I woke up in the bed in Madalynn's room again but with tight shoulders from a stressful dream. Soon enough I realized I had the migraine aura. I took a Benadryl, got an ice pack, and went back to bed. I woke up feeling okay. But within minutes, it returned, compounded. I got 3 more Benadryl, a strong cup of coffee, nose spray, and a bag of broccoli (because we can't keep a good ice pack to save our lives).
All that came through for me. But I'm as ornery as a bull. I've gotten onto everyone, which cleared the room. Macklynn and Madalynn are outside even though her wrist still hurts from being sprained while I was in the hospital with Melody, and even though Macklynn has allergy symptoms. Everybody in the house does and is probably the real reason I started having a migraine.
I hate feeling this way, not in charge of myself. It's so sad to me that people would choose to numb their reality like this. I want them to be free of what inhibits them from seeking the Lord, the only solace they will ever find. "There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked." (Isaiah 48:22).
Contrarily, Melody has not needed any pain medicine today, not even Ibuprofen. I am floored. I can't believe my own disbelief. Just like that, she is fine. I'm shaking my head even now. Five days ago we were readmitted into Baptist with uncontrolled pain and declining vision in one eye.
In the interim, Mike's shoulder pain has taken a turn for the better also.
Question, do you ever get so used to the misery that you don't know what to do without it? I confessed this weekend to an old friend that it's as though I need to stay in a low place to stay close to the Lord. How shameful is that?
But my children have exhibited what I so often do not. I found out that two of them sacrificed their personal liberties to sanctification while they were on vacation. It is a rare thing that a parent could find out anything better. Yet, there is unrelated information I have found out this weekend that I wish I hadn't, especially since I can't do a thing about it. But can I? There is always prayer, which is the greatest of all resources. I have seen the Lord already at work about it.
Just now, I had to go dig something out of a bag in the back of the truck. Never fails that when I clean out the kids' stuff, I always throw away something I shouldn't. One kid is mad that I wouldn't let them leave with another. I accused one of something they didn't do. It's like when I pray for the Lord to teach one, and particularly in regard to my husband, I am immediately convicted of my own form of that sin. So, I have to switch up in the middle, for him to teach "us." And by the end of the prayer, it is always teach "me." Nothing like marriage to teach you how bad a person you really are.
Contentment, something else my old friend and I talked over, to be thankful for all the good in today while it is still called "today." We view lust/greed as the worst of many sins, when all it might be is wanting what is not meant to be yours not necessarily forever, but yet. The disregard of any commandment is the mistrust that God knows vastly more what is better for our souls and those of our families.
Our family, as it stands, will expand by two on June 12th. McKala isn't due until July 11th, but all things considered including that the babies are resting firmly breach, taking them really is safer for everyone involved. I still can't entertain the idea of new life. I feel like it will be the "lose it" of all losing its. It's bad enough that I lost it in Walmart, of all places. Four days after Melody's original admission to Baptist, I was restocking a little, in a daze. I can't remember what started the conversation about Melody with the cashier. But by the time I was paying, we both were crying.
I almost lost it in Walgreens too, when they would not refill Melody's pain medicine, because there was a discrepancy between that and the prior prescription. Thankfully, someone I know was standing there, so I was especially accountable for what was going to come out of my mouth. Within a few minutes, the pharmacist overrode the problem, and I was on my way.
It's been like that the whole time. When I thought we would have to battle the system, individuals have made exemptions and extensions for Melody's assignments and exams. The doors have been wide open for us to walk through. To Melody's credit though, every teacher has reported that she is a "great student." Reputation walks before us as we are led of the Lord, which is also what invalidates the gossip from mean girls and perverted boys that she has been this place and done that thing, when she was never there to have done those things. It doesn't prevent them from hateful looks and catcalls in the hallways though. She wrote a poem about it, which the teacher asked her to read aloud. She has been publicly mocked for it. But she stands strong ...and goes places like she did last night, fishing with her friend and her parents, aunt, and grandmother.
There will be no fishing at the lake this Memorial Day. The docks are flooded. It goes without saying that we are free to be concerned with such frivolities because of the ones we give tribute to today. Sacrifice, a fading trait. Without personal sacrifice, there is no real love, no real purpose.
Again, it begins at home, with family. Last Thursday, Mike and I were still at the hospital with Melody and needed Michael to stay home from the job he loves, to babysit for us. He agreed without hesitation, made a big breakfast, and finished the sanding Miranda started on the baby bed that Victoria gave for McKala. Friday, her day off, Miranda went to McKala's appointment with her, cleaned her house, and took her shopping. And wouldn't you know it, when a person is trying their best, the world falls in around them? But true to form, Miranda keeps moving, like the good soldier she is determined to be.
It has not been all work. Mike took me out to eat, and who was there but Megan and Shannon? We all went to the theater together. And, of course, the phone vibrated right in a pivotal scene. But between the uncertainties of Melody's and McKala's conditions, I had to find out who it was. It was only Madalynn wanting to know if she could make herbal tea. I don't know if this speaks to good training or to their fear of me. I can be a tyrant (which I'm guessing "rant" comes from). Toward training, I'll mention that today she asked if she could have the other half of her chocolate pie. She said, "Yesterday you didn't say 'Lord willing;' you said I could have it today." She had me. And as she sat at the table, she said, "I think the refrigerator is broken. It's making a boiling sound."
It was the ice maker. That's how much either the TV has been on or the tablets have been running lately. Silence, so rare. I'd like to say we'll be back in the groove soon, but McKala has requested that I stay with her for the first week as she learns to nurse both babies. There will be another family push to care for Macklynn and Madalynn. It turns out Melody's surgery already having been done will lend us a babysitter that week, the week after school gets out and ideally when she would have gotten a job. I recognize that sacrifice, and we have covered her on some costs we wouldn't have otherwise.
McKala hasn't gone to work in two months (which the owner there and the one at her prior job actually were brought to tears over). So, she doesn't quite know what to do with herself. She has things prepared: the new and the old, the white woven cotton blankets and sheepskins that were hers and Michael's, my "almost" Irish Twins, the closest I will ever come to real twins. We found them while she was here last and the baby book she didn't look twice at when she was about to be married that finally came to life in her hands, as she sat there taking care of Melody who was throwing up from the combination of pain and strong medicines and didn't want her to leave her side.
Funny how our need for each brings us closer than any other thing can. This I am learning to accept. "So, teach us, Lord ...teach me," the way David Jeremiah described this week about the Lord's Prayer, "to have a heart coming in praise to You, the Almighty God, and understanding that in Your love and dominion, I can rest in and be thankful for Your goodness and perfect will."
Without praise and thankfulness, there is no such thing as contentment and peace.
Monday, May 29, 2017
Friday, May 19, 2017
We're Home
I just heard Megan and Melody drive up. I'm waiting for them to find me in what we fondly call "the sideyard," where I weedeated the overgrown natural area yesterday so that we could hang up our hammocks and have a bonfire tonight. We're missing four of the kids, but that's all right because two have been almost 30 miles out to sea with Dad today. One has stayed back at the beach house to relax with Mom on this Mother's Day. And the other spent the night here.
Timothy and McKala came last night and helped us make fajitas and homemade salsa. She said she was so dizzy at church this morning that she didn't stand for prayer.
That was Sunday. This is Friday. I brought Melody back to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital on Tuesday after she could barely comprehend and particularly not see her classwork. Last fall, she was finally diagnosed after four years of headaches different doctors pondered were caused by bite alignment, hair heaviness, or hormones, with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. That means for her the "bottle neck" in the veins which leave her brain let spinal fluid build up in her head, so much so that her optic nerves swell and cause her to lose vision, never mind the chronic headaches she suffers.
Tuesday was her breaking point. She said there was no way she could do EOGs in that condition, much less study for them. Her right vessel is dominant, so it's the one they went through, her Femoral Artery in the inner thigh, to carry stents into by catheter.
No holes in the skull for a shunt, no shaved head, no complications, right? During the exploratory catheterization the night before the surgery, Fentanyl was administered too quickly and she all but stopped breathing on the table. She was awake and saw the doctor tear off his scrubs, start grabbing equipment, barking out orders, and having people called in "Stat!" THAT is why I call for prayer in times like these. Yes, what Melody has could be something worse; it's a condition, not a disease. BUT as Satan would have it, uncomplicated procedures become complicated.
I've been reading in Ecclesiates these last days. It says, "Things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all ..." (Ecc. 9:2-3). This is easy for me to quote. But I'm not the one suffering. Just know that calamity is never a reason to denounce Christ. Our reaction to and through it is what proves who we are and are not in Christ.
Yesterday was bad. We were set to leave but were on the tail end of the meds. They had taken her off the IV meds and there were no orders to give her anything else before we left. That's when the pain became unmanaged, and it took four hours to get orders to put the IV back in. Then, in the wee hours the night nurse decided Melody was "sleeping soundly," and she let all her medicine lapse. When Melody woke up, she was crying out loud. I can't say that I've seen her do that more than one time in the last four years. They got her meds going, but it was too late. It took almost two hours before they got it back under control, finally with morphine.
This morning is round two of trying to leave. She's off the IVs again. They've switched her oral meds to stronger/different ones. Another neurosurgeon came in this morning and said that the pain stems from the fact that the nerves are not in the brain, but they are in the covering of the brain, the dura, which is exactly where they've placed stents a centimeter in diameter. Imagine a large foreign object exerting pressure on the fibers, trying to expand itself between your brain and skull.
They can't say when the pain will subside. They can't say how long the stent will last. They don't know why this phenomenon happens. Seems to me that it's an anatomy defect. All I know is that this is feeding her passion for medicine. AND that prayer is always needed. Because although, some of the people on staff here at Brenner Children's Hospital are the best of the best, they still are human and do err. It's a big reason I pray so heartily for McKala. Yes, her babies are "safe," but she still has an active case of walking pneumonia, mycoplasma that is a particularly sinister and hard to kill bacteria, which the infectious disease doctor wants untreated. The "dizziness" at church I mentioned earlier is because her pulse is racing. The stress on her body is keeping her heart meds that she takes for POTS (a condition she's seen for at Duke and is likely caused by the four walking pneumonia infections she's had since she was 14) from working effectively. Her heart is in overdrive trying to "call up" the blood from her lower extremities because her nervous system does not do its job.
As I was telling Pastor Dale, who so apparently loves the Lord, when he came here to see us, it seems that Satan has realized that he cannot have the hearts of my children, so he will "try" their bodies to discourage them. I am not devastated over the physical state, not that I wasn't in great distress last night and could've just kicked myself that I didn't set my own alarm for her meds. What would be despairing though is to know that any one of them denied Christ in the end or lived their faith laxidazically, which is the same. While we are waiting for that end, we are tested, put to the fire. I pray that it pushes each of us to crave His Word and to seek Him fervently in unceasing prayer, not always in requests but in praise, that we might trust and obey. There really is "no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey," similar to what Soloman had to say after all his getting of wisdom then folly,"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecc. 12:13).
It's Friday night, and we're home. They finally found the right cocktail of oral medicine to keep Melody's pain at a reasonable level. It'll just be Melody, Mike, and me for the weekend, since Megan has taken Madalynn to Georgia for their twin cousins' birthdays and graduations, where they'll also meet up with Miranda, Michael, and Macklynn on the way back from Florida. Madalynn and I didn't exactly get the week we'd planned together. But we did get to swim at Aunt Cindy's pool and go to that bakery she's always asking me about. Mike colored with her AND did some major cleaning for me. (He said if his shoulder's gonna hurt either way, he might as well do something.) And she got to spend two days with our friends, the Heacock's, while I was at the hospital.
I just love the kids all being back in North Carolina, Megan at work, Michael at school, and McKala married. They went from somewhat of a disconnect to doing things together regularly. Some of the things I was afraid Macklynn and Madalynn would miss out on, even the travel, are suddenly upon them.
It got started up in December when Michael and Melody convinced Megan it was a good idea to buy a timeshare weekend while they were in Bass Pro Shop. So, on Michael's spring break, when he could've been "other places," he went with Megan, McKala, and Melody to Charleston.
During Melody's spring break, she stayed at McKala and Timothy's house for two days, tie dying shirts, buying ducks for his grandmother, and going to a free Triple A ballgame put on by Duke Energy, where Timothy is gainfully employed as a lineman. They kindly invited Macklynn, so Melody drove all the way home to get him. The next two days Melody spent with Megan playing softball, hiking, cooking, and going to the gym. Melody was invited to do a lot of unseemly things, and she chose to stay on the up and up, with family.
That's the deal. And although, they sometimes get a little too loose, crass, or blunt with each other; they are forever bound together. They've spent their childhood days playing, learning, and working and their teenage years volunteering all over the east coast, training, and even working together sometimes. They hold each other accountable. They are built in counsel and chaperones to each other. They don't have to find a place to "hang out," where things might go south. They don't have peer pressure, because they didn't grow up with it. Community really does start at home.
So does teamwork, just like the shower we put on for McKala. Melody baked another incredible lemon blueberry cake that was six layers. Miranda and Megan bought decorations. And Miranda pulled them together to make a first class affair. Megan bought games, but the conversations were so lively that we didn't need them. So, they're tucked away for the next time. Madalynn was so elated to be asked to go with the "big girls" to get a manicure before the shower. She's learned the value of saving her money to get to do big girl things.
There's an annual local music festival, and we all got to go because Miranda volunteered two whole days with the fire department parking cars. The tickets would've been many hundreds of dollars. Then, a couple of weekends ago, after Michael, Miranda, Melody, and Megan rode in her new Jeep to Mount Airy, McKala and Timothy came to spend the night with us. I pulled off some homemade pizza, and we all watched a movie.
Last week after work, Megan and Miranda put in an AC compressor in Miranda's car. A couple of days later, Megan and Mike put one in my van. Megan didn't go on the fishing trip this year, so when the three left, she went to the movies with Timothy and McKala. I love first of all that Mom and Dad invite them and that Miranda was willing to take Macklynn on the getaway she's so been looking forward to. And I love that the boys are there together.
There is a seven year gap between them. And Michael's been away at school and working when he's at home. He managed though to take Macklynn to the lake to try out the boat. He also took and stayed with Macklynn for the free Y summer camp day. Above all, he took him to his favorite trout stream up the mountain, which is normally a solemn place he has for himself Sunday afternoons, near Dr. Miller's place. Michael's either interned with or worked for him for four years now. He got to do a large animal call last week, and they rode together with Megan to have lunch. I like how they know each other's "others." There is a weaving together that only God can do.
Melody's good friend, Kaylee, came bearing gifts to the hospital and you can bet that big sister was there this week, too. Megan was a second mother to Melody. "Megan" was even Melody's first word. I was on the phone with my friend, Amy, and we both heard it.
So, here I am at 11:25 pm scratching my arms from the poison ivy I got myself into weedeating. Melody is resting, thoroughly medicated with 2 Percocet and 800 mg of Motrin intermittently. I can hear the videos Mike is watching in bed. We don't normally go to bed separately, so I'd better head on in there. Our oldest is headed south with the youngest, and the second will be headed north with the boys tomorrow, forever giving me something to pray over and about, but mostly to give praise for. My life is better than I ever imagined it might be. I'm so profoundly thankful that in our ignorance, simplicity, and youth, we were still able to understand and appreciate the command of fruitfulness and are here together to see what continues to grow from it ...and to hear those fishing stories when they get home.
Timothy and McKala came last night and helped us make fajitas and homemade salsa. She said she was so dizzy at church this morning that she didn't stand for prayer.
That was Sunday. This is Friday. I brought Melody back to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital on Tuesday after she could barely comprehend and particularly not see her classwork. Last fall, she was finally diagnosed after four years of headaches different doctors pondered were caused by bite alignment, hair heaviness, or hormones, with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. That means for her the "bottle neck" in the veins which leave her brain let spinal fluid build up in her head, so much so that her optic nerves swell and cause her to lose vision, never mind the chronic headaches she suffers.
Tuesday was her breaking point. She said there was no way she could do EOGs in that condition, much less study for them. Her right vessel is dominant, so it's the one they went through, her Femoral Artery in the inner thigh, to carry stents into by catheter.
No holes in the skull for a shunt, no shaved head, no complications, right? During the exploratory catheterization the night before the surgery, Fentanyl was administered too quickly and she all but stopped breathing on the table. She was awake and saw the doctor tear off his scrubs, start grabbing equipment, barking out orders, and having people called in "Stat!" THAT is why I call for prayer in times like these. Yes, what Melody has could be something worse; it's a condition, not a disease. BUT as Satan would have it, uncomplicated procedures become complicated.
I've been reading in Ecclesiates these last days. It says, "Things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all ..." (Ecc. 9:2-3). This is easy for me to quote. But I'm not the one suffering. Just know that calamity is never a reason to denounce Christ. Our reaction to and through it is what proves who we are and are not in Christ.
Yesterday was bad. We were set to leave but were on the tail end of the meds. They had taken her off the IV meds and there were no orders to give her anything else before we left. That's when the pain became unmanaged, and it took four hours to get orders to put the IV back in. Then, in the wee hours the night nurse decided Melody was "sleeping soundly," and she let all her medicine lapse. When Melody woke up, she was crying out loud. I can't say that I've seen her do that more than one time in the last four years. They got her meds going, but it was too late. It took almost two hours before they got it back under control, finally with morphine.
This morning is round two of trying to leave. She's off the IVs again. They've switched her oral meds to stronger/different ones. Another neurosurgeon came in this morning and said that the pain stems from the fact that the nerves are not in the brain, but they are in the covering of the brain, the dura, which is exactly where they've placed stents a centimeter in diameter. Imagine a large foreign object exerting pressure on the fibers, trying to expand itself between your brain and skull.
They can't say when the pain will subside. They can't say how long the stent will last. They don't know why this phenomenon happens. Seems to me that it's an anatomy defect. All I know is that this is feeding her passion for medicine. AND that prayer is always needed. Because although, some of the people on staff here at Brenner Children's Hospital are the best of the best, they still are human and do err. It's a big reason I pray so heartily for McKala. Yes, her babies are "safe," but she still has an active case of walking pneumonia, mycoplasma that is a particularly sinister and hard to kill bacteria, which the infectious disease doctor wants untreated. The "dizziness" at church I mentioned earlier is because her pulse is racing. The stress on her body is keeping her heart meds that she takes for POTS (a condition she's seen for at Duke and is likely caused by the four walking pneumonia infections she's had since she was 14) from working effectively. Her heart is in overdrive trying to "call up" the blood from her lower extremities because her nervous system does not do its job.
As I was telling Pastor Dale, who so apparently loves the Lord, when he came here to see us, it seems that Satan has realized that he cannot have the hearts of my children, so he will "try" their bodies to discourage them. I am not devastated over the physical state, not that I wasn't in great distress last night and could've just kicked myself that I didn't set my own alarm for her meds. What would be despairing though is to know that any one of them denied Christ in the end or lived their faith laxidazically, which is the same. While we are waiting for that end, we are tested, put to the fire. I pray that it pushes each of us to crave His Word and to seek Him fervently in unceasing prayer, not always in requests but in praise, that we might trust and obey. There really is "no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey," similar to what Soloman had to say after all his getting of wisdom then folly,"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecc. 12:13).
It's Friday night, and we're home. They finally found the right cocktail of oral medicine to keep Melody's pain at a reasonable level. It'll just be Melody, Mike, and me for the weekend, since Megan has taken Madalynn to Georgia for their twin cousins' birthdays and graduations, where they'll also meet up with Miranda, Michael, and Macklynn on the way back from Florida. Madalynn and I didn't exactly get the week we'd planned together. But we did get to swim at Aunt Cindy's pool and go to that bakery she's always asking me about. Mike colored with her AND did some major cleaning for me. (He said if his shoulder's gonna hurt either way, he might as well do something.) And she got to spend two days with our friends, the Heacock's, while I was at the hospital.
I just love the kids all being back in North Carolina, Megan at work, Michael at school, and McKala married. They went from somewhat of a disconnect to doing things together regularly. Some of the things I was afraid Macklynn and Madalynn would miss out on, even the travel, are suddenly upon them.
It got started up in December when Michael and Melody convinced Megan it was a good idea to buy a timeshare weekend while they were in Bass Pro Shop. So, on Michael's spring break, when he could've been "other places," he went with Megan, McKala, and Melody to Charleston.
During Melody's spring break, she stayed at McKala and Timothy's house for two days, tie dying shirts, buying ducks for his grandmother, and going to a free Triple A ballgame put on by Duke Energy, where Timothy is gainfully employed as a lineman. They kindly invited Macklynn, so Melody drove all the way home to get him. The next two days Melody spent with Megan playing softball, hiking, cooking, and going to the gym. Melody was invited to do a lot of unseemly things, and she chose to stay on the up and up, with family.
That's the deal. And although, they sometimes get a little too loose, crass, or blunt with each other; they are forever bound together. They've spent their childhood days playing, learning, and working and their teenage years volunteering all over the east coast, training, and even working together sometimes. They hold each other accountable. They are built in counsel and chaperones to each other. They don't have to find a place to "hang out," where things might go south. They don't have peer pressure, because they didn't grow up with it. Community really does start at home.
So does teamwork, just like the shower we put on for McKala. Melody baked another incredible lemon blueberry cake that was six layers. Miranda and Megan bought decorations. And Miranda pulled them together to make a first class affair. Megan bought games, but the conversations were so lively that we didn't need them. So, they're tucked away for the next time. Madalynn was so elated to be asked to go with the "big girls" to get a manicure before the shower. She's learned the value of saving her money to get to do big girl things.
There's an annual local music festival, and we all got to go because Miranda volunteered two whole days with the fire department parking cars. The tickets would've been many hundreds of dollars. Then, a couple of weekends ago, after Michael, Miranda, Melody, and Megan rode in her new Jeep to Mount Airy, McKala and Timothy came to spend the night with us. I pulled off some homemade pizza, and we all watched a movie.
Last week after work, Megan and Miranda put in an AC compressor in Miranda's car. A couple of days later, Megan and Mike put one in my van. Megan didn't go on the fishing trip this year, so when the three left, she went to the movies with Timothy and McKala. I love first of all that Mom and Dad invite them and that Miranda was willing to take Macklynn on the getaway she's so been looking forward to. And I love that the boys are there together.
There is a seven year gap between them. And Michael's been away at school and working when he's at home. He managed though to take Macklynn to the lake to try out the boat. He also took and stayed with Macklynn for the free Y summer camp day. Above all, he took him to his favorite trout stream up the mountain, which is normally a solemn place he has for himself Sunday afternoons, near Dr. Miller's place. Michael's either interned with or worked for him for four years now. He got to do a large animal call last week, and they rode together with Megan to have lunch. I like how they know each other's "others." There is a weaving together that only God can do.
Melody's good friend, Kaylee, came bearing gifts to the hospital and you can bet that big sister was there this week, too. Megan was a second mother to Melody. "Megan" was even Melody's first word. I was on the phone with my friend, Amy, and we both heard it.
So, here I am at 11:25 pm scratching my arms from the poison ivy I got myself into weedeating. Melody is resting, thoroughly medicated with 2 Percocet and 800 mg of Motrin intermittently. I can hear the videos Mike is watching in bed. We don't normally go to bed separately, so I'd better head on in there. Our oldest is headed south with the youngest, and the second will be headed north with the boys tomorrow, forever giving me something to pray over and about, but mostly to give praise for. My life is better than I ever imagined it might be. I'm so profoundly thankful that in our ignorance, simplicity, and youth, we were still able to understand and appreciate the command of fruitfulness and are here together to see what continues to grow from it ...and to hear those fishing stories when they get home.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
A Day in the Life of this Mother
I woke up this morning in Madalynn's room in the bed we made for Aunt Mandy to sleep in after she and Memaw drove all the way from Georgia for the baby shower. Since Mike is still dealing with pain from the shoulder surgery, coupled with sleep apnea, I usually have to get up in the night.
In a departure from my normal morning priorities, I got country ribs boiling to bake for bbq later. And I got a load of laundry going to ensure Macklynn has all he needs for the adventure he's setting out on with Miranda and Michael tomorrow. Mom and Dad have invited the kids down once more to their Florida vacation rental to spend the days offshore fishing with Dad. A change of scenery will be welcome, even to Mady and me left here at home.
I'm still diligently praying that the Lord would provide responsibility and exposure for our younger children who don't have other little people to take care of and nothing more than two dogs and two cats to tend to. But just in the last month, not so much yet in work for the kids but opportunities in the face of Mike's hours being cut to 38, Macklynn and Madalynn have been whisked away by our friend, Shannon, to Mystery Hill up near Tweetsie; Macklynn to the Y summer camp fun day, to fish in the boat Pop sent up, and to a Triple-A baseball game; Madalynn to get sister manicures with money she saved from Christmas and to the baby shower for McKala.
McKala, it's coming full circle. My young ones will be aunts and uncles, with someone to be responsible for. It all struck me hard the other day and again today when I was listening to my play list and the baby music that I planned for the shower came on. The sobering realization finally came over me that spirits breathed into new lives by God will once more be in my realm. I haven't had much anticipation, neither did I for my own, because children are not simply goals, legacies, or experiences. There is no true preparation of understanding to meet completely unique eternal souls. And that they are identical just blows my mind. That a barrier finally "appeared" between the two of them to prevent them from a high mortality rate is answered prayer. That they are both already around 4 1/2 pounds at 31 weeks is amazing.
I just got back from the high school having had to bring Melody another 800 mg of Tylenol. I don't know what this means. It appears that she is having a spinal leak from the lumbar puncture she had last week. Her spinal fluid pressure is back up to 28, normal being 8 resting. We're waiting for an appointment with the neurosurgeon who did her catheterization last fall to determine that she has stenonis/narrowing of the veins exiting her brain. The remedy he recommends is the insertion of stents.
So, I cannot afford to have hindered prayers. I have a daughter with a high risk pregnancy, a daughter who is in line for what amounts to brain surgery, a daughter who is training to go into fires for a living, a daughter who is preparing for disaster relief learning to drive a tractor trailer, and a son who is a up against a line of 300 pound football players now that he has been moved to Center, ironically the position he started at as a little boy. That's just the big stuff. We have other diagnoses we've received recently. Plus, four of us have caught the latest sore throat and cough. That makes 6 times Macklynn's been sick since January. All these things together have brought my immunity so low that what I normally can stifle with rest and peace has gotten the better of me, forcing me onto daily meds.
But today, today I got to sit on the porch for a while basking in the sun, like a big ole mother bear out of hibernation, in the chair Michael made for me for Mother's Day three years back, listening to music on the phone Megan got me for Christmas, and seeing the good in all that's happening. As the devil would have it, we'd stay wound up in prayers over the physical state of our loved ones. And I do, but what gives me great joy is knowing the place I will be with them all one of these days, and that during these hard ones we're to affect as many people as possible toward Christ.
The Lord has led me to raise the children to get up in the morning with a smile, regardless of the emotional and physical pain they carry, with hope for the best and with thanksgiving that it's not worse. That's why most people who know that Melody just finished up a championship softball season would never think she has a debilitating condition, left untreated causes blindness from sheer pressure on the optic nerves. They don't see me taking her medicine to school for the headaches, and some of them even doubt the kinds of procedures she's had done already.
I'm convinced that if the Lord doesn't heal us that not only is He teaching us but we also are meant to influence the ones who are helping us. During her spinal tap last week, which is without anything but a local anesthetic, a nurse shared with Melody her daughter's attempted suicide. Whatever Melody said brought her to tears.
No matter the age, a professing Christian ought to be counsel to someone, available and willing always. Otherwise, something is amiss. Look, we don't even have to go out searching for some special opportunity. They're everywhere, like the girl at the grocery store. I usually get her line. Her name is Selena, so I wrote it down on my prayer list. I was in a big hurry two nights ago to get home to finish making enough supper for the guest list that had grown to eleven throughout the day. She could see the frustration in my face and so that she would not take offense, I explained and found an in to tell her I thought enough of her to have her on my prayer list. Her eyes widened and she eagerly whispered, "Pray about 'this' for me." Now I know she knows that I care, and next time I'll be prepared to ask her if she knows the Lord.
It's not that hard to figure out, this Christian life. As a wife and mother, it involves pleasing my Lord, helping my husband, and training my children. By helping my husband, I am pleasing the Lord. By training my children, I am helping my husband and pleasing my Lord. And all the while "reaching forth" my "hands to the needy" and "opening" my mouth in "wisdom" and having the "law of kindness" in my "tongue" to anyone and everyone I come in contact with. Period. Every other endeavor burns.
In a departure from my normal morning priorities, I got country ribs boiling to bake for bbq later. And I got a load of laundry going to ensure Macklynn has all he needs for the adventure he's setting out on with Miranda and Michael tomorrow. Mom and Dad have invited the kids down once more to their Florida vacation rental to spend the days offshore fishing with Dad. A change of scenery will be welcome, even to Mady and me left here at home.
I'm still diligently praying that the Lord would provide responsibility and exposure for our younger children who don't have other little people to take care of and nothing more than two dogs and two cats to tend to. But just in the last month, not so much yet in work for the kids but opportunities in the face of Mike's hours being cut to 38, Macklynn and Madalynn have been whisked away by our friend, Shannon, to Mystery Hill up near Tweetsie; Macklynn to the Y summer camp fun day, to fish in the boat Pop sent up, and to a Triple-A baseball game; Madalynn to get sister manicures with money she saved from Christmas and to the baby shower for McKala.
McKala, it's coming full circle. My young ones will be aunts and uncles, with someone to be responsible for. It all struck me hard the other day and again today when I was listening to my play list and the baby music that I planned for the shower came on. The sobering realization finally came over me that spirits breathed into new lives by God will once more be in my realm. I haven't had much anticipation, neither did I for my own, because children are not simply goals, legacies, or experiences. There is no true preparation of understanding to meet completely unique eternal souls. And that they are identical just blows my mind. That a barrier finally "appeared" between the two of them to prevent them from a high mortality rate is answered prayer. That they are both already around 4 1/2 pounds at 31 weeks is amazing.
I just got back from the high school having had to bring Melody another 800 mg of Tylenol. I don't know what this means. It appears that she is having a spinal leak from the lumbar puncture she had last week. Her spinal fluid pressure is back up to 28, normal being 8 resting. We're waiting for an appointment with the neurosurgeon who did her catheterization last fall to determine that she has stenonis/narrowing of the veins exiting her brain. The remedy he recommends is the insertion of stents.
So, I cannot afford to have hindered prayers. I have a daughter with a high risk pregnancy, a daughter who is in line for what amounts to brain surgery, a daughter who is training to go into fires for a living, a daughter who is preparing for disaster relief learning to drive a tractor trailer, and a son who is a up against a line of 300 pound football players now that he has been moved to Center, ironically the position he started at as a little boy. That's just the big stuff. We have other diagnoses we've received recently. Plus, four of us have caught the latest sore throat and cough. That makes 6 times Macklynn's been sick since January. All these things together have brought my immunity so low that what I normally can stifle with rest and peace has gotten the better of me, forcing me onto daily meds.
But today, today I got to sit on the porch for a while basking in the sun, like a big ole mother bear out of hibernation, in the chair Michael made for me for Mother's Day three years back, listening to music on the phone Megan got me for Christmas, and seeing the good in all that's happening. As the devil would have it, we'd stay wound up in prayers over the physical state of our loved ones. And I do, but what gives me great joy is knowing the place I will be with them all one of these days, and that during these hard ones we're to affect as many people as possible toward Christ.
The Lord has led me to raise the children to get up in the morning with a smile, regardless of the emotional and physical pain they carry, with hope for the best and with thanksgiving that it's not worse. That's why most people who know that Melody just finished up a championship softball season would never think she has a debilitating condition, left untreated causes blindness from sheer pressure on the optic nerves. They don't see me taking her medicine to school for the headaches, and some of them even doubt the kinds of procedures she's had done already.
I'm convinced that if the Lord doesn't heal us that not only is He teaching us but we also are meant to influence the ones who are helping us. During her spinal tap last week, which is without anything but a local anesthetic, a nurse shared with Melody her daughter's attempted suicide. Whatever Melody said brought her to tears.
No matter the age, a professing Christian ought to be counsel to someone, available and willing always. Otherwise, something is amiss. Look, we don't even have to go out searching for some special opportunity. They're everywhere, like the girl at the grocery store. I usually get her line. Her name is Selena, so I wrote it down on my prayer list. I was in a big hurry two nights ago to get home to finish making enough supper for the guest list that had grown to eleven throughout the day. She could see the frustration in my face and so that she would not take offense, I explained and found an in to tell her I thought enough of her to have her on my prayer list. Her eyes widened and she eagerly whispered, "Pray about 'this' for me." Now I know she knows that I care, and next time I'll be prepared to ask her if she knows the Lord.
It's not that hard to figure out, this Christian life. As a wife and mother, it involves pleasing my Lord, helping my husband, and training my children. By helping my husband, I am pleasing the Lord. By training my children, I am helping my husband and pleasing my Lord. And all the while "reaching forth" my "hands to the needy" and "opening" my mouth in "wisdom" and having the "law of kindness" in my "tongue" to anyone and everyone I come in contact with. Period. Every other endeavor burns.
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