Mike's parenting a Girl, and The Weekend

I love fall weekends because there is much fun to be had, but I am sure exhausted tonight. 

Our fun started Friday night with two of our local high schools playing each other.  It was a beautiful night for football and it was fun to see folks and cheer the teams on.  David found sweet Morgan and wanted his picture with her! 

 

Amber's high school alma mater was one of the teams playing and she sat with David at his special seat on the track for some of the game.  This picture melts my heart. 

 

Saturday David was blessed with a chance to go with Pops to the VT football game!  He loves it so much and he had a blast with his BFF, Pops.  I took Kyle to East TN for his baseball tournament Saturday and spent a beautiful day at the ballpark cheering on my oldest.  Mike and Hope had a Daddy/Daughter day together. 

 

 

Sadly today we had to head to Radford for a funeral for a dear lady, Marie after church.  Since David's cancer, she has faithfully sent him cards of encouragement and she would always sign them, your friend, Marie.  She died very suddenly last week while on a beach trip.  David wanted to dress like Pops and Daddy for the funeral.

 

 

 

Before the funeral we had time to visit with Memaw in the nursing home.  She was having a good day:)

 

We also were able to visit with my other grandma who lives in an apartment. 

 

Mike and I have been talking lately about focusing our little family on what is truly important in this life.  Our walk with the Lord and our children's growing faith is a priority to us.  There are so many things/activities that can get in the way of families growing in their faith.  We have talked this week about as our schedules get busier and busier to remember Joshua 24:15 that strongly proclaims that "but as for me and my household we will serve the  Lord." 

 

There are so many distractions that compete with families for their attention and we are trying so hard to cling to God so when hard times come we will refuse to sink.  We have such hope and faith in our God and we refuse to start down a slippery slope of apathy towards God and His church, and focusing our priorities away from eternal treasures. 

 

Saturday Mike was channel surfing and came across this video on TV.  He was so touched by it, that he made Hope Madeline watch it.  They watched it together online while I was gone.  I was floored by it when he made me watch it tonight.  It is so powerful and every.single.woman and girl needs to watch it.  When the speaker mentioned the specific women of the bible I had cold chills.  Seriously, this is a must watch.

It touched me to think of my hubbie with our little girl on his lap watching this empowering video about who she is because of who God is.  I am married to a good man because this touched him enough to show it to our daughter and to me.  This video will be the four best minutes of your day-seriously watch it and let me know what you think!

Birthdays and Bald Babies

Today is my 39th birthday. This is the start of my last year in my 30's and frankly age does not bother me too much. I had a great day! There is nothing like sweet preschoolers walking into the classroom bearing flowers and cupcakes:) I had a wonderful and much needed lunch with my dear friends, and then cake and ice cream tonight at home after ballet. Good thing calories do not count on your special day! The worship team at church even sent me a special musical birthday message that made my whole day!

Today on the Today show, Hoda Kotb did a segment on childhood cancer and this song /video was shown. My heart can barely contain watching these precious brave children in this video. Thank you to all the awesome souls that sent me a link to this or posted it on my facebook page. Thank you that you continue to pray for our David and to show your love for our family.



This video is so amazing and it made me remember our own sweet, brave, bald, and awesome warrior.

I hated that he had to fight cancer, but I did love rubbing his soft and beautiful head. I would lay for hours in the hospital rubbing his head (when he was asleep) praying for him and whispering how brave he was and to keep fighting. Sadly children all over this world are fighting this beast called cancer and it is simply not fair. I praise God every. single. day that our David is with us. and that he is happy and healthy. David is a constant reminder to me that God never ever leaves us alone in the darkest moments of our life. He is faithful. Amen.

Miracles

This week is truly been unbelievable in many ways.  It has been busy and a little bizarre but nonetheless, it has been amazing because I have seen and heard God. 

 

I know you cannot see God in this picture, but truly He was there.  Here is David not only sitting in a dental chair, but he is letting the dentist and Daddy take x-rays!!!  He has been complaining for two days of a bad headache.  Yesterday we visited the pediatrician to make sure he does not have an ailment like strep throat that would be making him feel bad.  The pediatrician said he had a pink throat and a few swollen lymph nodes, but nothing major.

 

Today the school called again saying that David is still complaining of a headache and that he has not been himself.  Mike and I take his complaints seriously because children with Down Syndrome have a high pain tolerance, so he if he complaining of something it truly does hurt.  So our new thought today was that he had a toothache because he has been messing with a certain tooth in his mouth. 

 

I will be honest and say that our sweet and amazing local dentist agreed to see David today, and I was dreading it.  I knew David with his sensory issues, would be not the most complaint patient and it would be an ordeal.  In the past even putting on the paper napkin around his neck was high drama. 

 

Well today, God was with us, because he jumped up into the dental chair, and stated "hey Bill what's up?!" I was stunned because he was the most compliant patient ever.  He let Dr. Bill Thompson look in his mouth and he even let them do an xray!!!  We were floored and so proud of David.  Only God could have helped us get a good look at this problem tooth and sure enough an adult tooth is trying to come in on top of a baby tooth that has not fallen out yet.  David feels a little presure according to Dr. Bill.  I know that a trip to the dentist should not require God intervention, but with David it does and God met us at Dr. Bill's office today. 

 

Laying in bed last night the verse from Joshua 24:15 rang in my head over and over again. " But as for me and my household we will serve the Lord."  It was so strong in my head that I even posted it on facebook because my phone was right next to me in bed. 

 

I came into work this morning and was talking with my dear friend, Misty, about this verse. She had seen my facebook post last night and we were talking about how crucial this verse is.  It is so tempting so allow our households to follow so many other "Gods" and that I felt like God was speaking this to me to remind me that He is a jealous God and wants our full devotion.  Later after a somewhat brutal day at preschool, we went to lunch together as is our normal custom.  While chatting and eating chips and salsa at our favorite mexican restaurant, her husband had texted her this amazing devotional from one of his male buddies about the same exact premise with that exact verse in it.

 

We were speechless that between the amazing service at church Sunday, Joshua 24:15 screaming in my head last night, and then the devotional from Misty's husband spoke volumes to us today.  We sat at our favorite Mexican restaurant speechless that God has over and over and over again reminded us of His desired place in our lives.  Nothing can or should fill the God-sized hole in our hearts but Him. 

 

Amen.