Our Pumpkins

Fall is my favorite time of year.  I love all the things that go along with it...cooler temps, football, the beautiful colors of the leaves changing against a vibrant blue sky, cute pumpkin shirts and apple cider.  

My little pumpkin in the aforementioned cute pumpkin shirt...

Our small group got together for some pumpkin painting...

 

 

This is what Sophie Kate was doing while the boys were painting their pumpkins.

Sister's not much for napping during the day, but on the rare occasion she gets worn out, she's an equal opportunity napper.  When she woke up, all was right with her world again and she was ready to paint her pumpkin.

Still waking up...

 

 

Awww...it's perfect SK, so cute.

Oh and I almost forgot, then this happened...

Due to an unfortunate trampoline accident, Cooper ended up with a trip to the ER and 12 stitches in his right hand.  As one of our friends said, "It's not a party until there's a little blood," to which I added, "And leave it to the McManic's to supply the blood."  Seriously, there's never a dull moment around here.

We're looking forward to trick or treating with our cousins and celebrating Sophie Kate's 3rd birthday this weekend.

Thanks for checking in on us.

Big Girl Bed

Evidently the whole world opens up to you when you turn 3 years old...you get to go to preschool, you get to apply for your Make-A-Wish trip and you get a big girl bed.  There are so many changes being thrown at us all at once, I don't even have time to think about how I feel about it all.  All of them are positive changes just reiterating to us over and over that we don't have a baby on our hands anymore...we have a little girl.  

Little girls don't sleep in cribs, they get big girl beds...

It's the same day bed that I had growing up.  Now, that bumper pad that you see running along the back is from her crib bedding, it doesn't go with her new bedding but we felt a lot better having that along the sides and back.  So I need to find just a solid pink bumper pad to actually complete the look, but I do love it.

And so does SK...

 

She looks so tiny in that big bed.

 

My parents bought SK's bedding for her birthday, which we will be celebrating in Minnie Mouse fashion this weekend.  SK is going to be Minnie Mouse this year for Halloween so we are having a Halloween birthday party like we did last year...it's so much fun.

Big girl bed and preschool...slow down sister your still my baby girl.

Thanks for checking in on us, have a great week.

Our Fall Break

I know these are about two weeks late, but I couldn't let our Fall Break go without a "shout out."  The days spent at my parent's house are packed full of fun and adventure.  They have wide open spaces around their house and very few rules.

Maybe these pictures will show you...

 

 

 My boys are totally obsessed with getting a dog, can you tell?

 

Catching grasshoppers...

 

Some of the faces of SK from our fall break...

This is where Sophie Kate preferred to have her breakfast, it was chilly though so she had to be bundled up, sister loves to be outside.

 

 These last two pictures are my favorite...her beauty takes my breath away.

Psalm 62:5-6 "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken."

Heartbroken

I had thought that this post would contain lots of details of our Fall Break at my parent's house, but my heart is heavy today with the news that one of Sophie Kate's friends has passed away.  I just can't bring myself to pretend I am feeling something other than heartbroken.

This sweet girl was just 3 years old, so close in age to our Sophie Kate.  I am heartbroken for her parents.  I have been connected to this internet group of parents since not long after SK was born.  I remember when this family joined the group because their little girl was so close in age to SK.  We have even exchanged facebook messages from time to time about our girls.

This is a group of people I have never met in person but we share such a bond with each other.  We share ideas, stories, victories, struggles and heartache.  We can relate to each other on such a deep level because we know...we just know.  

Today however, I do not know.  I do not know how these parents feel, I do not know why these babies have to suffer so, I don't know "why."  From everything I have seen though, I know this family knows God because they are praising Him even through their unimaginable difficulty.  They know that their baby girl is in the arms of Jesus at this very minute. 

 This cuts to the core though, I would be lying if I said that this did not scare me.  This was a shock to me and my tears have fallen hard and heavy as my heart has been torn in two for this family.  God, may her sweet life continue to be an influence for your kingdom and may her family be engulfed in your comfort and love in the coming days and weeks.

Road Trip

We have known for almost 3 years now that God's plan for our family's future was going to be different than the nice neat plan that Chad and I had worked out in our own minds.  There were also some hints along the way before Sophie Kate was born that ours was not going to be a typical family.  Take for example our accident prone middle son who about 4 days before a Disney trip (circa 2005) fell with a hot wheels car in his mouth subsequently fracturing one of his sinuses.  It's little tidbits like this and believe me I have plenty more that I could share that should have alerted Chad and I to the fact that things were going to be a little bit different for our family.  Anytime we set out on an adventure you can rest assured that things will NOT go as planned, which brings me to our latest outing.  

Fall break...seasons changing, school's out for a couple of days, sounds like a perfect time for a road trip, right?  Yeah, that's what I thought too, so off I went with all my children by myself to my parent's house.  

Y'all I really thought I could do this, SK has been traveling so well lately I really never dreamed it would take us almost 6 hours to make what is usually a 4 hour trip.  Believe me I've learned my lesson but good this time.

It all started off so well, there were no warning signs of what was to come, but when we were about 20 miles from the Mississippi state line SK started having seizures.  We pulled off the interstate at the Mississippi welcome center, I gave Sophie Kate her meds and got her calmed down.  Once we were back on the interstate the seizures started again and I ended up pulling off two more times.  

I have to say that common decency and courtesy is not dead folks, 3 non-scary men stopped to check on me and my kids when they saw us on the side of the road.  The thing is that one of the men ended up half way freaking out when he saw my little girl and the seizures that were taking hold of her body and against my wishes called the paramedics. 

Oh yes he did, I had already been asked if I wanted them to call 911 and I told them no and tried my best to explain the situation to them.  You see we deal with this stuff on a fairly regular basis and I just needed to get her out of her car seat for a little bit and hold her.  She has CP and well, I thought I could make this trip on my own but obviously I can't and I know I am crying and all but really we're ok, we don't need the paramedics.

No she's not going to stop breathing, yes I do have a husband, he's at work earning a living for our family so that I can do crazy things like this and I just wanted my boys to have fun fall break.  Then I heard the sirens and I knew that I had not convinced this gentleman that we did not need the paramedics. 

I was determined to stand my ground we were not going to a Tueplo, MS hospital (not that there's anything wrong with that) on our Fall break.  They weren't going to do anything for her anyway, believe me I know.  I've been there too many times before, doctors that don't know her don't want to treat her.  The paramedics themselves even told me that they would not have given her anything.  They were very nice, I apologized and told them I had asked him not to call. 

At this point all I wanted to do was to turn around and head home, but how could I?  Someone please tell me how I could have done that.  Yes I'm the mama and what I say goes and I could have just told them we were going back home and that was the end of it.  With every mile I continued to drive I knew that I was getting further and further away from home and that each mile I drove was another mile that I would have to drive back with them by myself...but if we would have turned around, we would have been driving back b/c of Sophie Kate. 

In their eyes we would have been driving back b/c SK was having seizures.  They would not be getting to see their PawPaw and Mimi b/c of their sister.  They would not be getting to play with their cousins b/c of their sister.  I can take their blame but this time, in their eyes the blame wouldn't be placed on me, it would be squarely placed on the shoulders of their baby sister and I just couldn't allow that...so we journeyed on.  We even ended up stopping again and meeting up with my sister so that she could take the boys with her and they could be spared from watching their little sister's body seizing. 

Words cannot describe how excruciating and conflicted that trip was for me.  I can honestly say that SK has never done anything like that on any road trip that we have ever taken.  I have never seen anything like it, b/c believe me I would have never attempted such a thing if this were a common occurrence for us.  This has never happened before.

In contrast, here's what I observed over the course of our journey...I heard Grey singing "This Little Light of Mine, " I heard Jacob singing "Your the God of this City" and towards the end of our trip, when there was a small break in SK's seizures, Cooper told me that he had typed out a prayer to God on his ipod touch...pretty cool, huh?

I asked him if I could read it and he allowed me to...in it he asked God to take the seizures away from his little sister.  He also typed a note to Sophie Kate as well where he told her he had prayed for her and added at the end "P.S. I love you."

On this trip, brothers were asked to "man up" if you will and to step outside of themselves for a moment, to step outside of a world that they think revolves around them 24/7, to take on the burden of one in need and to take that need to God.  God did not take away Sophie Kate's seizures on our trip, but He's still God and those boys know that.  I'm not the one that got us to PawPaw and Mimi's house that day, b/c mama was a bit hysterical herself from time to time, but they know who did. 

He's changing us all through this little girl and it has never been so real and tangible to me than it was on Friday.  It's not fun, it's not easy and it's real world grown up kind of stuff that I hate that they have to go through, but He works it out and He works it out for good...always for good.

Romans 3:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Homecoming

Our school's homecoming was this past Friday night so our town was a buzz with Homecoming activities during the week.

 

One of the highlights for my kids is the homecoming parade mostly b/c they throw out candy...well not mostly...only b/c they throw out candy.

Luckily I have one on my side that doesn't mind getting into the spirit and dressing for the occasion. 



Our little cheerleader...

I know it's hard to tell from this picture, but she really did have a good time at the parade. 

Thanks for checking in on us.

Thankful

Feeling thankful for so many things this week...

Sophie Kate is eating baby food 2-3 times a day.  It isn't enough for nutritional value yet (only about 6-8 bites at each feeding) but she has come such a long way from not eating anything at all.  My goal is to have her at the Thanksgiving table this year actually eating bites of food with us...so thankful.

Sophie Kate will be attending preschool when she turns 3 and we are currently in the process of going through evaluations and meetings concerning all the services she will receive through school.  They have actually purchased things especially for SK.  This community has been amazing in their support for our girl and I have no doubt that our school experience will be anything other than fabulous.  So thankful for people in our school that already care so much about SK.

Being able to spend my days with these guys...

 

Yes that's Grey playing an ipod touch, we've created a monster.  He is so hilarious and brings so much laughter to my day.  So thankful for his spirit...you can't be in a bad mood around Grey, he can always make you smile.

Thanking God for his grace, for not giving me what I deserve, but instead allowing me to see and experience the blessings in my life.


"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else" C.S. Lewis

On the Horizon

I don't have the opportunity very often to see Sophie Kate interacting with other people.  For so long it has been just her and I...yes I see her with therapists but I am talking about just the people she meets...not for therapy, not for appointments just for fun.  Our church's special needs program has opened up a whole new world of friends to SK, both her age and not, but the thing is they are there for pure fun and SK knows it.


It's amazing to me the connection she can make with people with no words spoken at all.  Who would've ever thought that she could be left with a sitter?  Not me, but through her I am able to see the beauty of a relationship formed.  She freely gives her trust and her smiles when she feels loved and cared for, I've seen it in her eyes. I've seen it in the way she looks at her new friends.


Lots of new experiences are on the horizon for SK, she will be starting preschool in a month.  I've known about this since the beginning of the year and I have thought to myself that once school started back this fall time would just fly by and it has.  When you turn 3 (which will be on Nov. 3rd for our girl) evidently the whole world opens up for you.  We have a regularly scheduled and fabulous nurse coming 2 days a week, you get to apply for your Make A Wish trip and you get to start preschool.


Oh, there's one other thing too...SK is getting a big girl bed!  I am slowly working my way towards that one, it's tough moving my last baby out of that crib, it's tugging hard on this mama's heart.  Maybe we are taking on too much for the month of October.  If am going to let anything go I guess it will have to be the big girl bed.   She can stay scrunched up in that crib a little longer, can't she? Ha Ha.  I can't think of a better time of year than her birthday to make sweet new memories and take on fun new adventures. 


There will be more to come on all these new endeavors in the coming weeks, thanks for checking in on us.