A month ago, Brody, my cousin Stephanie, and I took a weekend trip to Denver to visit my cousin and her family. It was really great to go spend time with her and all her boys. She has 6 boys!!!! I am thinking my 3 are not so bad!!!! Anyways, we really didn't do much other than just sitting around talking. It was just a nice relaxing weekend!
The other day I posted about meeting a family at church who has a nephew who had an inutero stroke. Anyways, today I exchanged emails with the mother of the 14 yr old boy, and with the lady from church who is his aunt. His aunt said something that really see things in a new light. She said, " It is another chapter – it might be a bigger one than the others – but it is a chapter in your life. God will certainly continue to give you the grace to handle each situation!" I know that right now we are at the beginning of this chapter in our lives and in Brody's life. I don't know how long this chapter will last or how many challenges we will face, but I do know that because of my faith that everything will turn out just the way God has planned.
This weekend I took the time to clean and rearrange Taylor and Gage's room. Let me tell you, it REALLY needed the cleaning part. After being stacked on top of each other for 3 years, we took apart their bunkbeds this weekend. Taylor, who was always on top, loves his bed closer to the floor, and Gage loves being able to see the ceiling. Their room looks great. You can see the top of their dresser now, It is dudt free and clutter free. Little do they know how much I threw in the trash.
Yesterday, as we were dropping off Brody in the nursery at church, and struggling to find his yellow stickers that tag him as a seizure risk, we were explaining what happened to Brody to a lady behind the counter. She happens to be one of the Pastors' wives and the daughter of our former landlord in Ames. Anyways, in the midst of telling her about Brody, she said that her nephew suffered from an inutero stroke and is now 15 yrs old! I can't even explain how comforting it was to know someone who has had direct contact with this situation before. Someone who knows what the struggles are or could be. Someone who can tell us where life may take us. I joined an online support group, Hemi Kids, when we found out about his stroke in May. I have loved reading the daily posts about others situations, however finally meeting someone who actually has a family member with the same condition is so comforting. And to think that we have known this family for years since we rented is unreal. This family lives in the Minn/St. Paul area, so I will still just be able to talk through email, but I am so thankful to have someone to talk to about it!!!
Want to learn more about childhood/infant stroke?? Here are a few websites about childhood/infant stroke.
I am all for garage sales or Craig's List and for getting things used at a good price, but tonight I splurged on a couple new things for Brody. We have had the same convertible carseat for 7 years, the recommendation is for only 5 years, so with a coupon at Babies R Ua, I purchased a new carseat for Brody tonight!!!! LOVE IT!!! Good bye baby carrier. I also splurged and bought him a new higher quality umbrella stroller. We got the Chicco at Babies R Us and used a coupon for that as well. Not that we couldn't have used the stroller for awhile, but this new one saves us a ton of space in the van when we go camping. It folds up just like a regular umbrella stroller, but it has a nice sun canopy, basket underneath, and a carrying case like a camping chair with a strap! Can't wait to use it!!!
Taylor and Gage elected to play NFL flag football this year through our parks and rec. Football starts on Monday next week. We are so excited to have them play. They are seperate teams, which could be interesting to get to both of their games. Practices are on Mondays and games are on Tuesdays. I get to try my hand at making mouth pieves for them. Ironically, the husband of Gage's coach is from Shelby originally, Ralph Dittmer. It's a small small world!!!!We will see if they like it or not and if they want to return to soccer next fall!
I am not compaining about how many things we have on our calendar, b/c I know that is mostly my fault. However, I am complaining about the stress of keeping track of it all. I program most things on the spot into my phone (free one from Verizon) and other things that I get home from school or church I type into Outlook on the computer so I can print off the week/month for the fridge. The annoyance is that I am constantly updating either one or the other with the other things I haven't entered. The time to enter all those things needs a spot on my calendar for itself, but which one would I type that into first!!!! So, what do you think??? Should I get something a Blackberry or a Palm? I know time is money, but I am not sure that I want to spend too much to solve my problem. Or should I just go back to handwriting everything on the good ole free Norman Rockwell calendar that we get from State Farm every year???? As if this is the biggest of my worries!!!!!
Tonight we went to the kickoff of our Wednesday night church program D6. Cornerstone Church has been putting on D6 for 3 years now. D6 is for kids ages birth to 5th grade and for their parents as well. The kids and parents start the night seperated then come back together for praise & worship, a skit, and the "Good Book Look". D6 is based on the verses from Dueteronomy 6:4-9,
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Each year they switch things up a bit as far as the parent teachings go. Last year our pastors taught each week about different topics, this fall we are going through the book Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. It proves to be a great read and learning experience for us, as his first book Sheparding a Child's Heart taught us a lot about how to raise our boys in a biblical way.
D6 for the kids is a bit different. They have virtues that they work on every month, with Bible stories and verses to back them up. For the fall the virtues are, humility, self- control, and honor. Wow, I think I could stand to learn a few things from the kiddos as well.
We are so excited to be back to D6. We have a lot to learn this year and can't wait to see the challenges that we face and the changes that come of them at the end of the year.
Although Brody has been receiving PT from Early Access in our home since we found out about his stroke in May, we decided that we wanted him to have clinical therapy also to make sure that he is using his right side to the best of his ability. Today was his first visit with his new therapist, Dory Moon. She evaluated him and his range of motion, and then played with him and showed me a few stretches to do with him at home. Brody is going to go to therapy every week for the next month, and then we will probably switch to every other week. I was a little nervous about taking my 2 girls that I watch to his therapy appt, but they were wonderful. We all sat on the floor together, and the therapist brought out extra toys for them to play with. I am so thankful that the families that I watch are so flexible and understanding. It is such a blessing to have such flexibilty during this time! Maybe I will be able to snap a few pics to post next time, but I didn't know what to expect during our first visit.
Since I have been able to randomly post pictures that last few days, I found this one that I had never posted of the boys. We spent the 4th of July in Two Harbors, MN, watching fireworks on Lake Superiior! The fireworks were fairly similar to what we usually see back home, but the weather however was MUCH cooler than we will ever see at a 4th here in Iowa.
