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For those of you who don't live here in Colorado, did you know it is tough to find a native Coloradan? It seems that everyone is from somewhere else. Even me. I grew up in a suburb just west of Chicago. Then one day when I had an early mid-life crisis I decided that I needed a change, so I put all my stuff in a U*Haul truck, put my car on a trailer, and off I went west toward the mountains.

I figured the worst thing that could happen if things didn't work out was to load everything back up and head back east.

But it obviously worked out for me, eh?

I feel like a grafted-in Coloradan now. I married a Colorado native (ya I actually found one), and my whole life is here now. It took about ten years, but I don't feel like I'm "from Chicago" anymore. This is my home, where I belong.

I sound more like I'm "from Chicago" after a few glasses of wine... I develop sort of an "accent"...

       Oops ~ I digress :o)

Sometimes it takes a while to find where you belong. So many people wander around, aiming their lives in this direction or that, never really feeling like the life they are living is where they fit. Where they belong. Where we belong isn't always comfortable and sunshine and smiles, but God didn't promise that it would be. He only promised that He would be with us and never leave us. That everything would glorify Him in the end.

Maybe the discomfort or dissatisfaction is God's way of telling us we need to do something different? Be somewhere else? Pay attention to Him more?

Like He's knocking on the top of our head and saying, "Hellloooooo!"

I wandered for so long. I finally feel like I am home. Home in God's arms, home with my loving husband, home with our three sons, at home with my life. I know I need to make certain things a priority to be the best person I can be, I know the things in my life will always be changing, and I know if I focus on God then everything else falls into place.

Life has gotten funny that way.

(((hugs))),
chris




Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “I am the Lord, the
God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?"
            Jeremiah 32:26-27

Guess Who is SEVEN Now???

Oh my... We can't believe our #1 son is now 7 years old!!! Where have the years gone?

I still remember the day he was born like it just happened. What an incredibly amazing day. It was cold and drizzling when we drove to the hospital, and it was snowing a day and a half later when we left with our brand new baby cone head boy.

This year it was sunny and 75 degrees ~ beautiful!

Josh decided he wanted pizza for lunch and pizza for dinner. We found a recipe for a "breakfast pizza", so we surprised him with pizza for all 3 meals! Josh was in heaven!

We convinced Josh to have a birthday party out of the house somewhere (yay no setup or cleanup!), so he decided to have a party at the bowling alley. There were 10 boys total, ages 6 and 7, and the munchkins were not invited... (We couldn't talk Josh into that for anything...)

Here are some pics of the party:

I have no idea what they are doing...

Cool Lego Ninjago cake, eh?

After the party EVERYONE took a nap :o) and after dinner we celebrated with the brothers (and Grammy and Aunt Shel were in town too).

What a fun day!

But I think we won't have pizza for the next month or so...   ugh...

(((hugs))),
chris



Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
            ~ 1 Corinthians 13:7

Surgeries Update

We have finally scheduled a tentative date for the surgeries ~ this date is in mid-May.

          "But it's March... That's two months away!", you say...


Yes, it is two months away. In my ideal world-according-to-Chris, if I was Queen-of-the-Universe, we would have had these surgeries scheduled in early April so our 6-week recovery would be complete before summer.

I am so glad I'm not in charge :o)

We took Sammy to the dentist and he also needs some dental work done under anesthesia. Our medical insurance company likes to give doctors a hard time... approval for David's dental work (also under anesthesia) took two weeks to be approved. So as always (in the end anyway) I am so grateful the Lord is driving this party train... By having the surgeries two months out gives our dentist time to fight with the insurance company again have Sammy's dental work pre-approved and have his dental work completed before his lip repair.

Why is this so important?

Because when you have dental work done under anesthesia, they STREEETTTTCCCHHHH out your lips to get in to work on your teeth. You can't STREEEEEETTTTCCCHHHH out a lip that has just been put together without risking detaching some muscles up in there or even unzipping the whole lip. Good idea to fix the teeth first, eh?

Thanks again, God. You really do know best.

(((hugs))),
chris


Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.  Psalm 25:5

No News is...

no news...

Unfortunately.

Jason and I are trying to reel in our impatience with getting surgeries scheduled.

Tick tock, tick tock, the clock is a-ticking.

No update on our doc being able to use the nearby kids' hospital so we can have both surgeries done on the same day.

Just a whole lotta nuttin' new...

Just waiting...

We decided to schedule Samuel's lip repair as soon as we can (doc can do that at a different facility), and we're waiting for a call back from the scheduler-extraordinaire at our doc's office to make that happen...

That would mean David's palate surgery would probably happen later, maybe(??) sometime in the summer. Yuck, two recovery times for our family as well as a summer recovery does not fall in the funfunfun category IMHO...


All in God's perfect timing, right?

Come on, Lord, please move a mountain on this one...

(((hugs))),
chris




I love you, Lord; you are my strength.   Psalm 18:1

A Beautiful Boy - video

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FCJ2CMNU

(((hugs))),

chris

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
      and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
      Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
      as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.       Psalm 139:13-15

Medical Update

Both boys are ready to go on to their next surgery!

Hurray!!!  (insert jump and click heels together here)

Samuel will have a full lip repair ~ meaning that his lip muscles will be attached in the correct place and doc will make his lip look symmetrical with minimal scarring. Unfortunately, it seems that the fistula in his hard palate is a big one as far as holes-in-the-palate go, and there isn't much on the tooth side to attach the palate to. We might just let him grow, and look at getting him an obturator. An obturator is a prosthetic device that closes off the hole in the hard palate, and is helpful for speech. We are so excited that he will have his lip repaired.

David is ready to go with his hard palate repair. Yay! If you remember, he was the one we weren't sure about ~ the parts of his palate that he does have needed to grow more before he could have surgery. I guess what the doc did inside his mouth during the last surgery has helped to pull tissues so they would expand and grow. Doc thinks he could get David's hard palate closed in one surgery... maybe, maybe... You never know what will happen, but that would be such a blessing!

Our curveball is that the hospital our doc uses (and where we were for the last surgery) is closing their pediatric unit. Our doc found out very recently that this was happening, so he is working on getting privileges at the children's hospital up the road. We should know in a week or two if privileges will be expedited, and if we can have surgery sooner than later. If privileges are not expedited, then we can expect about a three month wait until our doc has privileges at the children's hospital. The good news is that our good friends' daughter has had surgeries at this children's hospital and they have been so happy with the hospital overall. So we will have that to look forward to :o)

We are praying that these surgeries can be scheduled very soon. While there is no harm in waiting for surgery and no medical urgency, sooner would be a blessing for a couple reasons. The most important is that, at 4 years old, David is really old to have a palate repair. He is losing precious time to learn to speak clearly. And Samuel's lips can't close properly to help him speak clearly. So time is ticking away ~ the longer they go without the ability to speak clearly, the harder it is to undo the bad habits and relearn how to talk intelligibly. It is also important socially for the boys to look more like their friends and to talk more like their friends.

Our doc said he should know within two weeks after our appointment whether privileges will be expedited or not...

Two weeks is today on my calendar.

I'll be calling the doc this morning :o)

(((hugs))),
chris


We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer.  Proverbs 16:1

The Cuteness

Wearing their birthday crowns ~ you can't practice singing Happy Birthday too many times!

Big bro flying a kite ~ the winds weren't quite hurricane-force that day

Loooooove the pouty face

D loves animals

At least this random picture that showed up on our computer didn't contain guns...
I have been informed that Lego-Jai is holding a scythe... 

Have a happy Monday!
(((hugs))),
chris



So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I
have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another
will prove to the world that you are my disciples.  John 13:34-35

Go Ahead, Stare... I Dare Ya

This week has been kinda rough for me in one particular area...

I am worn. Down. By. The. Staring. And. Mean. People.

I am not talking about the double-takes that people do when they see Sammy's or David's face. I get that. I am talking about the kids and adults who out-loud-*gasp* in horror. The children who point-at-my-child-while-covering-mouth-with-other-hand-and-saying-EEWWWW. I am even talking about the adults who "try" to be polite by not turning their head while their eyes are glued to and track my son's face as we walk by.

This week, I did not handle the gang of children who gathered and stared and pointed at Sammy very well.

It kind of goes like this every time we walk up to get Josh from school. One or two or three of Josh's classmates who we know come up first to say hi. (He really has some sweet classmates ~ especially two little girls who love our little boys :o)  Then a couple more gather to one side, talking among themselves and staring. Then one more gathers with those two. Then two or three more gather around, staring at Samuel. As more and more gather, the pointing and EEWWWW's start. I think this is what you call "gang mentality" ~ mobbing and harassment in our case. In the meantime, the friendly-folk are still there talking to us and trying to make Sammy & David laugh and smile.

It makes me hurt for all three of my sons. I hurt because the other kids are so mean.

I don't know if the munchkins know they are being stared at because they look different. I don't want them to know that.

Up to this point, I tried to catch some of the EEWWWW'ers eyes and smile and ask if they have questions and try to engage them in an educational type conversation. For the kids who I have "caught" and spoken with and educated, this has gone well and those kids are now more accepting and friendly ~ they are free to ask questions and I am happy to answer them.  I say Sammy was born like that and the doctor will fix his lip with some stitches in a couple months, then he will look more like David with a little scar on his lip. I tell them that Sammy has lots of teeth, not just the one in front, and that he's two years old and talks and likes chocolate and jumping on the trampoline.

He's just a regular kid, not a freak show.

But this week, I did not handle the Meanie-McMeansters with grace and love. Outside school at pick-up time we had 10-12 kids gathering around us and the comments and pointing commenced. So with other parents and teachers and students around, I loudly and with a sharp tone said, "Do you know that it is mean to stare and point like that? Didn't your parents teach you better manners than that?" and I called out several kids who were doing that and looked them in the eye and told them to walk. Away. From. Us. Now.

Then I got in the car with the boys and as we were driving away I started crying. The radio was blah-blah-blahing so I reached to change it to music, when I heard something like, "...if you do feel bitter, just ask God for the grace to forgive."

BLAM!

I hear you, Lord. This is hard. I am trying.

Then I pulled over the car because I was crying so hard that I couldn't see.

After this week, I am trying to remember that we will most likely always be stared at because we are a mixed race family.

Just please don't make my boys feel bad.

Go ahead and stare at Sammy's mouth. Here you go:

I think he's very kissable :o)

I need to work on handling the Meanie-McMeansters with grace, forgiving them for their ignorance and loving them like Jesus loves me when I have been a Meanie-McMeanster.

(((hugs))),
chris


People with understanding control their anger; 
      a hot temper shows great foolishness.  Proverbs 14:29