Enough

OK I need to do some confessing...

Andrew and I go to Forest Hill Church... South Park. If you know us and read this blog at all you'll read our reasons for why we decided to go to the specific campus we are going to. Unless an angel came and made it clear what the Lord wants we are staying our course. It's not been an easy thing at all.

About a couple of months ago the pastor Chris Payne was on stage teaching and talked about what God had taught him through a conversation he had with his 3 year old.
It was deep stuff, and honestly it was awesome.
Honestly at the same time it made my heart break. We currently have no conversations about anything as Jonathan has trouble communicating even basic needs although he gets his needs met through non verbal cues and sign language. Don't get me wrong he is getting a lot better with his vocabulary although it's been slow.
I did however, during that time get in my quiet space (in the shower and in my room during their nap time) and told the Lord about it. I told him about how I wished I could have a deep conversations like other people do with their kids, and mostly about how I HATE how nothing in my family's life has ever been normal. It wasn't a pity party but my heart sometimes needs a little encouragement because of the level of difficulty.
Then I got a sense of what HE wanted me to know... it's awesome.
He then told me that He created everything to have it's own purpose. Every person has his/her own special purpose. He's got plans for him that even I have no idea of.
He reminded me of the times back in the NICU when all we were thinking was Please Lord, let this child LIVE. He taught us to see everything as a miracle after that.
We learned to appreciate and celebrate everything with him. Rolling over,crawling, even walking were reasons to celebrate because of the level of difficulty to get there... Tears were shed the first time I saw him walk unassisted towards me.
I was completely over the moon when he uttered 3 words I've waited so long for him to say. I Love You.
It sounds so simple but we have battled.He tries so hard. He gets so frustrated that we don't understand gibberish.
Frustration leads to tantrums and high pitched whining..
If you Pray there you go... Please let us find what the problem is with his language. If you know who to see as far as that please feel free and leave me a message.
Jonathan starts back at school tomorrow at Central Child Development Center in a class designed for kids 3 and 4 years old who have special problems like his.
If he needs therapy he'll get it at school. they have a speech therapist, a pt and an OT therapist there as well.
He will be in an academic class this time as his teacher thinks he is ready.
He will learn some letters, animals, numbers and how to recognize his name in writing.
He is very smart and can identify everyone in our family... Mommy, Daddy,and Daniel. He still cannot seem to reason enough to recognize himself in pictures...even the current ones he can remember when we took it..
Case in point a few weeks ago we went back to the Train museum.. We took a picture of him in front of a train. He says "choo choo"... Pointed out the same picture of him and he said choo choo... I pulled out a photo of Daddy Daniel and himself and he pointed out Daddy and Daniel but not him. I told him what to say as far as when I ask him who that is (to say ME). It's slow but we are teaching him.


I got what the Lord wanted for me to know. If I begin to see the little things and see them as unique I will not miss a single thing.
Normally I see things in a big picture, black and white, this OR that kind of thought process. I would have missed the beauty of all the wonderful things that I have learned along the way.
Has it been easy? the answer is no and honestly I wouldn't change it.
How many opportunities, and how many people have I met because I just happened to be out with Jonathan or at therapy to share his amazing story. How many people just plain blurt out he's a miracle and amazing. They see God's fingerprints.
He is amazing how far he's come and something tells me that he will do more.
I remember the time we came back from being out and he got the bread out so that he could make his favorite sandwich... Peanut butter and Jelly on toasted wheat bread.
He knew he needs bread for his sandwich... most people only think about the filling. (come on folks he is three) Only thing was he was holding that loaf of bread upside down and the bread fell out of the bag all over the floor. He was upset... but I wasn't. I was so proud of him. that was a smart thing. I was laughing but at the same time totally beating myself up for not having a camera nearby.
He wanted to do it himself. God taught me that he feels the same way about us. Doesn't matter how messy our attempts are because we are continuing to learn.
All this in the midst of having several professionals tell us that Jonathan was significantly behind. Although they were correct in their professional observations... it says absolutely NOTHING about his intelligence or his comprehension. He gets it. If you ask him to do something depending on whether or not he wants to participate. If he decides to do it he will do it.
Now if we can get him to learn not to draw all over my walls we would be doing great. (nothing a serious primer can't fix) Nothing a magic eraser and some primer won't fix.
That and I am leaning about chalkboard paint and thinking that is awesome. I might try that.

Be blessed and please don't miss the small and the large iracles around you. You may be looking at one

Kitchen Makeover Pt.1

Before this was a SMALL empty space...

By the way Welcome to My Small Space- Kitchen-- Andrew measured our kitchen and it was less than 30ft2.
We were not utilizing the space well before so we cleaned it out and started from scratch.
We put up a wire shelf unit- for storage--- but as you can see its ugly.


So we put up a curtain wire and some drapes we got at IKEA


While there to find us a table we found this and had to take it home... It's a colapsible dining table



To follow our space saver theme- we got some folding chairs at a warehouse club. Now we have a table we can possibly eat at and when we aren't using it we can fold it up and put it next to the wall.

Still need ideas for my last post... Only one person has given an idea.

Be Blessed

Help... I need an idea or two

Contest
Prize--- Bragging rights and credit.

I need some help... I am re organizing our kitchen and I need an idea for a small spot... It can be anything from a picture to a dry erase board etc.
It WILL be painted white (because it's a rental and the guy who owns it is a wee bit behind)Currently I should win an ugly kitchen contest. there used to be a cabinet there where the green was.
I cannot put a cabinet there... Need some Ideas... There is a stove/oven below to your left(so nothing that is like pourous or meltable unless it's tiles.



Submit your ideas in my comments and I will pick the best one and email/message publish the winner.
Thanks Trina

Awards

Ok A friend of mine named Sarah (aka Mama Byrd) gave me this award. I was touched to say the least.
The award is subject to terms and well, I can't lose my title before I get to enjoy it - I'm sure some not me moments will filter up to the top...

The rules are simple. You post about 5 of your current obsessions and then pass the award on to 5 fantabulous bloggers.

1. Taking pictures of my kids doing FUN things... I ask friends and scour the internet for fun ideas of short day trips.
My oldest Son Mr. J. is obsessed with anything with trains.

2. Facebook Enough said.

3. March of Dimes

Since we ourselves as a family have been tremendously helped by their research as well as lots of our friends, we raise as much money as we can every year.

4.Doing Photo Montages using software...and then going to youtube and posting...


5. Getting Organized.
I'm just getting to the place where I'd just like to find something fast. Life is just too crazy at my house to be messy.
Who ever turned me on to IKEA... you have eventually made me a happy momma.

5 BLOGS I follow worth giving this award to...(some are faith based so just a simple warning) Forgive me if the link doesn't work.

Other than Sarah's Blog and Obvious ones like Kelly's Corner and MckMama...

1. My Friend Erin's Blog-
I can say that we go back a ways as Andrew's best friend is her husband AL... I Love them so much. I hope she hears me when I say I love it when she posts.

2. A Year of Slow Cooking
Someone told me about this and I fell in love...

3. Say It with Flowers It's a loss memorial site and they write the names of children lost on flowers. It has truly touched many.

4. The Prominade
I have in my lifetime been blessed enough to have been in service to John Mark. He is truly a gifted writer and musician with a Heart for God like David only for this generation. He definitely doesn't put God in a box.

Unfortunately there are too many more that I follow that I can't even begin to narrow down to one more. Some are public and fun others are more personal.
Be very blessed

Daniel's Dedication

Today was Daniel's Dedication. What an exciting event in our house. folks who came out: Darlene and Fred Pitts, Donna and Harold Haggard, Mike and Donna C. (can't spell their last name so I won't try) Andrew's mom Becky, us, Jonathan and Daniel along with 4 other tribes(families)... I know there were more but that's all we saw there. Thank You so much for coming. It meant the world to us.


Program

Reaffirming Marriage Vows


Anointing Daniel with oil and Andrew praying over Daniel

What Andrew read/wanted read but only got half out before he was too choked up


Dear Daniel,
We are so thankful to be your parents and that God has entrusted you to our family. We consider you to be a precious gift from God. He has “fearfully and wonderfully made” you, (Psalm 139:14). You are a miracle and our hearts grow with your every smile. We are glad He made you for our family. We look forward to the privilege of loving, teaching, and watching you grow to be the man God desires you to be.
Daniel, we love you and can’t wait to walk through this journey of life with you as your parents. We are so grateful God has allowed you to join us on this path of life. Even when we can’t see where it is taking us, remember that God can.
We have so many hopes and dreams for you in life. Foremost, we pray that you come to know the Lord at an early age. We pray that you would grow in your faith and boldly follow the path that God has set before you. We hope that you find passion in the tasks of the future and live the abundant life that God’s desires for you.
We pray that you grow into a Godly man and leader. We pray that you build loving relationships with family and friends that exemplify God’s love for us. Our understanding of God’s love for us has grown so much through our experience of loving you and your brother and we hope that you also experience this magnificent love in your lifetime. We pray that God would be the center of all of your relationships and that you would continue a Christian legacy. We hope your life is full of joy and laughter but also peace and comfort during difficult days. In all of your hopes and dreams and challenges, seek the Lord.
We dedicate ourselves to you and promise that we will love you, care for you, and always seek what is best for you. We promise to set an example for you by maintaining our marriage such that it is glorifying to God. We commit to fostering a loving and caring relationship between you and your brother, Jonathan. We eagerly await to see God’s plan for your life unfold and promise to love and encourage you each and everyday. We promise to lift you in prayer daily. We are so very proud of you and will continue to trust God and praise Him for the wonderful person you are becoming. May He accomplish more than we can hope and dream for you!
Eph. 3:20
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
With all our hearts and prayers,
Mommy and Daddy



at the end of the day

Daniel fell asleep at the end of the ceremony :)

Trains... yep we were there again

QUICK NOTE: THE DEDICATION TIME HAS CHANGED TO 12:30 PM.(15 MINUTE DIFFERENCE

Today we returned to the North Carolina Transportation Museum located in Spencer,NC. This time we took the wagon we got online at Bjs.com. It is a step 2 safari wagon.




We had fun...

Be blessed and our next post will be of Daniel's dedication... I will post Andrew's Daddy prayer (which will be read) on Monday.

Like the header

So Do you like it...
It took Forever. Several sessions of trying to figure out how to do something... Lots of saying things like "nope, not it" and "ughhh, why am I doing this". I have great respect for people how make banners and blinkies.

After accidentally manipulating Daniel's picture on I tried again although the second one was harder.
It shouldn't be that hard. I tried something and as a almost fluke it worked. Too easy. Laughing out loud. I was over thinking the whole process.
I didn't want to shell out like 700 bucks for an adobe product (like we got that kind of cash laying around)
So being the wife of a geek and sorta being one myself... I went to Maximumpc.com and found great open source (free) product called Gimp.
I live in a house where we use open source stuff all of the time. It's all legal as well.
Open office (it's a office suite that runs exactly like a certain office product only sans the bugs that accompany Microsoft Office.
You can find it here: www.openoffice.org . It does everything it competitor does and can even save it in a form that will read on it's competitor's product.

Next week I am starting on my ebay projects--- Andrew's GI Joe dolls (in great condition)and an extra frdge fonics thing we found, cleaning out our house.. as well as making everyone's doctor's appointments including my own that somehow I dread making. It isn't a matter of life and death and no one is in distress just we all need to go to the pulmy (the allergy-lung guys) and I need to find me a new OB.

We're praying that we can got the house sold as quickly as possible even if we don't make money on it.
The realtor we are using has an investor friend so we are hopeful.
Be richly blessed and Have a great few days.