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Monday, November 14, 2011

Just another case of UNSOLVED MYSTERIES







Just Another Case of Unsolved Mysteries


   This blog is hard for me to write because frankly I am not proud of it. As parent’s we all have pet peeves and one of my biggest ones is not being able to walk down the hallways in my home. I just don’t understand how they get so messy. For example, where does all this shredded paper come from? There is always that one sock and hair bow that magically appears, and of course no one knows where it came from. Out of my entire baseball team, choir, cheerleading squad, and drama team no one will own up to anything that is in the hallway. I can feel my heart beating faster as I trip on a lego and find one of my kid’s underwear lying in the middle of the floor. Can someone please tell me how my important paper just happens to be in the hallway all crinkled up? 

Keeping a house clean with a massive amount of kids is no easy task. I have spent years trying to find that perfect solution. I feel as if I have tried everything and begged God for creative ideas. However, the weird thing is there are always things showing up, or what we like to call "Unsolved Mysteries." I hate even asking the kids who did it, because I am not interested in hearing them deny and point blame on someone else. Do the kids just throw whatever they don’t know what to do with in the hallway? I apparently need to install video cameras or those baby monitors that show video in all my rooms!

My second biggest pet peeve is my pillow. The other night in Haiti, I went to lay down and couldn't find it. I started to throw my hands up because all I want to do after a long hard day is rest and sleep with my pillow. My pillow constantly gets stolen, and on this particular evening I was at my breaking point. I don't demand much. I slept on a roof top in Haiti for almost three years so I don't need the comforts of this world. I can sleep in a rocking chair and rock babies all night, but the one thing my tired self desires is for a pillow. Some mom's need peace when they use the restroom, and I just need my pillow.


 My pillow somehow ministers to my aching, stressed out to the max body. I walked from bedroom to bedroom with my flashlight determined to find my pillow (this wasn't one of my finest mommy moments). I began to wake everyone up proclaiming that it is so hard to live with kids who break, destroy, and ruin everything, and all I want is my pillow. I began to announce that my kids can have anything they want, but do not take MY PILLOW!!!!! The Lord knew that I was losing it and thanks be to Him I eventually found it. Someone decided to use it to mop up water in a bathroom from a toilet that overflowed, and of course it was a mystery as to who did this. It is pretty sad that I have to hide my pillow, but oh the joys of motherhood.

Below is a list of all our “Current Mysteries.” If you know or have heard about any of the following whereabouts, please help this ever growing list of mysteries that are unsolved.
  1. -  Where did all these candy wrappers come from?? I don't even buy candy from the store?
  2. -  Why is there an apple on the tank of my toilet? Seriously, this one concerns me!
  3. -  Why are there more toothbrushes on the bathroom counter than there are children in my house???? Are we brushing dolls teeth now?
  4. -  How do all (and I mean ALL) the lights in the house get turned on??? Even the closet under the stairs??
  5. -  What happened to all the 7, 8, and 9 multiplication flash cards? For some reason, we only have 0, 1, 2, and 3 flash cards.
  6. -  Where did all my pens go?
  7. -  Why do I even buy games? All the pieces mysteriously disappear!
  8. -  Why are my belts and scarves being used as leashes for your dolls? Do we need to enter into therapy again?
  9. -  Who keeps stealing my Sharpee markers?
  10. -  Who stole my pillow this time?
  11. -  Where is my hairbrush (and no I am not singing a version of veggie tales)?
  12. -  Why is there a Puma sock that always reappears in our bathroom? I have never seen anyone wearing the match.
Please tell me I am not the only one with “Unsolved Mysteries” in their home??? I would love to hear your stories. Praying that God gives us all the grace we need today as we continue to live this crazy but wonderful life of parenting. 










Thursday, November 10, 2011

Keeping Faith

 Keeping Faith

I am sitting on a rooftop in Haiti writing this now, and my heart hurts deeply this night.  I can't even begin to accurately express my heart wrenching day.  I can still smell the wood from the little small coffin that was built, and the sounds of the hammer beating the nails into the coffin still haunt me.  I can still smell the dirt as I watched our workers dig a deep hole.   I tried to hide my pain, but couldn't help the tears that seemed to flow so freely as I watched one of our babies being lowered into the ground.  I could barely stand as I watched them cover her tiny casket with dirt.  Thankfully there was a chair nearby, but once I sat down, I realized just how exhausted I really was.  

They planted a palm tree where baby Faith was buried, and even though this tree was meant to honor baby Faith, it just didn't seem right.  No mother should have to bury their child.  As I walked down the pathway to our mission home, it felt like a journey without end.  I still can't help but replay the images….bathing her lifeless body…getting her dressed in the prettiest dress I could find…searching for the softest blanket I could find…having to force her eyes closed, as my hands shook.  Wiping the blood that seemed to just be draining from her tiny body….trying to see through my tears as I put little frilly socks on her tiny feet.  Oh how my heart hurts. 

I broke down as I saw each one of my Haitian kids place their favorite toy and stuffed animal into her coffin, already filled with letters from my kids and beautiful pictures they had colored.  Today was a day of mourning.  Someone emailed me and told me I should throw a party and celebrate her life, but somehow throwing a party for a baby who only had the chance to live for a couple months didn't feel right.  There is a time for mourning and this is definitely that time.  

Baby Faith died at 1:05PM today… in the arms of her loving nurse and her favorite caregiver who happens to be a pastor’s wife.  She now rests safely in the arms of her daddy God.  I can see her smiling and waving her arms, and I am reassured that baby Faith is no longer in pain.  She suffered from Hydrocephalus and was scheduled for a lifesaving surgery in January, but unfortunately, it just wasn't soon enough.  She was one of our babies that we had placed in our nursery for the terminally ill.  For those of you who may not be aware, we have started a hospice nursery for Haitian babies in honor of my late mother.  We of course fight for their lives both medically and through prayer... but if for some reason they do die, they die with full bellies, cherished, and in the arms of family.  

We have a scripture on our wall in our office at the mission, and it reads: "We walk by Faith, not by Sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7.  Even when things don't turn out the way we hope, we are reminded, encouraged, and commanded to always Keep the Faith, even through the darkest of nights.