First Piggy Tails

Ava's hair is finally long enough to put in piggy tails. (*sigh, sniffle, sniffle*)

Family 5K

This weekend was a fabulous weekend for our family. We decided to complete a 5K race. This particular race, The Super Cooper Heart Run, is such a special race. It was started by John and Ashley Fontenot, whose son Cooper underwent open heart surgery at 9 days old. He is now 5 and is doing well.

As most of you know, David has undergone 3 open heart surgeries, the last one being this past July. So in celebration of that and in honor of how spectacular David has done, we, as a family decided to complete this race. I had t-shirts made for us. See....

Psalm 139:13-18 (supposed to say 13-16) has helped me accept David's defect and also helped me not to question why it happened. I know that God made David just the way he wanted him to be made. There was nothing that I could have done, or not done, to change that.

The back is a song that we often sing in church that nearly brings me to tears every time I hear it. Sorry if you can't read the words. It says:

I have a Maker

He formed my heart

Before even time began

My life was in His hands.

It's so reassuring that even though I have no idea what this life holds for David, the Lord has every day of his life mapped out.

So we all showed on Saturday donning our "Team David" shirts. The organizers, Cooper's parents, were expecting us and came to meet David. We had 8 kids, 5 of them 4 and under, and one wagon. We made it though. David rode in the wagon some, ran some, and walked the last way across the Finish Line.

As the awards ceremony was finishing up, they called to see if "Team David" was still there. I waved to them and they said that they wanted to present David with a trophy. I walked him up to the stage area, fighting back tears. Cooper's mom, Ashley, gave him the trophy to give to David, from one 5-year old who has had heart surgery, to one 3-year old who has had heart surgery.

It was a "Super" exciting day!!

A little piece of Hope

Our church is participating in Buckets of Hope. We are sending buckets filled with very specific items to Haiti for the earthquake victims. We filled our bucket tonight. See...

We had to fit all of this in one bucket...

There were VERY specific instructions on what goes in and how it goes in...

Everybody got a chance to put something in the bucket...except me...I was snapping away behind the camera...

And with the help of the VERY detailed directions, we were able to fit it all in. As we were closing the lid, Cecil said, "Oh, look, that's neat, the little recycle symbol almost looks like 'HOPE'." And sure enough it did.

So, there you have it. Our little family sending a little piece of hope to a needy family in Haiti. It's not much to us, in fact, it only cost us about $25.00. But we were told that what we sent can feed a family there for a week.

We also took advantage of the teachable moment with our kids and explained how much we have in comparison to others in the world. We stressed how important it is that we are always thankful and that we remember to thank God for everything that we have been blessed with. To which, my 3-yr old son replies, "Thank God for Spencer sharing his toys with me." It was a fun night!

I haven't known how to write this...

but I have not been able to write anything else either. It's been almost two weeks since my last post.

On Sat. Feb 20. my 2-year old nephew was hit by a vehicle and passed away. My heart is absolutely broken for my brother-in-law and his wife. I cannot imagine the pain that they are going through, and how badly they just want it to go away. I don't know if you ever completely stop feeling the pain of losing a child and I pray that I never have to find out. I pray for comfort and healing for their family. It's an awful, awful situation, and we don't know why, we may never know why these things happen. But, without a doubt, our Creator does and he is in ultimate control and I trust in His plan.

Alyssa asked me a couple of days after it happened, "Why did N have to die?". I told her, "I don't know, we may never know. But God knows and God has a plan for our lives and he had N's life planned. It's in these times that we have to trust that God's plan is perfect, even if we don't understand it." It's really hard to explain death to children, but this is what I am 100% sure of and she was comforted by these words and for this I am thankful.