Life's Not Boring...I'll give it that.

CONFESSION: I’ve already been cheating on my new friend “Free Time.”

Yesterday (Wednesday) Randy and I were in Ft. Worth all day with Miles. We had the appt. to talk to the surgeon about the “g-button”. That dreaded appt. ended up being fantastic. Randy and I both give Dr. Miller five stars! He took his time with us and answered all of our questions. He explained everything perfectly. I feel very good about the whole thing. The Lord has done an amazing thing in my heart and mind about the g-button. The surgery will be in 2 or 3 weeks. Randy and I had a great time together yesterday. It was nice to hang out with him all day. He still makes me laugh all the time!

Well, early this morning Miles had an appt. with Dr. Wiley. The appt. was just a follow up from when he was in the hospital. He’s sounding better, looking better and eating better, but he’s still not able to drink…well, anything. I really thought that we were going to go to the check-up, leave and then go about our day. As a matter of fact on the way there I passed the Hickory Street Café and thought that maybe Cherith would like to have a nice lunch with me there.

I was waiting to be called to the room when who walks in the doctors office? Cherith! Justus had a check-up today. I told her that I was just thinking about inviting her to lunch. She told me to call her later to make plans.

When I saw Dr. Wiley he said that Miles looked very dry from dehydration. (To make a long story less long) he decided to put Miles in the hospital today to put in an 8 French Dobhoff feeding tube. What? Do you not know what that is? Well, I didn’t either.

All day I was at the hospital so they could put this tube in Miles. This is how I will feed him liquid until he has the surgery. No, I’m not kidding.

This tube was put in through his nose, down his throat and down into his body. You can see in the x-ray where it is. It’s the curly tube looking thing. This is not where it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to uncurl and go further down into his intestine. All day the nurses messed with it and the re-x-rayed him to see if it was fixed. It wasn’t. They finally let me leave the hospital at 5:30. I have to go back to see Dr. Wiley tomorrow for more x-rays to see if the tube is in the right place. (Insert prayer request here!)







The big strange shape thing in the x-ray is his pump that he got put in a few months ago. In the x-ray that I got to see today I could see all the gears inside the pump. It looked so awesome!!!!!

So, how crazy is this? Definitely not how I planned my day. Definitely not how I planned on feeding Miles liquid. Definitely didn’t plan for Miles to have this tube taped on Miles’ face for the next three weeks.

Still, I did get to eat lunch with sweet Cherith and Justus! We didn’t eat at Hickory Street Café. We ate a little further down on Hickory…Room 3222. (Thank you Cherith!)

All encouragement is now being accepted.

First Day of School

Joey started the fifth grade.
Me: How was your first day?
Joey: Fine
Me: (sigh)


Spencer started the third grade.
That's a typical third grade boy photo.
Well, it's a typical Spencer photo anyway.


Jocie started the first grade.
Me: Tell me what your favorite part of the school day was.
Jocie: Everything. Well, everything except playing outside. Tanner likes Taylor, and all the boys chased me so I'll have to do something about that. My teacher's name is Mrs. Black and she's not black at all.


Melody started Kindergarten.
Me: What was your favorite thing that happened today?
Melody: Lunch because you gave me a fruit roll-up. Thank you for giving me a fruit roll-up. Everything you gave me was my favorite. Can I have a fruit roll-up tomorrow?


You can tell Miles is taking the whole thing hard. He has Mommy all by himself. He now gets long snuggles, lots of kisses and long baths with Mommy's high end shampoo and conditioner.


Oh, and me...Hello Free Time. It's been awhile since I've seen you. I'm pleased to meet you again.

Last Pool Day

Here's a couple more summer pictures of today.

Mella "soaking up the sun."



Spencer on the High Dive at the State Park.

Summer...It's almost gone.

Here's a few pictures from the last week of summer.


Spencer and Miles are always hanging out like this at the house. I feel a little bad for Miles when Spencer goes back to school. Spencer plays with him so much and he loves it. And, Spencer got the scratch and black eye from his older brother. Yesterday was orientation at school and he was trying to decide what he was going to say when everyone asked him what happened to his eye. He was going to say, "A fifth grader (his brother) tried to beat him up, but now he has a peg leg." I love that kid!


This is Melody...Miss Mella. She makes me happy all the time. She's the funniest thing when you really get to know her.


Here's Jocie. She bought make-up at Claires with her "church money." She's doing her nice model shot here.


And yes, this is the best picture of Joey I could get. A couple of weeks ago my brother gave Joey a Game Cube for his 10th birthday. This is all I've seen of him since. Sometimes he comes up for air to eat, but I'm pretty sure he only goes to the bathroom once a day.


I was in bed last night thinking about how the kids will go to school very soon and something amazing came to mind. I think I may have done something that has never been done before. All summer I've had all five kids home. Not once did it frazzle me. Not once did Randy come home to me begging to get away from the kids. Not once did I say, "These kids are driving me crazy" or "When is school going to start?" I really have been peaceful and enjoyed my time with them. We've had a great summer.

$750K given away at Clyde Church

Looks like I don't have to come up with the words after all! Here they are written by someone else. Of course this article won't make you cry your head off (like I did) like if you had been in the service, but it's still good.

You should really go to the Abilene Reporter News website and read all the comments about the article! It's awesome!!!!

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Congregation doles out money, good to those in need

By Scott Kirk

Special to the Reporter-News

A nondenominational church that meets in a junior high started a "giving epidemic" Sunday that led to about $750,000 in cash and goods being given away during the worship service.

Brandon Hawk admits his route to becoming senior pastor of Kingdom Life Fellowship in Clyde has been unusual. Perhaps it should be expected that a sermon about giving should be unusual as well.

"We felt God was calling us to give," said Hawk, a retired professional tennis player. And give the church did.

The church had accumulated a nest egg of about $320,000 over its annual budget of $338,000. That money was given away Sunday to church members who had financial need.

But that's not all.

People handed their tithes to other people who had needs. Cars were given; even a business was handed over.

"We gave over our budget," said Hawk. "It was the single greatest moment by far I've ever experienced in church. We want to start a giving epidemic."

On Sunday, people who had dire needs, ranging from keeping their homes to putting food on the table, were asked to come forward. Then people who had pressing needs were asked to come forward, and instead of collecting tithes from the members, those people were asked to give their tithe to a person in need.

No questions were asked, and no judgments made as money was given to pay off credit cards and college loans.

"We can't make that judgment," said Hawk. "In Acts, there's the passage that no one lacked."

Finally, about $20,000 was distributed to people just to do something enjoyable.

"If you had never gone to Dillard's and bought a red dress, go do it," said Hawk. "Go to a nice restaurant and leave a big tip. God not only takes care of our needs but also our desires. We really wanted to touch on God's goodness."

Hawk admits that he doesn't know how much was actually given because the process was ongoing. He thinks a conservative estimate is $750,000. And this from a congregation of a little more than 300 and mostly blue-collar folks.

"I know this: You can't outgive God," Hawk said.

He said Sunday's experience was a natural extension of what has been preached.

"We feel called to transform our city, and you do that by transforming people," he said. "We want to transform this city into one God would be proud, one that's free of mass addictions and poverty. We say: 'Give, pray, love.' Give means to meet the physical needs. Pray meets the spiritual needs, and love meets the emotional needs. A lady may need a roof on her house, but she may also have a broken heart. You have to try to meet both needs. How can we ask our members to give sacrificially if corporately we're not willing to give sacrificially?"

Hawk repeatedly said the service was not held to boost membership or to grab headlines.

"This is for the advancement of God," he said. "God's love changed my life. This is to transform our city. I'm passionate about Clyde, America."

In case any cynic is wondering, the plan is to do this again.

"We're hoping this becomes the norm," Hawk said.

The church meets at 10 a.m. Sundays in the Clyde Junior High auditorium, according to its Web site.

Correction: The church's Web site is wrong. Members meet at 10:45 a.m. Sundays

Yesterday Church Was...

I will fill in here when I have time later.

And when my heart stops beating so hard from all the excitment.

Miles is back home!

We're off to the hospital. I took him in this morning because he still wasn't any better.

Anyway, I just stopped by the house to get a few things before I take him up there. My laptop has crashed so I don't think there will be updates.

Frustrated Beyond Words

I just talked to the nurse at the doctors office. I called this morning just so Dr. Wiley would know that Miles still has not eaten much and that he hasn't had anything to drink in about a week and a half. The nurse said she would talk to the doctor and then call me back.

5 hours later...she called back and she said to just "Keep an eye on him?"

WHAT?

I asked her for how long should I "keep an eye on him" before I called again? She asked, "Well, many wet diapers is he having?"

"Uh, NONE."

"When was his wet diaper?"

"I didn't actually have to change his diaper all weekend but I did."

"When did he last have a poop diaper?"

"I honestly can't remember. Since he hasn't been able to take a bottle he can't take his Miralax so he just hasn't gone poop."

"Oh, I'll talk to the doctor and call you back."

(A couple of minutes later.)

She calls me back and tells me that if Miles isn't better by the morning then to bring him in at 8:30 tomorrow.

Excuse me for this, but...What in the hell does that mean?

If he's better by morning...Why in the world would he be better by the morning? Why would he shoot all liquids out of his nose for a week and half and then all the sudden magically stop by the morning?

I'm so frusterated I feel like throwing things!

It's such a conflicting feeling to want something done for Miles, but at the same time hating the idea of being put in the hospital. I'm mad that something isn't being done today and I'll be mad tomorrow if we're put in the hospital. I'm mad that he's still sick. I'm mad that he's too sick to get a surgery that I'm mad about.

Today has been one of those days.

One of those days where all at once I realize again all that Miles can’t do.

One of those days where I feel like no matter what I do for him it’s never enough.

One of those days where he coughed and gagged and made such horrible mucus noises in Taco Bell where people turned around to stare at what could be making such a horrible noise. We ended up having to leave the restaurant so we wouldn’t gross anyone else out.

I woke up this morning trying to calculate the last time he had a wet diaper. He hasn’t had liquids stay in his body for a week and a half. I can’t feed him a bottle because it directly shoots right out of his nose. He hasn’t had 100 calories a day in his body in a week and a half. (Yes the doctor has seen him.) I’ve got to take him back to the doctor tomorrow and I’ll be surprised if he’s not in the hospital. You can see his ribs.

Which brings me to why the 27th is marked on my calendar. We’re meeting with a surgeon who will put a g-Button (feeding tube) in Miles. I’m at a loss on what to say about that right now. I understand it’s time. It just hurts my heart.

Of course the surgeon can’t even do the surgery until Miles’ lungs sound better. They’re so full of liquid that no one would operate on him.

Today I can’t pray for Miles to be healed.

It hurts too bad.

I’ll tell you what I can pray for though…I’m praying for someone to pay off the kid’s school today. TODAY. I’m not asking the Lord for a “sign”. I’m just tired. I just want the Lord to show me that he hasn’t forgotten about me. I want to know that he cares about the desires of my heart.

I don’t want to look back and see something the Lord did for me a year ago or 5 years ago or last week. I want to see something today.

Believe with me.

Guest Blogger

Jocie wanted to say something:


Can you tell me what you want me to pray for? I'll pray for it. I want to do it because my Aunt died before and that's why I want to. I know that she went to heaven and that's why I want to do it for other people.

Another Blessing!

Today I talked to my mother in law about perhaps "sponsoring a child" on their school supplies.

My Mom is already buying the supplies for one kid. My mother in law is buying the supplies for...THE OTHER THREE!!!!!!

How cool is that?

God's faithfulness continues to overwhelm me. (In a good way!)