Life as a Leach

For those that are not friends with me on Facebook, our visit to CHOP yesterday included cultures of the wound and new twice-daily cleaning and debriding procedures.  Since we live in a rural area with limited access to home nursing resources, this lovely job will fall on me.  Every morning and evening, I have to remove the bandage, wash the wound with soap and water that stings, and then dig out any infected tissue using sterilized scissors, tweezers, gauze, and applicators.  This is a painful procedure that Abby naturally hates, and her screams and cries break my heart every time.  I feel awful for having to hurt her.  But by stripping her body of the infected tissue on the outside of the wound, she can heal from the inside out.  I have to cause immense pain in order to help my daughter to finally be rid of the infection that has caused her so many hospital stays and surgeries.  What a hard thing to put a six-year-old child through. But then ...

I was drying Abby's hair tonight and she was smiling and giggling over something.  I told her I loved her smile and she commented that she didn't like her smile because it looked weird.  This isn't the first time she has said it, so I decided to have a more in depth talk with her instead of brushing it off with, "I love your smile!" like I had in the past. I turned the dryer off and stooped down in front of her.  I shared with her a verse that has become one of my favorites since she was born: We talked about what that verse meant and I reminded her that God created her cute little nose, her adorable smile, and her deep brown eyes. Then I said, "You know how your ribs are in pieces and Dr. Campbell had to fix them with the VEPTR?"   She nodded.   "God created those ribs to be just like that too.  It's hard for us to understand that, but He did, and they are perfect.   They may not seem that way, but they are.  Do you know wh...

http://youtu.be/Yzejd6r9DwE Nothing is impossible for You...You hold my world in your hands...

I've been really slow to write this because I wanted to make sure I could do it justice.  I didn't want to write a cursory post in the hospital when I knew I couldn't devote the time to it that I wanted. When I woke up on the morning of August 3rd, I felt so alone and anxious.  We were leaving that afternoon to begin our VEPTR journey with our little girl, and we really had no idea what was going to happen.  I was beaten down and just plain sad. Little did I know what had been in the works for months.  My amazing sister had planned a HUGE send-off for us that involved lots of lies and avoidances of truth along the way!  Matt staged that he had to go pick up his laptop from the church (he knew just a tiny bit--enough to get us to the church).  When we made the turn onto the road the church was on and I looked up into the parking lot...I saw cars. TONS of cars. And a huge line of people dressed in purple. Some were in tutus. Everybody had signs, b...

Last week was vbs at our church!  It was a fun (but exhausting!) week of exploring other countries and learning about the missionaries that work there.  We traveled to Chad, Indonesia, Japan, the Ukraine, and then discussed how we could be missionaries in our hometown.  It was a pretty cool idea and a great way to connect the kids with the missionaries our church supports.   Caleb loved the music and learning about the culture of each country.   Abby's favorite part was dancing to the music we sang! I was a "mission mom" (group leader) along with my sister, and we had a good time...but like I said, it's exhausting! :)

Pups of the Spirit  is a book written for preschool-aged children, and my kids loved it!   Through rhyme and a pack of lovable dogs, kids can learn about the nine fruits of the spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  I read this to the kids before bedtime and it is now a new favorite!  In fact, Abby was very disappointed that I took it out of her room to write my review.  :)  Both kids had their favorite dog...Abby's was Joy, of course! The illustrations were bright and cheery, and the details included in each picture were noticeable.  I especially loved how this book sparked conversation about the fruits of the spirit.  It was a really good way to introduce the concept, and I'm sure that I will be able to refer back to the book in future conversations.  The explanations of each "fruit" were simple enough for young ones to understand, so I even plan to bring t...

It seems like everybody does baptism a little differently.  Some sprinkle, some dunk, some go backwards, some go forwards, some go under once, some go under three times, some do it as infants, some do it upon profession of faith. I'm not looking to get into an argument about the nitty-gritty differences of different denominations.  Honestly, I don't think the how  is a big deal at all.  It's the why.    Our church believes in a believer's baptism as a way to publicly proclaim that you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins.  (We dunk 3 times forward, in case you're wondering!) :) My sweet boy knows that he has Jesus in his heart, so he decided that he wanted to be baptized so that he could tell everybody how much he loved Jesus.  We went through a little book that our church gives to kids who want to be baptized, and we also had him meet with our head pastor so that he could talk with him as well.  We went step-by-ste...