Love

When I first held my four-year-old son, Hunter in my arms, I was consumed with an overwhelming love. A love I couldn't have imagined before I knew it. Almost immediately, the thought occurred to me: God loves this child even more than I do. It was almost impossible for me to grasp that there existed an even deeper, all-consuming love. One that only comes from the Creator of life.

That same God loves Anjalesa more than we do. He cares for her in an all-consuming way that I can not even imagine. Religion can be a legitimate means for some to connect with God, it certainly helps me, but it is not the only way.

God is Love. Where there is Love, there is God.

Anjalesa's life was cut short, by our standards, on February 18, 2013. In the last couple years of her life, she fell in love with my brother Ray, and we all fell in love with her. They were married last May. Any time someone asked me over the past year or so "so...how is your family?" my response always included Anjalesa. She completed a puzzle. She brightened a room. She is Loved.

Tell the people you love that you love them. Live every day with gratitude. Know that You are loved like that too. Regardless of your beliefs, the creator of the world loves you with an all-consuming Love too. That I know for sure.

Update

My dad wrote this update for family and friends tonight. I thought I would pass it along to all you amazing prayer warriors


...


Anjalesa is still fighting a courageous battle. She has been in the ICU for 12 days. She is still in DIC and requiring blood products because of the ongoing consumption of her clotting factors in her blood. With all the volume shifts related to the transfusions (and other factors), she is back on the ventilator and receiving sedative and analgesic medications. Her bone marrow biopsy returned but was not 100% diagnostic for a cause of her ailment. But the presumptive diagnosis is leukemia. Maybe a form of AML. Because of the severity of her illness and the uncertainty of her diagnosis, her doctors have recommended a transfer to a tertiary university center. So it looks like she will be transported to Barnes sometime in the next day or so.

We are hopeful that chemotherapy will result in resolution of the DIC soon, and a remission will follow.

Other than praying for her healing, there is little else that we need.

Keep on keepin' on

The response has been amazing. I know that many are praying for Anjalesa. I just wanted to ask for your continued prayers.

We still don't have answers. Please keep praying.

Thank you, friends.

Hope

I have been mostly quiet on the internet for the past week or so, as our family has been dealing with a very difficult situation.

Anjalesa, my awesome sister-in-law is battling some serious medical issues right now. She has been in the Intensive Care Unit since Sunday February 3 when she went in for emergency gall bladder surgery.  We are not sure what is wrong with her, but her condition is very serious. We are hoping for a definitive diagnosis either tomorrow or Thursday. 

If you are reading this, and you believe in prayer, PLEASE pray for the following:

1. A diagnosis and treatment plan
2. Increased blood circulation to her fingers and toes
3. Proper oxygen, to keep her off the ventilator
4. Peace and Calm in her spirit. When she is awake, she is sometimes calm and rational, and sometimes agitated...well...and rational.  In her defense, agitation seems to me like a perfectly rational response to her situation. Unfortunately, that agitation does not help her body to heal. We need peace and calm to reign in her mind.
 
The outpouring of support (prayer and otherwise) has been overwhelming, and we really appreciate this.  Please continue to wrap all of us in your prayers.

Thanks!

Emily

May the God of HOPE fill you with all JOY and PEACE as you TRUST in Him so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13

Trip to St Louis

This year, Christmas fell on a Tuesday. At the end of that week, Justin and I took the boys on a little mini-family vacationto St. Louis. The main reason we went was to visit my dear friend Allison and her adorable baby Cole. We also took the boys on the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour, to the Magic House (childrens museum) and stayed in a hotel, which was very exciting for the boys. When I post to the blog from my phone, I can't put captions on the pictures, so I will just post them down here and you can guess. It probably goes without saying, but we had a really fun time!!

Send-off fun

Mom went back to Haiti this past week. You can follow her journey at lorihaiti.com. She is also posting on Instagram as lorihaiti.

Last weekend we spent time with our family as sort of a "goodbye party." Mom and I took the boys to Bass Pro to visit the fishes and the turtles (Benny's request) and climb on the boats and stuff. Then we took them to pizza house for a good old fashioned Springfield, MO lunch. On Sunday we had a party at the 'rents house to send her off.

She is only going to be gone a month this time, but we already miss her very much. Some pics from last weekend:

Facebook stories

Sometimes when my kids do something funny, I post the story on Facebook. Usually the funny things they do are impossible to explain, since thy involve physical comedy. I'm putting pictures of some of my fave Facebook posts here to keep them for posterity sake.

Updates

Posted some updates to the blog today, when I realized that I hadn't posted since November. I am trying to keep this blog to help me remember things, and wanted to share some of our stories.

Mood swings

Last Monday it was really warm outside, so we had a little bonfire at dinner time. Cooked hotdogs for dinner over the fire and ate them outside. Very fun for little boys, right? Ok, so the boys were having lots and lots of fun. Then Benny decided he wanted to go inside and watch cartoons. I said, "yes, you can watch your cartoons, but first you need to take a bath." He immediately went from giggling to crying hysterically. In the middle of his fit, I reached for my phone to take a picture of his very sad face (because I am a kind and compassionate mom).

And, now, here is the sequence of events:

Hunter the artist

Below is a picture that Hunter started yesterday at preschool. I posted a picture of just his name last night because it was so impressive. He finished the picture this morning, and told me the story. I will paraphrase:

This is a blue sky with a black storm cloud, it's stormy and cold. There is a bright sun. He drew our family. To the left is uncle Ray. I asked him "who usually comes with uncle ray" and he said "well, uncle Zak, but he isn't in the picture." (I was actually going for Aunt Anjalesa, but whatever) Ok, so next is his daddy, who is wearing a hat and mittens. They are different colors because he likes both purple and green. Next is Hunter, then mommy, mommy has short purple hair because she is a girl, but is also wearing a hat and mittens. Next is Benny with a flower for mommy that he picked.

I sure love that kid.