Things that make me laugh

It's been a rough couple of months here. It's so hard having so much happening that you can't control and are too far away from to even help if you could. Hard is kind of an understatement, actually. Infuriating, frustrating, overwhelming, sad and terrifying are other words I could use to express our feelings.

Luckily, we have these kids to keep us busy and grounded. And make us laugh. Here are a few things that has made us laugh just this week.

My favorite was the other night when I made baked Ziti. Faith saw it and says, "Ewww. Do I have to eat that?" I replied with a stern yes and she paused before saying "If you make me chicken nuggets, I will bow down to you and call you Princess."
As tempting as this offer was, I declined. When I repeated this story to Jamie later, she said that since I didn't let her eat nuggets, I was now the Evil Queen. At least I was upgraded to Queen. 

Then there was the incident on Monday evening when Faith told me her penis hurt. I explained that she does not have a penis but she has a vagina. It wasn't until later, when I told her she was stinky and needed a bath that she told me that this is the reason she doesn't like vaginas... they are stinky.

Okay. So turns out those are the only two I can think of for this week. But they sure made us laugh. And we needed to laugh!
Laughter is the best medicine, right?

Here are some other things that make me smile.

One year checkups, heart caths and other fun stuff.

I've not been so great about keeping up on here. Sorry about that. It's not that we haven't had things going on because we have had so much going on that it could make your head explode if I went in to it all. Mine almost has.
But we are good. And things are calming down a bit.

First of all, Ashley had her 1 year check up and is perfect. (we suspected as much though!) She weighed in at 24 lbs and 13 ounces and is 30 1/2 inches tall. Still shorter than the other two at this point, but not by much. I think she will be short and fat like her momma.
She is such a sweet baby. She's a perfect mix of both Caleb and Faith. Has a great amount of dare devil in her and is super sensitive and sweet. I still can't believe its been a year.

Faith also had her heart cath on Valentines Day. To say we were nervous for this would be a bit of an understatement. It's never easy to see your child in any amount of discomfort and its certainly not easy to hand them over to someone else and just be left hoping all turns out alright. Fortunately, all did turn out alright. We even learned that her holes have gotten significantly smaller and are no longer considered to be an issue. She does have Ventricular Non Compaction and that isn't going away (unfortunately). But she is still stable and handling this completely well. We will continue with her cardiologist checkup and she will wear a holter monitor every six months to check up on things. But the doctor said he sees no reason why she won't be able to live a fairly normal "long" life.
You have no idea how amazing that was to hear.
There are still a lot of unknowns and of course, no guarantees. But that's how life is. No guarantees and a whole lot of unknowns.

Which brings me to Bonnie.
Sweet Bonnie. She is home with Jim and resting comfortably. She is becoming weaker each day and its harder and harder for her to talk. She called Jamie Friday night to talk and was feeling great. She called him! It just so happened that we had a house full of people for a Scout party. So he kept it really short. But she told him he loved her and he told her he loved her. Thank God for those precious words. It seems as if over night she dramatically went downhill. She hasn't really been able to talk since.
While we continue to pray for some sort of miracle, we also pray that she continues to have no pain and that God takes care of her. Its so hard to understand why things like this happen. Its so unfair and its so easy to be angry. I know I carried a lot of anger for many years about losing my mom. But then I realize that its all part of a plan that we will one day understand. While I miss my mom each and every day, I know that with that tragic loss, I became the person I am today.
While anger is the easiest emotion to feel, we are choosing to be thankful for God loaning Bonnie to us. I know I'm thankful that I had her in my life for these past 16 years. And I'm thankful she raised such an amazing man to be my husband.

It's not an easy time right now. It's hard to find the right words to help Jamie through this and I often find myself feeling like an outsider looking in on a family struggling through such pain and sorrow. But I know we will find ourselves on the other side of this and there will be good times ahead. For now, we are loving Bonnie and praying for her to be pain free and comfortable. And being thankful for every day with her.