Saturday, November 10, 2007

Wow! It’s been a very busy month for us! Sorry I’ve been slow in writing. We have had so many things going on in our family and I’ve had so little time to sit down at the computer and write. Hope this finds all of you enjoying this beautiful fall. I love the changing of the seasons. There is not a season that I do not love. I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving, mostly because we get a week off of school! It will be just as busy of a week as any other, but we won’t have the added busyness of school to deal with. I’m so ready for some time off! So I am looking forward to the holidays. Well, let me see if I can back up and share with you what has been going on in our lives.
Way back in October, on Sunday evening the 14th, Jonathan’s choir sang in the service for the first time this year. He had a little bit of a spill when he was going up the steps to the top of the platform to get in his place to sing during practice. He didn’t lift his foot up high enough and therefore tripped and fell forward hitting his chest on the corner of the arm of a chair. Although I was not there, it must have been a pretty bad fall because he scared everyone to death. He was definitely upset by it and cried a good deal. But after he finally got calmed down and regained his composure, he was fine. He was able to sing in the service and he did beautifully. I hate for those things to happen to him, but at the same time, it’s good that they do because it helps him learn to deal with the spills that come with everyday life. On the following Tuesday, Jonathan had his Endocrine appointment in the morning. We saw a nurse practitioner this time instead of our regular doctor. From his appointment in July until October, he grew ½ inch (55 – 55 ½), he lost ¾ of a pound (118 ¾ - 118), and his A1C went from 8.3 to 7.5. All these things are very good news for Jonathan. We did discuss the issue with the classes we have taken and they seemed to have gotten the same input from a number of other parents. As far as the pump goes, there is a class that he needs to take in order to get the process rolling. I plan on talking with them and trying to get that going by the end of the year. They did mention that because we were charged for a couple of classes that did not benefit us in any way, they might be able to apply the charge of those classes to the pump class. So I am going to see what we can work out with them and hopefully get this thing going. I have had several people share their information with me regarding their kids and their pump experiences, and I appreciate it very much. It just gives me more to think about and check into. So I am very grateful to all of you who have taken the time to share with me. Before we left, we had the chance to talk to one of the doctors that we saw every day while Jonathan was in the hospital. Dr. Adakari is now a doctor on staff at Children’s in the Endocrine Dept. It was the first time we have seen him since Welcome Home Jonathan Day at church after he got out of the hospital. It’s always great for us to have the chance to see people who cared for Jonathan when he was so sick and when the diagnosis was so grim. It gives us one more opportunity to testify of the power of the God we serve. It was a treat for us to see him and talk to him. After we went to the doctor that morning, we spent the rest of the day at the State Fair of Texas. This is one of the special highlights of the year for our family. We had a great time together at the fair, as we always do. Later in the week, we got to spend the day celebrating Uncle Timmy’s birthday. Jonathan is really loving having Uncle Timmy as his drum teacher. He is doing so well and he sounds really good. It was great fun getting to spend the day celebrating his birthday with him. The next big thing we did was Halloween. Since it got dark later in the evening this year, we went to the Fall Fest at Lakeland and got to see and visit with so many friends. We had only planned on staying about 30 minutes, but ended up staying 2 hours! It was great to see so many friends! After that, we went and did a little Trick or Treating before we went to celebrate Uncle Chris’s birthday. That was an extremely busy day for us, but one that was lots of fun. At the end of that week, we celebrated my 40th birthday and our 18th anniversary, so we basically spent the weekend partying! I don’t remember that happening since the weekend we were married! My family threw me a surprise 40th birthday party and Lamar and I got to spend an evening together for our anniversary, thanks again to our wonderful Aunt Keby. She came to stay with the kids and her and my wonderful children put the entire surprise party together for me. It was the most fun birthday/anniversary weekend I have had in a long time. I felt so special and so loved by so many people. It was an awesome blessing for this Mom. On Sunday, we finished a great weekend at church by our Sanctuary Choir giving a concert in the evening service. The Lord has greatly blessed our family by bringing us back home to this church. And for me personally, I am blessed to be back in this incredible choir. It was such a wonderful, worshipful experience for me and one that I was thrilled to be part of. God is so very good! Well, needless to say, I was hoping that this week would be a little less busy and a little calmer for our family. I’m not sure it is every “not busy”, but “less busy” works for me. Jonathan had evaluations for this year’s Upward Basketball season. He got to see his wonderful Coach Ben while we were there, which just increases the excitement of the upcoming season. This will be a bitter/sweet season for us as it will be Jonathan’s last year to be able to play in Upward Basketball. So this was the last time we will ever go to evaluations. It’s kind of a sad thought. But we are looking forward to a great season and watching Jonathan play. He will begin practicing in December and his first game will be in January.
Well, last but not least, we are excited to share that Jonathan has been asked to ride for SpiritHorse Therapy in a ride-a-thon in December. A church in Argyle is sponsoring this ride-a-thon and all of the money raised will go to SpiritHorse. There will be about 10 kids who take lessons that will be riding to represent SpiritHorse. Jonathan has a fundraising page with a picture of him Lollipop, whom he will be riding, and a small bio about him. Anyone who wants to can go to his page and donate a one-time gift or a dollar amount per mile to sponsor him in this ride-a-thon. God has used SpiritHorse for such great good in our lives; we are pleased to be able to represent this wonderful charity in hopes that God will use for good in other family’s lives. Jonathan is very excited to get to participate in this and he is really looking forward to it. We have posted the information at the top of the screen if you are interested in learning more about it or sponsoring Jonathan in this event.
Well, God has been so very good to our family. We have been physically well, everyone is doing well in school, and we are blessed to be living life to the fullest as a family. Thank you for waiting on me again to update. It means so much to us that you continue to check on Jonathan and that you care about him and what God is doing in his life. We are so blessed to have so many precious friends. Please continue to pray for Jonathan as we finish out this year. He is still holding steady with his weight loss and exercising. Pray that we will stay faithful and disciplined with this through the holidays and that God would reward his diligence by allowing him to lose a little more weight before the end of the year. Also, continue to pray for his blood sugar levels. We had to go back up a couple of points on his lantus as his numbers began to creep back up over the last month. Pray that God will help his body to process his insulin appropriately and that we will be able to go back down on his insulin. Ultimately, we are still praying for God’s complete healing of his diabetes. I have been reading through the Psalms each morning. There are so many Psalms that speak the prayers of my heart or the praise of my soul and there is not one that does not speak to me in some way each day. It’s hard, sometimes, to find exactly what I want to say at the end of my posts. God’s Word is incredible. I’m so thankful for it. So I will end this post with words of praise to our God for the blessing of life and for the incredibly precious family He has blessed us with. You are part of our blessings and we praise God for all of you. May God bless each of you in an incredible way this week.

Psalm 92:1-4 - It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And Your faithfulness by night, With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, With resounding music upon the lyre. For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.