Big excitement around here when a note came home that the elementary school talent show is next Friday. Suddenly my living room was abuzz with plans for stories to be written, birds to be painted, and rock bands to be assembled. And I loved it.
No thought as to where any of the supplies would come from. No concern that the assigned drummer had no idea what to do with a drum set. No sign of what if it doesn’t work out.
Just pure joy at the prospect of creating and demonstrating. It reminded me of this TED Talk Dan showed me several weeks ago. If you have little ones or have any hand in their education (whether religious, private, public, or home), you owe them a few minutes of study. Enjoy!
Look at this lovely girl of mine. I sometimes just gaze at her while she is enthusiastically telling me about the soap opera that is first grade and marvel at her wit and spirit. This picture was taken at her very first piano recital in December.
But here’s the negative turn in this post: for a little over a week now, we’ve been fighting a lice infestation in that beautiful head. Crazy isn’t it? That beautiful hair and yet full of beastly little parasites. (Don’t fear for Ada’s feelings here. Either she’s too young or too self-confident, but she has no idea of the social stigma related to head lice. She just hates sitting still for hours while I scrape out nits with a tiny plastic comb.)
In my own little world, I’m looking forward to an exciting road trip and retreat weekend with my husband. We’re headed to the Dream Year Retreat in Nashville. Two different times this week I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t turn over and go back to sleep as I usually do because I suddenly remembered, “I’m going on a trip!” Big smiles. I love travel and I especially love travel with my husband to a new city. Add to those simple pleasures the promised encouragement and instruction we’re expecting from the retreat itself and I’m THRILLED.
A gorgeous head of hair.
But other things are happening this week. Today Serenity wrote about finally losing her hair. And I hate that. All of it. The losing, the crying, the sickness, the worry. All of it. I want to make it go away and I want her to be cancer-free and I want her boys to think about things like basketball and dinosaurs. I want to fix it. But I can’t.
Stupid lice.
But this is life and I know that hair stays (or comes back) and the lice die. And I probably appreciate that beautiful head of hair on Ada now more than ever since I’ve spent so much time trying to save it. I know I can’t spend this weekend wishing my life away or pouting about life’s injustices. I know I have to enjoy my time, relish every moment.
Claire (top of the pyramid) is scheduled to have a tendon lengthening surgery in St. Louis at that time.
The surgery should take an hour or so. We’ll go back to the hotel for the remainder of Friday to rest and be near the hospital just in case we have any problems with pain. Claire is pretty tough, so I don’t expect anything out of the ordinary.
Specific Prayers:
- that the surgery itself would be complication free
- that Claire would respond well to the anesthesia (she has had problems with this before)
- that the end result of the surgery would be the best possible outcome: normal walking, running, and dancing!
This was Claire’s memory verse this week (Deut. 31:8):
And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.
UPDATE on Monday @ 8:30 a.m.
Claire is off to school this morning! The cast and walking boot only slows her down slightly. She came home with narcotic pain meds and muscle relaxers, but I can barely get her to take Ibuprofen! No sickness post-surgery. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement.
Claire and I have been working on a little project for an upcoming Children’s Hospital Radiothon planned for Friday, August 27th, in Columbia, Missouri. Most of you know Claire was a preemie at Children’s nearly 8 years ago, and we have a special place in our hearts for so many staff members there.
One of our photographer friends, Jaymes, had asked to take some studio shots of Claire in the Spring. They turned out great, totally capturing her personality. I sent in one of them, along with an older picture of Claire as an infant, to the Children’s Hospital magazine, Imagine, and later was asked if the images could be used for this minithon to raise money for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Of course we were more than pleased to help, and the results are beautiful! Click HERE to see her ad campaign.
Also, we had great news from the specialist in St. Louis this week. We have been anticipating a tendon lengthening surgery for Claire that included a long recovery and rehabilitation. The worst case scenario was likely 6-8 weeks in a hip-to-toe cast. But after examination this week, the specialist decided a less involved procedure would produce an equal result. She’ll wear a “walking cast” for just a month, a leg brace for 2-3 more months of protection, and then she can be free of all the supports and start working on a brand new stride – one without a limp! We are super excited about this promising surgery.
In a couple of weeks, I’ll include a recording of the radio interview we did that will play during the Radiothon. If you are up to it, send in a little support for the tiniest babies! We couldn’t be more thankful for our experiences at Children’s Hospital in Columbia. I wish there was no need for such a thing as a hospital for sick children in this life, but, there is, and I’m glad it was there when we needed it.
I’ve been asked before to write a post or two (or four) that explores the uniqueness of each of my kids. Last weekend I shot some really terrible video of the kids swimming at our mini-vacation (the real one is coming up next week). Dan and I actually laugh about the quality of the video. (Don’t blame me – iPhone doesn’t believe in service to my corner of the world, and I don’t have a fancy Flip. Blackberry is all I’ve got for impromptu moments like this!)
But despite being a grainy, fuzzy mess of a video, it is actually quite useful as a personality display. Here is the video and below is a description of what you might have missed the first time through. : )
So, first of all, this is a five foot pool all around. But my kids are not swimmers and are not five feet tall, and so it might as well have been a hundred foot pool! Ada is in the yellow BabyFloat in the middle. Ada is six. Ada likes to be in control. After spending most of her time crying she was so nervous about the water, Dan tried to help her “overcome” her fear by putting her in the unsinkable, immovable baby floatie. No one is going to make a baby floatie that tips over, Ada, you are perfectly safe!
00:05 She is still nervous, but Ada starts bossing telling Dan that Macy needs help swimming to me (Mama).
You can see Dan towards the middle there. Macy is wearing blue water wings and a blue duckie floatie around her middle. She is the bravest of them all. With her arms draped over the duckie body she flops and floats all over the pool. I’m not sure why Ada thought she needed help from Dan, but earlier she was crying because she thought Macy was going to drown (with the two water wings and an inflatable duck around her middle!), so this is a better approach. The big pink blob is a huge inner tube that Jesse is lounged on – wearing Dan’s sunglasses.
00:19 Instead of helping her to the ladder, Dan grabs Macy’s feet and starts spinning her around in the water. This is his normal dad reaction. Why be boring? Let’s do it the fun way!
00:30 Claire makes her appearance. She has her arms wrapped around two pool noodles and is kicking her legs like crazy. Her activity in the pool is like her activity in life: constant motion. Seriously, we swam for about two hours each of the two days we were there and Claire was moving like this the entire time. No wonder she’s such a skinny shrimp! : )
00:46 Classic Jesse: “Can you make it, Macy?” He is the big brother I always dreamed of!
00:50 Classic Macy: animal noises and monster sounds. I have no explanation for this.
01:07 More Classic Macy. Me: “Say, ‘I made it!” Macy: “No, no, I need get swim to the steps!” She has her own ideas and her ideas are best. (My dad claims he lived with a little girl like this about 32 years ago, but I think he’s fibbing.)
01:15 Background noise: Ada singing, “A wed-ding toda-ay! A wed-ding toda-ay!” It was true. We were there for a wedding, but around our house it could be anything, “It’s rain-ing today-ay!” Almost anything can bring on a song!
