Today...

Today I am thankful for my faith.  My faith in Jesus and trust in Him and comfort that He is in control of everything.
Today John John had a regular, follow up, yearly appointment with the back dr...
Today that dr made my son cry...
Today we found out John John will be having surgery again...
Today we felt the memories of 2 years ago flood us...
So again, today I am thankful that my God has a plan and knows the end before I even know the beginning!

It's no emergency, surgery will probably be in October. John John has been in extreme pain for about a year or so. I think I've spoken of it before. They told us he needed to gain weight. Well, he is gaining weight and there is no relief. Basically they are going to go in and either remove the bolt that's causing the problem all together or they are going to modify it to a much lower profile piece of hardware.
Please pray with us that God will give us peace and continued comfort. That we would remain focused on the fact that He knows our past, present, and future. That He is in control!

Pray without ceasing....

That's been going on a lot around here lately!  The times when it seems like I literally talk to God ALL day long really convict me that I should do this all the time, no matter the situation.  I love watching God work. It's amazing to see walls come literally crashing down, and to see what happens to the people as their hearts are softened.  Please keep our family in your prayers.  Pray that we stay convicted to keep our eyes and faith on God.  That we, like Peter, don't look away and get afraid and start to sink.  Pray that we keep our focus, in all we do, on God and trust Him with our lives and decisions.  I believe God has HUGE things planned for us, all to His glory and in His time!  (I don't like to be patient though, so pray I keep my patience too!)

Out with the old, In with the new...

Year that is!  WOW, it's been a while!!!!!!  I've actually been thinking a lot about posting but, don't really have a lot to say and certainly don't have time!
I can tell you that I have a lot on my heart, and a lot on my mind, and a lot to do A LOT OF THE TIME!!!!  I've been praying daily that the desires of my heart match up with God's will for my life.  I have so many "wants" and things that I think "I need", and I'm working through and learning the difference and realities of both.  I think constantly of my children at school (are they doing ok, are they learning, are they having fun, are they safe, etc.), and my husband at work (is he having a peaceful day, is he being patient, is there a new whole in a wall somewhere, etc.), and just life in general (what do I have to do today, can I be done by the time the kids get home, do I "need" to do anything really, what can I "get by" with doing, etc.).  I've been busy with keeping up with my house, 2 bible studies (both of which I LOVE), homework, AND... I started working!!!  Two half days a week, nothing major but totally what I love to do!  Helping to teach 2 year olds; numbers, letters, shapes, colors, etc.  Lots of life lessons too; how to walk in a straight line, how to not tackle our friends, that we don't eat the mulch on the playground, that when we don't follow directions we don't get a skittle; you know, THE IMPORTANT STUFF!!!!!  Truly, I love it though.  The teacher I aide for is a wonderful woman of God and an incredibly patient person.  She will be a great "teacher" for me to watch and learn from.
Anyway, I've got a bigger post coming I feel, about who I ended last year as and who I want to end this year as; but tonight is not the night for that... so you'll just have to wait!!!!  (Hopefully it won't take me a month to get to it!)
So, ta ta for now!!!

on my heart...

There is so much on my heart right now but today I want to share some verses...

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you.  O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:25-34

16 years and counting...

I can not believe I've been married 16 years.  Where has the time gone?!  It was a rough start, and didn't exactly happen the way I would have planned; but who'd of thought that we would've landed where we are today.  He is crazy, loving, insane, crazy, loving, crazy and more crazy!!!!!!  Did I mention that he is crazy?!  I love him just the way he is.  God works everything to His glory and that is so true in our lives together.  He turned what we could've messed up into a beautiful life. I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's.  It's not always easy to be married but God says if we put Him first, the rest will come; and it does.  It's easy to love when you love God.  I love where God has brought us and am so looking forward to where He's going to take us.  I thank Him for giving me John every day.  Thank you John for loving me even when I'm not very lovable sometimes.  Thank you for loving our children and providing for us, and protecting us, and everything else you do for us.
I truly love you with all my heart!  I can't wait to see where the next 16 years will take us!!!  I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Praise God... and den two a dem...

Thank you Jesus I've got 2 great updates!!!
John John's surgeon called last week.  It's good news...  The cat scan showed that everything has healed exactly like it is supposed to.  There is nothing pinching that nerve nor anything that it is getting caught on. The problem is that he is just to skinny.  He expressed a lot of concern over taking out that particular bolt, saying it is an important part of the hardware inside of there.  We trust his opinion and John John has agreed that we are going to start trying to bulk him up some.  (You know, those high fat high calorie shakes?!)  Who'da thought I'd be trying to force my kid to gain some weight?!?!?!  It seems for the next year or 2, at least, that is our only option but it's one we'll gladly accept.  It's a ton better than another surgery!!  Praise Jesus!

Update 2...  I took Jordyn to the urologist last week.  She's been having some issues (quite honestly, her pediatrician diagnosed her with incontinence... yes, my 7 year old!!)  It's been rough to say the least, what with having to stop for bathroom breaks literally every 5 min sometimes.  She's had some other symptoms that something wasn't quite right so we saw a specialist.  Thank Jesus, again, it appears to be something very minor and easy to fix.  We are hoping that by the spring all of her issues will be fixed ( well bladder ones anyway ;0)! )

So, God has shown up in our lives in a big way lately and I just thought that I'd share!

"For I know the plans I have for you"

I'm so glad that God has a plan.  I can sleep well at night trusting that He loves us more than anything, that He has a plan for our lives and that it is "not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future".  Sometimes I don't always agree with that plan and I fight it and hope it's not the right one.  I'm so thankful that He loves my children more than I do!

So, here we go again...

Two weeks ago John John was having some pretty significant pain in his lower back and down his left leg.  After 2 days of him complaining and nearly in tears I called his surgeon and made an appt. to go in.  John John's description was this, "the bolt hurts, like a burning, every time it touches something; and sometimes it shoots down the back of my leg".  Now, this may sound strange to some of you, the whole "bolt hurting" thing...  John John is an extremely skinny guy.  He's proportioned well and doesn't look sickly, he just has no meat on his bones.  Every time we see the back dr. he jokes that we need to get some meat on his bones.  It's just not gonna happen, John John is just not built like that.  Well, after surgery almost 2 years ago, there came a spot on his lower back at one of the bolts in his pelvis where his body built it's own protection.  He was so skinny and I guess that bolt was irritating the inside of his skin on that side so basically it calloused over.  He has a knot there.  It's not a concern, they've x-rayed and tested to make sure that's what it is and what happened and it's fine.  It's just the way his body protected itself.  It's been a place that he's had to be careful of just because it tends to get sore easier because of the fact that it protrudes off his back a little, but again, not really an issue.  (That's the "bolt" hurting).  Well, he started describing it as a burning pain and I immediately started listening closer.  I knew that was a sign of nerve pain, not just a soar spot.  He's been complaining about that for a little while now but not all the time and it's always gone away when it stops being touched.  When he started complaining about the pain down his leg I knew I should call the dr.  That, I didn't think, should be happening.  Now, I was pretty sure that it was not anything serious, but last time I thought nothing was wrong he started growing crooked 2 months later and couldn't bend over; I wasn't waiting for that again!  So I made him an appt.

We went yesterday and it didn't go how we expected...  It wasn't terrible news, just not the "Oh it's fine, it's just gonna happen every once in awhile, it's nothing to worry about" answer I thought it was gonna be.  He is going to have a cat scan done.  They did x-rays in the office but he said he wants to get a closer, more detailed looked.  He said according to the x-rays everything looks like it should.  The cat scan will be more specific - to the way his bone healed, to if his bone has healed all the way, to the amount of room that nerve has to "move around", etc.  Those are the things he's looking for.  He said he thinks that it's just that there's no meat around that bolt to protect his nerve from it.  There's a chance that, for some reason, there is no room for the nerve to move/stretch but he didn't seem to think that.  That was just kind of a passing statement he made, just one of the things to look at.

The next question was, how do we fix that?!  Not the answer we wanted!!!!  He would have to remove that bolt.  Less than 8% of people have to have the hardware removed after spinal fusion and such.  Seriously?!?!?!?!  Our guess is that wouldn't be a major kind of surgery, as long as it's not the "there's not enough room for the nerve" conclusion after the cat scan; but it just brings back everything we went through 2 years ago.  It's crazy, this all started almost exactly 2 years ago.  

So that's where we are.  Waiting for cat scan and results; and knowing that "He knows the plans He has for us.  Plans to proper and not harm, plans to give hope and a future."  

Please be in prayer with us, that God's will be done, no matter what, and that we will praise Him and He will be glorified in this situation. 

I will keep you posted.......