Thankful Thursday

Well, I guess Thankful Thursday on Friday will have to do.
Its been a very long week! And boy do I need to focus on all that I have to be thankful for! So here it is:

1)My Lord and Savior! That he loves me ... me? ... me ...
...insane, imperfect, impetuous me.


2)God's Word, how blessed I am to have, not just one, but
many copies of the Holy Bible!


3)God's plan to answer the many many prayers for Sweet Little Stellan and his family. The wonderful doctor and hospital that will help heal his little heart.



4) The beautiful, healthy, strong, determined, energetic, wild and crazy bunch of kiddos that the Lord has bless me and dh with! Oh goodness the exhaustion I feel some days, and then pray I would remember to be thankful, oh so thankful for that type of exhaustion.


5)And even in the midst of all our chaos and craziness, I'm thankful I have a nursling who calls me to sit and nurse. Someone once told me that a nursing baby is God's way of slowing down a mom of many ... oh so true. She needs me, she needs my milk, she needs me to sit and hold her close. She is fed, she is satisfied and I get a few minutes of calm and almost quite to rest and recollect my harried thoughts








Oh can I add one more ... sure I can:
6) LUNCH! This is what my dd cooked us for lunch today
MMMMMM ... mmmm ... good!



Please join us for Thankful Thursdays over at Truth 4 the Journey

Thankful Thursday!

I have so much to be thankful for!!!

Thankful Thursday!

Here is the verse Iris had at the top of her Thankful Thursday post:

“And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.” ~ Psalm 27:6 ESV

Hmmm... I want to sing to the Lord! I am thankful, truly thankful for all He has blessed me with. My Thankful Thursday posts could literally take all day if I posted all I had to be thankful for. But one area I feel needs my attention is prayer, so I chose to focus on prayer today ... my time to speak with my Lord, hear from my Lord and yes sing to my Lord. I am so thankful for this privilege of being able to speak with, pray to God, my Father.

I've journaled and blogged for a while now, but have seen quite a bit lately on "prayer journals". Some use plain blank note books, some have special printed pages to record dates and other specifics.

Please share with me your ideas: Do you use a special note book for prayer journaling? Where did you get it? Has it helped your prayer life?


Have a blessed week! Go check out the other thankful hearts at Iris's blog!

Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!


This Thurs I am thankful to be a mom of 5 wonderful children!

And especially thankful for the blessing of a daughter whose heart loves the Lord.

I am thankful that the youth from our church had the opportunity to participate in a mission trip with YouthWorks. My oldest daughter has such a heart for the Lord and for others!

I've missed her terrible this week ... but today I can be thankful they are headed home from thier trip!

Here are a few photos from the day we sent them off:

Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!


I'm so thankful for our children!


And all of us are so thankful to have our baby Mary
Visit us here to see how she's grown:
myfirstdaysoflife.blogspot.com/

Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!

Today I am thankful for our beautiful little Mary
Now one week old!

Thankful Thursday - Birth Day

Welcome Baby Mary!!!!
She was born at 10:15am,
is 19 1/2 inches,
and weighs 6lbs. 8 oz.

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!


Today Iris posted this verse at her site:

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” ~ Psalm 28:7 (ESV)

How appropriate for my day ... I'm packing up to leave for the hospital to have our baby girl! She is almost here ...we can't wait to hold and snuggle her!!!

Give thanks with us on her Birth Day! Here is a verse the Lord gave me for her when I was 26 weeks along:

David's Psalm of Thanks

7 That day David first committed to
Asaph and his associates this psalm
of thanks to the LORD:

8 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.

9 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.

10 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

11 Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.

12 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

1 Chronicles 16:7-12

Thankful Thursday and Friendships!

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!

These last few weeks I've been especially thankful for my friends. God has blessed me with many friends who love the Lord. They have brought me great moments of joy and comfort! I can't possibly begin to name all of you who mean so much to me ... please just know how much you are loved! While searching for verses on friendship online I came across this wonderfuk site:

http://www.annieshomepage.com/friendshipbible.html



Please visit Annie's homepage for more great verses and encouragment


And in tribute to friends over the years I want to post a few photos of the friends I posted about yesterday

This photo is from 1995

... We've kept in touch for 20-plus years! I could not get my slide show to run here so please just click on the button below that says "view all images".
Heres to you ladies:

To read more Thankful Thursday posts please visit Iris

Thankful Thursday!

I am again thankful for the great medical community we live so close to!!! Tuesday was our day at the hospital for Zeke's tests ...We were so blessed and so covered in prayer ... My heart just continues to say "Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus!!!"

Our latest update is posted at:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/zeke


He was not at all bothered by his IV



And he fell asleep cuddling his daddy 45 minutes before he needed to be sedated ... made sedating him pretty quick and easy :-)


Please click on this button to visit more Thankful Thursdays

A Slightly Belated Thankful Thursday

I know I'm a few days behind, but I wanted to post how thankful I am for:


Our church family, their prayers and helpfulness

Our medical team, their kind and compassionate care,

And The CaringBridge website ... Thank you for making my life easier!
Here is our link http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/zeke

I have oh so much more to thank God for but these three really stand out this week!

Please click on this button to visit more Thankful Thursdays

Thankful Thursday

Please click on this button to visit more Thankful Thursdays

Thankful Thursday!

Please click on this button to visit more Thankful Thursdays


In some ways this is a tough Thursday for me to be thankful and yet in other ways I'm drasticly aware of all I have to be thankfull for.

* I'm eternally grateful to my wonderful merciful Lord, and Savior. He has carried me, comforted me, and blessed me beyond waht I could imagine. Praise Your Name Jesus!

* I'm so thankful to be 30 weeks pregnant and according to todays ultrasound her heart looks great, amniotic fluid looks great, "she might become a gymnast based on all those moves she can do in there", and she is measuring about 3 1/2 lbs.

* I'm thankful to be where I can receiver great medical care for my difficult pregnancies and that my children have all been born healthy, thanks to our Drs. and their great staff!

* I'm thankful that our two year old son has a team of doctors (6 so far) who are trying to figure out his symptoms, and just what is wrong in his little body and being kind and compassioante all at the same time.

* I'm thankful for my older kids who are being so incredibly understanding that mom is pregnant, sick and exhausted. They pitch in so much and almost never complain. Please Lord bless them ten-fold for their loving kindness.

* I'm so thankful for the friends and family who continue to cover us with their prayers. You are truly a blessing from God!!!

Thankful Thursday

In the bible you can find many verses on being thankful ... thankful in all circumstances.


1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Chronicles 16:8
Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Psalm 118:29
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

That is what we are trying to do this week, as we really do have many things to be thankful for ... but there are also difficult situations we just don't understand... moments where I struggle to find a thankful attitude, but if God has told us to be thankful in ALL circumstances then that is what I want to learn how to do.

* I'm ever so thankful for a Wonderful Savior!

* I'm thankful for the wonderful husband he gave me

* I'm thankful for the ever growing family he has blessed us with

* I'm thankful for our loving church family.

* I'm thankful for His great comfort in the midst of grief and sadness.
We will be attending the funeral of our three year old friend, Anna,
who was called home to heaven this week after a year of battling
cancer. Please join us in praying for her parents Nate and Lisa.

* We are also thankful that God knows the plans he has for us ...
and that he created each one of us. He knit us together (Psalm 129)

* We are waiting to hear from Children's Hospital to schedule more
blood work and an MRI for our two year old. His orthopedic, his
rehumotologist and his endocrinologist, are consulting together
to try find us some answers. We are very thankful to be where
such medical knowledge and technology are readily available.

* We are constantly amazed and thankful at all the daily reminders
that we truly do serve an awesome God! He is wonderful, powerful,
kind. and merciful. He has blessed us with comfort and peace and
great joy ... even when the day or circumstances are not going as
we planned.

Thankful Thursday!

Iris hosts Thankful Thursday over at her blog. Which of corse we are all thankful for! This week she posted a verse on the Lord's provision and listed the provisions she is thankful for ... this made me think of our week and how wonderfully the Lord has provided for us. Even our struggles are His provisions as they stretch us and grow us into more of what He intends us to be.

“So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.””
~ Genesis 22:14 ESV


If you look at this post you'll know why we feel so blessed and provided for. We are so excited to welcome our new little girl in just over two months! And we are so blessed to be surrounded by loving friends and family and many prayer warriors.

But after my Dr. Appointment and ultrasound yesterday I came home and had a call from Dr. V, the Endocrinologist who saw our two year old 2 weeks ago. He was concerned about some of Z's blood test results. Z has had various symptoms from failure to thrive to diarrhea, to aches and pains over the last year. But again God has provided the right Drs. on the right days and we are so well cared for ... wonderful how God provides.

Dr. V had drawn and tested for two different growth hormone levels, one was only related to growth hormones and that one was within normal range, but the second one tested a combination of growth hormones and nutrition. That one was below normal, leading Dr.V to think Z is having more issues nutritionally than hormonally. Specifically not absorbing the nutrition in what he eats, becuase he eats pleanty. This was also confirmed by the fact that the blood test for vitamin D was quite below normal and his cholesterol is quiet below where a 2 year old's should be. All of these test results really mean that Z is malnourished. OK, that is a terrible thing for a mom to hear! It fits with his cycles of diarrhea, and it fits with his lack of growth (very minimal growth) since Dec. 2006. But we still have no answers to what is causing him to be malnourished. Dr. V also repeated the celiac blood panel and all those results came back normal this time (in Aug half of those were normal but half were not), so we will not repeat the upper GI and biopsy for celiac as we had planned to in April.

But he will be seeing Dr. B (Pediatric Dermatologist) and having a skin biopsy in April as he has very odd spots on his torso (started appearing the same time as his diarrhea problems back in Dec 2006) and those spots are now moving to his arms and neck. They are brownish pigmentation spots, start out kind of red and end up brown, then never do disappear, he just keeps getting more. Dr. B is not concerned about anything cancerous, but wants to run a few other tests on skin samples. I believe that malnutrition and malabsorbtion can cause skin pigmentation issues.

Also in April he has an appointment to see Dr. S, a pediatric orthopedic (same bone Dr. his big brother Gus goes to for bone cysts) because over the last few months Zeke has been complaining that his legs hurt, and just recently he points to his back and tells us it hurts. He will often say "carry me carry me" or "hold me hold me, this hurts" (and he points to his leg). Because its hard to tell if Z really means his leg hurts or his knee joints hurt the Dr. who called yesterday (the endocrinologist) was concerned that this could be a rhueumatological problem (as is rheumatoid arthritis), so he made a few calls and the next thing I knew we had an appointment to see Dr. L for 11:30 this morning! Funny how for some of these specialists we have to wait two months to see and for some we only wait a half a day. Anyway Dr. L was very nice and talked with us for quite a while and checked out Zeke, but she is pretty certain that this is not rheumalogical. His joints look just perfect. But she agrees that there are too many odd symptoms going on and thinks that we need to keep visiting the different specialists to figure out what is causing the leg pains, the spots, the malnutrition, the diarrhea and the lack of growth. She drew more blood (poor Zeke) and is looking for something that is specifically muscular now, if that turns up she'll send us to a specialist who deals with that. We should hear about that on Monday morning, but would not go see anyone till we get backfrom hawaii.

So at the moment Z's medical calendar looks like this:


In March we have seen:

Dr. V. - Pediatric Endocrinologist (first time we met him was
this month)
Dr. St. - Pediatric GI specialist (we've been dr-ing with him
since last summer)
Dr. L - Pediatric Rheumatologist (first time with her was today,
but probably no need to go back)


In April we will see:

Dr. S - Pediatric Orthopedic (first time weeing him with Zeke)
x-raying a two year old is never fun, please be in prayer for that for us

Dr. B - Pediatric Dermatologist for the skin biopsy

Dr. ? - Pediatric Eye Dr. (we've also noticed Zeke needing to squint
alot and even close one eye to focus on stuff - wether or not that is
related to all the other stuff we don't know but it needs to be
checked out too)


In May we will see:

Dr. V - endocrinology follow up, re-check Zeke's height and weight
again, repeat some of the blood work to see what, if any, changes
have happend, dicuss what else we can do or who else we can see.

Dr. St. - G.I. follow up, height and weight check and discuss why
Zeke continues to be "malnourished", discuss what cycles the
diarrhea has taken, what suppliments might help, and who else
he thinks we should go see.


And then we'll see mommy's Dr too because we are having this baby
in MAY! Unless we have any clear leads or significant information
we'll probably see no Drs in June because mom will still be on pain
meds and can't drive for several weeks after a c-section.


Please be in prayer for Z ... he really is not fond of Drs. anymore
and does not like when we arrive at clinics. He gets very whinny and
clingy as soon as he realizes we are in a waiting room. Poor kid,
I can't say I blame him, but I want to figure out whats going on in
that cute little body, so we continue to see Dr. after Dr. We are
thankful and greatful that Z does not seem to be in constant
discomfort, it comes and goes, also that the diarrhea comes and
goes in cycles, he seems to have a very good appetite and attitude
most days, he has continued to develop cognitally and verbally.
He loves to play and chatter, but we would like some answers soon.

We know how wonderfully God provides, we know that God loves Z
and God knit him together before he was even born, He knows all
about Z, so we trust that He will provide the answers. Thank you to
all who have been praying for him!

Sorry this got a bit lengthy but now I will
have everyone all caught up on Z news.

And I just realized that tomorrow, March 14th, is Z's half birthday ... my little guy is officially 2 1/2 tomorrow ... and isn't he cute!