LCHE Promotion Night 2013

We are so blessed to be a part of an awesome homeschool group at our church.  At the "end" ( I use quotation marks here because who knows when our year really begins and ends) of each school year we have a promotion night for all the children and graduation for the seniors.  I have to say, this year was the best yet that I have been a part of!

Aren't they a motley crew?  All of these guys are all really just as sweet as they can be!  Look at Cam's face!  What a character!

Our fam!  So blessed!

Going to the....

Vet? I know, many of you were thinking my next post was going to be about us "Going to the Lodge".  Well, things don't always go as planned now do they?!  Tuesday afternoon, the kids and I went over to our friends house.  The kids had already had showers and were in their jammies with no shoes.  I looked like a bum, myself.  Leslie and I were chatting while the kids ran wild played nicely.  I missed a call from an unknown number then I saw my neighbor called.  I looked at Leslie and said, "I better listen to the message!  She may be calling to tell me she found my cat."  (Note: I was totally kidding when I said this.  I really thought Bailey was gone for good.)
Lo and behold, our sweet neighbors REALLY had found Bailey!  Bailey had been missing for 50 days.  Yes 50.  He is a totally indoor cat with no front claws.  He turned 11 years years old in March, right around the time he went missing.  We looked for days.  We passed out about 400 flyers.  Searched the woods, the walking trails, the entire neighborhood.  We had just given in to the fact that we would probably never see him again.  We are still in shock that he is alive.
Now, if you're not an animal person, that's ok.  I still love you ;).  But 'round these parts, we ARE animal people.  They are our family and we take care of them!  Bailey needed a lot of medical care.  He spent 2 nights at the vet, has been put under anesthesia twice and will be again on Monday to have his wounds stitched up.  We brought him home for the weekend to give him some extra TLC while administering our own bit of medical care to him here.  He has to have antiseptic of some sort applied to his (open) wounds as well as ointment rubbed on (in) them once a day.  All of which we will do because we love our sweet meow meow and want him to get better!
There is NO telling what this cat has been through over the past 50 days!  I sure wish he could talk to tell us!  He is in pretty good condition considering he had no way to defend himself and no way to get food.  He has some pretty bad wounds on his belly and had (has) maggots due to that BUT his Dr.'s think he's going to be fine.  I am sure he will be a different kitty after all this but we are glad to have him home!
All of that said, we decided to postpone our annual Great Wolf trip.  We planned to leave Wed morning and not knowing what was going to happen with Bailey, I was having a really hard time with the decision.  My sweet boys made it easy for me.  They had a little brotherly talk and decided it was best for us to stay home and make sure Bailey was ok and reschedule our trip.  Gotta love my boys!

Here's Bailey when we first got to the vet on Tuesday.

This is that evening.  Glad to be home!

Yesterday when we got to bring him home.  Poor thing has to wear the cone of shame so he won't lick his belly.

He has to stay confined....so we went and bought some sticky plastic stuff to put on the carpet (to keep the carpet out of the wounds) and made a little barricade in our bedroom.  I sure wouldn't want to be stuck in a bathroom all weekend!

To celebrate our sweet Jordan today, we went to the cemetery and released balloons.  We will take our annual trip to the Great Wolf Lodge next week. 

We enjoyed our time together.  The boys loved celebrating their baby brother and Joss is starting to get an understanding. 

Happy 3rd birthday Jordan.  We love you and miss you like crazy.  But we know you are celebrating with Jesus! 

3 years ago today, I was sitting in a hospital room waiting to go into labor with our sweet Jordan.  3 years.  In some ways it seems like it just happened. There are so many things I will forever remember about that day. The look on the nurses face when she confirmed there was no heartbeat.  The friends that came to see me and prayed over me.  The nurse who took care of me in anti-natal (while I was on bedrest with Camron and Caden) who came to see me. My dr. who came in on his day off to deliver my boy. My husband and mom who stayed with me all day and into the night and listened to the ridiculousness that came out of my mouth and prayed silently and out loud. The feelings I had as that day progressed.  

When a monumental event happens in your life, it obviously impacts you. Stays with you forever. And while these memories aren't exactly "joyous" ones, they are important to me because they lead up to the short time I got to spend with Jordan.    

In the past 3 years, God has put people in my path who I have been able to minister to through their pain.  I'm so grateful for those opportunities and especially for the friendships that have blossomed from them.  

I miss my son every day. There's not a single day that goes by that I don't think of him.  I often wonder who he would look like.  If he'd have my eyes and Daddy-O's lips.  I rest in the fact that even though he was only in my arms for a short while, he is forever in the arms of Jesus.  He will never know the pain or trials of this earth.  And one day we will be reunited and oh, what a glorious day that will be! 

James 1:2-4

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.