We took the kids out for an afternoon at the race track and arcade. We had almost the whole place to ourselves (homeschool advantages!) which meant a lot of family versus family races! I would just like to note that despite Ceili Rain’s fear, I did not wreck and actually pulled ahead of everyone!
Plenty of time was spent at the actual beach! I borrowed a lot of Aunt B and G’s pics since I was back and forth with Tobin.
What are cousins for if not for burying each other?!
In September, we traveled to the Gulf of Mexico. Now, I grew up going to this beach every summer but our kids had never been. Actually, Zoe had been but she was six months old at the time and tells me she doesn’t remember a thing.
Aunt B and I convinced Papa that we all needed to go. That would be twenty kids and six adults.
And thus, begins a photo chronicle of our family get together on the beach. It was such a fun time. I think we all had a blast! So, these next three, four, or ten posts are going to be all about the beach! Up first, our family posed pictures.
These two girls were pretty close to inseparable the entire trip. Naturally, when I found matching dresses, I had to grab them up and they made sure they wore them for pictures!
I have a feeling there are going to be more of these as the years go by so we’ll do generic numbers for them. The boys enjoyed a good ol’ time with Mark at a local camping park. I had a blast with the girls and Tobin watching movies and doing nails but we forgot to get pictures!
This past spring, I saw a homeschool day offered for a museum in our state. We’d never been, so we decided to sign up for it.
We were pleasantly surprised to find a great museum based on the history of times from the Bible. We learned a lot and there was a lot of hands on activities that kept everyone interested the whole day.
This year’s church family camp was a little easier for me to breathe! I was 35 weeks pregnant with Tobin last year. And this year I was just toting a eleven month old (well, Mark carried him in the pack). We had, as always, such a great time with everyone and in the Word.
We’ve been home from California not quite a week. To say we’re “back to normal” is a bit of a misnomer. We’re still reeling from the travel, jet lag, and general life changes that come with a big surgery for our super hero. The trip went great. We had a hiccup of a stomach bug that hit Emmie the morning after she was discharged but aside from that small scare, she sailed through surgery and recovery like the amazing super hero she is.
Today at breakfast, Malachi said, “Emmie is brave. Like really brave. She was brave all through surgery and flying. She’s brave.” Yes. Yes, dear son and so are you.
While we were away our hearts were overwhelmed with love for all our super siblings at home. I don’t think I worried for a second about how they were doing. They were fed well (and they told us all about it) by our church family who brought meals the week they were at our home with grandparents. They informed me, “We have dessert at EVERY meal!” They were loved. Oh so loved, by our church family and regular family.
The kids spent the first week with Papa and Grandmere and then traveled to Alabama and spent the weekend with my sister, Aunt Yaya and her family. After that, they traveled back to Georgia to hang with Ge and Granddaddy until we arrived late Thursday evening.
Aunt Yaya panicked that we would flip at the amount of tv and junk food they ate. Nope. No worries…aunts and uncles should spoil nieces and nephews. And really, I didn’t care what they ate. The most important thing to me was that they were loved. And they were oh so loved.
We sometimes have a time of “two petals and a thorn” during family worship. Usually after a fun family day or trip or even a really, really hard day, we’ll go around and everyone names two things they enjoyed about the day (two petals) and one hard thing about the day (the thorn). One of the kids told us that their two petals and thorn were, “You were gone. You were gone. You were gone.” They had so much fun with family! That warmed my heart so much.
Tobin spent the night before surgery with our sweet dear “framily” who lived not too far from Stanford. How precious that my sweet T was loved and cared for and ya’ll, he was spoiled too! I didn’t have to worry about him that whole day.
If our kids away from us weren’t loved enough…then there was surgery day. I woke up at dark thirty and saw notification upon notification on facebook and texts and instagram. Over and over people saying they were praying. Sweet beautiful videos of our god-daughter praying that made me laugh and cry all at once and brought a sweet smile to Emmie’s face. Wishes and prayers and shares from all over the world that God would keep His ever-loving hand on our precious girl and us.
Before our feet ever touched the airport, even, God provided wonderful and loving financial support for us. We were able to raise more than what we had budgeted in a matter of days and continued to receiving loving support through Amazon purchases and even more funds. We didn’t have to worry the whole trip about whether we had enough money. The money we didn’t spend will go towards her trip in six months. She’ll have another MRI/angiogram/perfusion study to see if the surgery worked (20% chance that it won’t…so good odds).
I guess what I’m trying to say, through all of this is that we are so grateful. Words are not adequate to express the love and care we have felt from everyone who has prayed, given, fed….well, loved, us. We love you all so much and can never really tell you all enough how much your love means to all of us. It’s really overwhelming and I’ll have moments when I realize that God has provided and loved on us through real tangible people and by growing and stretching our faith…once again.
Tomorrow Super Ems flies! Monday, Emmie will meet Dr. Steinberg and then have an MRI and angiogram. She’ll lay flat for 4 to 6 hours and will probably stay overnight in the hospital. Thursday, November 15th is go time.
In honor of our amazing superhero, I thought i would share a small piece of my heart observations that I wrote back in May.
The alarm starts blaring letting me know that it’s 7 am. The latest I should possibly sleep before we’re super behind on our seemingly never-ending busy days. My brain tells me to move but my body is begging me to stay still and rest longer. I roll over and see Emmie asleep on Mark’s pillow. As usual, she came sneaking in during the night needing our snuggles and she gently fell back asleep. I watch her quiet slow breathing and am reminded, once again of how precious this gift is. This happens almost every day. I am in awe that I get to cuddle with this almost four year old or hold her hand as she drifts off to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
This morning, I decide to roll over and let my body win. I close my eyes but our superhero stirs beside me. Nope. No more sleeping today. She rolls over and with sleepy eyes and a groggy-waking-up voice calls, “Mama.” She waits patiently for me to roll over and look at her.
“Yes, baby.”
“I love you.” She reaches for my hand and smiles contentedly.
This little girl who has been through so very very much in such a small amount of time and she still smiles constantly in wonder and awe at the world around her.
She amazes me that at four years old, she can strut into a doctor’s office and pretty much have everyone wrapped around her finger as she smiles and offers up high fives and hugs. She has an insight into how to interact with everyone…humans and animals…that far exceeds her age. Maybe it’s her experience but maybe, it’s also how our God has equipped her to deal with all that is ahead in the life she has.
The sweet, unexpected “I love yous” are just the tip of the iceberg of what I have learned these past four years of living with a super hero.
Number One: All mornings should start out with love.
At parent observation class for ballet this year, she sidled up to each person in class…her friends. One friend was just not having it that day and crossed her arms and poked out her lip and looked at her mama for rescue. Eventually, Emmie moved on. A day or so later she said, “Mama, I sat by E in class and she didn’t like that.” I agreed and we discussed how maybe she should ask if she can sit by a friend before she does so. She agreed.
The next week, she remembered our conversation and told me she would ask E if she could sit by her this week. But then she went a step further. She drew a picture for her and made sure to present it to her after ballet. E’s face lit up bright as the sky and Emmie was thrilled she had made her friend happy.
She’s intuitive to the needs of others (most of the time…she still is very much a self-centered typical four year old) and wants to show love to those she cares about.
Number Two: Always seek out ways to make others smile.
With Emmie’s age, we are entering a new era of tests, pokes, and understanding. She’s become more aware of it all. We’ve always been honest with her about what is going on but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t scared or doesn’t get sad. On her new brace day this year, after two hours of fitting and waiting, she had to cry. And it was okay. Cuddling up with daddy we told her to let it out and cry it out.
Number Three: Sometimes life is hard and it’s okay to cry.
Days with a four year old are filled with questions. There is so much learning at this age. Emmie is no different than other kiddos her age. Her questions range from “What age are you?” to “Will you read me a story?” And if we’re discussing an activity, she lights up like a Christmas tree and says, “I so excited for that!” She truly is. She finds joy in going to the store, church, doctor’s offices. There’s joy in seeing a dog on a walk or a fish at the fish shop. She gets equally excited watching her siblings at awards ceremonies or swim practice.
Number Four: Find joy in the “every” things.
We don’t have a clue what her future is going to be like. But, we can look back on her life and how she has grown. God has taught us so much through our superhero as she grows.
