Last weekend we got the news that one of the members from our Chapel congregation (the one Bryan preaches at on base) was receiving hospice care. Wednesday morning, right when we woke up, we got the call that he had passed away.
I didn't know the Colonel very well. I know he was a Marine. I know he served in WWII at the Battle of Iwo Jima. I know he received a Purple Heart. I know he always complimented Bryan when he got a hair cut... he liked it high and tight. I know he believed in the power of Jesus, which causes me to rejoice knowing that we will see him again.
But I'm incredibly sad right now. I'm sad because he was such a nice man. He was a joy to speak with, even if I had to remind him of my name and that I was Bryan's wife whenever I saw him. He loved the kids... they made him smile.
What really makes me sad is that he was all alone in this world. He was in his nineties and didn't have any relatives or friends outside of the handful of retirees that attend chapel because, well, he had outlived everyone. It makes me sad that there was so much I didn't know about him, like that we both come from Ohio, which I found out when I read his obituary.
This man, who sacrificed so much for our country, for our freedoms, and when it comes time for his funeral, there will only be a few people there to tell him thank you. He was a good man. I wish there were more people who would be there to thank him and send him on his way.
Thankfully, the Colonel is in a much better place. He's no longer on morphine to fight the pain. He's no longer strapped to that wheelchair. But I bet he's still sporting a high and tight hair cut. I don't think even Jesus could talk him out of that one!
So, I just want to say thank you, Colonel, for all you've done for me. We will miss you, but we'll see you again one day.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
I need a miracle.
Sometimes life can really get you down. You read about a mother being shot to death and her newborn kidnapped, about another school shooting, a suicide bomber, a young life taken by a drunk driver... it can be too much to bear. I love the things that technology can do to improve out lives, but one of the biggest downfalls of it is this non-stop bad news flowing in and out of my daily routine.
You put that on top of just a regularly crappy day and it's no wonder so many of us feel depressed. Sometimes you just need to hear a good story. Lottery winners who give their shares to help a friend in need, a soldier who sacrificed his life to save a little girl, neighbors who rally together to help a friend after their home was damaged in a storm. Those stories are heart warming. They're wonderful because in the midst of all the crap in this world, we still see the good in people.
And sometimes, you just need to see a miracle. Proof that prayer works. Proof that God is good, even in the worst circumstances. My baby sister is a miracle. She almost didn't make it when she was born. There were several months of waiting and praying and waiting some more. And she defied the odds and is now almost 10 years old, full of life, bright, sweet and kind hearted. She's a miracle.
Jonah is my best friend's first son. he was born early and has had all sorts of issues in his life. Seizures, severe speech and cognitive delays, and he wasn't able to walk. I actually remember when they told Amber he might never walk. Yet, with therapy and braces and a walker and lots of practice and prayer, when we moved home from Scotland, Jonah walked into my arms to give me a hug to welcome me home. I cried, and cried, and cried! This thing they said might never happen, happened. And he continues to make improvements! More importantly, he just has this amazing effect on people. You can't meet Jonah and not fall in love with him. Then you see how he loves others, his family, Jesus... you can't help but thank God for that little boy. Jonah is a miracle.
Tripp was a miracle. A little boy who suffered from EB, he died recently after living his short life in pain. Covered in sores that would rip open and bleed. Every time his skin was touched, a new sore would appear. But his mom loved him more fiercely than I could describe. She prayed for him as if that was her only purpose in life, sometimes praying that he would die in the night so he wouldn't be in pain anymore. I can't imagine uttering that prayer. What extreme faith! When Tripp died, I cried. I've never met him. I've never met his mom. She doesn't know I exist. But I prayed for them. And that connected us. I saw God use that little boy to bring people together, to highlight a disease that desperately needs a cure. Tripp is a miracle.
Right now, I friend of mine from college is asking for prayers for her best friend, Jillian and her baby boy, Judah. When she was pregnant they discovered some problems with Judah. His heart wasn't forming properly. They weren't sure if it would heal in the womb or if it would require surgery when he was born... it was a bombshell for Jillian. She had recently gone through two miscarriages, and now this. So I started praying for Judah and Jillian. Judah was just born and has had a rocky start, to say the least. My friend, has been posting several times throughout the day with specific requests, each one more impossible than the next, every time, with Judah's life hanging by a thread. And God has miraculously brought levels to where they should be, miraculously guided the hands of the surgeons to get results "even better than possibly expected", and has kept his brain functioning still. There are still MANY more hurdles for this little boy to jump, but God continues to take care of him. Judah is a miracle.
Moreover, Judah is my miracle. Sometimes, we struggle spiritually. We feel like we're in a rut. We just kinda, go through the motions. Praying, but maybe not believing as we should. Giving, but out of obligation rather than joyfully. And that's how I've felt lately... stuck. I've been praying for something to change, something to challenge me, something to get me out of this rut. Then came Judah, with his impossible situation and God saying to me, "just trust me". So I've been praying for Judah, trusting that God will heal him. Trusting that he will take care of this little boy who I will probably never meet. And He is. Judah is a miracle.
God is showing me, once again, just how good it is to just trust him. Miraculous.
You put that on top of just a regularly crappy day and it's no wonder so many of us feel depressed. Sometimes you just need to hear a good story. Lottery winners who give their shares to help a friend in need, a soldier who sacrificed his life to save a little girl, neighbors who rally together to help a friend after their home was damaged in a storm. Those stories are heart warming. They're wonderful because in the midst of all the crap in this world, we still see the good in people.
And sometimes, you just need to see a miracle. Proof that prayer works. Proof that God is good, even in the worst circumstances. My baby sister is a miracle. She almost didn't make it when she was born. There were several months of waiting and praying and waiting some more. And she defied the odds and is now almost 10 years old, full of life, bright, sweet and kind hearted. She's a miracle.
Jonah is my best friend's first son. he was born early and has had all sorts of issues in his life. Seizures, severe speech and cognitive delays, and he wasn't able to walk. I actually remember when they told Amber he might never walk. Yet, with therapy and braces and a walker and lots of practice and prayer, when we moved home from Scotland, Jonah walked into my arms to give me a hug to welcome me home. I cried, and cried, and cried! This thing they said might never happen, happened. And he continues to make improvements! More importantly, he just has this amazing effect on people. You can't meet Jonah and not fall in love with him. Then you see how he loves others, his family, Jesus... you can't help but thank God for that little boy. Jonah is a miracle.
Tripp was a miracle. A little boy who suffered from EB, he died recently after living his short life in pain. Covered in sores that would rip open and bleed. Every time his skin was touched, a new sore would appear. But his mom loved him more fiercely than I could describe. She prayed for him as if that was her only purpose in life, sometimes praying that he would die in the night so he wouldn't be in pain anymore. I can't imagine uttering that prayer. What extreme faith! When Tripp died, I cried. I've never met him. I've never met his mom. She doesn't know I exist. But I prayed for them. And that connected us. I saw God use that little boy to bring people together, to highlight a disease that desperately needs a cure. Tripp is a miracle.
Right now, I friend of mine from college is asking for prayers for her best friend, Jillian and her baby boy, Judah. When she was pregnant they discovered some problems with Judah. His heart wasn't forming properly. They weren't sure if it would heal in the womb or if it would require surgery when he was born... it was a bombshell for Jillian. She had recently gone through two miscarriages, and now this. So I started praying for Judah and Jillian. Judah was just born and has had a rocky start, to say the least. My friend, has been posting several times throughout the day with specific requests, each one more impossible than the next, every time, with Judah's life hanging by a thread. And God has miraculously brought levels to where they should be, miraculously guided the hands of the surgeons to get results "even better than possibly expected", and has kept his brain functioning still. There are still MANY more hurdles for this little boy to jump, but God continues to take care of him. Judah is a miracle.
Moreover, Judah is my miracle. Sometimes, we struggle spiritually. We feel like we're in a rut. We just kinda, go through the motions. Praying, but maybe not believing as we should. Giving, but out of obligation rather than joyfully. And that's how I've felt lately... stuck. I've been praying for something to change, something to challenge me, something to get me out of this rut. Then came Judah, with his impossible situation and God saying to me, "just trust me". So I've been praying for Judah, trusting that God will heal him. Trusting that he will take care of this little boy who I will probably never meet. And He is. Judah is a miracle.
God is showing me, once again, just how good it is to just trust him. Miraculous.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Preschool!
We decided to start Saoirse on a preschool curriculum and, oh my, has it been fun so far! Here's a small taste of our first week of "school".
Our scripture for the week was Genesis 1, which we'll be working through for a few weeks, learning about creation. This week we learned that God made the light and the dark, and the sky with the clouds and the water.
Our song was "This Little Light of Mine" which she LOVED! It's now one of her favorites. And our number was 1, our color was red, and our shape was circle.
Lastly, our book for the week was "Llama, Llama Red Pajama". If you've never read this before, I highly recommend it! She loved finding his red pajama's, saying words like "baby" and "momma/ mommy". While that might be a bit easy for some two year olds, it was quite the accomplishment for Saoirse with her speech delays. It was a great way to get her to say those words without asking her to repeat them... amazing.
Not only did we have a lot of fun at home, but I think it helped her a lot at speech therapy as well. We've seen dramatic improvements in her speech in the past week. She's also learned what it means to wait and sit quietly, which has been a tremendous help in speech.
One of her new songs in speech class is the "Peanut Butter" song. It helps her make the "m" sound and say "la la la". Repeating those noises will help her with forming new words, as we have seen already and hopefully she will just keep getting better! I even put a video of her singing it here for you to watch. Spoiler alert: It's crazy cute.
Then, of course, this week we were preparing for Easter. We not only dyed our eggs, but also painted them with watercolors! She thought it was so cool to paint something other than paper! And she was really gentle with the eggs as well. I was so proud of her working so gently and diligently on her project.
By far, though, the best part of the week was when I was able to tell her about Jesus. We read the story about him in her Bible. We learned that he was God's son and that he died to save us. At this point in the story, Saoirse hugged me and started crying and hugging her Bible on the page that showed Jesus on the cross. It took me awhile to calm her down and finish the story about him rising again! She was very happy that he came back!
Her reaction was just so humbling, so pure, so real. It made me think, do I still react that way to Christ's sacrifice? I would like to hope that I do, but I know that I become bogged down with theology, politics, heck... ministry itself. Things that should be a reaction to the knowledge that Christ died for me, instead get in the way. It made me think, I need to rearrange things. So, once again, my children minister to me in ways they cannot even understand. Words cannot express how they bless me. Thank you God for these amazing kids!
As for Reuben, he recently said his first word, "Mama"! Yay! Point mommy :) I was pretty stoked since Saoirse's first word was "Dada". It felt good to win one.
He also pulled himself to a standing position for the first time and has been pulling himself up more and more ever since. He's going to be walking in no time. It's hard to believe that he's already 8 1/2 months old. Why do kids have to grow up so fast?
So that's our first week of school. Lots of developments for both kids, a huge spiritual challenge for mom, and another hard week at work for Daddy. Seriously, he works so hard... he's amazing. I'm so proud of the minister he has become. I can see God working in the lives of those he touches. God is doing great things though our Chaplain.
Here's some of the pictures from our week!
 |
| Her number, shape and color of the week. |
Our song was "This Little Light of Mine" which she LOVED! It's now one of her favorites. And our number was 1, our color was red, and our shape was circle.
Lastly, our book for the week was "Llama, Llama Red Pajama". If you've never read this before, I highly recommend it! She loved finding his red pajama's, saying words like "baby" and "momma/ mommy". While that might be a bit easy for some two year olds, it was quite the accomplishment for Saoirse with her speech delays. It was a great way to get her to say those words without asking her to repeat them... amazing.
 |
| Some of our favorite projects from the week! |
One of her new songs in speech class is the "Peanut Butter" song. It helps her make the "m" sound and say "la la la". Repeating those noises will help her with forming new words, as we have seen already and hopefully she will just keep getting better! I even put a video of her singing it here for you to watch. Spoiler alert: It's crazy cute.
Then, of course, this week we were preparing for Easter. We not only dyed our eggs, but also painted them with watercolors! She thought it was so cool to paint something other than paper! And she was really gentle with the eggs as well. I was so proud of her working so gently and diligently on her project.
By far, though, the best part of the week was when I was able to tell her about Jesus. We read the story about him in her Bible. We learned that he was God's son and that he died to save us. At this point in the story, Saoirse hugged me and started crying and hugging her Bible on the page that showed Jesus on the cross. It took me awhile to calm her down and finish the story about him rising again! She was very happy that he came back!
Her reaction was just so humbling, so pure, so real. It made me think, do I still react that way to Christ's sacrifice? I would like to hope that I do, but I know that I become bogged down with theology, politics, heck... ministry itself. Things that should be a reaction to the knowledge that Christ died for me, instead get in the way. It made me think, I need to rearrange things. So, once again, my children minister to me in ways they cannot even understand. Words cannot express how they bless me. Thank you God for these amazing kids!
As for Reuben, he recently said his first word, "Mama"! Yay! Point mommy :) I was pretty stoked since Saoirse's first word was "Dada". It felt good to win one.
He also pulled himself to a standing position for the first time and has been pulling himself up more and more ever since. He's going to be walking in no time. It's hard to believe that he's already 8 1/2 months old. Why do kids have to grow up so fast?
So that's our first week of school. Lots of developments for both kids, a huge spiritual challenge for mom, and another hard week at work for Daddy. Seriously, he works so hard... he's amazing. I'm so proud of the minister he has become. I can see God working in the lives of those he touches. God is doing great things though our Chaplain.
Here's some of the pictures from our week!
Reuben crawling in the background as S works one of her art projects.
Making circles!
We went around the house collecting things that are red!
We traced her hands and cut the yarn the length of her arm span and taped the hands to the yarn to mail to friends and family for Easter... a long distance hug!
Learning how to use tape was fun!
Painting on a vertical surface for the first time.
Yep, that's red paint in her hair. Oi...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)