Winter!

Merry Christmas!!

The WORD became flesh and made his dwelling among us...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May you know the nearness of the person of Jesus the Christ!

Love, John, Melanie, Benjamin, Rebekah, Joshua and Rachel

Happy Birthday Mr. Biggie!!

Dear Benjamin,

Happy 7th Birthday, little love! I am so excited for you to be turning 7, but in many ways, it feels as if you are far older. I guess that what happens when you're the oldest!

I am so so so so glad that you are my first born. What a great kid you are!! You really have a good heart and are so kind. Ok, I know that Joshy and Keky get on your nerves, but you really do well with them. You can be patient, and I am amazed at how well you share with them.

And you are so kind to Rachel. I know that you love her a lot, and you love to take care of her. That will always make my heart melt a little bit.

You are doing really well in school. I know that you don't love it and would rather be playing Star Wars or playing your video games, but I am proud of you for hanging in there and going, even when you don't want to. You have really put forth a good effort!

I know that it's hard that your birthday is the day before Christmas. I am really sorry! If I had known you would be more than a week (almost two) overdue and then be born by C-section, I would have had you a lot earlier. I know that your special day seems to get lost in all the Christmas frenzy.

I want you to know that I love you so much and am so proud of you! You are such a great kid, and I thank God every day that you are mine! I love you!!! Mommy

Two Years

This coming Monday marks a day, two years ago, when our world changed forever. A routine ultrasound would show massive problems with the baby I was carrying. At the time, we were told she would not survive to birth; we would have to consider termination.

Unless you have faced a similar situation (which unfortunately, I know, too many of you have), you cannot even to begin to understand the gut-wrentching, horrific, physical pain associated with that. Because it was such a traumatic time in our life, I try not to remember and mark it. Even though our situation turned out completely the opposite and I have reason to only have joy, even remembering that time brings back all the physical pain.

From that Monday until our appointment with the specialist Wednesday morning, I tried to focus my mind on the one fact that held me together: one of my four children would be with Jesus, secure in Heaven forever. I was lead to a song, "Glory Baby" by Watermark. I have put that as the first song on my playlist on this page. I warn you: it is a very difficult song to listen to, and please feel free to turn it off. But in those three days, I listened to this song over and over and over and over and over and wept and wept and wept and wept. As the lyrics say, "Let sweet Jesus hold you till Mom and Dad can hold you. You'll just have Heaven before we do."

Three days later, on the Wednesday following Thanksgiving, we went to a specialist in Pittsburgh, fully expecting him to encourage us to terminate, even that day. But instead, we got the greatest gift and surprise of our life: Rachel would live. And because of that, because *we* recognize God's proximity and intervention throughout the entire time, when Rachel was born **ALIVE** on a Tuesday morning, April 15th (yes, tax day), we named her Rachel Elianna. The name Elianna means "God has answered my prayer".

Interestingly enough, the same artists that sang the song I wept over, also wrote a song called "Elianna", the second song on my playlist. As those lyrics say, "The tenderness of God is twirling around in our living room tonight."

As I remember two years ago and the extremes of emotions, these two songs mark the beginning and, well, the other beginning of that time. All I have to say now is "GLORY TO GOD!!!!!"

This is My Life...

Gratitude

Send some rain, would You send some rain?
'Cause the earth is dry and needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade
Would You send a cloud, thunder long and loud?
Let the sky grow black and send some mercy down
Surely You can see that we are thirsty and afraid
But maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

(Chorus)

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain

Daily bread, give us daily bread
Bless our bodies, keep our children fed
Fill our cups, then fill them up again tonight
Wrap us up and warm us through
Tucked away beneath our sturdy roofs
Let us slumber safe from danger's view this time
Or maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

(Chorus)

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
A lesson learned to hunger after You
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead And if we never taste that bread

Oh, the differences that often are between
What we want and what we really need

So grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight
Or maybe not, not today
Peace might be another world away
And if that's the case . . .

(Chorus)

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to trust in You
That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need
And if You never grant us peace

But Jesus, would You please . . .

(by Nichole Nordeman)

Rebekah's List of Grievances

(or "Why Rebekah Couldn't Go To Sleep Last Night)

1. Forgot how to sleep

2. Too dark

3. Wants to sleep with a friend

4. Uncomfortable

Rachel's Three Therapies

It seems that another "therapy" has been added to Rachel's services. Currently, she receives Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy. Looks like she'd like to add "Shopping Therapy" as well.

Yesterday, she picked up the purse, put it over her shoulder and said, "Go!"

Well, She Does Have Great Taste

Yesterday, Rebekah (age 5) and Rachel (age 18 months) accompanied me to, what I told Josh (age 3) was "girly store". The store was, in fact, a second -hand women's store. (Josh was still devastated, none-the-less, that he could not come too.)

Rebekah (and Rachel) found numerous things that I should buy: a sweater two sizes too small, a jacket in a horrid color, a necklace that just wasn't what I was looking for, and a pink purse.

It was rather easy to convince the girls (i.e., Rebekah) that those items would not work, for one reason or the other. But, I was feeling a bit guilty. Rebekah, God bless her sweet little heart, really wanted to help me find something beautiful, and I was shooting her down left and right. Besides the fact, she INSISTED that I did not have a pink purse and that I NEEDED a pink purse. She didn't understand that I had just been given a number of very nice purses from my mother and I had spent my spending money* on a beautiful orange purse. (* any money in my possession is spending money, even some not in my possession. That's why I don't carry cash!)

Trying to distract her sweet, helpful intentions, I asked Rebekah if she would like a pretty pink purse for herself. She decided that she needed BLUE. (Ok, it is a second-hand store, so the prices couldn't be TOO outrageous, right?)

The first purse she picked up was a Vera Bradley. Don't shoot me, but I HATE Vera Bradley. (If you don't know what I am referring to, Google it...) And the price on the second-hand Vera was still $35.00. NOPE!

The next purse she picked out was a beautiful Nine West, another "expensive name brand", but I decided that I could "borrow" it from my daughter, if need be. The girl does have exquisite taste!!

"our" new purse

Rachel's Shriner's Appointment (10/14/09)

Rachel had a great day! First of all, her first Speech Therapy session with Early Intervention (in our home) went well. Her therapist really thinks that she's got a good foundation (makes sounds, follows directions, points to things). That will continue every other week.
Her appointment at Shriner's went really well also. It's hard to explain the magnitude of it all, but essentially, they think that she will need less time and less equipment to be able to walk. Her left foot turns in quite a bit, and to correct it, they need to start at the hip. In about a month she will get a whole new set of AFO's (ankle-feet orthotics) and a walker. Her physical therapist at Shriner's (shout out to you, Janet!!) thinks that once she has stability under her with the new AFO's, she'll be up and MOVING!! I got tears in my eyes! Yeah GOD!!

The doctor did say that her left foot will need surgery to correct the turning in, but probably not until she is about three or four years old. We'll deal with that as it comes, but here's my thought:
*we were told she would die- and she didn't
*we were told she would be in the hospital for AT LEAST a week at birth and more than likely two week - she was home in less than a week
*we were told that there was, something like, a 99% chance that her shunt would malfunction in the first year of life, and she would need surgery- 18 months and she's still going strong
*we were told a year ago that she would need surgery to fix her hips- here were are a year later
*we were told she would never crawl- she's a cruising-machine!

We'll just see what God has in store for Rachel's future! Thanks to you all for your prayers! God has been very good to us!

October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month

Mom-fessions

1. I did hear my daughter calling me, and I hid...in a closet. (Don't worry, she wasn't hurt or in trouble and John was downstairs!)

2. There was no clean underwear for the little boy, so I put the older boy's underwear on him. It was pretty big in the butt, but hey, whatever doesn't ride up your crack makes you stronger!

3. I served a gourmet meal to my kids tonight of frozen mini bagel-pizzas, mini corndogs, and chocolate ice cream. So much for the "healthy, no-artificials eating".

4. I let my kids (and am currently watching them) jump on the trampoline in their underwear. The boys also like to "mark their territory" outside here too.

(I will add to these as I think of them.)

You know this is all in fun, right? ;)

Deja Vu

It has been quite some time since my high school French class, but if I remember correctly, "Deja Vu" means to have already seen. I think we've all experienced it, haven't we? To be somewhere or doing something and feel as if we have already done this.

How about reverse-deja vu? Actually, I don't know what the exact "term" for it would be, but have you ever been in a situation, and you can see clearly what the future holds or will look like? Maybe it's called an epiphany...

Josh started a sports class at the Y called Hot Tots. It meets once a week for half and hour, and he will spend two weeks playing soccer, two weeks on basketball and two weeks on floor hockey.

At the first class all of the kids and parents were standing around and the instructor (who also happens to be the Director of the Y) introduced himself and said, "This is Hot Tots", and my son, who must have bad hearing or something, yells out, "Hot dogs!!! I love Hot dogs!"and proceeded to laugh like a crazy man! Everyone started laughing, and all of a sudden I had this reverse-deja vu; I saw as clear as day the future. I saw us 10 years in the future and me getting called into school because of my little class clown.

:)

(must be something about being the third-born of four!!)

Works For Me

We hit Once Upon A Child this past Saturday morning for their Costume debut. I am glad to say that each of my kids found what they wanted to dress up as.

Josh found a DUAL costume. Let me show you:

In this picture, he is Batman.

And in this picture, he is Bruce Wayne.

My Amazing Girls

I have been blessed with four WONDERFUL children, but I would like to share with you my two precious girls.

Rebekah has been so excited to be going to school. She is usually the first one up in the morning which is NOT characteristic of Rebekah. She LOVES going to school, and she is learning so many new things. She recently saw an American flag and wanted to share what she learned about it:

Mommy! I see the flag of America...the Justice League of America!

(so cute!) ;)

And Rachel...she is making INCREDIBLE strides with her physical therapy. We have been fortunate to have a really knowledgeable and fantastic physical therapist to work with. He is not afraid to push Rachel, which she is all for these days.

The most amazing thing I would like to share with you is...dum, dum, da, dum....

Rachel is crawling!!! Yes, she is. Amazing, isn't it, especially since we were told shortly after her birth that she would "never crawl". (Oh yah, Mr. Doctor?!?!)

Please share in our *J*O*Y* and watch the video I finally got posted of some of Rachel's first steps (though it was crawling not walking...what do you call those?).

Believe me when I tell you that it has taken her NO TIME to master cruising around our house. "DONE!", she says about crawling, "What's next?!?"

She has been eyeing the stairs...

It's That Time of Year Again

This morning, I put my two eldest children on the big yellow school bus and sent them off to first grade (Ben) and Kindergarten (Rebekah).

For me, it was much harder putting my daughter on the bus to go to Kindergarten than it was to send Ben last year. Not sure why. Maybe because for the last few days, as I have been trying to prepare her for K, she kept saying to me, in her sweet little voice, "Please tell God I am a little nervous that kids will be mean to me and make fun of me." She took her favorite pink kitty with her today, just because.

From the Mouth of Babes...

Sometimes the thing my kids say just blows me away.

We were driving home the other day, and everyone was quiet. All of a sudden, I heard a little voice from the backseat (Rebekah, 5yr) say, " I can't wait to get to Heaven to see what Jesus looks like. "

That's What Big Brothers Are For

I had just put Josh and Rachel down for the night when a BIG storm blew through. Josh
started crying because of the thunder and the fact that he was alone in his room.
Rachel started wailing; Rachel doesn't often cry, so when she does, I respond.
I, however, was in the middle of getting myself ready for bed. I thought that Josh could go into Rachel's room (just next to the bathroom) and comfort Rachel while I got ready for bed, then I would join them. As I hurried to brush my teeth, wash my face, floss, take out my contacts, and get into my pj's, I asked Josh to sing to Rachel to comfort her.
The calming song he chose? Spectacular, spectacular, spectacular SPIDERMAN!!

Our Dinner

Ever have one of those days where NOTHING goes right, including dinner? Yah, I have those very often too. Well, tonight's dinner was not one of those nights. Everything came together just so...
It's been so hot here, I haven't wanted to cook. No one's wanted to eat. But this morning, I threw some chicken breasts into the crock pot with some BBQ sauce (my favorite is Wegman's store brand, Kansas City).
Then I got one cucumber and a half-dozen grape tomatoes from the garden, cut them up and threw those in a bowl with a little Kosher salt. (I love the big fat chunks of salt!)
I went to Sam's Club today and have discovered that they have great fruit at great prices! I bought blueberries, strawberries, red raspberries, bananas, and grapes.
I made a smoothie with plain yogurt, skim milk, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, and a little flax seed. For the kids, I added a packet of Carnation instant breakfast, chocolate. (I want my kids to get the extra nutrients and all, so I thought I'd try Carnation. Any thought from any of you?)
MMMMMM...just the right thing for a hot summer night!

FYI...because of Rachel's Spina Bifida, she is on a Latex allergy prevention. That means, she doesn't react to Latex, but the more she's exposed to it, she could develop an allergy to it. SO, we avoid all thing latex and latex-related. Did you know that there are a few foods related to Latex? Bananas, kiwi, and water chestnuts (? not sure? see how often we eat water chestnuts?) have some proteins that are like Latex. So, we avoid those foods for her too.

If I were making a smoothie for myself I would throw in a frozen banana. I like to take that last banana no one will eat because it is too ripe, and throw it in a bag in the freezer for when I need it.

**Do you also notice I do a lot of "throwing food" around here?
Anyway, Bon Apetit!

Forbidden Fruit Is Always Sweeter...

I moved my furniture around again...I know, no big surprize there. And in doing so, I moved a chair into the living room that *didn't* quite match. I did not have a slipcover, so I tucked some sheets into it to cover the mis-match. We have PLENTY of chairs around our house to sit in. Big chairs, little chairs, comfortable ones, beautiful ones... I asked ;) the family NOT to sit in this chair. It is too much of a pain to tuck the sheets in again and get it straightened out. Of course...guess which chair EVERYONE wants to sit in???

The Facts of LIfe

Josh and I had a "discussion" this morning that went something like this:

Josh (looking at an ABC book): Look, it's a chicken (for "H").

Me: No, that's a "Hen"

Josh: What's a "Hen"?

Me: It's a momma chicken.

Josh: What's a daddy chicken?

Me: A daddy chicken is a rooster. Cock-a-doodle-do. And a baby chicken is called a chick.

Josh (after pondering a minute): Then what's an uncle chicken called?

;)

The Smartest Thing I've Ever Done

Eight years ago, I did the best thing I have ever done: I married John. We had only known each other less than a year, and I am sure that people thought, "What are you doing?"...but I just knew!

Not only do I love John, but I really, really like him. He is my best friend, and some days my only friend. But he is the balance that I need. Marrying him was the smartest thing I ever did!

Mid Summer Night's Dream

Not really...there's nothing related to Shakespeare in this post. I just love his works and the above-fore-mentioned in particular, and wanted to use some of my literary training in this allusion...

I just wanted to do a mid-summer review. Earlier in the summer, our family made a list of what we hoped to do with the very short span of time around here called "Summer".

Let's just see what we've accomplished so far:

Baseball game- check!

Zoo - check!

movie - check!

fireworks - check!

slip'n'slide - check!

carnival - check!

park - check!

camp fire - check!

parade - check!

beach- check!

Chuck E. Cheese - check!

camping - check!

picnic - check!

Waldameer- :(

putt-putt - :(

There's still a bit of summer left (at least on the calendar). Our summer has been very cold and wet, so we haven't been able to do the things we've wanted to. Let's hope the weather permits more fun times!!

The Sad Sad Life of Being the Third Born

Poor poor Josh! Everyone join with me now: Poor Josh! See, he's my third-born, and everything you've heard about life as the third-born is true. He's not the oldest and gets to do things first and gets special responsibility. He's not even the first born girl, with her own specialness. He's not the baby...and we all know about the baby of the family.

He's the third of four kids. There aren't as many pictures of him...wait, do I even have any pictures of him at all? He's never old enough to do anything!And worst of all, poor Josh doesn't even get anything of his own to play with!

This is the conversation I had with Josh before his nap:

Me: Joshy, it's time for you nap.

Josh: ok Mommy, but I really want my dog Max to sleep with me.

(**We do not have a dog named Max. I thought that maybe he re-named one of his creatures...)

So Josh went and got his dog Max, and, well, here's what he found...

Well, can you see it? The newest addition to our family? Max? Yep, that's right. It's a package of diapers. POOR JOSH!!!

Just Like Dad

The guys getting ready to go the the barn this morning and do some "man stuff"...

Ready To Go

We've known with Rachel's Spina Bifida that each milestone would be a challenge and yet, each one a victory. The things that we have taken for granted with each of the other kids has become momentous with her. I think it's sweeter, not because of the Spina Bifida, but because she is the baby!

This morning when I went to get Rachel up, she was on her tummy. This is HUGE! Rachel is able to roll ever: in fact, she is a crazy-rolling machine, but she has not been able to roll over wearing her hip brace. She was given the brace to wear when she was about 6 months old (9 months ago) and she wears it when she naps and sleeps at night. I have been putting her down on her tummy during the day, but on her back at night (and my, how it has given her a nice bald spot right on the back of her head). Ok, imagine sleeping in one position all night long, being unable to move. That's where Rachel has been for the last nine months!

Lat week when I went in to get her up from her nap, she had pulled the hip brace off, which takes A LOT of maneuvering and struggling. I thought that was momentous.

For about a month now Rachel has been in her A frame stander. It has made a huge difference in her strength and endurance. She is trying to get up on all fours too. Prior to this, she was not able to get her knees up under herself, or she would rest her head on the floor.

I think that she is just raring to go! I think I hear revving sounds coming from her at times!

What's On My iPod

Thanks Cathy! You made me think of the most-played songs that are on my Ipod.

I listen to this while I am working out.

Here they are:

1. Bless the Broken Road - Rascal Flatts

2. Redneck Woman - Gretchen Wilson

3. Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels

4. Life Is A Highway - Rascal Flatts

5. Born to Fly - Sara Evans

6. Our Song - Taylor Swift

7. Cheater, Cheater - Joey and Rory

8. Every Day - Rascal Flatts

9. Lessons Learned - Carrie Underwood

10. Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood

I am curious...what's on yours??

Friday Night Fun

Well, we have been chipping away at our "Summer Fun" list and have made many memories doing it. Last night we let the kids drive around.

(He still makes my heart skip a beat!)