Little Man Needs PRAYERS!

I'm sitting here trying to think where I should begin. I was planning on posting about our recent trip to Arizona, or a late Mother's day post, or how we had an early 1 year birthday party for this little man with some family that will be out of town on his birthday. Instead, I am desperately asking for your prayers and that you would ask others to pray for him.

Poor little guy has had some bad diapers {what we call cha cha around here} this week. A friend was watching him and he had terrible blow out mess in the crib while he was sleeping. She went to put him in the bath, tested the water twice before putting him in, and set him in the tub, but didn't plug the drain. In just a matter of seconds she put the diaper in the trash and grabbed a towel off the rack. When she turned back to him the hot water had come through the pipes at that point and was hot enough to burn him.

We immediately got him to the ER and were treated in the burn unit and told it looked like a second degree burn and would probably take 10-14 days to heal, but may get worse over the next few days. We took him back today and in fact, it was worse. Now they think it could actually be a third degree burn. We initially thought it would mean 2 miserable weeks of our poor baby in pain as we would have to do multiple dressing changes a day since he is in diapers, but today were informed he could need skin grafting. We were utterly devastated by that. Our doctor said we will have to wait until Monday to know what the likely outcome will be. It could heal on it's own within 10-14 days with little to no scarring or it could be to the point that skin grafting is indicated.

Please pray that God will work mightily and heal him without scarring or the need for surgery. I know my God is bigger and more powerful than I can even imagine and we have already seen His hand in this tragedy. We are thankful that the drain wasn't shut and the burn is only on the right buttock. It could have easily been all over his bottom, legs, hands, feet, or anywhere if he had tried to crawl away from the water. We are also thankful that the diarrhea is much better, reducing the risk for infection and how often we have to change the dressing. Also, amazingly enough, the only time he really seems uncomfortable, or is fussy, is when we change the dressing. He is on pain medication, which makes him sleepy, and he is sleeping most the day and night. This helps his pain level, but also helps that he isn't moving the area and pulling on the dressing.

We do have specific prayer requests

1. As above, for healing. That God would quickly heal him in a way that would clearly show His power. That it would heal on it's own without scar, surgery, or infection.

2. That the diarrhea would resolve. Again, as above, it would reduce infection risk, help with dressing changes, and make him more comfortable.

3. Wisdom for our doctors and nurses. Much of burn treatment is decided by opinion as to what the best healing methods are and what treatment is indicated. Pray God would give them clear wisdom to know the best treatment for him.

4. Pray for J and me. We are experiencing so much guilt right of now of "what if we had done....." I think hindsight we both feel ways the situation could have ended differently and we are torturing ourselves with those thoughts. It has also been a long week in general-we had to have our chimney repaired, our garage flooded on Monday, and before we went to the hospital for our follow up appointment today we had a plumber here to repair ALL the toilets in our house. Of course, all these are minuscule in the big picture, but are certainly not helping my sanity right now.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are so thankful for the friends and family that have come around us and supported us at a time when I feel I am on on the verge of physical and emotional collapse at any moment. Meals, words of encouragement, prayer, and the many other ways you have served us have meant more to us than I can express in words.

Most of all, I am thankful for a God that heals, that is all mighty, wise, and powerful, and that only He is able to do more than I could ever ask or imagine. I am thankful that He understands the heartache of watching His son in pain. As we are told all throughout the gospels, He is powerful to heal with just a touch of his cloak or one word from his mouth. Please, please pray, ask others to pray, and if you have blog (and wouldn't mind) ask for prayer there as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hebrews 4:14-16 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

Psalm 34:17-18 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Conversation installment # 3

We've had a complete computer blackout around here recently. We got a Mac this year. I love it, but the charger cord died recently. To add insult to injury, our router decided to die as well. We've been sans internet and computer for a little while, but all is up and running again.

I have a number of posts floating around in my head, but for now I have to record a few more of my conversations with my very imaginative 4 year old.

1. Jonathan was taking Av to school a couple weeks ago and "Paradise City" from Guns N Roses came on the radio. Av started jamming out immediately and playing air guitar, air drums, and crazy drums. {Crazy drums: spastically playing the drums with your hands on any surface within reach}. Then she said "This song is AWESOME!! Is this the Country Bears?" (as in the country bear jamboree from disney world) Jonathan said he almost wrecked the car he was laughing so hard.

2. At dinner a few nights ago I noticed that sister what looked a full bite mark on the inside of her calf, as in a complete impression of upper and lower teeth. I immediately had thoughts of who did this? Was it a kid in her class? Why didn't she tell me about this? So I asked...

Me: What happened to your leg?

Sister: Ummmm

Me: Did somebody bite you?

Sister: Weelllll, umm,

Me: Did you bite yourself?

Sister: Well, I bit my leg when I was pretending to be somebody else biting my leg

Me: [.......crickets chirping]

3. This child LOVES to pretend to be just about anything. She is a dancer, cat, dog, gymnast, ballerina, chef, baby, mom, dinosaur, you get the picture. She is also committed to the part. She changes clothes, her voice, walks on tip toe, crawls, drinks water out of a bowl on the floor, etc. This one happened when she was pretending to doctor me. She had her play doctor kit with stethoscope, otoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and needle. After she had given me a full exam, including about 16 "shots"

Me: You are such a good doctor, I'm so thankful I have a doctor like you!

Sister: Mommy, I'm your daughter, not a doctor! I'm just pretending to be a

doctor!

4. We read a chapter from her children's Bible at night before she goes to bed. Some nights we read through in succession and some nights I let her pick out what we should read, which is what we did tonight

Me: What should we read tonight?

Sister: Read about when the people step in poop

Me: What?

Sister: You know, when the people have poop on their feet

Me: (completely clueless as to what she's talking about) What is it again, I don't think I know which one that is.

Sister: Yes you do Mommy! (she's getting exasperated at this point)

Me: Tell me more about it, I just don't remember sweetie.

Sister: You know, when the people stepped in poop so Jesus had to wash it off

their feet!!

She is the most entertaining thing in my day. I wish I could capture every word that comes out of her mouth! I actually wish I had video of it all to capture her voice and facial expression as well, but this will have to do for now.

Dirt

Mr. called me recently to say that he and sister had a surprise for me. I was on my way home, but was instructed that I could NOT park in the garage. I had to park in the driveway, but go straight into the house, only through the front door and stay in the house! No going in the yard or garage. This was my surprise.

Our peach tree that J planted a couple months ago was blooming.
He and sister had visited Lowe's and spent the afternoon with their hands in the dirt.
I was greeted by fresh herbs in lovely containers on the porch.
And potted plants on the front porch and in hanging baskets in the backyard. He let sister pick out all the flowers and containers and let her decide where to place all of them.
She was SO proud of herself and her work. Definitely a worthwhile afternoon.

Good vs Evil, Teachable Moments, and the Old Testament

Sister loves a princess story--Cinderella, Snow White, etc. Recently she has been asking about "the bad guys"-the wicked stepmother, the queen, and specifically Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. "Why did Maleficent want to hurt Sleeping Beauty? Was Sleeping Beauty scared of Maleficent?" I can't think of a time that she has encountered intentional malice and I think the concept is hard her to understand, and I tried to use this as a teachable moment with her.

I learned the idea of teachable moments while working in youth ministry in college. The goal of the teachable moment is to relate scripture and the truths of God into what is going on in your daily life. For example, we have been having our Spring overhaul in the yard. So while planting and pulling weeds (lots of weeds this year), these were a few of the scriptures that ran through my head to talk about with sister.

1 Corinthians 3:7 "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow," or the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, or John 15:1-8 . I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener...Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

So, that's the idea of the teachable moment, now back to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I thought, aha, teachable moment. I explained that Sleeping Beauty might have been scared when Maleficent turned herself into a dragon because she was big and strong. The good part was that even though Maleficent was strong, Philip loved Sleeping Beauty, fought for her, and defeated Maleficent. Just like we might have times that something is somehow bigger or stronger than we are and it seems we will be defeated, but God is always bigger and stronger than whatever our circumstances are and He defends us like Philip defended Sleeping Beauty.

I have to confess I thought, "good job, way to use an overcommercialized Disney story and use it to teach about God."

Her response? "Right Mommy, like Joshua at Jericho, or David and Goliath, or Moses and the Israelites with Pharaoh and the Egyptians?" That's right, she went Old Testament on me.

Me {proud of her, but also surprised, and somewhat dumbfounded} "Umm, why, yes, those are all good examples."

Apparently she has this "big guy vs the little guy" thing down already. Maybe we should start working on the larger catechism :). Seriously though, I love a teachable moment and I love that she is learning scripture. I hope that these lessons will stick with her and she can think back to them when she is older and in situations needing direction.

50 mm

My hubby is good to me, really good to me {on most days :)}. We each got cash from family for Christmas presents.
I'm sure he considered getting himself manly things like a fishing rod, gun, duck hunting paraphernalia, a new pair of boots, or something else along these lines.
Instead, with HIS Christmas money, he bought ME a 50 mm lens for my camera. Cause he loves me and is very generous.

So, I've been having a good time practicing with it. Nothing spectacular, but I'm learning.
Oh my word, brother is so adorable.

Brain Damage

These are the shoes that I wore to church this morning. Together. At the same time. I would like to say that I was being a sacrificial mom who let her children pick out her clothing. I would also like to say that I realized it quickly, like when we got in the car, but J said we didn't have time for me to run back into the house and change shoes. Alas, neither are the truth.

The truth is I slipped my shoes on (thinking they were both the black shoes on my right foot), grabbed my purse and diaper bag and walked out the door to get in the car. I didn't realize it when I was in the car. I also didn't realize it while I walked through the house to the car, on the way to church, as I carried brother to the nursery, or as I walked into the sanctuary......even though they have a slight difference in heel height. No, I didn't realize until there was about 10 minutes left in the service. I thought, "huh, why do my shoes feel weird? Are my pants caught in the back of my shoes? Why does it feel like I have one backless shoes on and one with a back?" Oh, that would be because I WORE 2 DIFFERENT SHOES church...that are 2 DIFFERENT COLORS!!

This is what it actually looked like at church. Maybe not TOO terribly noticeable. Right? Right?!? Well, if it was noticed, nobody said anything to me. Probably because they were snickering as I walked away :). I'm pretty sure they weren't wondering if I'm on the cutting edge of the newest fashion trend.

Does anyone else out there feel like your IQ has plummeted since you had kids? And does it get worse with each subsequent child? J has a theory that those stinkers somehow suck your brains out when you're nursing. He may be onto something there.

Playtime

We have a little demolition/reconstruction project going on in the playroom, so other rooms in the house are now getting their fair share of playtime. Somehow our bathroom gets a large percentage of it.
It's actually sister's favorite spot to practice gymnastics {even though she has a mini trampoline and a balance beam J built for her in the basement}. It's oddly large for a bathroom. Even enough space to throw the tennis ball with Lily, which is quite entertaining to brother.
Sister, who used to be quite camera shy, is always interested in having her picture taken now that there's another kiddo around.
She has a knack for jumping in front of camera right before I snap a picture, which is OK since it makes me giggle right along with her.
So what do you think about the bathroom? If you're wondering, yes, in fact that IS carpet in my bathroom. It's a little strange to me, but at least my feet stay warm in the morning. I recently read that Heloise {the cleaning queen of Good Housekeeping} has her entire house, including the kitchen, carpeted, so it could be worse I suppose.
Can you tell it was done in the 90's? Carpet, gold fixtures, and wallpaper, oh the wallpaper. It's blue, forest green, cream, and maroon striped. But it gets better. There's also a foiled/reflective flower pattern on it along with the stripes. If only it were also textured, that would really seal the deal. I hope to change some things eventually.
In the meantime I'll just have to ignore the background and focus on those blue eyes and rosy cheeks instead, which isn't too much of a challenge for me.

Sally sells seashells..

We have a slight seashell obsession in our house. I thought this would be a fad of sister's, but this fad has lasted for over a year now. I find them in her play kitchen, by the bathtub, in her dress up, in my purse, decorating the table, you get the idea. The most common use for them is play food, specifically Creme de La. At least according to sister they are. You might think "Creme de La what?" Creme de la creme? No, just Creme de la, as in "Mommy, I made creme de la for you and all my babies, come have some." Here's what she had prepared for us on the coffee table recently.

I should be used to all of this by now but I have to admit that this surprised me:
This was a new one. Seashells might not be a common find in the average produce drawer, but not around here. Sister walked in right as I opened the drawer and {in a very proud of herself manner} announced "I made you apple pie with sauce and ice cream!!!!!! Eat some Mommy, it's delicious!" I love how she even put spoons in all the containers.
I certainly get my daily dose of laughter from her. She melts my heart and brings me more joy than I can put into words. She's also a REALLY great big sis.

Don't worry, she's not feeding brother creme de la here, just oatmeal :).