Night One

I'm about to go to bed and complete "Night Two" but I had to write the following down...

Earlier today, I got sucked into my phone and nearly caught the food on the stove on fire.

A quesadilla to be exact. I mean I blackened it. Smoke filled the whole kitchen and adjoining rooms. I opened a window but zero wind meant no airflow. I put purification in the diffuser but still smoke was visible and smell-able.

Kids came home from school and one step into the house and they were whining about the smell. I couldn't smell it anymore. Coop began saying his stomach hurt and the smell was making it worse.

Side note: When I was a kid, I rode the bus. There would be times I would get on the bus and smell what I would describe as burnt french fries. It was awful but no one else could smell it. Every. single. time. I smelled that smell, I got sick that night or the next day. Every time.

So when he seemed uber sensitive to that smell... Made me wonder.

I took him to soccer but we ended up leaving early because of his stomach.

Got home and the two P's hit; poop and puke.

Got him in the tub with Epsom and lavender then straight to bed.

I was just on my way to bed but stopped to check if he had a fever. His body was really hot. Even the parts of him not covered were very warm.

I started praying and my favorite song came on his radio, "No Longer Slaves."

I sang it over him.

He got cool.

You read that right. His body was no longer hot. While I was holding his hand, him asleep, me singing... his body was no longer hot to the touch.

I can't stop smiling. Right before my eyes. Never had that happen before!

I'm gonna continue praying and continue battling the evil that wants to take him out.

Now on to Night Two and Day Two.

One More Sleep

"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!!!" Cried my almost 6 year old daughter about her daddy leaving on a mission trip for 10 days.

"Ummm, same thing we always do.. Try to take over the world." I replied laughing at myself but was the only person laughing because I was the only 30 plus aged person in my car that got my joke.

Lots have asked if I need help.

I have no idea.

When Matt has traveled in the past it has been for just a few nights. I would mentally prepare for the things that could go wrong. I have a disaster plan. The kids were younger, crazy and didn't sleep. They are older now so the disaster that could go wrong, I'm not sure.

As long as no one calls an audible, we should be good!

Three Sleeps

Three Sleeps.

Matt leaves for Kenya.

I am incredibly excited for him.

People have asked if I am ready.  I mean, how does one get ready to be single mom'ing it for 10 days? Not sure I can.

I am grateful this trip is during school. We will have our routine, the kids will be uber busy, I will be uber busy and I have no doubt the nights will be long but the days fast.

Matt has always wanted to go on an overseas mission trip. He loves his family so much it oozes from him but Jesus resides in him and he has felt a calling to go and serve.

Our church, First Baptist Jenks, has a family living in Kenya that we support. This is awesome because Matt and a group of people wanting to do good, won't just drop in and leave in 10 days. There is an established foundation of support for the people there.

Matt and the others will be doing some construction projects.

So yeah, three sleeps.

One Roller Skate

You know that whole, "If your house is on fire and can only grab 1 thing. What would it be?" scenario? 

That's a real life scenario for foster kids. Here is the foster kid version of that question,  "You can only take to a complete strangers home what will fit in this Walmart sack (or if they are lucky they get a trash bag). What do you take?" 

Our first foster child, I will call BH, came to our home with a trash bag and a "Together We Rise" duffle bag. 

I helped him 'unpack' his trash sack and found 1 roller skate. 

My bio kids asked him, "Why do you only have one skate?" 

I overheard his response, "I didn't have time to look for the other one." The tone in which he spoke, literally broke me.

Talk about making me cry. Still gives me the lump in my throat. 

To this day the vision of that lonely roller skate by my front door will always remind me of the struggle these kids go through. 

When I was 5, 6, 7, 8... Had a stranger come to my home to 'take me' and they had said I could only take a few things, I can't even fathom how that would have felt or what I would have grabbed! 

Our new friend, AG, came to us with 2 pairs of jeans, one he was wearing and another that was too big, two shirts, one plain white and one that was too small, two shoes, one pair nice and one pair too big. 

That's all!

No socks.

No underwear.

No toothbrush.

No toys.

He is 6.

One roller skate.

Such an odd thing but will always remind me why we are doing this. 

Frustrated? Keep Moving

I've been going to a chiropractor. I see him three times a week bc I like giving money to a guy who could literally pop my head off.

I didn't believe I really needed a chiro. I didn't believe they worked! I thought they were all crooked.I still think most are.

Then last year Matt messed up his back something fierce. A friend gave him the name of a chiro that could fix him. ("Ya right." I thought.) He came home after the first visit and said, "He wants me to come in 3 times a week." I can't remember my exact reaction but I'm sure rolling of the eyes and "Of course he does." In a super sarcastic tone all happened.

Crazy thing though. He fixed Matt. Now Matt knows exactly what it feels like when his back isn't right. It doesn't cause him pain like before but he knows if something is barely out of whack. He now has a properly functioning back and goes once a week to maintain that.

Back to my story. The chiro showed me my X-rays. Sure enough. My atlas was out of alignment. (I gathered this bc of the head stands.) I also had 3 vertebrae out of alignment in my thoracic area. Three! I had no idea.

I have lived however long with these 3 verts all messed up. Who knows what all I could have alleviated had I just tried the chiro. Had I given him ample time to do what he does.

I left that day wishing he could fix me in one crack. "That would save some money!" I thought.

But that isn't how it works. Some things take time. I have to see him 3 times a week for a month, at least. He told me, "My goal is to fix you in as little time as possible." I nearly hugged him. I can appreciate very much, being told that.

On Wednesday, he cracked me and I felt great. On Thursday, I turned my head during yoga & it cracked all the way up. I felt instant burning and then a slight headache. Awesome.

So I made an appt to see him on a day I wasn't supposed to. Getting well can be 5 steps forward and 6 steps back sometimes. Nothing good or worth fighting for is always positive steps. Think about that. Marriage? Nope. Parenting? Nope. Our faith? Nope. We make great strides only to have a bad week and we eat crap. You and the spouse have a date night planned and you end up fighting over stupid stuff as you are getting ready. You wake up saying, "Today. Today I will not lose my temper." And before you leave the house for school you have yelled, threatened and cried.

Forwards and backwards. Like the ocean. The waves never stop. They never give up.

So if you are trying to improve your life? Give that chiro a fighting chance. Give Plexus a real fighting chance. Forgive yourself when you fail. We are running a race friends. Your health is worth the battle. Lace up the shoes. Grab a buddy & keep going. Don't be afraid to walk.

Remember! At least you are moving.

Morning Has Broken; Not My Water

Chloe decided she wanted to see the morning this morning. She woke us up at the glorious hour of 5:30AM. She doesn't do this hardly ever, but when she does she usually has a reason ie. hunger, wet wet diaper, boredom/loneliness or missing her dada. This morning it was because she had her pajama bottoms partially removed and inside out. The past few days when I go to get her out of bed she is partially clothed and is working on removing her diaper. I heard her cry at probably 5:00am, but didn't get out of bed, usually she goes back to sleep, plus at one point I heard her laugh (that was probably the moment she got her pants off).

I finally roll, literally, out of bed, moaning because my body is a little achy when I first get up. I walk into her room and she points out to me that she has removed her pants. I get her on the changing pad, change her diaper and go to put her back to bed. Now keep in mind she is laughing, blowing kisses, saying hi and chit chatting with me this whole time. (She is wide awake) As I am starting to put her to bed, she looses it. She starts saying all she knows to say to get me to NOT put her back to bed, "Yo Yo Yo." (yogurt) I go and get applesauce and she tells me, "Noooo, done, done." Then she works on the one person who can't say no; dada. She starts crying for him. He comes in and the world is good again. Dada feeds her yogurt in the living room and then she realizes she isn't seeing Elmo on TV. Let the flood gates open; more tears. She decides she's done with the yogurt she so desperately needed and Matt puts her back to bed with a fight. After about 10 minutes she went back to sleep.

I sat on the couch this whole time debating on whether or not the bed was calling my name and although it was I knew going back to sleep wasn't happening. So I decided I would spend an hour with Matt before he jetted off to work. He made a pot of coffee, ate left over muffins and I had a cup of coffee and ate some eggs. We discussed the Sean Sutton ordeal, work, baby and Chloe all before the sun came up. It was rather nice.

After Matt left, I wondered what I could do before Chloe woke up again and before I became overcome with the need for more sleep. Two things I will do, blog then read.

Out our kitchen window the sun rises every single morning, rain or shine. It's more reliable than the post man. While looking at it, I began to hum a little ditty by Chris Tomlin, "See The Morning." We went to his concert when his "See The Morning" CD came out and he talked about this song and how God seems to be "in the morning" more so than any other time of day.

Examples: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lam. 3:22-23

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." Mark 1:35

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2

"... weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb..." Luke 24:1

Those are just a few I saw in the Chris T. CD case.

I am not a morning person, I enjoy staying up late and sleeping in, but the times I do get up early and see the sun rise and see the world wake up; I just have this feeling of goodness and hope and excitement. Have you ever felt that? There really is something about the morning isn't there?

Don't get me wrong, at about 9:00, I will be a zombie. But at least I saw the morning and felt His presence.

I'll leave you with Chris T's words,

"The morning is a place of hope, a place of worship... I pray that these songs help you "see the morning." If you find yourself in the dark night of hardship, grief, or circumstance, know that the morning is coming. And if you find yourself in the best of times, praise God for the morning!"

Amen! Have a good day everyone!

Easter 08

We had a really great Easter this year. We got up and I went to Wal-Mart to grab some staple items and to power walk, hoping to push along labor (didn't work) then we watched Life online. Some friends had invited us to their family's house to eat and hung eggs. Even though it seemed a little awkward, we decided it would be nice to spend Easter with someone's family. I am the only Christian in my family and Matt's side has two pastors, so celebrating holidays on the actual day will never happen.

They had just opened the doors, they older kids made a mad dash to their area and the little kids slowly made their way outside. Chloe was just happy to be near the swings which you will see in a moment. This year was her first year to hunt Easter eggs. We weren't sure if she would understand how to do it but...

...once Matt showed her where to go she was on fire. She saw all the eggs and thought they were balls. He said, "Pick it up... put it in your purse." And she did just that.

Then she had it down.

Matt told her to show me what she had so she grabbed an egg out of her purse and showed me.

Once he realized she wasn't going to come show me he said, "Go show momma what's in your purse."

She was walking towards me while I was snapping and I couldn't get one of her with her eyes open before she got too close.

She ran back to the swings. She was done with the eggs and now she had her mind set on 'wing.' Matt put her up there , but she didn't get to swing as long as she wanted and threw a huge fit when we went inside. She kept crying, "wing, wing, wing."

We got a family shot. I look like a swollen watermelon.

I sure do look mighty puffy.

We had such a great day, thanks to Lela & Jared for inviting us to your fam's house. When we got home I couldn't stop saying how much fun I had. I was so excited for Chloe's first Easter Egg Hunt and for getting that special picture of her picking up her first egg (that's the one posted). She gave all the treats inside the eggs to her friend Will and we kept a few of the empty eggs for her to play with at home. What a day... Jesus rose from the dead!!!! & my little girl got to hunt Easter eggs.