…let me count the ways…

My kids…how I LOVE them! Sweet hubby and I got away for a few days, leaving the kids in very capable loving arms!! These are just some of the precious notes they hid all through our luggage. Unfold a shirt…there’s a note. Go to get your toothbrush…there’s a note….open the laptop…
You guessed it….NOTE! SO fun!!

and yes…my sweet son will probably look at this picture when I show him and crack up that he left an ‘m’ out of Mommy. He was rushing around doing this just before we left…I knew he was up to something just wasn’t sure what. Sneaky thing!!

A Father’s love

(I can more understand the love of my heavenly father because of the amazing love of my earthly father!)

So I keep seeing this video on Facebook with this father smoking his cigarette, cussing, and supposedly ‘disciplining’ his child in regard to a mean post she posted on her Facebook about her parents.  If you are my friend on Facebook and you posted the video…I’m not talking directly to you….I had quite a few friends post it.

One of my closest friends I did email about it because we can share that way.   I shared that I was SO thankful that man wasn’t my Daddy.  Because quite frankly that Daddy got his feelings hurt and got angry about it and seems to me treated the daughter with as much respect as he was shown by her in regards to the post…which as I see it is a symptom.  I’m going to go to bed tonight praying for that father and daughter.  That by him posting that video and it going viral that their relationship is not permanently damaged because of him humiliating her and not choosing a punishment that truly taught her something but instead he is sadly mistaken that humiliation and equal disrespect will make her a better person….Because that’s just it.  It might ‘teach her’ to not do that again (she can’t he shot up her laptop) but it didn’t teach her to be a better person.  As I see it God’s love was not reflected through him in that discipline.  He didn’t take an interest seems to me (and I do not pretend to know them so this is only going based on the video…which is obviously VERY limited knowledge and I totally admit that) in sitting down and talking to his daughter.  Expressing concern for her feelings and sharing why her language was entirely inappropriate.  In fact he fussed at her for her language while using the same language himself….hmmmm…and talked about the consequences to posting on the internet…while posting a video that has now gone totally viral…

I don’t want to pick it apart. Because most of all it made me thankful….SO SO THANKFUL!!

So I’m also going to bed in a minute THANKING GOD for my Daddy!!  Who I was not always nice to and who I didn’t always treat the way I should have…and I Never ever could tell him enough how much I love and appreciate him!!  Who taught me how to love and be loved!  Who taught be about respecting elders and being kind. Who taught me how to be strive to be Godly and God-fearing.  Who hugged me daily. Listened to me.  Disciplined me with explantations and in love and made it his goal the day he learned I existed to help me get to heaven.  I’m also thankful that my Daddy spent every day praying that I could find a wonderful Godly man to be the Daddy to my children.  One who would love fiercely and discipline with thought and with love and with intent…thinking forward to what every action he makes means and how it will help our children in the future to be the Godly people we pray for them to be!!

yes yes, I’m thankful.  BEYOND thankful!!

UPDATE:  the father mentioned above has his Facebook page still completely public turns out (ACK!) and I need to say that according to that, he did sit and talk to his daughter after he posted the video and it seems they had some good talks.   That is good.  Now they are dealing with the repercussions of his actions and I think he’s totally aware of that.  I just want to ensure to give accurate info as I know it.

After Twelve comes thirTEEN!

So hard for me to believe that my MaryKyle is TWELVE today!!  It’s tradition that her bedroom door be decorated so she could emerge this morning as a TWELVE year old!!  Mommy was having to do that late because MK had a tough time falling asleep last night.  First, last night she and a friend put on a delightful violin concert for us and we served desserts…which meant chocolate…which for MK means it’s tough to go to sleep (she’s not crazed just awake) , and then her brother had been telling her how much she’d LOVE her b’day present.  Which of course just tortured her.  So she was pretty pumped up and excited!!

(modeling her kindle coat and hat – over her PJ’s)

She did LOVE her Kindle!!  We had it preloaded with stuff like Austen, Dickens, and Shakespere.  Some of her favorites!!  She’s a total bookworm this daughter of ours just like her Aunts!  It’s a win win since Amazon has the classics free for Kindle!!!  Yay!!  She’s so pumped about having so many books at her fingertips.  I wasn’t so sure about Kindles and losing the beauty of a paper book and flipping pages.  But this child reads through books like I eat Junior Mints. We just can’t keep enough books in the house for her.

Next year at this time we’ll have a teenager, but that’s okay. As freaky as that sounds, I’m honored to be her mother and I am really enjoying watching her become a young lady.

True love….

photo by JenniferGMills photography  (what a perk having a close friend with such talents!)

When MK and JM were little we were always hearing comments in regards to their friendship like “enjoy it while it lasts before long they’ll be ready to kill each other, etc” But we’ve yet to see that happen.  These two love and appreciate each other.  They are close friends.  Yes they argue.  But not tons.  Even when they do, they maintain their friendship. In fact they get really sad when they are with friends who complain about their sibling/s. That doesn’t make sense to them and they talk about how much they are missing out on “if they only realized how great it is!”    Now Jeremiah has entered the picture…and our hearts melt even more.  They simply ADORE him.  Change diapers, pick him up when he’s sad, Love on him tons.  Today he had to get shots and they gave him tons of kisses as he and I left the house (Daddy was at home with the big kids so they could complete their schoolwork) and we were greeted as soon as the car was heard in the driveway brother and sister ready with kisses and love.   We pray for our kid’s relationship. Have from the time John Mark was born.  And we give God the praise and the glory for building such an amazing friendship among them.  We just could not be more thankful!!  It’s an absolute joy to watch them interact!

Today I mourn

Today I learned of the loss of my wonderful Crohn’s Dr.

As my husband said it would be excessively hard for anyone to understand how sad this makes us.  How it changes things for me.  She knew me.  She knew my intestines.  I knew her practices, how she would treat me; that she wouldn’t pump meds into me without it being necessary, that she would not let me be on pain meds indefinitely…because she wouldn’t make me live with the pain without finding treatment.  I knew I could email her with any issues and I would get a prompt response.  I knew that if I went in to see her for an appt and didn’t take my kids I’d get fussed at and get the 3rd degree on what was going on in their lives.  We had sons together.  Mine by birth, her’s by heart….she went on a trip overseas, went to make a donation at an orphanage and walked out with a beautiful baby boy. With no idea what to feed him, how to transport him, etc.  I loved her stories, she loved to ask me for advice and ideas, etc.  We loved our kids and to talk about them!!  I loved this woman.  I loved the life she provided for me.  She was my advocate.  She let me be an active part in my treatments, she made sure MY voice was heard…

She thought outside the box.  When I’d worked through every medication available in the US to no avail at one point in my battle, she knew  of a drug that the FDA hadn’t gotten to market yet and put me in touch with a pharmacy in Canada that had it.

Then, when I was past all drug options and needed surgery, the surgeon she wanted to oversee my surgery did not want to take on my complicated case.  She persisted.  She would only consider 3 surgeons in the country to perform my surgery and he was her top choice and she would not give up.  Eventually, with her constant prodding, he conceded to meet with my husband and me and thankfully then agreed to take my case.   I’m so thankful because he was close to home and the others would not have been.  She knew what my kids do for me and not having them close would have been horrid.

You don’t realize what a blessing a Dr that truly listens to you and knows you and has your entire case history in her files (and brain) is…til you don’t have that.  Knowing that I don’t have her at the end of my email is devastating to me.  Because I’ve been so healthy for so long now our contact has been minimal the last 5-6 years.  My last email exchange was 2 years ago and she was out on leave.  I had an appt with her, but wasn’t sure I could make it til she was back so I’d asked her advice in case and actually told her in that email exchange how much I appreciated her & I asked her recommendation of someone, just in case I couldn’t wait.  I was so thank ful to see that this morning. To know that I’d told her how awesome she is.  Even though I know I did a few months after that when I did see her (I was able to make it til my appt) when she was back from her leave.  I always did.

I feel like I owe her my health.  My ability to be what I am now.  To be the Mommy I am, the wife I am, to be a foster Mommy, to travel to Honduras, to eat.  Yes that’s right, even to eat.  Most that know me now that didn’t know me then don’t realize how I know what a blessing just putting solid food in my mouth is.  But I do.  And I give thanks to God for providing me a wonderful, gifted, caring Dr like Dr Sitaraman that helped me  see the blessings in my life that I took so for granted.

I don’t talk about my Crohn’s disease very much.  Not because it bothers me to, not at all, only because I never want it to define who I am.  It didn’t at my sickest and it will not going forward.  God blessed me when he brought Dr Sitaraman into my life.  He knew we were a good match, that she would not want it to define me as much as I was adamant that it wouldn’t.  He knew she would fight for my body’s health not just to be able to document my case, but because she cared about ME!!  I wish I could thank her one more time……I hope she knew how much of a difference she made in the LIVES of so many!!