Friday, October 27, 2006

December Newsletter...The Sneak Preview

Merry Christmas Everyone! How will you celebrate this year? Will you decorate your home with green and red? Will you pull out your Christmas tree and decorate with all your special ornaments from the years before? Christmas time is filled with all kinds of family traditions. That’s one reason that Christmas time is so special. One thing that my family does that my kids always enjoy is the reading of the Christmas Story while playing with the nativity scene. On the night we decorate our home my husband reads the Christmas story out of Luke, and the kids get to act out the story with our little nativity scene. Its fun for everyone and it reminds the kids that we celebrate Christmas because of Jesus.
Here’s another tradition of ours that may not bring you fuzzy feelings like the last one. This is a topic that you may or may not enjoy reading about, but please don’t beat me up after church! If you don’t like what I’m writing about this month talk about it to the Lord and see what He says. Well, here it is…We “Don’t Do Santa”. I can almost see you gasp for air with your hand over your mouth with shock and unbelief! How could a family with five children be deprived of Santa? Before you feel too much sorrow for our kids listen to our reason.
When I was pregnant with our first son my husband and I talked about how we would raise our children. Soon enough we made it to the topic of Holidays and we began to discuss the whole idea of Santa Claus. It didn’t take long for us to realize this tradition was not for us.
What do you remember more as a child? Is your vivid memory of Santa what “he brought you” or is it of finding out that he wasn’t real? Both of our memories were of finding out that Santa wasn’t real. I remember my Aunt telling me and my Mom being mad at her for a long time for telling me. Randy’s memory was of his sister telling him. I also remember being at Kmart as a kid at Christmas time and my brother and I convincing our youngest brother to pretend like he still believed in Santa because as long as he believed in Santa my brother and I would continue to get extra gifts.
So, with that in mind we have lying, conniving and selfishness all tied up in a pretty ribbon called Santa. Not so pretty is it? As parents we teach our children that when their teeth fall out a fairy comes and brings them money. We teach them that the Easter Bunny brings them a pretty basket of candy. We teach them that when they go to sleep on Christmas Eve Santa Clause comes down their chimney (even if they don’t have one) and he gives them presents. We also teach them that Jesus Christ came to this earth as a baby, died on the cross for their sins, and God raised him from the dead, and if they believe in Jesus that they will have eternal life.
All these people/characters the kids have to believe in. They cannot see the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa Clause or Jesus, but they are told to believe in them. Soon enough in every kids life an Aunt, Sister or some kid on the playground tells the truth about Santa. Then the kid is left with wondering what else is not true? Randy and I decided that the fun of Santa wasn’t worth the lying that it takes.
Recently, a friend of mine was talking about her “freakish Aunt” that didn’t ‘Do Santa”. She didn’t know my view about the subject when she brought it up. The thing is that her Aunt didn’t decorate, didn’t buy presents, and didn’t sing Christmas carols. This is not what I’m talking about. At our house Santa is not the Devil! Our kids can sit on his lap at the Mall if they want to. They can color pictures of him at school. They can say his name without having to wash their mouth out with soap. We just don’t tell our kids that Santa brings them presents when they go to sleep! Why would we? He doesn’t. We do tell them that Jesus came to this earth as a baby, died on the cross for their sins, and God raised him from the dead, and if they believe in him they will be saved. Why do we tell them that? He did. BELIEVE in Jesus!

Chef T.V.

The other day I was in the waiting room waiting for Miles to get his cast off and I saw a cooking show. The chef was a man and the taste tester was a man. I began to wonder...Why is it that chefs in general and chef's on T.V. are mainly men since on the whole men don't cook?

I asked Randy what he thought. Is it that the men who decide they like to cook have to be the very best at cooking so they become chefs and then get their own show or restaurant?

Here's Randy's take on the man chef: He thinks that T.V. chefs are male because women don't like to learn from other women. He thinks that a woman might take the cooking advice from a man quicker than they would from a woman because it's less threatening. He thinks that women might not like to be out cooked by another woman.

Very interesting I say.

It might be that there are women chefs all over, but they decide not to have their own show because they don't want the additional weight that T.V. adds to their appearance plus the additional weight that all white clothing adds to their appearance.

What do you think?

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Bye Bye CastBoy!

No more CastBoy. Monday Miles got his cast off. The doctors picked him up out of the cast and replaced him right into his new $1,300 brace! It's looks like a mix between what Forrest Gump wore and some kind of cowboy gear. It's not too bad. We can take it off for 1 hour a day to give him a bath. We're still not used to seeing his legs. They were really flaky and rough, but we're trying to fix that. I think they will look better soon. Also, he's gotten so skinny. He was weighed after the appointment and with the brace and all his clothes on he only weighed 20 pounds. He's two years old and he's tall! We've got to get him some meat on his bones. We're all being very careful with him because we don't want to hurt him. I'm sure we will get used to moving him around soon.

I have a lot to say about the whole seizure issue that has come up with Miles, but right now I just don't have the energy to relay all the info about that. So...Seizure Info Coming Soon.

Hey, please pray for Randy and I! We need a vacation together! We have the money! We just don't know how it would be possible to leave for awhile. I say we need, but really we desire to go on vacation! I think we could possibly work out a long weekend. If you have any great ideas for a mini vacation tell me about it. Here's what we think we would like: We want a place to rest, be at peace, be alone, (it's sounding a lot like I'm describing a cemetery!) fun, not too far so we don't eat up our time driving, NOT IN Ft. Worth, something where we can come back feeling refreshed! Let me know if you have any ideas.

Friday, October 20, 2006

A family that digs together...Stays together.

Well, I did something today that was really gross!

I lost a $135 check. It was the money from Miles' insurance for our trip on Monday. I thought I had put it in my purse so I went to the bank to cash it today, but it wasn't in my purse. I went home and frantically looked for the check. It wasn't in the place it had been for the previous 5 days. The house cleaner had just left and I could only think of one other place it could be....THE TRASH OUTSIDE!

I called Randy and told him that I had lost the check. I was really upset and I started crying. He said, "Hey, do you know why you're crying? It's because you're a great wife, and you never make mistakes like this so it's upsetting to you. I'll come home and help you look."

Okay, what a wonderful man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If this was a test for him he got an A+++!

He came home and we looked all over and we couldn't find it. So, we went outside and started digging in the dumpster. And when I say We...I mean He. Randy looked through bags of trash and found nothing. It was so gross, and bees were swarming us. Jocie said it all when she said, "I smell barf." People were walking down our alley staring at us. I kept trying to explain to the people that I threw away a check. Randy just kept digging. This one couple came up to us and started talking to our little girls. They didn't even seem to wonder why we were digging in the trash can. They didn't seem to think this was strange at all. The man had his beer and the lady had her soda and they were just taking a little walk down the alleys at 1:00 this afternoon. Okay, I didn't know our alley was such a hang out, but I know I saw about 10 people in a matter of 15 minutes. No wonder were missing a lawn mower, weed eater, extention cord and an edger.

Well, we gave up on the dumpster idea and went to look in our room again. We found it on the floor between the desk and the wall. We were so happy. Randy came over and wiped the trash slime on me and then went back to work with a smile on his face.

Randy, you're the man!

Book Review

Okay, I have officially finished reading the book, When I Lay My Isaac Down. So, I can officially tell you that it's an awesome book, and now beg you to read it!!!! It would really bless me if you would read this book. I'm of course just asking those of you that are walking through this whole thing with Miles with me. I tried to think about what this book would have meant to me if I had read it three years ago, and I'm not sure what I would have thought about it. Nothing seriously bad had ever happened to me three years ago so I might not have been able to identify with the lady, but I feel like I am that lady now. I say read the book while thinking of me and learn the lessons from her so you can put these things into practice without having to go through a situation like her and I. Plus, I know most of us have situations that are going on in our lives that we need to lay down to the Lord so it might be helpful for you as well. Anyway, it would just bless me if you read it. I think it would show you a lot of the emotions, thoughts, fears, and battles that I go through often. That way when you ask how I'm doing I can say, "Like page 38 or like page 125 today."

It's When I Lay My Isaac Down by Carol Kent. READ IT!!!
And you can't borrow mine because I borrowed mine, and I'm reading it again.
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

October Medical Report

Here's is Miles' Medical Calendar for the Month:

Vision Therapy 5 times this month.
Occupational Therapy 5 times this month.
Physical Therapy 4 times this month.
Nurse care for 100 hours.

4th He had to go see Dr. Wiley because he started having seizures.

11th Christy the nurse took Miles to the doctor because we thought he might have an ear infection. He had been throwing fits, and was not acting himself. The doctor checked him and he did not have an ear infection, but the doctor saw him throw one of the fits and got worried and ordered a bunch of tests for Miles. I got a baby sitter and then had to take Miles back to the doctor for Blood Work that they tried 3 times to get until I finally had to make them quit and use what they got. They did a urine test, and a complete bone scan on Miles. This means that they X-Rayed every bone in his body! This was one of the most terrible medical days of the entire 2 years for me. I hated every minute of it. All tests came back normal.

13th I had to call Miles' insurance to get them to send us money for Miles upcoming Ft. Worth trip.

16th Miles had an EEG test done. This was to measure seizure activity. His head was hooked up to about 30 electrodes and then plugged in to measure brain activity. He laid in a dark room on a queen size bed for about an hour with strobe lights in his face to try to trigger a seizure.

18th We got the EEG test results back that informed us that Miles is having low level seizures all the time. Also on this day he had a seizure so bad that he cried and cried without being able to be consoled. Jocie was so upset about the whole thing. She held on to my leg and cried because Miles was crying so hard. It was terrible. Also, on this day Christy and I decided that it was time for Miles to start Pediasure. He throws up his milk all the time so we need to get him on a product that doesn't have milk in it. The doctor was called to get orders for the Pediasure.

19th I had to call to make sure that Miles' brace will be at the appointment next week when the cast comes off. I don't know why I had to call, but they asked me to do it. Also, I had to make arrangements for his ABC coordinator to come for another visit so he can continue to get therapy services in our home.

23rd Miles will be going to Ft. Worth to GET HIS CAST OFF!!!!! He will also be getting his new brace on. We will drive up there early in the morning and come back that day.

24th Miles will have an appointment with the ABC coordinator and also see a dietician.

25th I have to call again for transportation money for another trip to Ft. Worth.

30th Back to Ft. Worth for him to see his neurologist. We're going to see if he will increase Miles' muscle tone medication. He's been getting even tighter in his muscles and we need to do something. Always before he's had full range of motion with stretching but it's getting hard to move his arms, and we don't want them to get stuck in place.

That's 21 appointments for the month!

So, that's Miles' October Medical Report...that's also the reason that I want a weekend alone with my husband!

Life with Spencer is Fun

Last night at Life Group I was helping to take care of all the kids. We had them in Joey and Spencer's room. It was loud! The boys in the room were hitting each other with stuffed animals, some of the kids were playing their own version of Heads Up Seven Up, Miles was crying, and other kid's were climbing up and down the bunk beds. Well, the noise was out of hand and Jocie, being the grown up little girl she is had a great idea. She said in a sweet and mature voice, "Who thinks we should play the Quiet Game?"

Spencer yelled, "NOOOOO It's HELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!"
Cherry and I looked at each other to figure out if he said what we thought he said.
Then he said it again, "IT'S HELLLLLLLLLLL!!!! It's HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!! It's HELLLLLLLLLLL!"

I walked over to him and asked, "Spencer, are you saying that the Quiet Game is Hell?"
Without a hesitation and a smile on his face he said, 'Yes."

I had to tell him that when said that way the word Hell becomes a bad word. He said, "Okay."
It was so funny!

Thankful

Bryan and Becky (Our Pastor and his wife) came over today for lunch. They had their little girls, and I had Melody and Miles at the house. We ate pizza and enjoyed hanging out then came up the Miles topic about how we are dealing with the whole thing. Here's where Randy and I are at and here's where we want to stay:

We love God. We love Miles. We know at any second that God can totally heal and restore Miles. Our HOPE is that he does it, but if He doesn't do that we want to be okay with that. Randy and I want to be the very best parents we can be for Miles and continue to serve the Lord no matter what happens or does not happen with Miles.

Bryan said that he loves us being in this place. He agrees with it completely. For some reason lots of other people don't seem to like this place for us. They believe that we have to go after Miles' healing all the time speaking in faith, praying for him, speaking the Word over him. We have done that and it has not worked. I do not feel called in any way to do this. My constant prayer to the Lord is healing for Miles. With everything in me I have Hope for his healing. I'm just not sure that the Lord is going to do it. Is my faith not great enough? My God is greater than my faith. He doesn't need me to do anything for Miles to be healed. He can do it all on his own. He knows the plans he has for me and for Miles and they are good and they are to prosper us and not to harm us. I'm letting God do what he wants to do, and I'm going to be faithful for what he has entrusted to me. It's a great place to be. My heart is full of peace and joy.

Before Bryan left today he did an incredible thing. I don't know if you will be able to understand the scope of what he did, but I will try to explain. I was holding Miles in my lap. When Bryan was getting up to leave he asked me if anyone had ever prayed over Miles just thanking God for him? It caught me so off guard and I told him that no one ever had. He said that's all he wanted to do. He laid his hands on my son's head and prayed the most beautiful prayer of thankfulness for who Miles' is, and for giving our family Miles. He did not ask for healing. He did not ask that things would be easier for us. He did not ask for the Lord to make Miles into something that he's not already. Bryan just said Thank You. Sweet tears fell down my cheeks. It touched and healed something in my heart that I didn't know I needed. It felt so great to be thankful for my wonderful son. It felt so great for someone else to be thankful for who Miles is instead of what we all want him to be. I honestly don't think I will ever forget the sweetness of that moment for my entire life. What a precious gift of thankfulness I felt today.
By the way...of course I didn't really say that to the lady at McDonald's!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

New Book

I'm reading a book my Mother in Law just gave me. It's called When I Lay My Isaac Down by Carol Kent. I'm only on page 28, but if you really want to know what I feel like most of the time about what happened to Miles you should read this book. Like I said I'm only on page 28, but it feels like words have been ripped out of my heart and written down in this book.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Parenting 101

The other day our family went to the Dollar Tree. It's our kids favorite store because they can buy anything they want to. It's always a fun trip for the Wilson Family. Well, the kids were looking for their toy when I over heard a funny thing. I passed by a Mom and a little girl in a cart about age 5. Well, the little girl had picked up a stuffed pink monkey. As I was passing her I heard the Mom tell her to put that thing down. The girl didn't. Then I heard the Mom say, "You better that thing down or you will never go into another store ever again." I told Randy what that lady said, and we laughed about how that little girl had better savor that trip to the Dollar Tree since it would be her last time to ever step foot in a store for her entire life. I saw that girl a few aisle later and she still had the pink monkey.

Why on earth do parents make threats as stupid as that, and threats that they know they will not keep? Randy and I decided early on in parenting that we were going to do our best not to do that. We knew that 'Counting" was not going to be part of our parenting. I'm assuming you know what I mean by counting. You know, it's when you tell your kid to get off the kitchen table and they just look at you to see if you mean business and you start counting to 3. You count 1...2...3 and the theory behind it is that when you get to three the kid gets in big trouble. The problem with this theory is that I've never seen a parent get to three and then the big trouble happens. Well, that's just one of the problems with counting.

If you are a friend of mine and you count please don't be offended, but I think that's one of the most ridiculous things a parent can do! If you tell your kid to do something and they aren't doing it...I think the only counting that should be going on is how many pops the kid is going to get.

Well, to add to the story the other day the kids and I met Randy at McDonald's for lunch. We were eating and our kids were playing. Everything was boring until this lady told 'Alex" it was time to go. He was playing in the playground center and I immediately spotted Alex. He looked right at her and paused then hurried up the playground. I heard her tell him again, but he didn't care. Then she started to count...1...2...ALEX GET DOWN HERE. He only went faster. He didn't care at all. So, she pulled out her second weapon. She said, "Do you want me to call PawPaw?" He said no so she told him he better get down. Of course he did not get down and she did not get off her bottom. Why in the world would you threaten to CALL anyone? First of all what's PawPaw going to do Yell at the kid on the phone? Why do parents threaten kid's with other people? Okay, it still didn't end. She pulled out the ol' "I'm going to leave you" trick. You know that one. The kid won't obey so you threaten to leave him there to live on his own at McDonald's. Oh yeah, that sounds rough.

WHY?????

Randy and I were laughing so hard. She yelled at Alex from her seat until he finally got thirsty and came down when he wanted to. As they were leaving the lady stopped by to look at CASTBOY. She asked if he had problems with his legs. I said, "No, his legs are fine it's just that last time we came to McDonald's he wouldn't come out of the playground when I told him to so I broke both his legs. Next time he will listen to me!"

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

World's Finest Plastic

Randy spent all weekend working very hard on our kitchen table this weekend. He made me a beautiful table from the tree of our first home about 7 months ago. I just love it! Well, the wood had to dry out completley before he could finish staining and sealing it. So he worked all weekend sanding, filling in the cracks and putting coat after coat of sealer on it. The table is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It's so glossy it looks like you could ice skate on the thing! I've caught myself walking by and just staring at it's beauty!
Well, this morning Spencer paid Randy a huge compliment for all his hard work! He came up to me and said, "Wow! That table looks Plastic!" I asked him what he meant and he said, "It's so shiny and nice that it looks like Plastic!"
So Randy, after hours and hours of work you finally made that solid wood table look like plasitc! Way to go!