hard he fell down sometimes! So many of the people on the train enjoyed watching this.  His joy is contagious!!  And it was so fun to watch him have such a wonderful day.

The other kids had equally as good of day.

I surprised my girls with lollipops! I loved how big their eyes got when I pulled these out of the bag!

The boys were surprised with fried pickles (a favorite of both!!) and miniature lollipops as I wasn't sure if they would be too old for the giant ones.  Drew told me, "Mom, we're never too old for giant candy". Lesson learned!

And I think they all ate enough candy that was given away on the train to last a year!  Soda too!!  :-)

Daniel had one of his favorites too, ketchup with a side of fries.  That boy could eat his weight in ketchup and then some!

We had such a wonderful day. The photos will hopefully help me to always remember this time we had together. Oh, and just so you know...the photos where my nose is red...that was not optional, the clown would not take "no" for an answer!  lol!

Days like today are such a gift. Thank you Jesus.

Eight Years

Eight Years.

Wow.  Eight years ago I started this blog.  Eight years.

I started it shortly after our family had sold and gave away most of our earthly possessions and moved across country for my husband to attend Seminary.  Pharmacist turned Missionary. That can happen when the Lord Jesus changes your life! Jesus changed ours so much that we could not imagine doing anything but serving him fully for the rest of our lives.  Still cannot.   Only everything has ended up looking so differently from what we thought when we left the life we had started in Grand Forks.

We now are small town transplants to big city life.  What we thought would be a few temporary school years in Dallas, has become our home.  My girls and Daniel remember nothing else and my big boys remember, but know nothing but this life now.  We never imagined this would become our permanent residence.  Brent may not have ever come!  He is not a city man.  But I marvel at how God knew.  He knew that our move across country was not the first of many (like we thought!) but the first of three.  One to a tiny two bedroom apartment on Dallas Seminary Campus.  The second to a tiny rental house in the suburbs of Dallas after finding our we would have our 5th child (we were not allowed to stay in student housing with 5 kids).  And the third being to a house we would purchase here in the suburbs of Big D.  Here we plan to stay (for many reasons that I hope to write about in the coming weeks/months) unless of course the Lord calls us somewhere else.  We are limited in destinations though, as the baby of our family is dependent on the medical care we receive here.  

I have not written on here for almost a year.  Some sites that were showing up as having accessed my humble little blog scared me off for awhile.  I have since changed the address and found out that it was all probably harmless.  It just spooked me enough to not want to share.  In the past months, I have been encouraged by a handful of people to start writing out our story.  In bits and pieces and some huge chunks, I already have here on this blog and also on Daniel's caring bridge site.  At first, I thought of starting a new blog, but decided to stay with my original.  I could not think of a better title.

Consider It All Joy.

Eight years ago I had no idea what those words would mean in my life.

At the time we were facing a major neurosurgery for our baby girl Abby shortly after moving to Dallas.  She was 10 days old when we left North Dakota and moved to the seminary campus.  She was 8 weeks when we found out she would need this surgery done.  We were jobless, because Brent's pharmacy license for Texas got hung up on a desk for 7 months (he did not start working until late January that first year).  We quickly became broke as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas charged us $2720/month to have insurance stating they considered Abby's condition "pre-existing" as she was born in North Dakota.  They were the only insurance that would pick us up and only because legally they had to.  And they ended up not covering $25,000.00 of her surgery.

Being jobless, having huge bills to pay, having normal life to pay for, moving across country and not really knowing anyone, facing a huge neurosurgery for our baby girl, those were the conditions under which I started this blog and titled it:

Consider It All Joy

It comes from James 1:2-4

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Consider It All Joy.

I wonder if I would have chosen those words to title my blog if I would have had any idea what that would mean in the coming years.  The suffering that was to ensue.  If I would have known that our current situation would pale in comparison to what was to come.  The horrors I would see.  The hours, days, months I would spend in the walls of a hospital.  The number of times I would hold a blue, lifeless baby boy.

I thought that we faced financial challenges when I started this blog.  At that time we still had retirement, some savings.  I wonder if I would have chosen those words if I would have realized that every earthly thing was going to be taken except for the clothes on our backs, the little furniture we possessed and the old cars we drove.

I wonder if I would have chosen those words if I had known that we wouldn't just face medical challenges, but that we would live with a terminal, hideously horrific disease that would daily threaten the life of our youngest child.

I wonder if I would have chosen those words if I would have known our whole dream and vision for what we would do in the future would be no more.

Consider It All Joy.

I did not know.  I could not have known.  I would not have wanted to know.  But God knew.  And as I have trusted Him, He has not failed me.  Not once.

As I said at the beginning, I started this little blog when Brent started seminary.  Lord willing, he will graduate this May!  I am so proud of his perseverance.   I cannot wait for him to wear that cap and gown.  I am definitely going to need some waterproof mascara that day.  We could have never known or imagined what this seminary journey would like, but in it I have learned of the faithfulness of God in all circumstance.  This is what I hope to record, if for nothing else for my children to know, to have a written record of the story of God's faithfulness in our lives.

Consider It All Joy.