Webkinz size

 

This is a picture of our dear friend Wendy holding Lucy and a Webkinz stuffed animal (the black and white doggie). Lucy is Webkinz size:)

 

Another one of Grace's sleeping positions:)

We human beings tend to like the warm fuzzy stories don't we? And when we here the reality stories that talk about true suffering we can try to say the person is being too negative. The reality is that true suffering can be that painful, that difficult, that hard to endure. The cool thing is that when God takes us through a deep adversity and we come out on the other end, it is in the "reality" sharing where we can provide hope for the next person who gets thrust into a situation where they feel they can not make it through. Letting someone know that there is someone who truly understands how it feels to be in that place where you feel completely broken and abandoned maybe even by God...yea, that is a real place. If you have not felt that, that you probably have not been there, but someone has!

Made it past Christmas...

Winter...blah....I used to love the snow. I have such great memories of sledding, bonfires, frozen toes, and hot chocolate with those huge marshmallows. I have spoken before of the neat little village that I grew up in and the fun things we did there. Winter meant grabbing your sled and heading up to the park to meet with your friends and sled ride until your toes were frozen. The guys in the town would go up hours before us girls and pour water down the big park hill to ice it down. They would also set up the fire pit. Huge truck inner tubes were also a part of our sledding fun. We did not have those nice,specialized ski clothes to keep us warm. We had the full-body sears snowsuits that you wore until you absolutely could not squeeze into them any more and we would put plastic bags over our toes to try to keep them dry(it did not work because of course the plastic made your feet sweat...dah!). We would then gather at my house after sledding and my mom would make hot chocolate for everyone. We would then start the slow, painful process of unthawing. Such great memories....now winter in Ohio means to me being home bound, temperature and weather fluctuations that cause my son ALex's body to do the craziest things, and having to worry more about the germs that are going around. ALex stayed healthy enough to make it through Christmas but within the first week of the new year...yep...we had to make a helicopter ride to Cleveland. Some how he had caught some serious bug and, despite the equipment and emergency medicine that I have here at the house, I knew he was getting too bad to stay at home. As I went to tell him that we had to go, ALex started to do what he did when he got sick in August, go unresponsive. Yep, he started to stare at me, then roll his eyes back, did not know who we were or where he was at. Oh boy, at least I had seen it before and knew we needed to quickly go. WE left the others at home(including the new puppy Lucy) and off to Cleveland by helicopter we went. ALex and I have flown 4 times together now. The pilot on our flight was the same one for three of the four and one of the nurses has flown with us before....interesting things to be familiar with huh. It is funny, I was relating something that I did to ALex on the flight at 3000 feet( I suctioned him with means I used a machine to clean the junk out of his lungs)to someone and they started going, "WOW", and I just simply stated talking about how this is now the norm for ALex and I. Whether we suction at home, in the back of the van, or at 3000 feet, it is pretty much the same for us. I started to talk about some of the people that we have met and some of the things they deal with....way off the norm of most of what society deals with. We got to the hospital and ALex got to see a beautiful sunset from the top of the 12-story hospital building. AS it can be with Alex, he was stable when we arrived so they just needed to figure out what medicine to give him and we got to go home the next day. It seems like a new norm for ALex's now teenager body, is that when he gets sick, the stress hormones seem to want to go into overdrive which can make him go unresponsive. This overdrive response is something that people with high-level spinal cord injuries have to deal with. It can occur from something as simple a pain from a hangnail. The body perceives the pain, but because of the mixed up signals to the brain, the body over responds...it can be a life-threatening situation! It is called autonomic dysreflexia and is not something to mess with and needs to be addressed immediately. SO ALex and I took a helicopter ride again, said hi to the PICU friends(they take care of both of us up there)and then had an enjoyable ambulance ride home. Yes, we really did need to go. ALex's body is fragile and when he starts to crash, there is not time to waste or think, you have to just go! Yea, you go to the mall and shop, some do brain surgery as part of their day, some wake up and work out to an extreme to do be able to do their professional sport....we all have things to do each day and even though you can get thrust into things that can seem so impossible to handle....remember that God does not call the equipped but instead equips the called....you can't but He certainly can.....blessings....

Back to the Bible

I read a great devotional every day called "Streams in the Desert". It was sent to me by a dear lady who has walked (and is walking) a stoney path.....if you have anyone you know that is enduring great sorrow(I mean great) or maybe you yourself are, today's devotional about sorrow may give you the nugget to continue on....blessings..Beth





Back to the Bible

Alex and Lucy

 

Alex and Lucy watching a bowl came together:)

ALex and Miss Connie

 

One of are dear friends, Connie, and ALex. Don't they look great:)

Rudolph and Green Bunny

 

So...Green Bunny met Rudolph a few years back. ALex has had Green Bunny since he was two days old. I found Rudolph the year ALex was in the car accident which was 2004. Rudolph's nose used to light up and talk. When Alex was in his coma, I would turn Rudolph on in front of Alex's face and see if her would track the light. It never worked but Rudolph has remained to remind of us of how far ALex has come....plus we just happen to LOVE Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer:)

ALex and Lucy

 

Lucy

 

More of Lucy...check out her little tongue. She has it sticking out a lot!