MaKenzie Could Use Your Prayers...

Harold left around 5:15 am to take MaKenzie to the hospital in Lexington (unless he decides to go on to Cincinnati). She woke up yesterday just fine, chattering on about anything and everything as usual. But around 1:30, she started getting really whiny and pouty, complaining of a headache (which sometimes you can buy, but sometimes she can be quite a "drama queen") and by 2:30, she was throwing up. She threw up twice, continually complaining of her head hurting and eventually developed a fever. For the rest of the afternoon and evening, she slept fitfully on the couch, waking up to cry every little while, then falling back asleep.

Vomitting, headaches and fever are symptoms of shunt problems, but they are also symptoms that she has with her recurrent UTI's. And, of course, they are also frequently symptoms of just a plain old virus. So we never know, and unfortunately, the only way to find out is to go to the ER and have blood and urine tests/cultures.

Because I had been somewhat "off my feeds" the day before with similar symptoms and it only lasted a few hours, we had planned to wait until later this afternoon to make a decision. We were hoping maybe she and I had both just had a virus and she would be feeling better. Around 3:30 am, we decided that we needed to take her on in because she was so miserable. We had her in our bed so we could keep close tabs on her, and she was waking every few minutes crying and hurting. We were worried that since she wasn't keeping anything down and couldn't drink, she'd end up dehydrated and she wasn't able to take any of her regular medicines or any Motrin for her fever, which was getting pretty high.

So, if you think of her today, just pray that the docs would find the problem quickly and that they wouldn't have to be too invasive. Everytime we take her in, they want to do shunt taps, and spinal taps and all these very painful, invasive procedures. It's very hard on her and makes her very scared of all doctors' visits which isn't good since she has SO many on a regular basis. Of course it's also very emotionally hard on Daddy and Mommy, especially whichever one is there with her at the time. We are thankful that medical care is available for our kiddos, but it sure is hard to see them poked and prodded, especially when it's so hard for them to understand why it has to be done.

Service With A Smile...

Today has been a real treat for me. I have definitely been spoiled. In honor of our anniversary, John Wesley and the bigger kids got up early this morning and made pancakes and served me in bed. (Too bad for Harold, he was already gone to work!)

Then they fixed dinner for all of us, while Harold and I spent time just hanging out together. They made fettucini alfredo with shrimp, broccoli, and breadsticks. John Wesley, William, Jonas, and Lena did most of the cooking. Cody served us at the table. (Not exactly sure what John Wesley's doing in this pic...)
Jared thought it'd be fun to share his breadstick with Matthew, but Matthew didn't understand the "share" part. He sure thought it was nice of Jared to give him his breadstick!

Doesn't this look delicious?

For dessert, we had warm brownies (also made by the kids) topped off with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Mmmmmm.

And, a dozen roses from my beloved. Can a day be any sweeter? Sweet kids, sweet hubby, sweet 20 years, sweet life...

Happy 20th Anniversary To US (on Wednesday)!!!

Wow! What an 80's picture, huh? This was Harold and me while we were dating, probably in late 1988 or early '89. I think by the time this picture was taken, I had graduated high school, but Mom & Dad hadn't moved yet, so I must've been about 16 or just turned 17 here. Wow, again!

For anybody who doesn't know or remember, Harold & I began dating when I was 14 years old. I was a sophomore and he was teaching at OBI and was around 20 at the time. (Sometimes I wonder what my parents were thinking!!!--or what HAROLD was thinking!!!)

We had to keep our relationship a secret since students dating teachers is/was against the rules. Both sets of our parents knew about us, though, so we weren't doing anything horrible. :) On some of our first "dates" we would drive Harold's Ford Pinto that had the front seat taken out and I would hunker down in the floorboard, sometimes with a jacket over me, as we drove out of town so no one would see us together. Boy, it sure was a relief to graduate and be able to be a bit more relaxed!

I was going to Berea College and I honestly could NOT come up with ANYTHING that I really wanted to do with my life other than get married and have a family. I would come home every weekend and just HATE the idea of going back to school. Eventually, we decided to go ahead and marry and I would continue school during the week and still come home on weekends. Just for the record--that's a VERY BAD IDEA! We did that for about a year and a half, when I finally just couldn't do it anymore and Harold gave in and let me quit school in the middle of the first semester of my junior year. (Did I just say he LET me quit? Well, I guess it's true...) So, anyway we married in 1989--20 YEARS ago this week. I was all of 17 years old. He was 23.

In 1994, Katy Lu was born. What a beautiful girl she was--and what a tremendous impact her short little life has had on ours! We spent 5 1/2 months with an angel. What a blessing and privilege.

And I guess God thought we'd had enough of sweet and pink, 'cause then He gave us 3 rambunctious boys!!! John Wesley in 1995, Cody in 1996, and William in 1998. Could it really get any better?

What a journey these 20 years have been! God laid on our hearts, during Katy's life, to do medically fragile foster care. In 2003, He sent us MaKenzie in February and Jared in March. Twins. Still twins--or so they think. They don't know life without each other. They are as truly twins as ever there were. (Well, now they are triplets, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

Also in 2003, God blessed our family by adding Jonas and Lena. That was a really busy year. Our family grew from 3 regular good ole' boys, to 7 kids, 3 with some pretty special needs. (At that time Lena was dealing with lots of delays, although she has really come into her own these past couple years.)

{Oh, this picture makes me long for those "little kid" years--they went by so quickly! I'd like to snatch each of them out of this picture and smooch on their sweet little baby faces!}

In 2006, God sent us Matthew. And boy has he been a blessing--we have learned so much from him! He makes number 3 in our set of triplets. Jared, MaKenzie and Matthew are only a few months apart in age and they are all about the same size, so of course they're triplets. Didn't you know? When I look at this picture and everything it represents, I can't imagine sharing these years, these children and this life with anybody else! I really, truly believe--without a doubt--that our marriage was made in Heaven, ordained from the beginning of time by God, the maker of heaven and earth and I'm so thankful.

Celebrating 50 Golden Years...

This past Saturday, we celebrated Mom & Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. How awesome! I am blessed to have had wonderfully amazing parents. How many people in the world there must be who would happily trade places with my brothers and me in half a second? I don't say this out of any kind of pride, rather from experience. If the years I spent at Oneida and then the subsequent years I've spent as a foster/adoptive parent have taught me nothing else, I have learned that if you have a stable, loving home life as a child, you are very blessed--and I was.

So, we celebrated. 50 years is definitely something to celebrate in today's world!

One of the entry tables held beautiful flowers that Kay sent, along with a few nifty fifty-year-old pictures....
Plenty of food on the snack table. Juanita brought a chocolate fountain--YUM!

A picture of the "Bridal Party" table...50 years later! There is Aunt Barb, but somehow, Uncle Paul didn't make it into the picture...hmmm wonder if that was on purpose? Mom & Dad really enjoyed having their friends & family in from New York! It was very sweet of them to make the trip down.

This cute little one is Amy, the youngest of the Smith great-grandchildren, with her Daddy, Aaron, Jennifer's husband. Aaron's going to be ordained as a minister this coming Saturday, and then they are going to be starting a new church plant.

Jamie, Jennifer, Juanita, and Cody (Jamie's husband) sang, as did Chuck, who made us all cry. The background music was all quartet music, which Dad & Mom enjoy.

And here they are cutting the cake. Chuck did the cool posters of them that you see in the picture above and below this paragraph. Juanita decorated the cake--isn't it gorgeous?

And here is Mrs. Carolyn, who works harder than any five people put together. She had it all under control!

What a fun day! Friends from Oneida and family from Prestonsburg, as well as folks from their current church family helped us celebrate along with "the brothers" and their families. Gee, do we have to wait another 50 years to do this again?

Happy Happenings on the Homestead...

This is how the kids spent our Fourth of July over at the Mills'. They played Guitar Hero on the Wii. William and Lena are singing, Mandy (Markquettia's youngest daughter) is playing the drums, and Jonas is on guitar. They're singing "Eye of the Tiger"--you know, the song from Rocky, way back when? Everything old is new again.

Lena was trying to replace the batteries in her game. MaKenzie leaned over and asked her what that was. In all her vast sisterly wisdom, Lena replied, "Well, it's the whatchamajigger." And that was the end of that conversation. MaKenzie understood perfectly and went on to the next subject.

Have you been to Cody's Rock Shop? You're sure to find just that item you've been looking for! He's a shrewd businessman though. Even Mammaw had to pay! No freebies here. This is where Lena spends every penny she finds laying around the house! I think it's hilarious!!!!

Cody found a frog and MaKenzie got up close & personal with it. Actually, MaKenzie's on one side of our glass door & the frog is on the other. This picture makes me laugh.

John Wesley got his top braces on Tuesday. He looks handsome! He's a little sore and we've already had one of the brackets pop off. They can't see him until NEXT WEEK!!! I can't believe that. Oh, well.

I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the bunch Mom gave me. This is Cookie, Chuck and me on Halloween, circa 1986. Fun, huh?

DIS Ability? I don't know...

To watch this, you'll want to scroll to the bottom of the page and turn off the red music box. You'll be glad you did. This is an awesome video.

Butts...

Here you have the front and "rear" view of Mount Rushmore. We found the "butt" picture on a T-shirt in one of the gift shops on our vacation. It made me smile, but not enough to buy the shirt. I decided to take a picture instead. I thought it was appropriate for this post, because it's what I feel like--a butt!

After reading my last post, Harold commented that he thought my last paragraph about mommas protecting their children came off sounding like I didn't think other moms (human ones) protected their children. That was SO not what I meant. So, let me start by apologizing if that was how you thought I meant that. I don't always communicate what I intend.

What I was getting at was that by worldly standards it is not popular to protect our children. One of the biggest arguments people use against homeschooling is, "parents can't protect their children forever." And I absolutely agree 100%. I'm not looking to protect forever, but you better bet that I intend to protect them right now while they are still young and tender.

If a man is going to plant a tree, he wouldn't dream of putting a newly-sown sapling out into the harsh elements of the open outdoors. Instead, he shelters it and tends it carefully, fertilizing and watering it carefully until it can withstand the weather. In this way, he can see to it that the tree has the best nourishment so that it can grow strong; eliminating the rotting effects of too much of a good thing or the withering effects of not enough of what is necessary. Even when he plants his young tree out in the "real world," he still fertilizes and waters it carefully, staking it with supports all around. In this way, he can still allow the plant to become accustomed to the elements, but he can also see the effects they are having on the tree and adjust the support as necessary until one day, he is able to see that his loving care and nurturing of the tree has helped it to grow into a fine, strong, healthy tree, able to stand on its own--to stand strong against the deleterious elements that will surely come as it continues to grow and mature. He can remove the supports because by now, its roots are deep and well established. Although the harsh winds and torrential rains will surely come, his tree has grown strong enough to stand firm, straight, and strong.

Our job as Christian parents is to tend our children as carefully and as intentionally as the man who tended that tree. That kind of parenting isn't popular by the world's standards. That was what I meant. I think all of us, as Christian parents, respond to that calling, the calling to protect and care for our children, differently. For us it is homeschooling and keeping our kids close so we are able to "filter" what goes in--because what goes in surely comes out. :) Ask me how I know... I don't claim that we do this perfectly by any stretch of the imagination! Far from it. Harold and I look at each other and shake our heads and shrug our shoulders on a regular basis, wondering how on earth we strayed so far from the "mark." But at least this is our goal, and that's a start. We press on... And, hopefully one of these days, we'll find that our own saplings have grown and matured and their tender roots have grown deep and strong enough that they can shelter and protect their own sweet saplings successfully one day. (And, boy! I hope their saplings give them 1/2 the grief they gave us!!! Right, MOM? --Just kidding, they're pretty good little saplings so far!)

Miscellaneous Details on the Fourth of July...

Meet Domino... She is the fourth (yes, as in 1,2,3,4!!!) dog (puppy) in our family . Her name had to start with a "D", since the other dogs are "A"nna, "B"rownie and "C"hip. How quickly puppies grow! When we came home from vacation, she was only around a week old; her eyes were still not open, and now she's running around and so playful!

Just for the record, Michelle Obama's arms might be strong and sexy, but they have NOTHING on MaKenzie's! I tried to get a shot that shows the detail of her muscles, but she thought I wanted to see her forearms. Let me tell you, this girl is ripped--at least on the left side!

Cody, my flower deliverer, picked me this beautiful bouquet today. I love it! I was so happy to have a great excuse to use this vase we got on vacation. We bought it on an Indian reservation right outside of the Grand Canyon. I love how "imperfect" it is. A lot like me!

I think Brownie is trying to decide whether she's a dog or a cat. I guess maybe that's the animal kingdom's version of gender issues??? I dunno'! She sure got her leg torn up in a fight with Anna and Chip at the beginning of the week! John Wesley (she's his dog) and I had to take her to the vet. She is so protective of her pup. I can so identify with this dog! :) It's not popular to protect your offspring--in the animal or human world. Many times you take a few "knocks" for it from those who don't understand. It's a necessary evil I'm willing to encounter.

Our Fourth of July was mostly rainy. The kids spent the better part of the day playing in the pool. Pretty low key. We'll do firecrackers and all that good stuff tomorrow evening over at the Mills'.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!