Don't Worry Be Happy!

Jason was still in the hospital on Father's Day so we couldn't do our traditional breakfast in bed. He couldn't even eat anything! He had requested some pictures of the kids to put in the room so I thought I would get those there for Father's Day. In fact, I found a great deal on a digital picture frame. The only problem was that I have not had a good picture taken of J.R. since he was 3 and Joel since we had his blessing pictures taken. I have felt terrible but we haven't really had the money to do professional pictures like I always have for most of my kids and I kept having things come up on the days they were doing school pictures so I didn't get them over there either.

The plan was to take the kids to the hospital to see their dad with balloons, the picture frame, a book and homemade cards. But, I had to get pictures of Joel and J.R. first. So, I grabbed my camera and took them to my parent's backyard. J.R. was easy. Within a few shots in each pose I knew we had gotten decent shots.

Joel on the other hand was another story! I took so many shots of him and was not sure what I was getting. One minute, he would give me a completely cheesy grin, the next minute he wouldn't even look at me, he would not stay in place part of the time, he was teasing me part of the time, he even started to cry a couple of times. I left hoping that I had at least gotten one shot that would work for Jason's picture frame. But, when I looked at the pictures I just had to laugh. I had captured Joel's personality on film! Many of the faces he was pulling are the faces he pulls daily. He can change emotions quickly and he makes us laugh everyday. I loaded these pictures into a slide show in the order they were taken and yes he can go from crying in one shot and smiling in the next! I think I got some decent pictures what do you think?

As for a quick update on Jason, he is home now after being in the hospital for 14 days! He has a PICC line for nutrition and antibiotics and we have a home health nurse coming to our house. He had a doctors appointment yesterday and everything looks great. He will have a CAT scan of his pancreas on Monday and a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. If all goes well he will have surgery to take his gall bladder out on Wednesday. They will keep him overnight to see if he can tolerate solid foods yet and if he can they will take the PICC line out and we can move on with our lives. I'm so happy to have him home!

Prayers and Rainbows

My Jason could use some prayers this week. Tuesday evening he was suddenly very ill. He left work only to find himself throwing up for about three hours straight before we took him to the emergency room. There they found that he has pancreantitis. Which means his pancreas is inflammed and it is caused by his gall bladder. Apparently a gallstone has blocked a duct in the pancreas. They need to do surgery but can't do it until his infection goes down. Sadly, while his infection has gone down his white blood cell count is going up and there is fluid around his lungs. He can't eat or drink until the pancreas is doing better either so he has had nothing since Tuesday. He is in alot of pain and would love a drink of water. Please pray that he can get through this quickly.

Yesterday, When I was heading back to the hospital I saw the most beautiful rainbows. There was a bright full rainbow with another lighter full arch right above it. It seemed like both ends were touching the ground not too far away. I took a picture on my phone but it doesn't do it justce. I love the feeling of hope and promise I feel when I see a rainbow. This one was so beautiful it gave me hope that today would be a better day for Jason.

Have I Seen His Hand In My Life?

My family has seen many challenging times over the last 5 years. Sometimes it is frustrating. Sometimes I wonder what it is I still need to learn. But, there have been many times that I can look back on situations that have been very difficult and YES, I have definitely seen his hand in my life. I heard this message and began recording some of these experiences but, I don't always do a good job of recording them regularly. I am going to make a renewed effort to do this. I would never go back to those times in my life when things were so much more simple and give up the many things I have learned through seeing his hand in my life. What a blessing it is to have this testimony!