We are finding that Harrison is a very spirited little guy…which can be great in the sense of having a lot of passion for something. Right now, though, we are trying to navigate through some tough waters of some behaviors that are not so great. At church tonight I was in the nursery and we had a record attendance, probably because of the nicer weather outside. So picture many, many kids, lots of noise and commotion…okay, chaos. 
At one point Harrison was standing on TOP of the little picnic table and the Children’s Ministry Director who was helping out was trying to get him down. He woudln’t get down very easily (in fact it was more like he would look at us, grit his teeth and grunt…not good), even for me, and then would just climb back up. Sometimes he really doesn’t care what anyone tells him. We’re working on that.
At another point I was holding an upset little girl, and Harrison was also wanting my attention and starting to whine a little. I hesitated getting him up on my lap, too, but finally did. He then proceeded to lean on the little girl and give her a big hug while patting her back. For a moment, I forgot all about his bad behaviors. I want to foster that compassion in him no matter what and help him to keep that in his heart forever, knowing that that compassion and spirit will lead him down the right path.
We’ve been busy here lately. My parents were here this past weekend to help with some things that I wanted to get done before my upcoming trip in February. Some cleaning, some organizing, some errand running… Now I need to start packing. Yes, it will take me two weeks to get everything organized and folded the right way to fit into the bags that I am going to be taking. I am getting very excited…and a little anxious…about leaving. I am very excited for what God is going to do in my life and everyone else’s who is going.
We are reading a book before we go on the trip called Unveiled At Last by Bob Sjogren. It has really opened my eyes to some things. He talks about a top line (being blessed by God) and a bottom line (turning around and blessing others through God), and how a lot of teachings only emphasize the top line, and not how to be a blessing.
“Obviously, if I’m focusing on the top line of the covenant only and saying, ‘I repent and receive the blessings of salvation, so God bless me, God bless us, God bless my family, God bless our church, God bless my community,’ I’ve missed half of Christianity. The other half of Christianity is turning around with that blessing and reaching out cross-culturally to the world.” Sjogren ***and in my opinion, reaching out to a neighbor right next door or down the street
“Fill in the blank. ‘Be still and…’ That’s right, ‘know that I am God.’ Most Christians know that pretty well. That’s because it refers to what part of the covenant? Of course, the top line. But how about the next half of the verse; do you know what it is? ‘I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.’ As we should have expected, the bottom line. Most Christians can easily quote the beginning of Psalm 46:10, but they have no idea what the rest of the verse is. Why? They have been brought up under an A>B Christianity…a Christianity that emphasizes how God has blessed us but leaves off the bottom-line responsibility ‘to be a blessing’.” Sjogren
Stuff to think about…
Somehow he did this all by himself…
Harrison has a little play cell phone that has a mirror on it when you open it up, and lately when I’m changing his diaper, he’ll hold it up to his face and look at himself in the mirror. He’ll make faces at himself and then laugh really hard; it is so cute. He’ll sniff his nose really hard and then put his mouth into an “o” and then get a surprised look on his face, all while looking at himself in the mirror. One day he was doing this and I was trying not to laugh, but I couldn’t help it. He looked at me and then started laughing really hard. It is too cute!
He is jabbering all the time and is starting to say some more words. When we were home for Christmas, he would say dog, Roscoe (that’s the name of my brother’s dog andyou could tell he was trying to say it), and you could tell he was trying to say grandma or grandpa. When he was sick he wouldn’t say anything, so I’m trying to work with him some again to get him to try some more words.
Yes, people, that is FIVE out of SIX windows in Kelly’s truck that were broken out with a hammer, which by the way, was left inside the truck. The police now have it and we are hoping they can find some fingerprints on it. Who knows…it’s worth a try. The cop kept asking us “Are you sure you don’t have anyone mad at you?” Uh, not that we know of! And of course, we don’t have comprehensive coverge on the truck- it’s 10 years old and definitely has some dents and scratches, etc…
We got some estimates and the highest was $1500, but more than $600 of that was for the smallest window. Go figure. Kelly called around and found a used one for $100 and is going to get that in the QC right now. The people that we ended up going with found some used side windows for us, too, and we’ll get a new windshield and back window, so it should be a lot more reasonable than $1500, but still expensive!
We’re just kind of mad. I think that’s all I can say right now. Just mad. I don’t know who would have done this…I’m sure it was random, but SO frustrating. This is actually the third time we’ve had a window broken out (2 were at our other house) and it was just one window each time. But FIVE!! Kelly wants to put a sign out in the yard that says “YOU MISSED ONE!” but that might just be asking for it.
Wow…what a week. You may have thought we changed blogs and didn’t tell anyone, but we’re still here. We’ve had one sick little boy. We got home last Tuesday evening and on Wednesday he started acting like he was getting a cold. By Thursday he had a fever and a bad cough. I was giving him breathing treatments, which will usually make it better, but it wasn’t. I “slept” in the recliner with him for 2 or 3 nights…by Friday night I called the on-call doctor and she thought it sounded like croup. He kind of always has that sound because of his laryngomalacia, but this was worse. I took him in on Sat. morning and she gave him a different breathing treatment just for croup, which seemed to help, and a prescription for a steriod, which helps his throat tissue.
By Sunday night, he was worse and needed another breathing treatment for the croup, which they can only do in the office or ER because they have to monitor them. So, we headed to the ER. By Monday morning he still had a high fever- the 5th day. So we headed back to the Dr. office where we found out he now has an ear infection in both ears. He developed that since Saturday. So, he’s now on an antibiotic, too.
It was so hard to see him so sick. By Sunday he was so lethargic and not himself…he’s usually full of energy. The doctor said the infection was causing the fever, obviously, but that the fever was making his croup worse, which made his breathing really hard. This was also made worse because of his throat condition. I think it’s the first time since having him that I felt scared and not sure what to do.
He is much better today…not fully healed yet, but getting there. I was just glad to see him smile today for the first time in days. Hopefully we’ll be able to get caught up here in the next few days. I still have luggage and a bunch of stuff on our extra bed from our trip… luckily I did laundry before we came home, otherwise we’d be pretty stinky.
Oh yeah, and the day we got back my computer died. The keyboard sparked whenever I tried turning it on. I’m using one of Kelly’s work computers right now, so I don’t have access to my pictures or that stuff right now. Hopefully we’ll get some from Christmas up soon, but not exactly sure when that will be. Welcome to 2008!
