Do you know the song "Count Your Blessings"? The refrain goes like this
"Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done"
The past 2 weeks have been such a blessing for us as a family and I want to take the time to name them one by one :)
Blessing #1: Aylin Jewel! She is loving her school activities and is doing well with them. We are still working with her anger and attitude at times, but she is definitely doing better with these. She had a GREAT week at Polishing the Pulpit in a huge class, and both she and her teachers told me that she was very good all week. If you did not know, Aylin is a pretty strong-willed kid and generally speaking is pretty good in small groups IF she is the leader, but can feel lost in a big crowd and revert back to just playing by herself or lash out towards someone who she feels is being mean to her. She did not do this last week; she stayed with her group and worked WELL within her group! In fact, in the past 2 weeks she has only had one outburst. Great job baby girl and thank you to her Bible class teachers at PTP, y'all were great!
Blessing #2: Hilton Isaiah! Little man had a rough week :( In the previous post I talked about his 12 month shots and the 2 mini seizures he had with them. Exactly one week from his immunizations he woke up struggling to breathe. He was making a grunting sound with every breath he took; we honestly thought he had another hole in his lung. We called the pediatrician and let them listen to his breathing over the phone and they instructed us to take him straight to Lebonheur Children's Hospital. (That place is great, but I am absolutely tired of going there and them taking our money) His chest X-rays showed some white masses in the bottom of his right lung and diagnosed him with bronchiolitis, a cold in his lung. He received 2 breathing treatments at the hospital and was sent home with an inhaler that we had to use for the next few days, and have to use with him for the next year if he starts the grunting again. Dr said he might end up with childhood asthma, but would grow out of it by 5 or 6. That is like a magic number or something because he is suppose to grow out of the febrile seizures by "5 or 6" too. Speaking of seizures, he had another big one that night on the way home from the hospital. This one was exactly 5 mins and his lips turned blue this time :( I will never get use to seeing him do that, and this time Aylin saw it too. It scared her, but she stayed calm. He ran a fever on and off from Thursday night to Sunday morning and then on Monday broke out with a rash on his belly and back. By this time we were out of town, but we have good nursing friends and a doctor who checks up on Hilton :) This rash was a reaction to the MMR shot he had received 1 week and 4 days prior! Another one of those "common, uncommon things that happen to children." Hilton seems to be getting all of those! The pneumoid thorax(hole in his lung) at birth, the febrile seizures, and now the negative reactions to immunizations.
At this point you might be asking, "I don't see the blessing in all this?" The blessing is that he is still here, he is a trooper and fights his way out of these problems, and he is still his smiley, happy self! He was GREAT during PTP! He let me listen to the lessons with minimal interruptions, he took great naps, and slept great at night too! He is also doing great with his physical therapy :)
Blessing #3: Aylin and Hilton both LOVE to play outside :)
Blessing #4: Creativity. Aylin has a very good imagination :) She made this "cast" out of old sticker pages - lol
Blessing #5: We were still able to make the trip we had been planning on making. Despite all that happened, Hilton was well enough to travel and did great! We made the drive to McMinnville, TN a day later than we expected, but made great time and got there without a hitch. This is our second year to stay the weekend here before traveling on to Sevierville, TN for PTP the following week. I love getting to spend time with the Perrys and this is really the only time of the year we get to do so. We also LOVE going back to the Smyrna congregation for worship on Sunday morning. Smyrna was Bobby's first preaching work and our first real "church family." We worked with them for 5 years before moving to our current work and they will always hold a special place in our hearts :)
Blessing #6: GOOD SLEEPING CHILDREN! :)
Blessing #7: Preacher friends and families :) When we go to McMinnville, we always stay with Chris and Danyelle Perry and my "other" niece and nephews. If you are relatively new to our lives then let me explain. Bobby and Chris met at the Memphis School of Preaching and became great friends, they, along with Stephanie Ammons played match maker for us. Then they Bobby and Chris both took preaching jobs in the same area, literally the church buildings were 5 mins away from each other :) After Danyelle had Jordan, I got to be his babysitter! Jordan (the oldest in the pic above) did everything with us, and we instantly fell in love with him. In fact, a lot of people thought he was our baby and we didn't always correct them - lol! We became Aunt Blair and Uncle Bobby when we moved away. I can't believe how big Jordan is; he is in the 2nd grade! His sister, Cydney Jane, is in Kindergarten (a year older than Aylin) and baby brother, Bennett, is about 1/2 year older than Hilton. I hope our families can continue to stay close over the years to come. While there, another preacher's family came (the Collets) in and stayed the night, too. They have 5 girls and let me just say that Aylin loved having her big sleepover with everyone and now wants to have a sleepover birthday party! We plan on seeing them again while in Chicago.
Cute sleepers: Bennet and Hilton
Soccer stud, Jordan, and his cheering section.
I spent my birthday watching Jordan and CJ play soccer, napping with Hilton, and then got a yummy chocolate cake made by AJ :)
(Top left corner) The Smyrna church of Christ has air vents in the floor and when you walk over them your dress gets blown up by all the cold air...Aylin LOVED making this happen-lol
Blessing #8: The Southaven church of Christ. We have been working here almost 6 years now and it is because of them that our PTP trip gets to happen along with many other things. We even came home from our trip to a very nice and unexpected surprise. We are beyond thankful for our church family.
Blessing #9: Polishing the Pulpit. This is a week long lectureship, but it is sooo much more. There are classes for 2 yr olds-12th graders, preachers, elders, women, and general topics. Over 3,000 Christians are in this one place learning and fellowshipping and I really just have no words to describe it. Bobby has gone to PTP for a long time, but this is the 2nd year that our family has gone together and it is truly a wonderful experience. Besides all the wonderful lessons, we get to spend time with other Christians we don't get to see a lot, make new friends and catch up with old ones :) Bobby and I both come away with a renewed zeal for the Lord.
This is our second year to go to the aquarium; the kids love it! (We go one afternoon during the free time) Hilton especially loved the Penguin tubes; we had a hard time getting him to leave them :)
Blessing #10: The hubby. I love my husband :) We are not perfect but he does his very best to provide for us in so many ways. He strives to be a good Christian father and leader, and I know sometimes the stress and discouragement gets him down, but he still tries to be there for us.
He and I are making plans to attend the marriage retreat in Gatlinburg in February and I am really looking forward to that time alone for us to focus on God and our relationship.
