An update from my uncle.

This is Jim, writing from my sister Kathy's Facebook page. I am overwhelmed with gratitude as I sit here and read the notes from all the people who are praying for my dear wife. I have never experienced this kind of pain before, though 50 years ago this past April, as an 11 year old boy, I watched my father die with this same disease. That was hard...this is devastating. I have tried not to question God in all of this; I recognize His sovereignty and accept His will for Anna's life. But I must admit that I don't even come close to understanding. I thought perhaps He was waiting for me to lift the ban on visitors so that my immediate family and Anna's siblings could come and see her. I did that yesterday, much to the chagrin of my precious wife. I could tell she was agitated by all the commotion and sensed a bit of displeasure with me for having violated her wishes. All four of her sisters got to see her and say goodbye. My son and daughter and their children got to say goodbye. My three sisters have seen her and two are with me even now, lest I be alone when the time comes for Him to welcome her home. This morning, reading from the Daily "Crouton", as Pastor Marks so affectionately called The Daily Bread, I read about a Matter of Perspective. The last paragraph says, "When we simply cannot understand why God allows circumstances that threaten to overwhelm us, it is good to remember that He has our good and His glory in mind. If we can say, "Father, please enable me to trust and honor You in this situation," then we will be in concert with His perspective and plan." Anna's concern in all of this, from the beginning until the point where she could no longer communicate clearly, was "How am I glorifying God in all of this?" I can tell you that all of the perceptions you folks have of my Anna are accurate. She is the epitome of the Proverbs 31 woman. A prayer warrior, a giving, caring woman who dedicated her life to helping people through times like she is presently going. When God commanded us to "Be holy, for I am holy.", to the best of her ability she heeded His command. I know no one who is as concerned about being holy as much as she is. Even now, in her distress, she wonders how she can glorify the Father in heaven. I have no idea what He has in mind for me. Anna has been part of my life since July of 1964, weeks before my 15th birthday. When she finally graduates to heaven I will be relieved for the end to her suffering, but my nightmare without her will continue on from the nightmare that I'm enduring right now, watching her suffer. And still, I trust Him...He who sent His only Son to die for me. For those of you reading this who have not trusted your life to Christ, I beg you to do that right now. I couldn't care less what church affiliation you have. Religion is man reaching up to God...Christianity is God reaching down to man. I teach my AWANA children how simple it is to be saved...as simple as A,B,C. First, you have to admit you're a sinner. If you're not a sinner, you don't need a Savior. But God's word tells us that you are a sinner. (Romans 3:23) Then, you must believe that Jesus is who He said he was...the Son of God. But that's not the end. Many think the C is confess. But that's taken care of when you believe. The C is Choose. My Sparkies love this story. Let's pretend I have the ability to shut you in a room that is totally devoid of light. On the other side of the room is a door that you can get out. But there are numerous traps that will take your life if you try to get out in the dark. Before I leave you, I place a flashlight in front of you. You choose to get out of the room on your own, rejecting the gift that I gave you. You die. Don't blame me! I gave you everything you needed to get out, but you rejected it. God gave you everything you need to enter Heaven. Accept His free gift of eternal life right now. To not accept Christ is to reject Him. The best way to honor Anna in all that she's going through is to ask Christ to save you. I love all of you. Please continue to pray for God's mercy in Anna's struggle right now. God bless you all.

Deep Breath

I am thankful that we haven't had many scares as parents.

We had the first real one while I was pregnant with Titus. Lucinda and Valentine we climbing up Lucinda's dresser to get something off the top and the dresser fell over on them. Lucinda was able to pull her foot out and just had a scratch but Valentine was trapped under the dresser. The cd player (90s version, nice and big and very heavy) was being held by the plug in the wall. If it had come out of the wall it would have smashed his face. I ran into the room as soon as I heard the crash but I couldn't pull Valentine out and keep the drawers from falling out onto him. I screamed for Jake. He came in and moved the dresser. I pulled Valentine out and he didn't have a scratch on him. God was good.

The second one was when Titus was just 6 months old. We were driving home from a visit in Pennsylvania and stopped at a Wendy's for a bathroom break and some french fries. Jake took the older 2 into the bathroom while I waited in the lobby for them with Titus. It was about 8pm. Two men came in with ski masks on and guns swinging and robbed the restaurant. That was a very scary very traumatic experience for me. For all of us. I haven't been to a Wendy's since that day. And will never go to a Wendy's again.

Well, yesterday has been added to our list of scary experiences as parents. We've had kids come down with croup before but it never got this bad. Titus started showing signs of croup Saturday when he woke up from his nap. I did what I had done in the past with the other kids. Took him in the bathroom and let the water run hot to help open his airways. It didn't help. Not even a little. But he didn't seem any worse so we went through the day and as long as he was moving he was okay. Then during the night he was up every hour coughing and struggling to breathe. He slept in bed with us for some of the night and when I was watching him sleep I could see how hard it was for him to breathe. He was gasping for air. Every breath was very shallow. And he had a fever. So we decided it was time to take him to the ER. After two epinephrine breathing treatments, a shot of steroids and constant oxygen he wasn't improving. The hospital we went to didn't have a pediatric unit so they decided to transfer him to a near by hospital with a wonderful peds unit. He stayed there for 3 hours and was discharged after showing some improvement. He came home with a prescription for steroids for the next 3 days and he's acting more like himself today. Still not 100% but much better than he was. He still has a pretty bad cough but at least he can breathe now! Great it His faithfulness! We are so thankful that we decided to take him in and not wait any longer. We are so thankful that God took care of Titus and opened his airways.

Now we can all take a deep breath. Praise God!

Vacation

So tomorrow morning we will be packing into the SUV and head off to Tennessee. That may sound really exciting for some of you but for me it sounds like doom. Ten hours of driving with three little kids, with out my husband!! We plan to split up the driving to two days. But the way back will be all in one shot. I hope we can survive it.

It doesn't sound much like vacation. Jake will be back to Pennsylvania in two days. We leave tomorrow. So we will miss each other by one day! Then we will be in TN for nine days. I think this will be the longest that we've ever been apart. And I have never driven this far with the kids and I have never driven any length without his help.

Please pray for us. I'm sure we will have a good time but we are all missing Jake. I really miss his help and support. It won't feel like a vacation without the head of our household.

Does absence really make the heart grow fonder?

This morning I said goodbye to my dear husband (with *many, many* tears). We won't see each other for two whole weeks! He is flying out to Oklahoma for more training and the kids and I will be headed to Tennessee on Thursday, we will be gone for nine days. We will miss each other by one stinking day.

So does absence really make the heart grow fonder? Do we really love our missing spouse more when they've been away for weeks? I'm not sure. When Jake is gone I can't sleep, I'm depressed and the kids are super grumpy. And I won't lie, it's nice when he gets home from work to have someone help me with the kids. He is usually the one who gets them to bed. By the end of the day I'm about to pass out already. Now I'm "on duty" from 6am to 7pm (except the baby-not a baby anymore, I need to stop calling him that...) takes over an hour to get to sleep! Tonight it took nearly two hours. And I know what you're thinking, that I should put the kids down later because they're probably not tired at 7pm. Oh no my friend, they. are. tired. No matter what time they go to bed, 7pm, 10pm, midnight, they still are up at 6am. With out fail. So I might as well put them to bed at 7 so I can have a few extra hours of rest for me. The older two kids don't take naps so they're underfoot all day. Titus only takes one nap a day and it's usually only for an hour some days I get a glorious two hours. But those days are rare.

I don't know how I'll survive 12 days without him. I miss him all day and now I'll be missing him at night too. I sound like a adolescent but we really do love each other this much. How many people do you know have been married to their high school sweetheart and still are head over heals in love with them almost 10 years later? Not many. I am so thankful for the love we have for each other.

God has blessed us abundantly. I can see how much He loves us through the little things in life. He blesses me with a husband who loves me with all my (countless!) flaws, He blesses us with beautiful children, He blesses us with family who is gracious enough to let us live with them while our house in VA sells and we look for a house here. There are more blessings I can't even list them all. I am SO blessed!

So now, Lord, put the rock under my feet so I don't drown. I need You to keep my head above water. You are my Solid Rock, all other grounds are sinking sand.

Please pray for me and the kids as we struggle through these next two weeks as a single parent household. Tennessee will be fun but I will be missing my man. And I know he will be missing us! He has as hard of a time being apart as I do.

Another prayer request

A fellow sister in Christ was diagnosed with cancer. She's young (35 or so). She had bad news this week. The cancer has spread. She only has a few more months to live on this earth. Please pray for her and her family, her husband and 2 sons (11 yrs and 9 yrs). Her name is Rachel. Her family has been family friends since before any of us (cousins) were born. I think I have met her once or twice but I don't know her personally. Please be in prayer for them. Here is the link to her sisters blog she started to give updates on Rachel.

www.rachelsharvestofhope.blogspot.com

Your prayers would be appreciated.

My aunt was taken to the hospital this past Monday morning at 5:30am. She was up during the night w/ nausea & pain. In the hospital, the surgeon they were going to consult with this coming Thursday met them & admitted her. Please pray for wisdom for my aunt and uncle as they make treatment decisions. She seems to have a mass in her colon she was put on IV fluids and has been restricted from eating or drinking from the mouth. This is very difficult for her since she has always complained about a dry mouth (that's what I heard from my cousin, her daughter). Please pray for my family. We're not sure what's going on but this is very scary for us all. Your prayers are coveted.

Cloth Diapering.

Titus

Titus and Valentine

Titus the gbaby.

Cloth diapers. Here are pros and cons for me on this certain brand of cloth diapers. I've only used 3 different kinds but this is the kind I've used the most.

I generally like the gdiapers. I went with them because my son was having allergic reactions to disposable diapers at the time. He has since grown out of it.

Pros~

You can purchase them at yourlocal Babies r us (we needed different diapers asap and these were the only ones we could buy in a store).

You can choose to do true cloth diapering or if you're travelling you can opt for the disposable insert.

They have a plastic liner so if the baby leaks off the cloth you can just replace the liner and use the same cover. I have used the same cover for a week and it doesn't have an odor at all.

They have really cute patterns (this isn't THAT huge of deal for me but it is a pro. :)

They're generally priced reasonably.

Cons~

The liners are biodegradable so they start breaking down once you start washing them. I would only put them in the wash if they had been soiled. If they had urine on them I would just rinse them and use soap and my hand.

The gcloth doesn't seem to be quite big enough to fill the liner. They may have fixed this problem since I bought my stash but it was annoying and deff helped add to my soiled liner bucket. Their disposable insert fits like a glove never an issue.

Since the gcloth isn't secured by anything when my son would move around (which is all the time being an active toddler) the gcloth would scrunch up and I would have more soiled liners. I "solved" this problem by adding a cheap gerber (or you can use any kind) diaper and stack them in his diaper. It would make his rear a lot thicker but the gcloth wouldn't move. I would triple stuff at bed time.

I never had this problem but a friend of mine did, she had the velcro closures come off, but she called gdiapers and they sent her new velcro closures for free, she didn't even have to pay shipping. So that's a positive on that side of it.

So I went with gdiapers because I could purchase them at a store nearby and I needed them right away. I liked that if I needed something for them I could just run to the store and not have to wait to have it shipped to me. But with number 4 on the way I think (at least for the first few months) I will try something different. Unless a kind family member wants to bless us with the newborn kit. :)

I would love to hear your thoughts about cloth diapering. Have you tried it? Pros and cons? What brands do you like? What brands don't you like?

Looking forward to hearing from you!