Inspiration for Title

Ten years ago this weekend, we almost lost our Jake.
I wrote this post a couple of years ago.
I thought it would be appropriate to repost it today.

* * * * *

I love to decorate our house with inspirational sayings.

 When I saw this sign made out of old barn wood at an antique store in downtown Geneva, I just had to have it! We have it hanging up right in our kitchen.

The reason I am so "into" counting our blessings is because when Jake was a little guy (about 18 months), we almost lost him.
To make a very long story short ... Jake had a very hard first year and a half of his life.


He cried a lot.
And I mean a lot. 

The doctors kept telling me it was colic,
but I knew it was not.
The doctors kept telling me I was spoiling him by nursing him all the time,
but I knew I was not.
The doctors kept telling me that I was a first time mom and that, "babies cry, get used to it."
My friends who were having babies at the same time as me kept telling me that I needed to just let him cry himself to sleep and then all would be magically better,
but I knew they were wrong.

I knew something was wrong with my baby.

I felt alone.

I felt scared.

I felt that maybe I was doing something wrong that was causing my baby to be in so much discomfort.

I felt inadequate.

Jake wouldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time and I was exhausted. (understatement)
 
One day, Jake's cries were different.
I knew something was terribly wrong.
I went to our neighbor's house so I could call the pediatrician.  (we just moved in to our house and we had no phone, not even a cell phone!)
They weren't home.
I remember laying on the floor and crying out to God . . . "LORD, give me a mother's wisdom!"

The next thing I remember was driving Jake to the Emergency Room.  I know that God is real because I was not really driving, He was.  I had never felt the presence of the Lord like I did right then. I didn't even know where the ER was . .. we had just moved into the area.  By the time we arrived, Jake was happy . . . not seeming to be in any discomfort at all.  The waiting room was full and I was sure that we would wait for hours only to hear a doctor telling me that "babies cry".  But to my surprise, they rushed us right in . . . (no waiting!) and I told a doctor Jake's life story and my concerns. The kind, young doctor told me he had just been to a conference on something called "intussusception" (a telescoping of the bowel) and he thought Jake had it. They did a barium enema (yikes!) because it solved the problem 80% of the time. It did not work with Jake so they had to do emergency surgery.

We are very glad that the enema did not work, because the doctors found something they had not suspected.

The bowel had been telescoping so many times in his little life that it had worn a hole that day and toxic waste was leaking into his belly.

"Four more hours would have been too late," they told me.

They took Jake's intestines out of his body and laid them on a table next to him.  They had to cut some of his intestine out and sew it back up. 

Praise God for making me go to the ER and sending us that particular doctor who was willing to hear my story and actually do something about it! (And who had just been to a conference on the very thing Jake had!!) Our pediatrician was so thankful that I could not get a hold of him that day because he said that he would have just told me it was gas ..  .he told me I was very lucky to have that "rookie doctor" treat Jake . . . I think that "rookie doctor" was really an angel . . . Jake's angel.

Praise God for His perfect timing.

(They also found out that my little Jake had been having acute appendicitis attacks ever since birth.  There was so much scar tissue all around his appendix, so they removed that as well.)

Since there was so much toxic poison in Jake's belly that day from the hole in his intestine, he developed a serious infection called C-Def, which was very scary, but we treated that and it finally went away and Jake started sleeping through the night, which was AMAZING for John and me! 
Sleep never felt so sweet.

GOD is in control and my "Count Your Blessings" sign is a constant reminder to me of that awful/wonderful day when I almost lost my Jake.

When I am feeling sad or sorry for myself about something, that sign grabs my attention as if God is saying,

"Look! I have given you wonderful blessings! Enjoy them! Cherish them! . . . Count them!" Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

camp

I'm baaaack!!
And I had a blast.
This is my cabin of lovely girls.
I was so glad to get to know them.
(this picture was taken before our 6:30 am nature walk . . . invigorating!!)

I slept better than I had anticipated. (even though it was only 50 degrees in the cabin!)

The food was good and the best part was that I didn't have to cook it myself and everyone helped clean the tables! :)

The whole trip was very educational. 

It was an outdoor ed program.

Owl pellets.

Bird watching.

Geology.

Animal encounters.

Team building.

Aquatics.

Orienteering.

It was fabulous.

But my favorite part of the whole trip was catching this young man's eye every now and then.

I'm so glad I went.

sweet music

Jake had to skip his baseball game to play in his orchestra concert.
That was hard for him to do, but I'm glad he did.

I must have really been enjoying the music because I totally missed the girl who threw up in her violin.
And I was even sitting in the very front row!!

How did I miss THAT?!

Chicago Sports Day

My Chicago sports fans are happy campers today.
One of John's students gave him tickets to the rematch of the Stanley Cup today. . . and he loaned them some jerseys for the day . . . how nice!! 
(If I had money, I would love to do things like that . . . give things to people. Wouldn't that be fun??)

Go Hawks!!

And, of course, the Bears will be playing the Packers this afternoon.

My boys are Bears fans even though I grew up in the Green Bay area.  People ask me why we don't root for the Packers.  I guess it is because I was never a big football fan.  (I can't even remember ever watching a Packers game)  When Jake came along, he was invited to a few Bears games (thanks Diane!!) and he naturally became a Bears fan . . . I guess I will be happy with either team winning.  :)  They are both great teams.

Anyone Up For A Nerf War??

Watch out!!

There's a war going on here.

A Nerf war, that is.

A very serious Nerf war.

A very fun Nerf war.

John set up the back yard with obstacles and places to hide. (aka the "war zone")
Jake and some friends played "capture the flag" with Nerf guns.
What a blast!
And it was free!!!
What could be better??

Anyone else up for a Nerf war??

Can it Be??

Can it be eleven years since I went to the hospital at 6 in the morning to deliver my first baby??

Could it have possibly been that long??

Eleven years???

Really??

Jake is such a blessing to me.
He is honest,
full of integrity,
loyal to his friends/family,
dedicated to his schoolwork and his sports,
friendly to the friendless,
compassionate to those who are less fortunate,
sympathetic with the broken hearted,
and, most importantly, deeply in love with his Savior.

I am truly so proud to be his mother and I do not take any credit for how amazing he is.

God has a purpose for this young man and I am so privileged to be a part of his life.Happy Eleventh Birthday to my sweet, sweet Jake.

"For you created my inmost being: you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Ps. 139:13-14

Always Pray and Never Give Up

Yesterday, my 10-year-old son, Jake, had a baseball game.
He pitched great, but he was not happy at all with his hitting. 
Actually, he was downright sad, mad, and depressed about it . . .

When I was putting him to bed, he looked at me and said,

"Mom, the thing that bothers me the most was that I was praying so hard that God would let me hit the ball really well and He never answered me."

Silence . . .

I explained to him that God heard his prayer, but for some reason was not wanting to let that happen.

We didn't have our usual book to read that night since we had already finished it, so I pulled a random book off the bottom shelf of his bookcase.  At first, he said he didn't want me to read it, but I opened it anyway.  It was a book  of stories that went along with parables in the Bible that my mom had given to Jake. I was curious to see what it was like.

I started reading.

I turned to a story about a girl who had been praying for something and God just didn't seem to be answering her. 

(um . . .hello!)

Jake was very interested now . . .

I continued reading about how this little girl waited and waited and kept on praying until God finally did answer her prayer.  He answered her prayer in a way that was different than how she had everything planned out, but it turned out to be for the best and she was very happy.

The parable that it paralleled was the "Parable of the Persistent Widow" (I didn't remember ever reading about this, so I looked it up)  It is found in Luke 18.  (verses 1 -8) A persistent person is someone who never gives up.  The woman in this parable had a problem that she wanted a mean and selfish judge to solve for her.  She kept on asking him about this problem until the judge got so tired of the woman bothering him that he did what she wanted.  If a selfish judge would help someone just to get rid of the person, how much more will God help his own children? 

God wants us to keep talking to Him about the things that worry and bother us. 

He cares about us very much and He never gets tired of hearing from us.

These verses tell us not to give up hope. 

We should keep believing and keep praying. 

It is wonderful to know that all of our prayers are being heard.  Our good Lord is always listening.

 

Always.

He will do what is best when the time is right.

Jake felt better just knowing that God wanted me to read that book to him at the right moment.  His cute freckled face was smiling just knowing that God was speaking to him at that moment and all was well. 
He was asleep within minutes.

Here is the book that I read to him . . . It was written by James Dobson and his daughter, Danae.

Attributes of God

The other night, Jake was working on an interesting assignment for school.

He had to come up with as many attributes of God as he could.

I was delighted to see how much Jake enjoyed this task. I could see that he was actually worshipping God as he was thinking of these different attributes.

He sat at the kitchen table so happily working. He kept singing Christian songs that he always hears on the radio (K-Love) and at church because they reminded him of more attributes. I think he did a lovely job.

:)

Here are some closer shots so you can actually read some of them.

Bittersweet

I always get a little bit sad when my babies go back to school.

I would like it if I could have them by my side forever and always.

Last year, I home schooled Caroline and it was lovely, but now it is time for her to go back. It makes me so very happy to see them with their buddies. Is it just me, or does Caroline look so much older??

(check out her new kickers . . . she adores them!!)

Luke will be starting pre-K next week. I'll have to admit that I am pretty excited that I will have two and one half hours to myself four days a week.

What will I do??

:)