Catching up

I am sitting in a hospital room on the pediatric ward with my 2 year old nephew right now, so I have some time to catch up on the last few months while he sleeps. Let me back up to where I left off and I will work my way up to today. By the way, I just really stink at keeping a running commentary of my life. :)

The last time I wrote I hadn't even walked the 3Day yet. So, Amy and I walked it, every step. Saturday was the hardest. It took all of our will power to keep going, but we did it. It was an amazing journey from start to finish. On Friday night I went to interview for the 2008 campaign. Just being able to interview was planned by God. When I got the email about the interview I asked Russ if I could go (if chosen I would fly to La for four days). He said I would need to find someone to watch the kids so he could go to work. This was totally understandable because he would be missing work so I could walk the 3day. Well, before I could even call Amy to ask her to watch the kids I recieved an email from her. It was a forward of the email inviting people to interview with the message...I think you should do this, I will watch your kids. How much more did I need?!? So, Friday night I interviewed in front of a camera and the artisitic director of the 2008 3Day campaign. Apparently they liked me because I got a call the following Wednesday would I like to come to LA and tell them about Kathy again.

So off to LA I went. Looking back, I think that this trip was the reason I was led to the 3day. It was here that I met 16 other people who had walked the 3Day and became forever interwoven with their lives. These were some of the most amazing people that I have ever met. We spent 4 days together and will remember it for a lifetime. From this weekend came thousands of pictures and many many hours of footage for them to pic 120 seconds and 4 pictures. Well, they didn't pick any of my live interview, but I was chosen as the main poster girl for 2008. How amazing is that?!? The ad with my picture has shown up in magazines for the last three months now. O magazine, Every Day with Rachel Ray, Women's Health, and Shape. Very very cool!

Since that LA experience I have had months of wonderful days just living every day life. I serve breakfast down at the City Rescue Mission twice a week. I have met some really wonderful people there who have become friends. I have been blessed to get to know them and they have really touched my heart in so many ways.

My children are getting so big! The oldest is 5. He is such a joy. We are so alike in so many ways, so sometimes we battle, but even so, we have the best time together. When I started getting impatient with him just this morning, I went to him apologized and asked it we could start the day over. He looked at me, smiled sweetly and said, "I will always forgive you mommy. I love you and you are nice to me." I don't always feel so nice, but I will always know how much that little boy loves me. How blessed I am to be his mommy!
Then there is my 3 year old. My sunshine! We have just passed through the "I want to do it all myself " phase. That was not fun and everything took about five times as long to do, but now he allows for help. He is also so much more self sufficient because I let him learn to do all the things he wanted to do. He can button his own pj's because I let him spend 45 minutes doing it himself a few times. He is much quicker now. If there was ever a more patient child, I have never met him. This boy got all the patience that I missed out on when they were passing it out. A more persistant patient child probably does not exsist in the American culture! Oh, we have our moments (remember patience is not a natural fruit of my spirit) but as he does not even know how to throw a proper fit, the moments pass quickly.
Moving on to my baby. Who really isn't even a baby anymore. At two, she really knows how to be two. Super sweet one moment, screaming bloody murder the next. What an amazing little girl she is. She makes me so glad that God knew what he was doing when he gave us our "surprise baby." She loves to jump and dance and can most commonly be found sitting in her baby's stroller holding a baby wearing a bike helmet and using her feet to push herself around the house. I need to get a picture as it is possibly one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Life is genearlly pretty fun around our house. Since we have chosen to educate our children at home, we don't have the daily driving to and fro to drop off and pick up. We have hours on end of playing and learning. Well, as they are so young mostly what they are learning is through play. They are way to young to sit down with a piece of paper in front of them and circle the right answer. We play and we learn. A few days ago my 2 year old learned how to peddle her tricycle. That was some major gross motor skill education. Today we took one of the training wheels off of my 5 year olds bike. Not only is he learning balance, he is learning that learning takes lots of tries and lots of time. Sound like it isn't much, but he is kinda like me and if he can't get it right the first time he doesn't really like to keep doing it. So now he has something that he isn't great at yet, but he wants to keep trying until he gets it. Major change and growth in our world. Lots of things can be learned through play. I am so glad that God placed me right where He did so that Russ and I would come to the conclusion that home educating our children was the way to go. I would miss my kiddos so much if I sent them off to school. I think they are the tool that God is using to teach me to allow the Holy Spirit to flow the fruit of patience through my life. Where I am weak He is strong. I truly think that one day, patience will be my greatest virtue all because it won't be from me at all. I'm still learning and sometimes it seems I become weaker by the day where that is concerned.

Today was the first full day I have spent with them in a few days. Today is Friday. This past Monday my nephew was admitted to the hospital because he was vomiting blood and bile. Not just stomach acid, the stuff from his intestines. They ran every test known to man and finally yesterday did surgery. What he had was fixable and they fixed it. So now he is on the mend, but it is not a sudden feel better. He had a rough day today with the pain from surgery. Tonight we sent his mommy and daddy home (it took a lot of convincing) and his two aunts are staying with him tonight. We are taking great care of him by the way.
I've been away for about 15 minutes while he focused on me and had a bit of his little personality shine through the morphine. He is a sweet little boy and I think that he is going to be so much happier and at ease in his little body once he heals from the surgery. From what they have said, he has probably never known that his stomach wasn't suppose to be achy all the time. He will now be able to live without the constant nagging. God and his timing are so perfect.

So that brings us up to the minute. All that is left is to say that though I know that God's timing is perfct, we don't always understand it. Tonight I recieved an email from one of Team Talent (what us LA folk call ourselves). It said that Stephanie, another of the Talent and a breast cancer survivor, is in liver failure. Just a couple of months ago her heart went into failure due to the chemo. They figured that out and have been treating it. Then a tumor turned up on her brain. Now the liver failure. She and her son grace the banner on the Dallas 3Day page. I may not get to go back down to Dallas to see her. I know God's timing is perfect, but I do not always understand.