Friday, May 29, 2009

In Loving Memory...

Olana MacArthur
Two years ago she changed our lives by telling us she had chosen us to be the parents of her soon to be born son. This week on May 27th, the Lord chose to take her home to be with Him. We miss her terribly and we are grieving so much for Benjamin, who really just barely came to a point of knowing and remembering her between visits. But we are rejoicing in the knowledge that she is in Heaven and I know for sure that she is not just walking, but dancing and laughing on those streets paved with gold. We love you Olana and can't wait to see you when we get to Heaven too!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Back to Indiana again!

We are finally home again, hopefully to stay for at least a good month. Today I am attempting to play catch up and get back in routine. But when you have been out of routine for over two weeks, it's hard to remember what routine really is. So we're taking it slowly.
We had a good visit to Indiana and enjoyed getting to see everyone again. Beka improved greatly in just a few days and was released from the hospital last Monday. God was merciful in allowing her such a quick recovery. From not knowing if she would make it through the night Thursday night, to seeing her chatting away with my sister Abby on Monday night. It's so good to see her getting healthy again. My family is still in the stage of figuring out how much insulin her body needs to control her blood sugar on a daily basis and each meal involves precise carbohydrate calculation, so please keep praying for their adjustment. But we are praising God for allowing Beka to get to the hospital in time for her life to be saved and for there not to be any long term damage.

While we were gone, I decided to put gluten back in Benjamin's diet just to see what would happen. Within just a few days, his eczema got worse and his eyes got all gunky. (is that a word?) So, I pulled gluten again and his eyes have been clear and his facial breakout is gone. Guess we won't be adding that back in again anytime soon. So, my plan now is to come up with some healthier gluten free baked goods for Benjamin to eat. Seems like most gluten free items aren't all that nutritious, so I will be experimenting with quinoa and amaranth flour as soon as I get a grain mill. And, since his birthday is coming up, I will be attempting my first gluten free cake.

And speaking of Benjamin, he is getting more and more clear in his talking. His favorite word right now seems to be "big." In fact, he puts it in front of everything. This past Sunday, I had a necklace on the table and Benjamin picked it up. I told him to put it down because it was mommy's and he proceeded to hand it to me and say "mommy's, BIG mommy's. Guess that necklace was very much mine. :) Today I had the radio on and they were playing Audio Adrenaline's "Big House" song and Benjamin loved it. He kept saying "big, big yard" over and over. Way too much fun!
Beka before all the tubes were taken out and while she was still semi-unconscious
Beka getting ready to go

Me with my sweet sisters Abby and Beka
posing with her flowers
Beka and Abby right before Beka was released
Running around barefoot on the soft Indiana grass
Hanging out with the uncles and aunts
Sitting up at the counter all by himself
Waiting for breakfast. Notice the cars on the table - he could hardly go anywhere without some of these in his hands or by his side
Silly Boy!
Swinging on the swings with Uncle Joel

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Update

Praise the Lord my sister is doing much better. Benjamin and I arrived in Indiana yesterday for a visit and she was very tired, but definitely aware of what was going on around her. Please keep praying for my whole family as they have many adjustments to make to their schedule. Training for how to live with type 1 diabetes begins today. Thank you all for praying for my sweet sister.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Please Pray

I don't know how many people read this, but if you do, please pray for my little nine year old sister Beka. Pray for the Lord to bring complete healing to her little body. She woke up this morning and was lethargic and confused, so my mom took her to the doctor. They discovered that she had extremely high blood sugar as well as severe dehydration and ketoacidosis(ph blood levels are far too acidic as a result of diabetes). She is currently in the intensive care unit and is sedated so they can check for swelling in her brain and monitor her more closely. Please please please pray for her to be healed and not have any long-term effects.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A Wedding for Mother's Day Weekend

This past weekend was a whirlwind trip to Indiana for Matt's brother's wedding. The original plan was for Matt to go alone and me to stay here with Benjamin, but after one week of being separated already this year, we decided we would rather do this trip together. All in all, it was a good trip, but it was BUSY! We arrived late Thursday night and spent Friday mostly in the hotel, which was good for Benjamin's sleep recovery. Then my parents came up to our hotel and stayed with Benjamin while Matt and I went with his parents to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Saturday was wedding day and while it was tiring, it was so fun to see my boys all dressed up. Benjamin ruled the dance floor at the reception and had a great time dancing with everyone. We had a fun Mother's Day lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Matt's parents before going to the airport to fly home. I must say, it almost didn't feel like Mother's day. In the past, this has been such an emotional day for me either because I didn't have children and wanted them, or last year, because I was finally a mom. I am looking forward to enjoying my gift from Matt sometime soon as it involves an afternoon off with Starbucks coffee and a good book. Ahhh!

Matt and Benjamin on the plane - He did SO well this trip!
My sweet boy asleep in my arms on the second leg of our flight up. He NEVER does this, so it was a precious 45 minutes.
Being silly at the hotel
My handsome boys
Waiting for the wedding to start - we had to leave as soon as the bride walked down the aisle because Benjamin was upset that daddy was up front and he couldn't go to him.
Matt and his mom. She was absolutely stunning in her dress!
Benjamin and his Aunt Christa
The bridal party wore aviators into the reception and Benjamin was giving them a try
So cute in his little suit!
Dancing with Grandpa and Grandma
Benjamin walked right up to Chrissy and held his hands out to dance. Too cute!
Dancing on the dance floor - we had a little incident and had to chance him into his jeans. :(
Dancing with Mommy
I had such a great time dancing with both my boys - no pictures of me and Matt though unfortunately

These moving walkways were the best entertainment for our layover in Detroit

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Mr. Fashion Consultant

Last night I came home from Bible study and wanted to get comfy. I put on some old fuchsia colored shorts, but kept my sort of salmon pink shirt on because I was too lazy to change. They totally clashed! When I came out of the bedroom, Benjamin looked at me and said "Oh cute!"

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Antics of Benjamin

Benjamin is getting more and more creative in the way he plays and sometimes it cracks me up. Yesterday, he took all the drawers out of a rubbermaid organizer in his room and proceeded to climb into it and call it a boat. I'm not even sure how he managed to get inside it, but it was so cute I had to take pictures before putting it all back together again.

Today, I was in the kitchen preparing lots of gluten free snacks for Benjamin for our trip this weekend. We had a carton of eggs in the fridge that I bought last week when we ran out of our good ones and I was needing to figure out what to do with them. I got them out to use one to coat the pretzels I was making and left them out on the counter. Bad decision. A few minutes later, I hear "oh no!" and look over to see eggs on the floor. Guess Benjamin had a plan for how I was going to get rid of those eggs. :) Fortunately several of them didn't really crack all the way, so I cracked them into a bowl to save for a later use. Again, I had to take a picture.

And then there is the fact that Benjamin has become fascinated with trying to walk with his eyes closed. He walks around with his arms out, trying to get to toys or other items and kind of peeping through a slit in one eye to see where he's going. Not sure what prompted him to do it, but it's funny. Hopefully I can catch it on video one of these days.

The last little funny thing he's doing right now is holding his pieces of cracker or bread up to me and telling me what it is. Sometimes they are animals, sometimes big buses, and other times cars, planes, or trucks. I love that he's beginning to use his imagination.
hanging out in his "boat" along with all the other things he threw down the stairs (yup that's a potty seat in all that mess)
Benjamin in his "boat"
Little sailor
The Egg Mess

Friday, May 1, 2009

Contentment

For some reason this week I am struggling with contentment. I don't know why it is that I always put my ideas of how life should go on a time schedule, but I do. Last summer, we decided that we would try to start the process for adoption number 2 in April of this year. Then we had the giddy excitement of a surprise adoption falling in our laps this past fall, only to be back in the place of waiting again after that precious baby boy's mother changed her mind. Then, after we had grieved through that and the Lord graciously replenished our depleted adoption fund, I thought we would be back on track to start again in April. But after praying about it, neither Matt nor I had peace about going ahead. We feel that for now we are supposed to wait on God to give us the go ahead. And I really do have peace about waiting. But yesterday was the last day of April and for some reason, it was just a reminder that we are indeed waiting. The hardest times of waiting are when I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything toward what I'm waiting for. And so I struggle to be content with waiting. I struggle to trust that the Lord really will reveal to us His timing in building our family when I'm not doing anything tangible myself to take us in that direction. But, right now, I'm going to choose to believe that He will make His plan known to us when the time is right. I'm going to choose to be content because I know that He is God of the Universe and sees the big picture of the purpose for our family. I'm going to choose to be content, even when my feelings are screaming out questions. And I'm going to stop comparing myself to others around me whose families are growing and trust that the Lord's plans for each of His children are perfect, even if they look different from each other. And I'm clinging to the promise of peace that passes all understanding when we bring our anxieties to before the Lord.

A Trip to the Country

Last weekend Matt had a three day weekend, so we decided to take a much needed trip out to the Hill Country. I love the conveniences of living in the city, but sometimes I just need to hear nothing but the birds and to smell things untainted by exhaust fumes and to have it so dark I cannot see anything when the lights are turned out at night. It was truly refreshing. The weather was not the greatest, but we enjoyed a nice long hike at the state park in the rain. We were pretty muddy by the end, but it was just so nice to be out in the middle of nowhere. I had my birthday while we were there and my husband spoiled me all weekend. Not sure what it is about my birthday, but I kind of turn into a five year old and get really excited. We actually came back home on my birthday and Matt gave me the day off from all cooking and cleaning and caring for Benjamin. It was wonderful!

Here are a few pictures from our trip:
Benjamin getting sunscreened up for our rainy day hike - never know what that Texas sun can do, even on a cloudy day
Sunscreen Mohawk
Benjamin spent the first 4 miles of our hike in the Kozy Carrier
Fascinated by the fish in the river
Me and my sweet boy!
My boys throwing rocks in the river that was across the highway from our cabin
Silly Face!
So SweetAll boy!
The Entrance to our little cabin/cottage