Would You Pray for Will?

Tomorrow, a little boy named Will is getting a new chance at life.

The Internet community is so big, yet so, so small. I know about little Will because I met his Momma on Twitter. And I have been inspired and humbled by Alex and Lindsey’s faith as they walk through an extremely rare disease with first, their daughter Kate, and now their son, Will. You can read more about it on Lindsey’s blog, here.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, just-turned-one-year-old Will is set to receive a life-saving bone marrow transplant. And some wonderful women (who also met each other on Twitter) have set up 24 hours of prayer for Will, as well as Alex and Lindsey (Mom and Dad), and big sister. Kate. You can see more about it at Meredith’s or Rachel’s blogs. The time slots are all filled and friends who know this precious family in real life and via the Internet will be praying for 24 hours starting at midnight tonight.

As I scrolled through the list to find my time slot (Midnight tomorrow. Woohoo! Like I needed an excuse to stay up late.), my eyes welled up with tears. I know that most of those who volunteered to pray for Will have never actually met him. Yet the body of Christ doesn’t have to “know” someone in order to petition the Heavenly Father on their behalf. And that’s what we will be doing.

It’s not too late to join us, though. You don’t have to know them or have an official time slot to pray. Just pray. Pray for a smooth, complication-free bone marrow transplant. Pray for the doctors and nurses at Texas Children’s Hospital, who are caring for Will. Pray for wisdom and strength for Alex and Lindsey. And pray that Will’s healing will be complete, his body will not reject the transplant, and that illnesses and infections will stay away as he recovers.

And, I would add, thank God for the person who is donating life-saving bone marrow to this baby boy.

Children’s Discovery…Mom’s Naptime Guarantee

Earlier this week, we went to a Children’s Discovery Center in a nearby town with some friends. We’ve all been cooped up in the house with a recent cold snap, so we were all ready to get out, play, hang with friends, and the Moms were ready for some worn out kids for naptime!

To say that Caedmon enjoyed the giant water table would probably be an understatement.

Honor tried her hand at gardening for a little bit, but once she discovered she was basically standing on a brown mattress, she decided it was more fun to “Jump! Jump!” (Notice the stunning lack of vegetables in the garden…I think that was her doing. She needed her jumping space.)

The boys spent the most time at the train. Well, “mining” coal and filling the coal car.

Honor spent her time at the train driving…of course.

We took a break for lunch. It was interesting, with all eleven kids and four Moms in one spot together!

I tried to get the kids to sit in the kayak together for a picture. But someone has a serious case of “I had it first” right now, so it didn’t turn out very well.

Honor finally made her way to the kitchen to play with the girls.

While the boys did some serious work on this car.

They had so much fun with this car! The muffler and other parts are attached via Velcro, and the wheels were held on with giant plastic lug nuts. They spent a ton of time taking things apart and putting them back together, topping off the “fluids”, and changing tires.

Honor and Sam eventually found the blocks.

They are so sweet, and generally play quite well together. Sam’s the 3rd child and is used to being bossed around, so he’s not phased a bit by Honor’s need to be in charge.

We did manage a group picture of the nine big kids. But it was a task. And this is the best it got.

I think all the kids were worn out by the time we were done, and I know the Moms were! Keeping up with the eleven kids between the four of us was a chore in that place. But it was a fun day with some new and not-so-new friends, and we’ll definitely be back to play again!

Whirlwind Week

I last posted a week ago. And we’ve been there and back again since then. Literally.

Last Wednesday, we headed home for a quick visit and some business meetings for Husband. It sounds lovely, doesn’t it, getting to tag along on a business meeting trip and see family? It was. But it was not easy.

Wednesday morning, “all” I had to do was get the kids up, finish packing, load the car, take the dog to the kennel, and pick Husband up at his office by 10am. Easy, right? Riiiight.

We were actually moving along pretty well, and would’ve been ready to leave the house five minutes early. Until….

Until I sent Caedmon to go potty and Honor snuck up behind him and grabbed his shirt. Which necessitated the cleaning of the bathroom and a change of pants for Caedmon. I changed Honor’s shirt for good measure, but mostly because she was already soaked to the belly button from slobber.

We still made it to pick Husband up on time and hit the road. We made great time, and the kids did beautifully. Honor even slept for a little while. That all ended when we hit stand-still traffic due to a wreck. It took over an hour to go three miles. During which time, Honor cried, and of course, Caedmon had to go pee.  So what do you do when you’re in stand-still traffic and your boy has to pee? You take him to pee in the ditch, of course. And entertain the truck driver behind you.

We finally got out of the wreck traffic just in time to almost get caught in some crazy construction traffic. But we managed to go around that by possibly making a slightly illegal u-turn in the median just in time to maybe make it back to an exit so we could take a side road. Hypothetically. At which point, Honor continued to scream angrily. And we might’ve resorted to yelling along with her. Maybe.

All told, we managed to squeeze a 9 1/2 hour trip into 12. But it was worth it. We got there in time to let the kids run wild a bit before a late bedtime.

Thursday, we got to see a lot of friends. At the church, Sass let the kids feed the fish. (I have a great picture that I’ll upload when I can. My phone is being weird and won’t let me send it.)

At Mimi’s, they rode in the jeep. Honor was not about to get up out of the floorboard. I don’t think she had full confidence in her driver. I wonder why?

We got to visit with our friend Mrs. K while we were at Mimi’s. She brought us some fabulous paper cranes she made. I’m truly amazed at her talents. I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do. (Here’s Caedmon having breakfast with them after we got home.)

At Mom and Dad’s, the kids played with Q and E. They had a blast together, and had a great time in the toy car Dad acquired somewhere. Too bad there’s no charger for the battery. Those girls were ready to go!

Thursday night, it was family dinner. Minus NLB, Fidget, and Squirt, who were at their respective colleges.

Friday morning, Caedmon helped Dad clean out the horse trough.

And we went to play group. It was so good to see our friends. I completely forgot to take my camera and the phone camera didn’t even have a chance to come out. The kids had a blast with each other, and it was so good to catch up with friends.

Friday night, Dad built a fire, and he and Caedmon roasted a hot dog and s’mores.

Husband and I met Brandon and Jill at one of our favorite places for dinner.

That’s where things kind of went down hill for me. About 10pm Friday night, I succumbed to a stomach virus. It was not fun. At all. I spent the day Saturday trying to recover, and had to miss lunch with friends.

You always hear that Moms don’t get sick days. And it’s true. But let me tell you something. If you’ve gotta be sick, do it at your Mom’s house. Between her and Husband, everything was taken care of and all I had to do was…nothing. The kids played all day until about 5pm when the stomach virus struck Caedmon. Poor guy. He didn’t sleep well that night, as you can guess. Which means neither did I.

We got up early Sunday morning and headed back to Nashville. Caedmon carried along a bucket, just in case, but thankfully, we didn’t need it. We got to stop and have lunch with Nana and Poppy, and chilled in the rocking chairs at Cracker Barrel for a few minutes.

This time, we actually made the 9 1/2 hour trip in 9 1/2 hours. It was nice to visit and see everyone. And nice to get back. It took me until Tuesday to finally get back to normal. And I thought it was just because I am old, but apparently Caedmon has taken this long to get back to himself, too. That stomach virus was a mean one. So far, Husband and Honor have escaped it, and I hope it stays that way.

It was a big weekend and a busy week. It was also a big week for our house. I can’t wait to show you the next update!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

F-I-V-E

Caedmon’s fifth birthday was an epic celebration. You only hit “a whole hand” for the first time once, you know.

Nana arrived on Wednesday to help us with all our partying. Then on Thursday night after Caedmon went to sleep (which wasn’t until about 10:30), I decorated his doorway.

Yes, his light is on. He’s currently going through an “I’m pretending to be afraid of the dark so I can have an excuse to not go to sleep” phase.

I kept the decorations high so they could stay up for a few days without Honor pulling them down.

I’d like to say Caedmon was impressed with my skills, but when he got up that morning, all he said was, “Why did you put that stuff on my door?” Sigh. He’s already too cool for school.

We surprised him with lunch at the grammatically incorrect pizza place (Don’t get me started on their commercials. They drive me nuts.). (Also, need proof? Here you go.) He’s been asking to go there for a while, and since it’s in another town, we kept putting it off. So it made for a perfect birthday lunch.

I think he was happy, don’t you?

Nothing like a little Mario Kart when your feet can barely reach the pedals. Ah, the good old days.

Honor got into the arcade stuff as well. We didn’t tell her we didn’t put tokens in anything.

Caedmon opened his gifts from family members at lunch, and he was excited about all the things they sent him.

Uh-oh…Mom and Dad left our gift for Caedmon at home! We had to wait until we got home for that one. This is what was waiting for him when we walked in (Thank you, Craigslist!).

And this is what his face looked like when he saw it.

We do excitement a little differently at our house.

He made himself at home pretty quickly.

And we spent some time playing/singing “Eye of the Tiger”, “Hungry Like the Wolf” and other gems.

Meanwhile, Honor entertained herself with the bow from the drums.

She later figured out it would stick on her belly. She stuck that thing on her belly over and over again until all the sticky wore off. And then a few more times.

Saturday, Caedmon had his first “friend party”. But since it was also the first college game day of the season, somebody had to rep our Razorbacks. Daddy and Honor took care of that, while Caedmon and I wore our superhero shirts.

Nana and Honor were in charge of blowing up balloons.

Daddy was in charge of the games.

And the friends brought the fun.

We’re so thankful our friends could come and celebrate Caedmon’s birthday with us.

I’m pretty sure this kid had a great birthday.

I know I had fun watching him turn 5. And I’m glad it’s a whole year until his next birthday.

(I’ll post more pictures and party details later.)

Kid-Cation, Part 4

It’s finally coming to an end. The Kid-cation was lots of fun, but it had to end sometime.

Tuesday night, I got to spend some time with friends, eating dinner and doing a little shopping. It was so fun to see those girls and get to catch up on them and their sweet families. But honestly, with blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, we were able to sit down to dinner and just talk like we’d seen each other last week instead of months ago. I love technology.

Wednesday, we got to play all day. Honor and I visited with friends while Mom and Caedmon went to Curly’s so the boys could play together.

That afternoon, Caedmon got to play with an awesome toy NLB gave him: Max Steel with a parachute.

If you don’t know who Max Steel is, think an edgier GI Joe. With speedos and 6-pack abs.

Also, Honor would hold him and say, “Daddy!”

Anyway, Caedmon and his buddy Levi got to spend some great time together.

They had even more fun with Max.

Honor reeeealllly wanted to come outside.

Not to be outdone, HLB pulled out some of his old Star Wars Micro Machines for Caedmon to play with. The boy was in heaven.

And Honor finally discovered the rocking horse. It’s a good thing she didn’t find this thing until the day before we left. We wouldn’t have been able to keep her off of it!

And her Aunt Trump would be very proud of how she kick-kick-kicked that pony. It would definitely get up and go!

That’s about it. Finally, huh? We had a blast on our trip. And I’m grateful to everyone who helped make it happen. We didn’t get to see everyone or do everything we wanted, but that always leaves more for next time, right?

In Which We Have Sushi and Coconut Pie

Yes, I’m still talking about our trip. It was just too much fun!

Tuesday was special, though. Because Mimi arranged for a cooking lesson (and lunch) with a sweet Japanese lady from church.

Mrs. K sits near Mimi and Papa in church, and when I would take the kids to see them before the service started, we’d always say hello to everyone near them. One day, Mrs. K was introduced to us, and she asked how she could pray for us.  Since that time, Mrs. K has had a special place in our hearts. And she’s been super kind to our family and a blessing to our kids.

Mrs. K reads the Bible in Japanese. She’s a prayer warrior. And she taught us to make sushi and egg rolls.

Mimi arranged everything for us, and we met at her house for our cooking lesson. Fidget and I were there to learn and cook – everyone else came later to eat.

We made egg rolls (or as Mrs. K calls them, wontons).

Mimi and Mrs. K were making sure everything was cooking properly.

While Mrs. G (a friend of Mimi and Mrs. K – and us) and Fidget supervised. (And I wandered about, taking photos of everything.)

Mrs. K taught us to roll sushi. We made it with crab (cooked), cucumber, and avocado. Mrs. K made it look pretty with the flowers!

Mrs. K also fried some of the biggest shrimp I’ve ever seen.

 

We had a great lunch together.

(Left to right: Mom, Curly, Mrs. K, Mimi, Trump, Fidget, and Mrs. G)

Maybe the best part of the day was listening to Mrs. K tell about her experiences; how God has called her and used her in her life, how He has taken care of her family, and how her prayers have been answered. She went to work in a factory (in Japan) at the age of 14 during WWII. She married a “GI”, came to America 50 years ago, and didn’t know English at all. She didn’t need to – she and her husband ministered to Japanese-speaking people. She continues her ministry today by investing in those around her. Mrs. K is a fabulous example of continuing to grow in your faith and allowing God to use you, even after you “retire”.

While we were eating and talking, the kids were playing.

Honor discovered the toy cabinet.

And Caedmon had a blast driving the jeep around. He was serious about it, too.

Papa even made him a service station.

I can’t wait until he can pump gas in my car!

Cousins Q and E were there as well, but I didn’t get many photos of them. I know Q wasn’t still long enough!

Of course, Honor had to mooch some food. During dessert time. And Aunt Trump was the perfect target. She didn’t want that Coconut Pie anyway, right?

We had a great time at Mimi’s that day. I’m grateful she made sure we got to spend some time with Mrs. K and cooked some good food! One of these days, I’ll figure out how to make coconut pies like she does. But until then, I’ll gladly enjoy hers!