Happenings

This week we have once again fought the germ battle around here. Hope is still suffering with her belly and we are fighting back with probiotics, Activia yogurt, and Gatorade. Poor Kyle is home today with the stomach bug-nothing like cleaning up the bathroom at 5 a.m. to get your day started off great!

Today I visited the preschool at church because starting this Monday Hope and I will be teaching a class of sweet four year olds three days a week. Their current teacher has a family emergency and needs to be available for her mother who is fighting cancer. I have LOVED being home the last two years but I have definitely missed teaching preschool. I am so thrilled to step in and help and hopefully Miss Hope will learn along with the class:) I keep telling her that she is going to school Monday and her response is "backpack!" She knows that big brothers take a backpack to school and she needs one too:) I have been lesson planning already!

On another note, because of my blog I have "met" people and received emails about Down Syndrome. Honestly Down Syndrome is not something that I harp on often on here because frankly our life is way bigger than that diagnosis:) David's DS does not often affect our daily life so why mention it often.

This last week, however, I have been praying for a lady that I do not even know and who does not even live in my time zone. All I know is that she is in her second trimester of pregnancy and is considering aborting her baby that has been diagnosed with DS in utero.

The thought of aborting a blessing from the Lord pains my soul. I just want to put David in her face and make her see the potential, love, and amazingness that he is. I want her to understand that if she proceeds that she could indeed miss the biggest blessing that our Lord could bestow on her. I have been praying for her many many times a day begging the Lord to intervene and soften her heart.

It would be so easy for me to judge her and frankly as humans that is our first response. I am trying so hard to turn that judgment and downright anger into the urgency to pray for her. She obviously does not know Who made her child if she is so willing to discard him or her. My soul has been pained over this story that was emailed to me via my blog and I just remind all you prayer warriors to continue to pray for the pro-life movement and our Lord would touch this woman's heart and remind her that He is who He says He is and that his plans are wonderful.

"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

This is the verse that spoke volumes to me after David's birth and this is the
verse that I have been praying for this Momma who is facing this hard
decision. I pray that she will know that God has big plans for her for
good if she will just trust in His will.

Hornet Hoops

Yesterday we traveled to Elizabethton TN for our last AAU tournament of the season. It has been such a fun season of cheering on our Hornet hoops players and the boys have improved so much. Yesterday we got a few family pictures sporting our black and yellow:)

My three hearts. It was a long day of basketball starting at 10:30 amd we didn't leave until after 7 p.m. My two youngest were so good and actually seemed to have fun playing with the other siblings.

This is not the best picture, but here are the three boys in our family. David is really into having pictures of "just the boys" and then "just the girls" these days:)

Then it was Mommy's turn for a photo op. Kyle was shooting hoops in the driveway and couldn't be bothered for a picture, but David and Hope were happy to cheese with Mommy.

Hope turned away in this one before I could take a real picture, but here are Hope and Macy in their matching outfits. On our team we have four families that have two big brothers and then a little sister. All the little sisters have this matching outfit from Walmart:) They look so cute decked out in them. Next year we are adding pom poms!

Here are David and Zach. Zach is always so sweet to David and even brought him a gatorade from the team. He is not only a great athlete, but a sweet kid.

David and Macy. Yesterday we were soooo blessed that all four courts at this sports complex were not being used, so the siblings could go over there and play on the empty court. Who knows what these two got into?!

Our team made it to the championship game!!!! We were so excited that they made it to the finals and here are Caleb, Kyle, Spencer, and Ian eating a pregame popsicle!

David is such an independent stinker these days. He makes us belly laugh several times a day lately but he definitely wants to be independent. The concession stand beckoned him all day and he INSISTED to order and pay for his stuff all by himself. The lady working the counter was so nice and encouraging to him. I don't want to know how much I spent at the place yesterday between the arcade games and concession stand:)

Big Kyle shouting a foul shot!

Here is Kyle modeling his runner-up medal after the championship game. We played a talented team in the finals and they came out on top. We all left there last night excited about spring sports coming up, but I will miss spending time with this group of kids and families. When you spend so many hours together in a gym they kind of become an extended family to you. I love this group of boys and I cannot wait until next year for another year of Hornet hoops.

The "R"Word

I have started this post a hundred times and either deleted or backspaced it to death. The "r" word is very emotional and sad to me and it is very difficult for me to even put into words how much that word hurts me. Today is the official day to sign the pledge to end the "r" word.


I guess that it should start here. Here is my David minutes after his fast and crazy birth. Those sweet nurses that were tending to him were realizing about right then that he had "characteristics of Down Syndrome" at birth. After they placed him in our arms they frantically starting finding our pediatrician at the time to come tell us because they were certainly not qualified to do so. So technically this was the moment that the "r" word changed for me personally.

I feel guilty because I am sure that before that moment above I tossed that word around without thinking of the consequences. I remember during high school me and my friends called each other that all the time being silly. We meant no harm and I certainly did not have a person in my life right then that made that word take on a new meaning for me.

I remember in those early days after David's birth I tried to hold it together while grieving the baby that we did not have. I expected Kyle #2, not this different baby sporting an extra chromosome that would radically change me and be perceived differently in our world.

I wish that I knew then what I know now. I wish that I would have know how AMAZING it can be to have an extra chromosome and how much better people we all are because David is in our life. I wish I knew that with David comes some amazing life lessons that we would not have gotten to learn if David would have been Kyle #2. I wish I would have known that mothering David is truly one of the biggest gifts and blessings that the Lord has ever bestowed upon me.

So today as we all come together to raise awareness of the use of the "r" word I just ask you to stop and think about your words and your biases towards people with an intellectual disability. Words like "retard" minimize David and his friends and take away all the potential that God has bundled up in these little angels. Do not forget that David has goals and aspirations like anyone else and that he deserves to "shoot for the stars" just like any other child would. As of now, his main goal in life is to sing on the radio like Jason Aldean!

So today I urge you to stop and think about your words and eliminate that word from your vocabulary. Take it a step further and educate your children and family so that my David and his friends are free to pursue their dreams and goals in life without hearing hurtful words like "retard" or "retarded."



Blessedly because my David is growing up in such an inclusive environment he has yet to hear that word. He has been in a typical classroom since PreK and has never been exposed to that word. Our school system is wonderful and he has had every opportunity to succeed thus far. The only thing that David worries about is scoring some computer time to watch Jason Aldean on Youtube! So please support people with intellectual disabilities everywhere by eradicating that negative and hurtful word from your vocbulary and tune into your local radio station because one day you just might hear ole Dave singing away! With an amazing village around him supporting and cheering him on the sky is the limit for this dude!