Welcome to our new layout! We're glad you've stopped by for a visit. We're enjoying life as God gives it, feeling so very blessed by His goodness to us. Our 3 kids keep things very lively and interesting around here and make life 3 times more enjoyable. If you're a first time visitor, please let us know how you heard of our site! Pictures are available for registered users.
It amazes me sometimes, how God uses my conversations with E&R to remind me of how good His love is and how much He cares for ME.
Today we were driving to our friend's house in Tracy and we like to have lots of interesting conversations on long car rides. I made a comment about Jesus dying on the cross for us, so that we could live our lives to bring glory to Him and spend Eternity with Him, from sin, guilt and shame. Ethan thought about this for a while and then said "so... after Jesus died on the cross... what did you need to do for Him?" I wondered if he was asking me how I paid Him back, so I went down that path of explaining God's free gift. A few more minutes go by, while he sits in his seat thinking... "so then, He died for my sins and I don't need to give him a present?" :) I explain to Ethan that the way we thank God is by taking the free gift He's offered and loving and serving God with all of our heart, soul and mind.
I would say about 10 minutes goes by and this is his response to what I've told him. "Okay, so... Jesus died on the cross for me and then rose from the grave so I could live in eternal life with Him?" I'm thrilled he's getting it, so I quickly answer "yep!"
"and He doesn't want me to buy him anything, like a new Hot Wheels car or a coffee from Starbucks?" (ok, this made me laugh-out-loud)
When I replied with "that's right!" his answer is what got me.
"wow! that is like, the very best gift you could ever get on any birthday or ANY day, ever!!"
why can't I always see things so clearly?
The kids wanted to write down their top 5 favorite movies... and they'd love to know yours!
Stef and the girls were off to a baby shower on Sunday, so Ethan and I got to spend the afternoon together! We went and grabbed burgers and shakes for lunch at Lumpy's (home of the $24 3-lb-burger, which we unsurprisingly did not order), then saw UP together. UP was a beautifully done, if somewhat sad movied - Pixar seems to consistently turn out really awesome work; even the 5 minute short cartoon that ran before the movie was awesome. Ethan thought it was odd that I was sitting in the movie crying my eyes out for the first half hour :)
After a quick stop by Nanna and Papa's house (he hung his toy airplane out the window, inspired by the flying house in the movie), we came home and played Mario Kart till Stef and the girls came back - Ethan has gotten really good at it lately, and it's a lot of fun to do together. The funniest part is that he has started picking up on my mannerisms, so getting hit by a blue shell gets him to say "That's SO not cool!" I'm trying to work with him to understand that you don't always get to win in games, and it's okay that way :)
The girls had a nice time too, so all in all, it was a great afternoon!
This picture is to let you all know that Ethan continues to heal well! We are so thankful to God for how smooth He's made this whole process. He's pretty much completely back to normal, maybe with just a slightly more paranoid Mommy.
I uploaded a bunch of pictures from the weekend, starting from when we got home from the surgery all the way until today. Our weekend was awesome! Some of it was quite busy with various family members and then today we went to church and then spent the rest of the day totally relaxing as a family... good times.
(the picture was taken about 20 minutes before the surgery)
We praise God in telling you all that Ethan's surgery went very well!
We arrived at 6:15 and he was quite a champ. He played on the Nintendo DS while the nurses poked and prodded and then around 7:50 they gave him some meds a.k.a "happy juice" which just relaxed him and made him a bit loopy, so that separation from Jason and me wouldn't be too painful. He still did cry when they took him from us, which was the hard part for Mommy as well. I didn't like hearing him cry the whole way down the hall as we left.
The Anesthesiologist said he did remarkably well. The surgery took about 50 minutes and then they brought me back into the recovery room, where I found him awake, confused and upset. He was pretty cute when he saw me - laid against my chest, put his finger in his mouth and fell back to sleep. I stayed on the bed with him until he woke up again and we gave him some juice (just to make sure he kept it down). He began speaking fine, answering questions correctly and sitting up on his own, so they let us go home 2 hours ahead of schedule! Every time they'd ask him a question, "how are you feeling, Ethan? Would you like something to drink? Are you dizzy?" he would reply with "No thanks, I'd like to go home now." :) We got home around 10:45 and he's watching a new movie that Nana bought him. He seems to be doing better than I thought he would. I had my adenoids and tonsils removed, so I think my recovery was a little more painful... and much longer.
His ears actually appeared to have NO fluid in them, so the surgeon went ahead and put temporary tubes in each ear. They will be taken out within 6 months to a year at a regular office appointment. His adenoids, however (the part we knew was probably the biggest problem) were very large for his age, infected and just plain nasty looking. She said they had a lot of bacteria and just basic infection on them, which was probably causing a large part of his problem. He is having some basic speech problems right now. She told me that he will probably form some of his words better within a week or so, but at first it will be hard and weird for him to talk. She said they were interfering a bit with his previous speech and also with the way he formed his tongue and breathed when he talked... since that is all changing, his speech will take a little while to catch up. That's probably the biggest frustration he's had since being home. He started crying a bit ago and told me "Mommy, I don't know how to talk right!"
Anyway, we're all 3 very thankful to be home and so thankful to God for answering our prayers and making this a smooth process. Thank you to ALL of you who were praying for us - we love you all and are so thankful for you.
-Stef
Tomorrow morning we have Ethan's surgery. Please keep him in your prayers. He told us tonight that he's "a little bit scared" but he also seems like he's ready and understands this will help his over all health. He told me today he's glad he's having the surgery "because I do NOT like getting sick all the time."
He had a fun night all by himself with us. Rachel went to Jason's parent's house and so it was just the three of us. 5AM is going to come very quickly, but Jason and I are both having trouble going to sleep. We'll most likely skip out on sleep tonight and nap with Ethan tomorrow when we get home.
Thank you ALL for your kind emails and phone calls, reminding us that you're praying. We greatly appreciate it. I'll be sure to post about the surgery as soon as we're home and settled back in.