Yearly Specialist Appointments

Tomorrow is our big day of medical appointments for Nesiah. She has numerous diagnoses due to her brain injury.She has an extensive team of specialist that follow her case. She currently is doing well and on maintenance with the majority of the Dr's.

She has a local GI and Neurologist that she sees every 6 months. GI is in charge of her Gtube and her weight.Her appointments are very routine, we go in we see the Dr. He askes if I have any concerns, I say no. He does a physical exam and we leave!

 Neurology is in charge of her seizure meds and seizure activity. In the past 2 years there has been less and less seizure activity showing her EEG. Her Neurologist is very detailed. I love him. He has helped me get various medical referrals that she needs. He is very much on top of things.


However, we have an hour's drive to see Nesiah's Orthopedic Dr and her Ophthalmologist. We only see them once a year and we try to do both on one day. It is generally a very long day. Ophthmalogy does this testing that requires her to have painful eye drops then wait 45 minutes before doing the eye exam. She has cortical vision impairment so generally there is not much involved in this appointment. It is one of those appointments you keep just to make sure that nothing new is happening.


The big deal appointment this year is the Orthopedist. I love this team and their efficiency. We generally go in, do an xray then go over the results with the Dr. (love him), get his recommendation then leave.

 Because Nesiah does not walk, her hips and the surrounding muscles do not work the way God designed them to work. For the past 2 years her hip has slowly been pulled out of it's socket. She will need a major and very painful surgery to correct this. I pray hard every year that we could go one more year without surgery. I can not imagine dealing with a 60 lb non mobile, non verbal child in a body cast for 6 weeks.
So far she has not shown any indication of pain in her hip. We would not know about the hip dislocation if we did not do the xrays. I keep in communication with the school nurse and therapists who don't believe she is in pain. So I am hoping that means we can wait another year for surgery!

We actually enjoy going to this children's hospital. In the past I have taken all the kids along, no one complained. The staff referred to them as Nesiah's entourage!

God's Provision Part 2

I love George Mueller.  My dear friend suggested approximately 7 years ago, that I learn as much as possible about George Mueller. She shared some of his life story. It was so inspiring and totally changed my life.

You will need to read part 1 of God's provision to understand this God Story.

                                      

So my explorer was totaled. Gone. I needed a new vehicle. Something that could fit all of us and was pretty easy on my gas budget!

The very same day that I prayed for a buyer for my explorer I also asked God what He had for me as far as a new vehicle.

Now the kids and I had prayed and decided that we would like a Honda Odysses with leather seats and a dvd player. A blue one.

But God gently guided us in another direction. That morning as I prayed I felt that God was leading us to a Dodge Caravan with a tan cloth interior. No frills. No extras. But exactly what we need.

So after the explorer deal and finding out that insurance was being used by God as the tool to bless us, I balanced out my vehicle savings. (thank you Dave Ramsey!) I figured out how much we could afford to put into a new vehicle. I set a number in my mind...

I felt stressed and anxious about car shopping. Seriously how do you do that with 6 kids?!

A friend suggested the website, Cargurus.com. I kept checking that website plus autotrader.com. I called about several vans, but there was nothing in red with cloth seats, low mileage in my price range. This did not surprise me. I searched for 6 months before God provided my 15 passenger van. I expected to keep searching. But it was all weighing very heavily on my mind.

Then one day I did my usual search with a prayer and up popped an '09 Dodge Grand Caravan. Low miles, red, cloth seats, almost the right price. (the online price had dropped that day)

I send the link off to my Ohio mechanic friend for approval. He approved. I prayed and waited.

Meanwhile in less then 2 days my insurance check arrived...

I had to run to the children's hospital with Nesiah for some medical appointments. We drove right past the car lot. (which was 35 mins from my house) IT was rainy and icey. I was running late. I had spend 5 hours in Dr's offices. So I just stopped and took a quick look at the van. I liked what I saw.

I had an insane week. Adoption trainings, medical appointments, taxes, babysitting, bible study and just regular life with my crew.

But Wed morning I asked a friend to babysit so David and I could go car shopping. My plan was to go look at it, test drive it and put  a down payment on it, until I could work out the details on bring it back home.

I had exactly 2 hours before I had to be back to do kindergarten pick up for my babysitting kiddoe.

We arrived at the car lot at 9 am. The guy was really nice. We drove the van. We checked it out. I kept praying. I felt like things were moving a little fast, but I had peace.

We sat down to negotiate. I was running out of time. I knew I wanted the van. I had made financial arrangements. But this salesman kept doing all this long spiel about their business and I really just wanted to get down to business!

we negotiated until I got the price I wanted, which was significantly less then the price post on the van. It was my exact number. I was at peace.

They offered to bring the van to my house. Yes, they offered free delivery!! I was so happy. I ended up purchasing the van and they brought it out to my house 3 hours later. Free delivery and I was atleast a 35 minute drive for them!

                                    

I love how God answers. He knew what he had for me. He knew what He wanted to give me. I knew that being in His will and following the desires He places in my heart would bring perfect peace to my life.


We love our new van. It is so roomy compared to the explorer!!  I am still in shock over how God provided all of this for us! Jehovah Jireh God is my Provider!

God's Provision

This is going to be part 1 of a several part story of God's provision. I am going to be writing as it happens but waiting to publish until things are revealed a little more..

I own 2 vehicles, one is a handicapped accessible vehicle that holds all of us including Nesiah's wheelchair. The second vehicle, is one that I purchased pre kids. It held all of us but not the wheelchair.

We are planning a vacation in several weeks, so I called the garage to have them do a full service and check the tires and brakes before we travel. Now you must know, I am doing all this prep weeks and weeks ahead of time for a reason.

I had the garage come to pick up the explorer. They did a pre roadtrip check and called me.. unfortunately it needed almost $2000 in repairs. I was so upset.

I called my mechanic friend. I called my prayer warriors.. what to do?!

I decided to get the mechanic to fix the basics, then I would  sell it.

The problem was.. we are going on vacation in a couple weeks. I really wanted to take the explorer/smaller vehicle, instead of the van.

So I prayed and prayed, asking God to send the perfect buyer, making this as painless as possible.

The next day I got a call from the mechanic. This is one the few trustworthy mechanics in lancaster county. He was so upset, so apologetic...

His employee/son had been testing the explorer after changing the brakes and rotors. He lost control and crashed my explorer. Apparently he rolled it THREE times.
He was not hurt. He had a couple scrapes and bruises. However, my explorer was totaled. Completely totaled.

In 38 years this has never happened to my mechanic, in all his years my insurance agent has never heard of a garage wrecking a client's vehicle. I just quietly shake my head and say.. you never know how God will answer my prayers. I also breath a prayer for the young man who was driving my explorer. This has been quite traumatic for him.

Random Life Moments..

Life has finally slowed down.. I am trying to catch up on regular life. Finding a new normal with so much less stress... 

I am a big fan of Thieves Oil. It has helped us stay healthy for over 6 weeks! It is however, extremely expensive. So I endeavored to make my own.  I was quite happy with the final product! It has a bit more of a lemony smell to it. I use thieves to clean, on the bottom of kiddoes feet, diffusing in the air and in bath water. 

Fayth and I had the pleasure of taking a friend to pick up her newborn foster baby.. Fayth liked the carseat video they made us watch! 

Our latest favorite food is cornbread waffles.. 

We usually eat chili with these waffles. The kids LOVE love that. But this egg, ham and cheese waffle was our favorite! 

Lots of fun things happening.. We turned the guest bedroom into a Thomas bedroom, much to the delight of a certain someone. Curtains off a facebook  yardsale and border from Amazon. We can't paint due to allergies so this was the perfect compromise, bonus it was very easy!
Can you believe that when we moved here 4 years ago we had no idea we would someday need a bedroom that does not have carpeting?! God knew! 

Sometimes obedience makes us look completely insane. In the past 2 years I have walked in faith quite frequently... We have pressed in with prayer for some hard things. We prayed for a long time. 20 months to be exact. Almost every evening we breathed the same prayer. Sometimes wearily, some times rejoicing, always praying..

God has answered. finally. his timing was right. In so many ways. We forget that so often it is about the journey not the end result. This journey has brought healing to my kids. We have had some really deep discussions, some huge healing moments. Adoption is celebrated in our home.

I  made the choice to walk away from our church. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But it was time without a doubt.

 Romans 12:1-2  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.


This song is so true. So very true. God has been so good to us. The blessing that comes from obedience is enough to knock your socks off. We don't understand why God called us to walk this part of our journey, but we see His goodness in our obedience.

We are now in a time of healing and recovering. A time of discerning where God is leading. We live in a time when  standing/speaking up for what one believes is not popular.


God has brought some amazing people into my life during this journey. Friends that are like rocks in a stormy sea.




We also saw an answer to an unbloggable, criminal case. It is just simply mind boggling, we can not wait to see what God does in this situation. The reality of our connections to mental illness, murders, drug addicts and homelessness is sobering. The never ending question of what do you do with this?

I have done more hard things and seen more answers to some mighty big prayers in this past month then in the last several years combined. I am weary, but rejoicing. amaze and shocked at how much God has given us. I look at my little family and I am in awe..

Family Christmas....

Christmas part 2

My favorite part of Christmas is giving the kids their gifts.. 

This year we had done a name exchange and I helped each kiddoe buy their sibling a gift. The anticipation was almost unbearable for them. The delight of receiving the perfect gift AND the fun of giving gift doubled the fun for all of us. 

Lego horses (Ebay) and ripsticks (amazon deal) were fun gifts that both boys received. 

Fayth was very happy with Polly Pockets. I found several ziploc bags full of Polly Pockets for $40 on ebay!! 

This was 2 of the smaller bags full, this is maybe 1/4 of what was in her box. This was my favorite deal of all!! 

Lee was very happy with his Lego knight. 

Ripstick and Phillies Sweatshirt... 

She had one thing she wanted, Lego Friends Advent..  I searched and searched for a good deal. 

I could not find it on sale ANYWHERE! 

So finally I bought it at full price... it was worth it. 

Miss Nesiah.. she loved all her new clothes and her mani-pedi kit!

We had so much fun with doing the name exchange, I hope to do the same thing next year. The kids all really enjoyed giving as much as receiving.

We spend some of Christmas day with the in laws.. hanging out with out of town cousins etc...