Answered Prayers

I'm sitting here tonight with a "to do" list a mile long. Drew will be married by this time next week with Jeremy's wedding to follow 5 weeks later. Keith, Tyler, and Austin are out tonight celebrating with Drew and some wonderful men from our church. I have put my sick girls to bed and the house is unusually quiet. And so I sit and ponder instead of tackling the cleaning that needs to be done. Oh well, the dust and grime will still be there when I get around to it. Funny how that happens...it never cleans itself.

Anyway, I started this blog as a blessings list of sorts but I have done a poor job of keeping up with it. These last few months have been filled with things that make one really search to find the blessings, and maybe I won't even see them until some time yet future. Nonetheless, I could not let this season pass with out recognizing the blessings that are, oh, so obvious.

Years ago, even before our boys were born, Keith and I began praying for their future spouses. We prayed, even when they were toddlers, that somewhere out in this big ol' world, God would be raising up little girls in godly families that would grow to be godly women to someday make wonderful wives for our sons.

Today I attended a bridal shower for a God-crafted answer to prayer. As I sat across from Alicia (Drew's fiance) and listened to some of my dearest friends whisper about how beautiful she is, I was overcome with thankfulness to God. Alicia is beautiful on the outside, but so much more important than that, she is beautiful on the inside. She has been raised in a family that knows the Lord, and her heart for Him evidences that. She knows that she is an answer to our prayers because we have shared that with her. I am so thankful that God has chosen such a one to be Drew's bride. She is a blessing!

Besides the wedding, this next week will hold another special moment for me. On Friday, I will finally get to meet another answer to our prayers, Jeremy's fiance, Tiffany. They will be coming in from Colorado for Drew and Alicia's wedding. We were supposed have met Tiffany the week after Christmas but our trip was cancelled due to a surprise blizzard and family illness. I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to share with Tiffany face to face, that she embodies God's well-designed answered to prayer.

I have seen pictures of Tiffany and so I know that she, too, is a physically beautiful young woman and though I have not yet met her, I am certain that she is truly beautiful on the inside as well. How do I know? Because I know my son. I know what Jeremy has always wanted in a wife, and I know that he has always had very high standards for the one that he would eventually share his life with. I can't wait to be able to blog again after next week and share what I will then be able to speak of first-hand. I am looking forward to the meeting, to being able to wrap my arms around another of God's sweet, sweet blessings in my life.

My boys have chosen well. I am so excited for them...for the adventure they are about to embark upon. I am so thankful for a God who hears and answers our prayers. He is GOOD, and He loves to give GOOD things to His children.

How cool is that!

Deer Hunting Season...

...is upon us. Drew, Tyler, and Austin have already been out several times. They've seen a few deer that were out of range along with some wild boar, bobcats, and turkeys. But, so far, none of them have had a good enough angle to put any meat in our freezer. We are confident that it will happen before the season ends.

Yesterday, Drew took Alicia hunting with him. Drew's friend Levi went as well. I believe that it was Alicia's first time to hunt. As we were doing the dishes after dinner, the phone rang. Alicia had killed her first deer...a 6 point buck. Not bad for your first time out!
I'm not sure which of them was more excited...Drew or Alicia.

Levi helped Drew drag the deer back to where they were parked, and he brought it back to the house for them in the back of his truck. Thanks, Levi, you saved the back of our suburban. We are grateful.

We let the girls stay up until the hunters got back so that they could see the deer. Drew had promised on opening day of the season to bring something home for them to see, so it was a little overdue as far as they were concerned.

Once they got the deer unloaded and into the garage Kara noticed that its tongue was hanging out. She wanted to touch it. She was fascinated at the sight.

At one point, shortly after they got here, Emma, Alicia, and I were in the house together. Emma was going on and on to Alicia about killing the deer and then she said "You're going to make a fine wife someday". The way she said it sounded so grown up, almost like she was the wise older woman speaking to the wee lass. I just about cracked up and Alicia got a good snicker out of it too.

Levi and Tyler pitched in to help Drew skin the beast and cut it up. Then Drew and Alicia had a late night of meat processing but I'm pretty sure that it was worth it to them. What a fun memory.

Congratulations, Alicia! We're excited for you. Are you ready to go again?

19 Years Ago Today...

...my 2nd son was born.

Drew was born on a Friday. The Tuesday before his birth as I was driving to the hospital for a check up, I received a little gift...a speeding ticket. Joy! What nerve that policeman had to give a ticket to a woman 2 1/2 weeks from her due date and on her way to the hospital. Can you imagine?!

Needless to say, by the time I arrived at the hospital my blood pressure was sky high. I had had pre-eclampsia with my first pregnancy so the doctor was pretty concerned. I tried to convince him that it was just stress but he wanted me back that Friday for a recheck. He said if my blood pressure was elevated at all I would be having a baby that day.

I guess you can figure out what happened since Drew was indeed born that Friday evening. The labor and delivery is kind of a funny story in and of itself but I'll spare you the details. He was a beautiful baby that weighed in at 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. He was born with a head full of brown hair that was as wild as could be. We were thrilled!

Drew's first year was filled with ups and downs. He ended up having two major abdominal surgeries before he was a year old. There were times when we wondered if he would see his first birthday.

At three years old, Drew had to get his first pair of glasses...bifocals. He handled them like a champ other than the first week when he buried them in a snow bank in our front yard. I guess they did take him a little getting used to.

Now, at 19, he has grown into an awesome young man with a bright future. He is in his third year at MSU and has a new job here in town. He has a great cluster of friends and one special one too.

We celebrated Drew's birthday yesterday because he already had big plans for today. As I type this, he is on his way to Dallas with Alicia and her brother Sam to go to a concert featuring one of their favorite musicians.

Wow, where have the last 19 years gone? Sometimes I just wish they were all little again. But, then again, what a joy it is to see them becoming what God has created them to be.

Happy Birthday Drew! We think you're awesome!
But you knew that already, didn't you?!

And since Drew was born on his grandmother's birthday...Happy Birthday Mom! I hope it was wonderful for you. We send lots of hugs and much love your way!

Brotherly Love

As we finished dinner tonight the girls were begging to play Chutes and Ladders. While Keith and I cleaned up the dishes, Drew offered to play with the girls.

I will play just about anything with them but Chutes and Ladders is definitely not my favorite. That game can go on forever. You just think you're getting somewhere and you hit a chute and go back to the beginning. Come on, this is supposed to be a game for little kids. Have some mercy on the parents (and big brothers) already.

Anyway, Drew, being the great sport that he is, sat down to play with his sisters.

The first game went along fairly smoothly with the exception of Kara's occasional mix up in the counting of the squares (she still needs some help in this area). She ended up winning in what appeared to be near record time. Then I heard her ask the dreaded question..."Can we play again?" The look on Drew's face was hilarious as he responded "Can we double each roll?"

They did play a second game...even played it by the rules (no doubling of rolls). Kara won again and her smile went from ear to ear.

Thanks Drew for taking the time to make memories with your sisters and for loving them enough to play Chutes and Ladders. I'm quite sure you made their night.

Health

Some people keep a "blessings" list. At the end of every day they write down one thing that happened that day that they see as a blessing in their life. I've decided that this blog will serve as my "blessings" list.

I don't expect that everything I share on here will be happy but I know that no matter what happens God is still in control and therefore we are blessed.

Two weeks ago today my 18 year old son, Drew, came home from work with a bad stomachache. Throughout the afternoon it only got worse. By that evening, he was on the couch in pretty severe pain.

Almost eighteen years earlier Drew had undergone 2 major abdominal surgeries before he was even 12 months old. The doctors told us then that we would always have to watch for issues that might arise from the formation of scar tissue, or adhesions, which is very common with abdominal surgery. These adhesions can cause intestinal obstructions at any point in your life with little or no advance warning. Yea!

So, off to the ER Drew went. He got there about 10 pm that night and after several tests and a lot of waiting he was admitted to the hospital with the diagnosis of an intestinal obstruction. It wasn't my worst fear but not good news by any stretch.

The surgeon came in very early the next morning and explained to us that sometimes these things will work themselves out if the body is just given a chance to rest and any inflammation that is in there is reduced making the adhesions less of a factor. That would be the best case scenario.

If that didn't work within a couple of days, Drew was facing another surgery. The problem with that is that the body heals itself by forming scar tissue. Can you say "snowball effect"? Yuck! Not a good plan but maybe his only option.

I don't have many pictures of Drew from his time in the hospital as an infant. It was a difficult and scary time for me and I really didn't want to remember what he looked like then. I did take a picture of him before his first surgery so that he would know that he wasn't actually born with the scar that now makes him look like he was cut in half at some point.

You can tell in the picture how bloated his little tummy was. He spent most of the month that he was in the hospital with an NG tube running from his nose down to his tummy and with various IV tubes through which he was fed and medicated. He also spent a lot of that time on morphine so it really would not have made for pleasant pictures.

With hindsight being what it is, I do wish I had one or two pictures from that month because they really would be a testimony to God's healing hand. This picture was taken the day before he was released to go home. He was sitting on a couch in the playroom at the hospital watching Daddy and Jeremy (his big brother) play Nintendo. He looks small and pale to me but it was a huge improvement over the previous few weeks.

I've learned over the years, thanks to my husband, to take pictures of everything. (There is another long story that goes along with that. :) ) Even things that are unpleasant at the time can serve as reminders to us of all the things that God has brought us through. So this time I took a few pictures.

Keith said that when he walked into the hospital the morning after Drew was admitted and saw him laying there with yet another NG tube, it nearly brought him to his knees. Drew is much bigger than he was 18 years ago but it is amazing how quickly those years fall away when you are looking at your child laying in a hospital bed.

I write all of this today because as Drew left for work this morning I was overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for seeing him through another illness and without any more surgery. While I pray that Drew will not have to go through this again, the possibility remains. I do know that our God is the Great Physician and I am so grateful for the peace that that knowledge brings during these times.

The weekend that Drew was hospitalized, 3 other children from our church also spent time at the hospital for various maladies. I'm happy to report that all of them, plus one more hospitalized since then, are at home and well on their way to full recoveries. As parents, it's always hard to watch your children suffer in whatever form that may take. But God loves them even more than we do and because of that...we are all blessed!