A Second Chance

In the last year God has given James a second chance at a relationship with his dad. In April 2013 Roland moved here to Amarillo and as I sit here and reflect I can see it was all orchestrated by God.
  They were given a chance to have a real relationship, for the first time ever they lived in the same state and actually Roland just lives a few miles away. Our kids were given a grandparent to be in their everyday life and they have built a loving relationship with their PawPaw Roland!
  Most importantly Roland was given a second chance this year to gain the most important relationship any of us can have, a relationship with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It has been a privilege for me to see the change in him, to see the fire in him, to listen and see how God was working in his life.
  A few weeks ago Roland completed a year long journey in recovery and healing. We are so very proud of him and grateful he is in our lives. It was a wonderful day and a day he worked really hard for.

 He chose for James to speak on his behalf and I couldn't be more proud of my husband. His words were sincere and he gave all the Glory to God!

 It was awesome to see so many of his friends pray over him and tell stories about him.

I am so thankful that Roland moved here to Amarillo.
I am thankful for second chances and thankful to the God who provides them over and over again. This seems best summed up by my favorite bible verse.....

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new

Yes, Thank you Jesus for making us new!

Easter 2014

Now that my dad is doing so much better and starting on his long road of rehabilitation, we have gotten into a new routine and a new "normal." So, it is time to catch up on a long list of blogs....

Easter this year was wonderful. Our church celebrates with four days of events. On Thursday night we celebrated Christ in the Passover and a seder meal.

 This is our second year to do this and I loved it just as much this year as last year. We all learn so much and the kids really enjoy it. Christopher played the role of the servant this year and washed our hands. It was so fitting because he certainly is a guy after God's heart.

On Friday we loved the Good Friday service and on Saturday we took James Henry to the preschool party. He made lots of crafts.

His favorite part was the parade, he practiced for a week beforehand and rode his bike all around our house. He did a great job!

Saturday night we made resurrection rolls with the kids and read over the Easter story.

                                          On Sunday the worship service was so moving.

Afterward we enjoyed a BBQ dinner with both of our dads, and the kids were able to get an egg hunt in before the rain came.

 Here the boys are, checking out their loot!

We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the rain and playing board games.

I will always treasure that Easter Sunday because it was almost the last day we spent with my dad. I am so grateful for the memories made that day and the people I made them with.

Dad: day 15 in ICU

Today is day number 15 in ICU but yesterday he came off the ventilator completely and they pulled the tube! 

  The VA gave us the chose last Thursday to stay there and get a trach that day or move to a long term hospital that specializes in weaning them off the vent. So James, my mom and I went and toured the hospital and we were very impressed. He was transferred here around 9pm Thursday night. It was the best move for him. Four days later he was completely off the vent, no trach or feeding tube needed!

   His vitals look amazing! He is still on oxygen and will be for a while. Today he has followed the doctors commands and is asking for water! The next order of business is to get him working with physical, occupational and speech therapy. He will have a lot of rehab to gain his strength back and try to get back to his quality of life that he had previous to this incident. He will remain in ICU a few more days and will then move to the floor. 

   Prayerfully he will be back in his home in the next few weeks! We have come such a long way in 15 days, they were long tearful, stressful days, days when I prayed I would not have to make a choice on his life. I am so thankful to God for giving me another chance and more time with my dad. I am thankful that for now God answered my prayer and I didn't have to decide how he would live out his life, God has chosen to leave him here with us for a while longer.

  I am thankful that even though it wasn't under the best circumstances I was able to spend a weekend with my "little" brothers.

We are so thankful my mom stayed for 8 days and helped with our kids, did laundry, made lunches and drove carpool! 

  We have been so blessed by the many phone calls, texts and prayers lifted on my dad's behalf. We have been blessed with a weeks worth of meals from our church family that have blessed us so. It's so nice to come home from the hospital to a hot meal. Have I mentioned how blessed we are?! 

  Please continue to pray for my dad, he has crossed the biggest hurdle but he still has a long recovery and a lot of work to do.

My Dad

On Easter Sunday around 10:45pm. My dad's nursing home called me to let me know they were transferring him to the ER and he was having trouble breathing.

I came to the hospital immediately and in the 10 minutes or so it took me to get here he was already on a ventilator. 

  My dad has been in a nursing home since 2007 and when James and I moved to Amarillo in 2008, we moved him into a nursing home here, so we could be a part of his long term care. 

 In the fall of 2005, he suffered a life changing near fatal heart attack that left him on a ventilator and later a trach for months, during those months he suffered several mini strokes, blood poisoning, kidney failure, and a quad by-pass with too many stints to count. At one paint we were bought in to say good-bye to him. He did eventually pull through, but his quality of life was never the same and his heart will never work well, it's damaged beyond the repair it has already had and to weak for a pacemaker. Flash forward, 9 years.... On top of that health history he has COPD, chronic lung disease.

 On Tuesday they tried to take him off the vent, but that only lasted about 30 minutes. They have talked every day this week about taking him off but everytime they attempt to bring him out of sedation, his vital signs go crazy and he labors to breath and they end up sedating him again.

This morning the same thing happened, and the head doctor came and said we wouldn't think about trying again until Monday that He's not ready. He was also concerned that he was awake but completely unresponsive and unable to follow commands. Given his history it's risky for them to try and take him off the vent. In fact if they try again next week and have to retube him, we will be looking at a trach and long term vent care. Regardless, we only have about two weeks total on the vent before we have to discuss a trach. 

  Everyday has been up and down and unknown. My brothers are currently driving here now and we will probably have some hard decisions to make next week on his long term care. 

  I cannot tell you despite everything how blessed we have been this week.  Sweet friends have helped out with James Henry. The preschool has allowed him to stay in after school care. Prayers, phone calls and texts have come from all over. Friends have bought us food.

We have felt so loved this week.

Please continue to pray for us as I feel this is the beginning of a long road for all of us. 

I know that God is in control and I will rest in his embrace. 

  

Nerf War Fun

Last month Extreme hosted a Nerf War and my guys were so excited to go!

 They had a lot of fun shooting each other and having different battle scenarios.

 I love that Extreme not only promotes the Martial Arts discipline into the boys lives but also gives them a safe place to have fun and hang out with their friends!

DNOW weekend

This past weekend James and I hosted 10 crazy girls for our church's 5th and 6th grade DNOW.
James and I co-teach that class so it was a blessing for us to be a host home.

It was a weekend full of little sleep and worship sessions....

 small group bible studies......

and silly girl fun.....

On Saturday we went and saw the movie, God's Not Dead. It was so good! The kids really got a lot out of it. This picture makes me one proud mama!

There were 8 kids from Makayla's class that attended the weekend and it was amazing to watch them worship together,

It was such a successful weekend. There were 90 of us including students and volunteers. James and I are so blessed to be a part of a ministry team who truly lives for God.

The best thing about the weekend was the 8 salvation's, 8 precious names written into the book of life.

GO GOD!

James' purple belt

A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of watching James achieve a goal he has worked tirelessly to achieve for the past several years. 

He received his purple belt in Jiu Jitsu!

It was a huge moment for him and one he has looked forward to. He has put a lot of time, dedication and discipline into achieving his purple belt and I could not be more proud of him.

James and his instructor Chief Garrett

 Congratulations James on your purple belt! The kids and I are so very proud of you!