Run, Rose, Run!

"Our sweet Rosalie nearly drowned on June 6th,2012 in Owasso, OK. After 3 months in ICU & through the grace of God alone, she is now home with us, but still in the recovery process. Please join us in offering prayer for our sweet baby's full recovery."

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This is the "About" section on the "Please Pray for Rosalie" page on Facebook. For the last 15 months, more than 54,000 people have been following Rose's story. The ups and downs... how EVERY TIME she'd dip down, GOD would bring her up. The doctors didn't expect her to live at all...much less for nearly 15 months... BUT GOD is bigger than the doctors!

No, I don't personally know Rosalie, but her story has touched my heart. Week after week, her mom, Tiffany, would post an update of how much progress she had been making. She'd post videos and pictures and made all 54k followers feel like we were part of their family!

Last fall, I crocheted a blanket for Rosalie and delivered it to her aunt to pass on...

Then for her birthday in December, my friend Cathey and I made a photo book (click on that link to view it) on Shutterfly of posts, prayers, and pics from the Facebook page- all compiled together in one book... It turned out REALLY cool!

Basically... even though I don't know the family- after all this time praying for them and pouring over their posts, I feel like I do! Anytime I posted, I referred to her as Princess Rose. She is such a beautiful little girl... just like God's little Princess!

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This last week, Rosalie took a turn for the worse. They had to admit her to the local children's hospital for treatment. Thursday night's post on FB suggested that she had had a great day and was doing well, but they were awaiting more test results to see what caused it all. Then last night, this was posted:

"We would like to thank our Lord and savior for Rosalie's life. What a blessing this sweet Child of God has been in our life. Our life will be forever changed because of Rose. I know that she has brought Jesus back into many hearts that surround her, being such a light for Gods Kingdom. Tonight Rosalie went to be with Jesus. She had a mighty purpose here on earth and I know that Christ is being glorified through her. What an honor it was to be her Mommy and Daddy. She will be forever missed in our heart but we know we will see her in Heaven once again and what a glorious day that will be! Please continue to keep us all in your prayers as we walk hand in hand with Christ seeking his face during this time."

My heart sank. How could God bring her through SO MUCH over the last 15 months ... bringing more and more healing for her body... and then stop healing her and call her home? I don't understand why...why isn't He healing her this time? Why did she have to die? If she was going to die anyways, why didn't He take her home to begin with?

I know these thoughts sound awful... just being real here...

BUT in my tears and confusion, I read through some of the posts from other "Rosalie Followers."  One woman who posts often... love her posts... said,

"I want to thank you Rosalie for bringing me closer to my God. Through your life, I have learned to build my faith on the Word of God. I never knew that I could feel joy and sadness at the same time. My heart is so heavy. My will was to have you healed and whole here on earth, while God's will was to heal you and bring you home to His kingdom. I will need to lay aside my own ideas of how God was “supposed” to heal you and “accept” the healing God's way. I am not going to lie, I am saddened with this at the moment, but I will search the Word to find the reason you have not been healed. I will use God's word to rid myself of the sadness that I feel, so that I can accept your healing joyfully, in whatever way God sees fit to give it. Sometimes God chooses to heal us instantly, or He may choose to let the healing be gradual. He may choose to give a sudden manifestation of your healing but at a little later time. Or as this case may be, the case of one whose time has come to go, He may bring deliverance from pain and suffering by taking the person to her eternal rest. I believe that God did it His way. We all asked for healing for Rosalie, and healing was given to our sweet baby girl! God spoke to Rosalie and said, “Take my hand and come with me. Come to a place of complete healing and wholeness. You will sing and dance and play with the angels!” Do not cast away your trust and faith in God because he did not do it our way. Hold onto your faith in the Word of God. Stand upon the promise that God guarantees that Rosalie's healing did come!!!" -Donna S 

It was at this moment that I believe God said, "DUH" to me!!  He didn't "stop healing" her ... He gave her the ultimate healing! Just because He didn't heal her the way we all expected, doesn't mean He gave up on her...or failed the family. Princess Rose is in the presence of the the KING... she is awake after nearly 15 months of being in a coma...she is running around and playing and rejoicing in her wholeness!! 

Run, Princess Rose, Run!!

I am still saddened to hear of her passing. I am heart-broken for Tiffany and Wade...no parent should ever have to lose their child. I am at a loss for words for her brothers...they adored her. How are their hearts right now? So, while I rejoice that God healed Rosalie completely and fully last night, I will continue to pray for the family. Their loss is immeasurable, but God's peace, comfort and grace is even greater!! Thank you to Rosalie follower, Donna, for helping me to see this in a whole new light. Thank you, Father God, for bringing the healing we've all been praying for! You, Lord, have proven yourself faithful once again! 

I've been in the 2nd grade!!

Xander with his teacher, Mrs. L

I, along with Xander, am very excited for this school year! See, this is the first year that I've been able to help in HIS classroom!! I've always had the littles at home, so I couldn't do stuff with him unless I had the littles tagging along...and what fun is that?? So, now that the twins are in school until 11am, and Asher is in all day, I can finally help in his room!!

So, last week, I volunteered to help with the 2nd grade field trip to the fire department. It is right across the street from his school, so we got to walk 80 7-8 year olds across the street to talk to the firemen about teamwork! I was AMAZED by how well-behave the kids were. It's not every day that you see 80 kids sitting down, sitting still, and being quiet enough to actually hear the firemen talking!! I was impressed by the kids AND the teachers! I say teachers because you KNOW they had to "coach" their kids before going over there...

 Here's what Xander's teacher said to her class:

"Fireman Xander"

"If Mrs. B's class is being loud and noisy, how will MY class be?"
 The kids answered, "QUIET!"

"If Dr. S's class is dancing around in circles, how will MY class be?"
  The kids answered, "Still and in line!"

"If Mrs. P's class is jumping up and down and running, how will MY class be?" 
The kids answered, "Sitting quietly!"

So, again, I say... I was impressed by how well the teachers prepared the students!! It was a great adventure! The firemen shared how they have to work together as a team; that sometimes the work is hard, but if they don't work together and if not everyone does their part on the team, then people's lives are at stake; how they have to work out their differences to get along since they work in such close quarters; how what they learned even as early as 2nd grade is helping them today with their job!! It was a good field trip! I am glad that I got to tag along!!

80 kids plus teachers and firemen!!

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This is the wall outside of Xander's classroom- Mrs. L's Farm!

When we got back from his field trip, Mrs. L asked me if I'd be willing to help her in the classroom every now and then...that she had some projects she'd like some help with. I, of course, eagerly agreed... ya know, since I've never been able to say YES before!! 

So this week, I spent two mornings in the class helping get stuff organized. I LOVE IT! It's almost like putting together a puzzle... she had me going through a box of flash cards for vocabulary words and matching them with the story from the kids' reading books... there should be one set of cards for each story for every week of the school year. It was SO MUCH FUN! Next week, I will do another organizing thing for her... she said that if I thought today's pile was a mess, I'll definitely have my work cut out for me next week ... is it strange that I AM SO EXCITED??? 

Things I have learned this week in the 2nd grade: 

1: Mrs. L is NOT an octopus- she only has TWO hands and can do no more than two things at a time!!
2: No child needs to sneeze or cough until that "Moment of Silence" they do...then all of a sudden, they MUST sneeze and/or cough!!

3: Slow obedience is NO obedience!!

 4: It is acceptable to not complete your homework IF your parents spent all night arguing! (SAD)

5: Last, but not least, homework is the CHILD'S responsibility, NOT the parent's!!!

What a kid!!

We have had quite the journey with Asher in the last year. If you aren't aware of our "issues" check out this blog post: Asher Update .  There are links there to other posts so you can get all caught up!! LOL!!

Anyways, this summer, when grandma came to visit, Asher started talking to her right away. LAST summer it took him a good couple of hours to even sit next to her!  Grandma has always said that she, of course, adores all the kids, BUT Asher has a special place in her heart...he is her little guy. Kinda funny... I think all of the grandparents say that about him! He IS pretty awesome!

PROGRESS!!

One day, we went to Tami's house. The kids have been playing there when I go to visit for over 3 years!! BUT, this last time we were there, Asher talked to Tami and her kids. She even commented on how much he was talking!! In the past, he wouldn't even make eye contact with her!!

PROGRESS!!

Our speech therapist (we love her) suggested to have Asher meet with his teacher BEFORE the rest of the class so that the chaos of "Meet the Teacher" day wouldn't be scary and intimidating for him. That way he could meet her and learn the classroom one-on-one with her....to maybe make it a little more comfortable. SO, I discussed it with the principal and she gave the "OKAY" for us to meet with Ms. M an hour earlier than the rest of the class. This was great! LAST year, he wouldn't let his teacher take his picture for the first couple weeks of school. BUT this year, he held her hand and walked around the room AND let her take his picture... and he even smiled :)   Then, on the first day of school, he sat down and started coloring. I left. But when my friend went in with her son, she said that Asher got up from his seat to show her what he had colored!!

PROGRESS!!

When I picked the kids up from school this afternoon, I asked Ms. M how my little man was doing. She said,

 "He IS talking occasionally! He looks like he is in pain sometimes when he speaks, but he's doing it!" 

HAHAHA!! 

Well, hooray!! At least he's talking! I am thrilled with his progress!
 

I know this hasn't been easy for Asher. I know that he is way out of his comfort zone when he talks in social settings or when a question is aimed right at him. BUT he has come SO VERY FAR in the last year. I give GOD the glory for the progress... and I am thrilled that we have been able to spend the last 8 months with "Miss Melissa" in speech therapy! While he's not "there" yet, he has come so far and I am thrilled!

Move out toddler beds; Move IN bunk beds!

I have been MIA from the Wonderful World of Blog for over a month now... and so much has happened! I just haven't had the brain-power to sit and write about it! HA... silly me! Now that I am sitting here, I am thinking of so many different blogs I can write... so bear with me in the next day or two as I unload the happenings of the last month with you!!

First off, the twins are officially out of their toddler beds! Tim's grandma came to visit from Ohio last month- she was only here two weeks... wish it could have been longer :(  But anyways, she took one look at how big the twins look in their tiny toddler beds, and she just KNEW she needed to get them bigger beds!

 

 So, the adventure begins...

We went to the furniture store and picked out a basic bunk bed set for them. Xander went with Gma and me and vowed to keep the purchase a secret! We didn't want the littles to know what was happening until they got set up! I was so proud of X for not telling... WAY TO GO, KIDDO!  So, we finalized the purchase and left the store. Then we realized - a couple hours later- that they overcharged us by about $60... What the heck? So my father in law went up there to "take care of business!" They fixed it and we had the set up/delivery scheduled for a couple days later.

My mission: Make room for the bunk beds!!

Holy COW...I had no idea how many clothes these kids had until I started deep cleaning their room to get everything out so the builders could build our newest contraption! 

ANYWAYS... delivery day:

The builders move everything in and get it all set up! The twins are ecstatic!! The big boys are thrilled too... Xander was dancing around saying, 

"I knew this was happening and didn't tell you!" 

 He was so proud of our little secret! The kids were all over that bed!

Small problem... The builders said,

 "There is a manufacturer defect. It is safe to use, but we can't put up one of the side rails on the top bunk. We'll have to have someone else come fix it!"

UGH...thankfully that side they couldn't put rails on was the side against the wall, so it was fine. Set up a new day for some other people to fix the "defect!"

My In-laws came over to check it out... grandma was so upset... how could it be defective? Well, when I look at it, it looks like they put the headboard/footboard on BACKWARDS...and all it'll take is turning it around.... in-laws and hubby both agree with me. So, now we wait. YES, I could have fixed it myself, but really, if we PAID for them to assemble a bunk bed, they need to do it right...RIGHT!!??

So, the "fix-it guys" showed up! I commented that their truck was much smaller than the other guys. The older of the two men said,

 "Oh, we don't need a big truck for deliveries- we are just the guys that fix THEIR screw ups!"   

LOL... So I show these two men what I believe is "defective" with the bed... more like- the ASSEMBLERS were defective and didn't know what they were doing... I left them to it. Told them I'd be in the living room if they needed me. About 5 minutes pass and the older man comes to me and says, 

"We need to order a whole new bed. It is, in fact, defective." 

He wanted to show me the problem. So, I AGAIN explain to him how it can be fixed... that I REALLY believed that the boards were just backwards. He thought about it for a second... looked at the younger man... looked at me... and said, 

"I am such an idiot. I do this every day, and I didn't even see that! What an idiot I am!"

So, in a matter of about 15 minutes, they had the whole "defect" fixed... IT'S A MIRACLE!! And they were on their way... the whole time apologizing to me for the inconvenience and reminding themselves what idiots they were! HAHAHA!!

Here's all four kiddos enjoying the NEW bunk bed: