one

Isaac turned one yesterday! It has gone by so quickly. Here is a year in retrospect in pictures. Later today, or maybe tomorrow, I have pictures from his actual birthday! Today we will be doing a smash cake, so I'll have more pictures ina few more days too! Prepare for Isaac overload!

This is Celeste. She is spunky, brilliant, and creative. She gave a speech about how she was all three of those things and how those attributes would help her become a great poet.

Did I mention that she loves me? On the day of her speech, she insisted on wearing something I made for her. Because she loves me. She told me so. I have a picture somewhere, but these showed her true personality. The kind and gentle Christian spirit she exudes on a daily basis is exhibted in the first photograph. The second photograph shows the vibrant insanity she inherited from her mother. I do love her an awful lot!

Just in case you didn't know, I am sort of weird. I breastfeed my kids, some of them until they were big enough to ask in complete sentences, some not so long. I have had three children without any medications. I had one of my babies at home, on purpose, without drugs, with a midwife, on purpose. Some of my children are vaccinated, none of them all the way.

Why, you might ask, would I do these things. (I am fully aware that the previous sentence needed more punctuation than I gave it, but I am not up to quotation marks and question marks today.) I do these things because I believe they are what is best for MY children. A friend sent me to the link below today. I was quite, well, I was angry after I read it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071018/ap_on_re_us/vaccine_skeptics

I am NOT a vaccine skeptic, as the article implies. I am NOT using a religious waiver in some sort of underhanded way to get out of vaccinating my children. I see my pediatrician on a regular basis. It would be EASIER for me to vaccinate my children than to get a religious waiver for them, but I choose to do the hard thing!

My favorite statement was about the complete safety of vaccines and that studies conducted have shown NO LINK between vaccines and autism. Here come a conspiracy theory headline. Guess who performs the studies? Guess who funds the studies? Guess who APPROVES the vaccines for mass marketing? The companies who MANUFACTURE the vaccines also pay for the studies. I wonder what they will say! I think they will definitely say that their multibillion dollar products cause children to lose skills, to become withdrawn, to become unable to function in typical social situation, and that their vaccines should be pulled from the market immediately. Um, no? They didn't find that? I wonder what happened.

No I don't! Do I think vaccines cause autism? I think that in some cases vaccines can cause problems in certain children. Do I think that if I give MY children vaccines it will cause them to become autistic? Probably not.

However, do I think that injecting my TWO MONTH OLD with a variety of dead germs mixed with all kinds of chemicals to help combat 4-8 various diseases is a good idea, um NO!

Do I think that injecting my five year old with a vaccine that will MAYBE prevent him from getting one of the most innocuous childhood diseases in the world that will maybe last him 10 years, or maybe5 is a good idea? Nope! I say, let that kid get the chicken pox! Yes, there are children with compromised immune systems who NEED the chicken pox vaccine. The vaccine was developed for those children. However the company decided it could make WAY more money if ALL the kids in the US got shot so they didn't get chicken pox. I would much rather my five year old catch the chicken pox, take some oatmeal baths, watch some movies, then have life long immunity, thank you very much.

How about the new HPV vaccine that "prevents cancer." Um, the one that has been pushed so hard and now has almost 2000 reactions REPORTED in the few years it has been available. No thank you, I do not care for my child to be your guinea pig.

I know that God doesn't make mistakes. I know that my children are strong and healthy. I know that vaccines can do and have done good. I also know that I choose for MY children not to get them. Just because the church I attend doesn't have a banner stating that vaccines are evil, I am usurping the government by getting a religious waiver. Wow, personal freedom is shrinking each and every day.

Numb

This is Sandi's post from her blog yesterday. Jack is supposed to be being recasted today, but I don't know if it actually happened or not. I will update when I know more. Please pray for this family.

Numb

After rushing up to Chicago, we met the resident at the hospital in the cast room. He cut off Jack's cast after several terrifying (to Jack) attempts with the saw. He screamed for over a half hour between the cast removal and the x-rays they insisted on.

The measurements are terrible. The day he was casted, the worst he has been, was 64° (official measurement). Today, after more than 9 weeks in the cast, the curve is 70° - it has gotten worse, based on today's measurements, after all we've gone through - all the tears - all the frustration and risks and misery.

It's late and we have an early operating room time, so I need to get off the computer and get to bed in this hotel room, but tonight I don't know what the future holds at all.

Remember my friend Sandi and her little boy Jack? If not, click on the list of blogs and go to Sandi's blog. Jack went back to Children's Hospital Monday. They took his cast off Monday night. His curve has deteriorated inside the cast. That isn't good. He is due for a new casting today. Sandi doesn't know what will happen yet. PLEASE pray for her, for Jack, for the Doctors, for everyone. Thanks friends.

Did you know that Lydia was the middle child for 3 years. I think it stuck. These were taken Wednesday night before church. Can't you see the fire in her eyes?

I love Lydia for her fire, her passion, her intensity. She is determined to learn to read. She can already read, she just wants it to go FASTER! Life is not going to pass my elfin child by. Love you princess!

I love my family!

For some reason, Isaac decided 6:15 was a good time to get up today. So we loaded up for breakfast. Samuel peed in the potty. When we got home, he said he needed to poop, which often means he has pooped in his pants. But TODAY he got inside, to his bathroom, took of his pants, climbed up and pooped in the potty!

Nathan took Samuel and WIlliam to the "cool tractor stuff store." Celeste and Lydia decided to clean their room. They actually cleaned their room TOGETHER with no arguing. Isaac just went down for a nap.

Even though my husband has a weeks' worth of work to be done before Tuesday, he decided to go with me to the Alabama game today. Because he loves me.


Tell me about your amazing family!

Where you write my blog for me!

Yesterday I was on the phone with my friend Jennifer. She asked me if I could choose anyone in the world to eat lunch with, who would I eat with. I told her I would really like to eat with her and Kathy and Amy and, well, my girl friends! I'll let her tell you who she chose.

So, what people in the whole wide world would you like to eat lunch with? Where would you go? What would you eat?

Slow down; you move to fast.


My children are speeding along these days, but not just in the back yard. They are growing before my very eyes. Everyday they are bigger, taller, smarter, wiser, and well, growing!

I looked at Celeste last week. She is officially big. She seems to have grown an inch or so in just the last month. Thanks so much to her teacher, she is becoming more and more responsible. She has an amazing sense of style, always combining things I would never have chosen to wear together. Most days she looks like an oilily ad with her vibrant colors and funky socks. Her current favorite is a pair of low top Converse All*Stars. She wears them to school every day.

Lydia's hair has gotten really long. I am so enjoying brushing and styling it. She does too! Today was a ponytail with a darling bow. Yesterday I french braided it. She has also gotten tall and is finally filling in on the ribs a bit! For so long she seemed to be skin and bones. She is reading well. She love Dick and Jane books, what my mother learned to read on, and what I loved to read as a child too. Time marches on, but somethings stay the same!

Wiliam and I had a great conversation yesterday, a real live discussion. He is a kid now. He isn't my baby, as he was for so long. He isn't even a big boy. He is a kid, a kindergartener. I talked to his teacher briefly yesterday and she was amazed at how smart he is. I told her I wasn't amazed anymore, just so proud of him!

Do you pray? If you don't we can have that conversation later. If you do, can you pray for someone for me? It is actually somefamily, not just someone. The someone is Jack. He is a bit older than my Isaac. At his 1 year checkup, he was diagnosed with a serious curvature of the spine. He began undergoing some treatments. At his followup appointment last week, the treatment wasn't working as well as the doctors had hoped.

You can read about his journey here http://jacksonb.blogspot.com/

Please pray for Jack and his family. His mama is amazing. His family is amazing. HE is amazing.

Thanks!

A photographic essay of Samuel






























































I hope this shows you the firecracker he really is!