A nice, relaxing weekend...

NOT.

This weekend was supposed to be a great time for Bo and I to have some quiet alone time. We had a leaders' retreat to attend on Saturday, so my parents had offered to take Jack up to Wintergreen with them Friday afternoon and keep him until Sunday.

On Friday, everything went according to plan; my dad said that even the drive up to Wintergreen was uneventful. Unfortunately as soon as they arrived at the house, things changed.

Jack started acting weird and he threw up at dinner. I was concerned, but Jack throws up pretty easily so I decided to wait until morning before panicking.

Saturday around 5:30 am I got a text message from my mom saying that Jack had the flu coming out "both ends."

I panicked and called her. She assured me that he was better that morning and that she would keep me updated. By the time Bo and I left for our retreat at 9am, Jack hadn't vomited at all that morning, so we figured we were home free.

Not so. In the midst of the retreat I got another text from my mom telling me that Jack had puked again. We decided to go up to Wintergreen as soon as the retreat was over, despite the fact that we had no extra clothing or overnight supplies. We needed to be with our baby!!

After the retreat ended at 3:00 we made the 2-hour trek up to Wintergreen. By the time we got to my parents' house, Jack seemed to be doing much better. He was walking around, talking and even playing a little, despite the fact that he still had severe diarrhea.

At dinner time I gave him a small piece of bread to eat. He had two bites--nibbles really, they were such small bites--and promptly threw up. We put him in the bath for a couple of minutes and then gave into his pleas to go "night-night in my bed." He went to sleep at about 6:30pm and I paged the doctor on-call with his pediatrician's office.

At 8:15pm we still had not heard back from the doctor, so we called again. This time the doctor called right back. His advice was Pedialyte (and if he doesn't improve today we'll have to take him to the ER, so please pray for us!!).

We didn't have any Pedialyte, so Bo and I (at about 8:30) took off for Waynesboro and the nearest Wal-Mart, about 40 minutes away.

We finally got back at about 10pm. We woke Jack up and had him drink some Pedialyte (orange, because that is his favorite color). He sipped a little of it, then cried a little, then went back to sleep. I collapsed onto the bed in my mom's awesome MC-Hammer-style windpants from the early '90's and my dad's giant long-sleeved t-shirt and Bo collapsed next to me. We slept until about 7:40am, when Jack woke up.

Jack woke up in a good mood, comparatively. We drove the two hours home from Wintergreen this morning without incident, and he even ate a few Cheerios along with his Pedialyte. He still has diarrhea but I'm hoping if we can get some carbs into him that will help.

Please pray for us!

Oops

It's been a few days since I last posted.

Contrary to what you may be thinking, there is actually a lot going on right now; the time just has not been right to blog about it yet. I'm getting there.

In the meantime:

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.











Psalm 139:13-16

Drumroll, please...

I am writing to announce that Jackson is POTTY TRAINED!!!!

This announcement is not made lightly; I have been waiting a few days to make sure we don't have some freak relapse. I think it is safe now, though, to declare Jack's success to the world.

We now have more Accident-Free Days than Accident Days, and he is telling us when he has to go pee-pee! We made it through two 2-hour car trips without an accident, not to mention playing in the snow (in a snowsuit...that was fun to undo for potty time!), and diaper-free nap times for the last 4 days.

I am beyond thrilled.

Of course we still have to be careful and take frequent potty breaks, but they worst is definitely over and I no longer live in constant fear of an accident.

The best part is that the hard-core training only took about 10 days to get to this point! WOO HOO!!!!!

I'm so glad we didn't give up; it was tempting on that first day when he had an accident after only 20 minutes in his big boy underwear, but I am so glad we stuck with it.

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My TOMS are here!

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Bo's V-day present...he loved it!

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Bo loves his Valentine's Day

Bo loves his Valentine's Day gift...photo to come!

Everyone should read this. Everyone.

WE DID IT!

We finally did it:
Jack had his first accident-free day yesterday!

It wasn't even an easy day; we went to story time at the library, then to the park and he managed not to pee in his pants. So far so good today, too!

Next step: he wore underwear to bed for nap time. He's been dry after his naps all week, so I figured we could give it a shot!

TOMS shoes

Apparently I am a little late (thanks, Suz...haha), but I just discovered TOMS shoes. What a special company!

For every item they sell, they donate a pair of shoes to children in need. "One for one" is what they say. Awesome.

Bo is getting me one pair for Valentine's Day:

And I bought one with my saved "spending money":

Yay! And 2 pairs will go to children in need! Totally and completely worth it. They have so many awesome styles...I doubt I will buy shoes anywhere else again. :)

I believe

I believe the Bible is God's authoritative instruction for my life.

I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit to change and empower lives.

I believe Jesus Christ was sent from God at the ultimate revelation of God's love for humanity. Jesus was born of a virgin, was fully divine and fully human, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, was resurrected by God and has ascended into heaven.

I believe in the second coming of Jesus.

I believe there is an adversarial presence in the world today that desires to tempt, destroy, steal, and confuse our efforts to proclaim the beliefs and teachings of Jesus Christ.

I believe that the local church is God's strategic plan for continuing the work and ministry of Jesus Christ on earth.

I believe there will be a Judgment Day by God that will mark the culmination of time.

I came across this statement of faith today as I was filling out some forms for working with the youth at our church. I love it. I love Jesus!

Potty Update

Jack had an accident literally seconds before bedtime at about 8:05 pm yesterday. I still count yesterday a success, since that was the only accident of the day!

I'm a little confused about this morning; I thought he had an accident, but on second thought I think it's just because his pee leaked through the cracks when he was going pee-pee on the big potty. Either way, we're just setting our sights on the rest of the day! :)

Time to get down to "business"

WARNING: The following message contains a whole lot of potty talk.

We are in full-fledged potty training mode here. It is intense.

Jackson has had the poo-poo on the potty thing mastered pretty well for a while now; I think he has had 2 dirty diapers in the last 3 months, and those were only because people weren't paying attention when he told them he had to go potty. So we pretty much consider poop to be "in the bag"...so to speak.

The pee-pee on the potty thing has not been quite so easy. It may be because poo-poo is a conscious effort and pee-pee can sort of just "leak" out, or it may be because Jack is simply unaware when he pees (since diapers are made to keep the wetness off kids' bottoms).

I had a hunch it was the latter, so on Wednesday we got some cloth training pants:

and decided to give it a whirl. My thought was that if Jack understands how unpleasant it is to have wet underwear (and a wet bottom), he may be a bit more aware of the whole process.

Wednesday did not go terribly well. There were 3 accidents in the morning, and I was feeling very discouraged. I knew that I had to stick with it though, because consistency is one of the most important principles of parenting. If gave up, he would too.

**Side note** I want to be clear that I did not just put the underpants on him and then let him run free. I ask him constantly if he needs to go potty, and I put him on the potty regardless of what he says AT LEAST every 30 minutes. Usually it's more like every 20 minutes. Toddlers will not potty train themselves.

Anywho, on Wednesday I put a diaper on him for nap time (staying dry while asleep is a whole other ball game), then we tried the big boy underwear again when he got up at 2:00. To my great delight, he stayed dry all afternoon, until 8:00 when he had another accident. All in all, it wasn't too bad of a day, considering the 6 hours of dryness (and it was only the first day!).

Thursday went a bit more smoothly. Jack made it all morning until 11:30 am without an accident! Not only that, but he had told Bo (I was at MOPS, duh! ;-) ) at one point that he had to go potty (unsolicited). That was a big step!

I got home during Jack's nap. When he woke up, I put him on the potty as always and put his big boy underwear on him. He was not in a good mood after his nap, and threw a fit the whole time he was on the potty--apparently instead of peeing. Soon after I got him off the potty, he had an accident. I was devastated. I know it seems silly, but I was almost in tears at that point.

It was only 2:00 though, and there was a lot of day left, so I was determined to make the most of it. I'm glad I did because Jack went the rest of the day without an accident!!! *Rejoice*

Today is Friday, and although it is only 12:30 pm, this is the best day yet--Jack is accident-free thus far! I am praying like the dickens that he will continue to improve and grasp the concept and that he will be completely potty trained (except for night time, although it would be okay with me if he were potty trained at night too...but I won't push it...) soon. Please, Lord.

Snow!

Well, if it's going to be cold, it may as well snow!

Sunday Morning

This morning was a powerful one, as Sunday mornings usually are. Everything was normal and great; the only difference was that I received two very vivid (yet brief) visions from God. I know, I probably sound like a lunatic to some of you, but it's not weird stuff; it was actually very cool.

The first was when we were laying hands on someone and praying for her husband and another man in our church who are leaving to encourage some churches in South Korea and Niger. As we all had our eyes closed and were praying, I had a very clear picture of the church. Not the church as in our church, Commonwealth Chapel, but the church in the larger sense: all the followers of Christ. I had a picture in my head of hundreds of different church bodies across the world who were almost certainly gathered at the same time as we were. In my vision, they were all either praying or lifting their arms high in worship. It was inspiring, and it was a really comforting reminder of how many family members we all, as Christians, have. Very cool.

My second vision was less pleasant, but with a good message. All of a sudden, during worship, I had a very clear vision of Jack, my son, on an altar. We were singing a line at the time that goes "...bought with the precious blood of Christ."

I realized that there is no one on the face of this planet, no human being in existence for whom I would allow my son to be killed. No one. And just as Jackson is my only son, Jesus was the only son of God the Father--and unlike myself, God was willing to give up His only son for not just anyone, but everyone. I was suddenly struck by the gravity of that fact; I began to cry just thinking of having to give up Jackson for someone else's sake. I could not bear the very thought of it, and I literally begged God for a full minute to take the image away. I couldn't even handle the thought of giving Jack up; the very thought of it had me in tears. But God did it. For me.

God thought I was worth it. As much as I love my family and friends, I honestly have to say that I cannot think of anyone for whom I would willingly give up Jackson. But God thought I was worthy of his only Son's precious blood. Incredible.




For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16