Topsy-Turvy

This post has to be quick because everything is going topsy-turvy. We knew Daughter of Purpose was scheduled for her procedure tomorrow, but were told we'd have time to drive up in the morning. Ahh!! They just called to tell us that because she is youngest, she goes first and her arrival time to the hospital is 5:30 am!!

It looks like the procedure may really be happening this time so please keep us in your prayers!

Prayers for Health

Daughter of Purpose will return to Shriners Hospital next week for the long-awaited procedure. Previously it had been cancelled. So far it has not been cancelled, but she does have a stuffy nose. I have heard her nose get stuffed with no other symptoms before so maybe it's nothing, but just in case...please cover her (and us) in prayer so that she will make it to this appointment.


As I have stated in the past posts, she will be sedated, but only because of her age. It is a 30 minute procedure and we should be in and out the same day. Also, please pray for her as we send her off into the hands of a stranger for the procedure and for her recovery time as the anesthesia wears off. Thanks for praying!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Please Pray!

Please pray for this family. We recently started reading the blog of this family. This past week, their house burned down to the ground. You can read more about them at A Place Called Simplicity. If you click to here, you can help nominate them for Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Editor's note: I just went back and read this. There were all kinds of typos in this. Why didn't anyone tell me?

Where Have I Been?

It's been awhile since I've blogged and when I do it sure seems sporadic. Sorry everyone. I just haven't been in the blogging mood lately--even on my other blog. Can't really think of a good reason why. Just haven't felt like sitting on the computer more than I already do. There's plenty to blog, but for now I'm going to share with you some pictures of what's been happening this week. Later I hope to get back to filtering through our Christmas pictures and posting some of those for you to see the first Christmas of Daughter of Purpose.

This week, we've had the privilege of Extreme Makeover Home Edition coming to our town. It has been quite exciting. I am proud to say that we are a part of a church family that rallied together and raised $25,000.28 to help the very deserving family pay off their mortgage. Since Nate was the contact person for our church, he was considered a VIP and was able to take us with him one of the days (other days we went down as regular spectators). These are a few of the pictures we took while there with Nate and a few are with some friends when we went down there together.

The pictures from the VIP day are mainly in the VIP tent because while Nate and I got an up-close look, the kids stayed in the tent and were treated to free food. I was happy that it was relatively healthy since it was Chick-Fil-A. The kids sure had a good time with the cow that says, "Eat Mor Chikin." They also thought the bus ride was a kick. I was all for going down every day to see the progress and was willing to stand there for hours on the "reveal day" to help "move that bus", but when I asked the kids what their favorite part of the VIP day was and they focused in on the free food and playing with the cow--well, I decided it wasn't going to worth all of my efforts. In retrospect, I am glad I made that decision because the "reveal" was later than scheduled. So I would've been standing out there for about 8 hours. No thank you!

We are thankful for the part that we played. We are grateful to be externally focused and to have played a part in making an impact in life of a very deserving family in our community. I don't want to give much more away about the home or the family before the episode airs on March 8th, but I want to go on record as saying that I look forward to the day when Daughter of Purpose is older and we can reminisce about this time. I cannot wait to use the mother of this family as an example to my daughter about how she can do anything. It doesn't matter that she has weak muscles in her legs. God will use her no matter what limitations her body might have.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Card Player

Although the days inside are long during the winter, there is one thing that I love about these colder months. We have a home that is freezing downstairs so we are driven to live a lot of our time upstairs in the coziness of our master bedroom (if we had a kitchen up there I don't think we'd ever leave). Part of our room is like a sitting area so I've created it to be a game and puzzle area for all of us to enjoy--and enjoy it we do!

The problem with this area of our house though is that with all of those puzzles and games--all of the pieces explode on a regular basis. So this year for Christmas, I gave myself a $30 gift of organization and tackled that particular area of our home. I am so glad I did because we have spent a large portion of our vacation time doing my favorite winter activity...playing board games and doing puzzles. We can now see the forest for the trees and the kids can clearly see the "homes" of each item. The older kids have been having a "Clue Fest" and playing detective. The younger ones have been playing "Guess Who" and being junior detectives.

In the midst of all of this game playing though has been Daughter of Purpose trying to figure out what's going on. The other night I finally landed on a game that she could play and she is now so delighted to play along with us--especially with her handy card holder. Now she can be her own team instead of having to be on Mommy or Daddy's team for a more complex game. It's like a junior Uno or Winnie the Pooh Uno. It's perfect for her color, number and matching skills. Here is a picture of the happy card player that can now join in on a winter family tradition.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Tomatoes

Never have a met such a child as Daughter of Purpose. You see we are not a tomatoe kind of family, but yet Daughter of Purpose regularly walks around the house with a snack bag full of cut up tomatoes as a snack. Since tomatoes just don't make it onto our menu, I'm not quite sure how I figured it out, but she absolutely loves them. They are like candy to her. Even though in the past I never bought tomatoes, they have become a regular thing for me to buy since I really can't complain about her snack choice!

Just the other night, Daughter of Purpose went to the grocery store with me. In the produce section we stumbled upon "grape tomatoes." I had no idea they existed, but if you were in that part of the store with us, you would've thought she'd won the lottery! She even came up with a plan of how to get her siblings to eat them with her because she knows she is alone in her love of tomatoes in our home. She decided that I should serve them up as grapes--telling her siblings they were grapes and they would surely enjoy them with her. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they'd probably notice the red color right away and know I was telling a fib!

Well, I got out those grape tomatoes today and she couldn't have been happier.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."