Our Beautiful Snow

When the weather forecasters said 4-6" of snow....I did NOT believe it. After all the ground isn't even frozen yet! So much for my scoffing.

We even cancelled Sunday School this morning and had church services starting at 10AM!
At least we know Who was in charge of this weather and hopefully the weather forecasters don't get too proud and think they can predict anything.

What a Start!

Last night son#1 and his new wife came back from their honeymoon. Picked
up their car in Philly and headed home. At midnight I got a phone call -
caller ID was DIL's family number and son#1 was on the phone. "Just in
case you hear us, we are going to stop by and pick up our other car. We
hit a deer on the way home and wrecked the car"

NOT words conducive to more sleep!

I didn't even think to ask if they are OK, guess I figured that when he
wasn't calling from a hospital...
Amazingly this is what it looks like....no airbag deployment, no
windshield damage....hopefully not too many $$$$ to repair.

Part of me wanted to whine to God "why?" but then I realized how much
they were spared. So thanks are in order instead.

If you don't live in whitetailed deer country....these guys cause a lot
of damage every year an a lot of it much worse.

Guess What He Picked?

Yesterday Shriners told us that we can pick fabric for the outside AND
the inside of his new legs....so off to the fabric store. The
basketballs will be on the inside and the "wood" will be on the outside.
His brother told him to pick something that will make him happy when he
looks in his leg -before he puts it on....
And please pray for him and this splint thing...something is not working
right. We can barely get the splint back on at the end of the day. His
muscles are just so weak that his hand starts flopping back to the old
position after being out of the splint most of the day....we just can't
loose all that hard work!!
I have an e-mail waiting for the Dr in the AM

No Cast and Leg Fittings

I was almost concerned that Joseph would refuse to accompany me to his Phila visit this AM. He was so worried that it would hurt to take off the cast and that there would be blood.
Well this is what he saw when they removed the cast. Pic is a bit light...but no blood, just some dried out wrinkled skin.  The Dr's were so happy with his results...he is going to need to do the work from here on out.  Splint at night, and work the wrist during the day. I was a bit surprised we aren't doing PT, but we will see how "mom PT" goes. If we have too many crying evenings like tonite, I will be requesting PT by a professional.
 Thumb is still not in the right position, so we have another stint with the fixator in our future, but we will see if we can arrange it after next summer so that he can go swimming.

Then on to some socket fittings for his legs. He was cast 4 weeks ago and they were ready to try on the sockets. They temporarily attached the feet to see how they feel.

I have a video of him walking but it is sideways and I don't know how to right it! He did pretty  well and didn't use his favorite 4-letter word too often...(hurt)
Now we get to pick out some cool fabric to do the outside of his legs. I sort of talked him into it when I told him he can go to the fabric store and pick out whatever. (maybe I'd better clarify "whatever")  Maybe he will pick "skin" after all.

The Wedding

Excuse the angle of the picture, I was not the main photographer. but here are the happy couple

Our family

The GP's

After the ceremony

Oh and BTW I got a text at 4:28 the morning saying "We're through security"  Now I can concentrate on something else

Rehearsal Dinner

The countdown is started...mine that is....in 2 days I will officially
be a MIL
Tonite, the rehearsal dinner, will be simple....can you guess what it
is. Lots of wonderful smelling meats and cheese in my fridge and good
home made rolls - at least I hope I didn't forget the salt in any of the
batches of dough.
The dresses are finished and since I'm mother of the groom I just sit
around and worry if they are forgetting anything...am I forgetting
anything...will they get to the airport on time on Sun AM...should I
text them....nah! Time to cut the apron strings.
Maybe I will find an old apron and do exactly that! My mother
officially gave me the ties from an old apron to symbolize that I was
grown up and taking charge of my own home. Is that just an old PA Dutch
saying?

Fear

With older child adoption, you just never know when a situation will
strike fear. It can look like stubbornness or manipulation. But fear can
show up so unexpectedly.
When we first started going to Shriner's he would gasp and look away
when we crossed over a certain bridge. After a few months he now looks
out over the railing at the river. He even said "I'm not scared anymore."
So that's the last of fear when we are driving?...umm  no....

Tonite we decided to enjoy this beautiful day and go for a hike at a
local lake.  As we drove around the lake there was one point where you
could look out over the water. The sun reflected from the water and the
boats zipping around. BEAUTIFUL! right?  umm...no...

I heard a gasp from the back, I turned around to see fear behind a half
grin.  "I'm scared."

I wasn't sure if it was our height or ...was he joking?

When we parked and everyone piled out, eager to hit the playground and
the hiking trail.  One young man stayed sitting in the van. Tears...

Yup, it was fear.
We tried to find out, fear of the water....we're not going in....fear of
walking that far....it's a gentle slope....
What?

We persuaded him to get out and at least come to a bench beside the
small play area.

























He watched the boats and the small waves from the wakes and the
little kids wading in the water....


After half an hour he walked over to me, "Mom, it's not fun, what can I do?"

I held up two fingers..."you have two choices, you can stay sitting here
or look around and focus on what you CAN do. You decide."

Well he decided to check out the play area and soon his sisters were
begging to go down to the water.
I told him it is up to him, he can stay on the bench, move to a closer
bench, or come with us....(three choices this time)
He followed at a cautious distance and soon this is what you would have
seen if you had been with us!

Now what caused that fear?  I have a bit of a notion it was the video
footage he had seen of the tsunami in Indonesia, because he wondered if
the people were going to die that were out in the water.  I am so glad
we took him to this lake before we made a trip to the ocean. And, Oh so
glad we did it as a family and not a field trip from school or something.

But best of all he discovered a new fun thing....wet sand and waves!

And we learned that life holds many surprises....

"Just Like Riding a Bike"

Today I had a sort of depressed young man. Beautiful weather and he was
sitting in the living room, no lights, reading a book....and that not
very enthusiastically.
I sort of probed and found out he is upset that his feet aren't ready
yet and he "can't" do anything.
I suggested the bike, I figured his arm isn't actually broken so it is
actually more protected in there right now than in a few weeks when the
cast is off.
Took a few wobbly tries and "I can't's" but his brain didn't fail him!
For a few minutes I was almost thinking I will need to let him give up,
but I steeled my mommy heart and made him keep trying. (So hard to know)

Check out "Treasure In a Field"

Hop over to Anna's blog and read about a TV show you need to find...and I don't even have a TV, so it has to be good to get me to advertise something on that box.  Well go read her blog anyway.

New Footwear

A couple of weeks ago, my smart hubby, decided that a pair of child's
size 10 snow boots might answer for a pair of shoes. It needed some
extra padding, so Shriner's was kind enough to give us silicone discs to
use for padding. He inserts one in each sock. We wrap shoe string around
the boot so the boots don't swivel around on his leg. (he looks very
pigeon toes sometimes). They have been a wonderful upgrade from the cut
down crocs. We are 1-1/2 weeks into the wait for his new legs.
Next topic for discussion....how do you teach a child to keep track of
his "stuff"? When I asked him who kept track of his clothes in
China...his answer "teachers". and "I didn't have any things."
Ok...guess that is reason enough, now we need to solve it.