What do you see?
I see three children washing dishes.
I also see one of the children using step stool.
I see that it is not the child who measures in at 2 1/2 feet tall without his prosthetics.
LOVE it!
What do you see?
I see three children washing dishes.
I also see one of the children using step stool.
I see that it is not the child who measures in at 2 1/2 feet tall without his prosthetics.
LOVE it!
Adorable Garnet story from pre-op (sorry if you already caught it on FB):
Garnet brought the stuffed monkey we bought for him while he was still in China to the OR with him. Monkey got a piggy back ride down the hall to the OR and then was clutched tightly as he drifted off to sleep. My little monkey…
Got home to sleep tonight (Steve is staying the night with Garnet) and the other kids had entertained Samuel all day, shovelled the mounds of snow, fed and cleaned up three meals, completed their assignments for school and tackled their chores. Totally impressed my socks off! Way to go guys!
Grace teasing me with her smile…
Faith working on her polymer clay figures…
Appreciating my last night with the glow of the Christmas village…
Gazing outside the schoolroom window at the snow…
Garnet building creatively with the new Magformers…
A reintroduction to Anne of Green Gables…
Bring the fun inside. Snow in the kitchen? Samuel thought I was hilarious!
Like most of us, I really love the weeks leading up to Christmas. The lights, the visiting, the anticipation – they bring out such a warmth in my spirit and in the demeanour of so many around me. Truly, what’s not to love?
Unlike many, I try to avoid the Boxing Week sales. The return lines in the mall, the 70% off everything signs, the bedraggled decorations – they put a damper on my glow, you know?
Today though, I decided to take James out to exchange a couple items. And as expected, folks were a bit more down in the mouth. And things didn’t have the sparkle that I’d noticed just a few short days before. Until, that is, we headed over to a new prosthetics office that we haven’t been to before.
I needed to pick up some spray that helps Samuel’s prosthetic liners suction a bit better. We go through a ton of that stuff. I ran in expecting a quick errand and stopped dead in my tracks. Amongst the clients and professionals, there was laughter and smiling; friendly banter and joking. I paused for a second while they waited for me to announce my reason for stopping in. Such a contrast and in such an unlikely place, or so one would think.
But that it the secret that we have discovered over the past five years. The key to happiness and joy has nothing to do with the packages and shiny lights and brand names and deep discounts. It has to do with perspective.
And today I realized, not for the first time, that I am one of the privileged few who have been let in on the secret to joy and maybe even the true essence of Christmas Spirit.
It was a wonderful reminder for a brand new year.
Welcome 2013!
(Don’t mind the late Santa photo – it needed a home here.)
It was a very good week – full of the best!
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While driving away from Fall sleepover camp:
Garnet: We carved pumpkins! We made one if ours stab the other one and the other one was throwing up!
Grace: we carved some too! It had a cross and on the other side had a beautiful flower….
Steve and I just about died laughing. LOL
This girl surprised me tonight. Actually she’s been surprising me a lot lately.
I had to leave for the evening and I left her elder siblings in charge of the herd. Birthday season is on a roll in our family and I needed to do a little shopping without the kids. When I got back and checked in on each of them, I was truly surprised to find a tear stained little girl waiting for me. She had convinced herself that I was taking a really long time. So long, in fact, that I must have been in a car accident or suffered some other terrible end. So long that she had gone through half a box of kleenex and made herself get the hiccoughs.
She poured out her heart to me. Told me all about how she had begged God to bring me home. Asked me (not for the first time) about what would happen to her if I went to Heaven first.
I am choked up just writing all this.
It’s tough stuff.
Stephen and I have always tried to tell our kids the truth (Okay, except for that one subject involving a jolly old elf in a red suit… but that’s another story for another time.). It’s something that we’ve taken a lot of flack for over the years from family and friends. But that’s just us. We aren’t very skilled at finessing a fine story when our kids ask us a pointed question. And early on it just became the most logical thing to tell them the truth when they have questioned us on things.
Why do I have to eat my veggies?
Why does that man use a white cane?
Why does the neighbour lady stumble funny when she comes home late at night?
Why did the policeman take away that man?
Where do babies come from?
Will you ever die?
Now there’s a show stopper.
Each of our kids has wondered this allowed during their preschool years. I don’t honestly know if this is age appropriate thought material or not. Perhaps we breed morbidly focused children? Regardless, when it has come out of their mouths, we have told the truth.
“Only Jesus knows, but here’s what the plan is no matter what and you can trust us to take care of you. You can trust Him.”
And off they would go. Sure it would come up again if a friend or aquaintance that we knew passed on, but honestly, it seemed to be enough.
For Grace? Not so much.
It seems as though a lifetime has passed for us with our girl.
I chose the photo for this post on purpose. I really love the camping dirt. The chubby toes. The relaxed grin. The lounging girl in the hammock. Such a picture of carefree innocence.
Such an antonym to the churning worry that lies beneath her surface.
I could go on about how trust takes time. How she’s been let down before by those who should’ve been able to protect her from the leaving abandonment. There I said it.
But what really hits home is the contrast.
She goes about her days happy as a clam. Flitting from fairy to pixie. And underneath lie the questions.
Am I safe?
Am I worthy?
Am I loved?
I don’t have the magic truth that will be the balm to her soul.
And so we dance the dance. Parry the questions. Again and again and again.
And maybe the best I have to offer is in my willingness to waltz when she asks. Meeting her toe to toe. Looking deep in her eyes. Letting her read my very soul.
Being a truth teller.
And again and again and again.
I love this girl.
She is my heart.
And she is so very, very worth it.
Just now as I was walking past Grace’s room on my way to bed, I had a sudden urge to check in on her. You see, she hasn’t been sleeping well for the past couple weeks and normally we hear from her every so often in the couple hours between her bedtime and ours. So, walking past I suddenly wondered if she was actually asleep.
I opened the door and saw a quick movement of the blanket, followed by a very still and motionless form lying there. Hmmmm this looks familiar. 🙂
I quickly threw off her blanket only to find her buried underneath with her new Leap Pad from Christmas.
I hear her intake a deep breath, “Okay. I was doing this.”
Good for you, I think to myself. You admitted you did wrong. (Little proud moment there. Trust me, if you lived in this house, you’d understand.)
I took the Leap Pad. Told her I’d be keeping it for tonight, that I loved her and good night. And down the hall to my bedroom I go.
Once there, I explained to Stephen what had happened. Then I followed it up with a chuckle and asked him to reminisce.
“Sooo I remember reading under the covers and hiding books, what did you do secretly in your room after bedtime? Did you ever get caught?”
He shakes his head no and then breaks into a blush and a grin…
“Actually, my parents bought an old used black and white tv one time. I carted it into my room and put it in the closet where I could see it from my bed. That night I rigged a couple of skipping ropes that I could pull from my bed in order to shut my closet doors in a hurry if they suddenly came in after it was lights out time.
Sure enough, long after bedtime, my folks came in – my room was across from theirs. I quickly shut the closet doors and suddenly I saw the flaw in my plan. There was a bright glow emitted from the TV screen in the closet. The volume didn’t hurt either!”
We had a good laugh over that! Sometimes it’s so nice when our kids just plain old behave like, well, kids!
We made it through today’s ER visit in a record 1 hour. We left with a sedated MRI booked for December, and a follow up visit with the head of pediatric orthopedics to follow. We are so relieved to know that Samuel’s case is being pursued and feel comfortable with things moving forward. Thank you for your prayers!
At this point he is mobile and he is making use of his other three limbs to climb and get around. We’re really thankful to get this MRI as a baseline for his surgery in a few months too. It’s apparent that God is working things out for his good in the midst of it all.
And as for today….
It’s Grace’s 9th birthday!
I have a pretty red dress wearin’ daughter that is super excited about a few packages that are hidden safely away in our
storage room.
Off to get ready!
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