Thursday, December 27, 2007

Childress Update

Hey everyone! The past few days have been a blur with everything going on with Joe and Lori. Here are the lastest updates from today. God is sustaining that little girl and her mommy and daddy.
There are some praises today! Jessie is holding steady. They took her urinary catheter out this morning, which is typical to avoid infection. The blood cultures look good-so no infection!!!! Her blood gases look good-so she is getting proper oxygen!!! And her BP is holding steady and they said this was miraculous!!!!!! Thank you Lord! Your prayers are working friends!! God is listening and answering! The pain is still a major concern. They can't seem to get it under control. So they still can't move her and now they have to change diapers. They can't do any testing to see if the surgery worked either. Lori asked that we please pray for these two things specifically. THAT the pain would be taken care of and that she won't have to have the other surgery. Lori said it was very difficult to see her. She was able to put up all the scriptures that you sent. So thank you!!
Lori called a little bit ago and she was on her way home from seeing Jessie. There are some more praises!!! Apparently the update that I gave you earlier today was what she was told last night. So it seems that they have gotten Jessie's pain under control! This is such a relief for Joe and Lori as you can imagine! They did an x-ray of her lungs today and the right upper lobe looked hazy. So they think fluid may be collecting there. So another thing to pray for. Pneumonia develops very easily with this.
Thank you all for praying along with us! God is listening and He answers our prayers:)

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Update on the Childress'

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you held your little ones tight today.

I was able to talk to Lori last night and Laura this morning. Friends, they are so devastated. There aren't words for what Joe and Lori are feeling right now. They can't even think or pray. They are counting on us for that. They are still in shock yet it is really sinking in.

Jessie was able to have the surgery last night and here is the email from Laura this morning:

Thanks so much for praying. Lori just called with an update - Jesse made it through the night, praise God! Lori shared with me she is counting on our prayers for Jesse and to bear their burden. They are very distressed and exhausted. Lori is torn between getting used to caring for Addie's needs and her apnea monitor, caring for Macy and wanting to be with Jesse now. Since Jesse will be immobilized by the medically induced coma and ventilator this week, the doctors are encouraging Joe and Lori to get as much rest as possible because things may get very critical again when they try to get her off the ventilator. So, please be praying God will give them supernatural strength & refreshment, and that His nearness would be their good. I know you all are praying for Jesse's healing and recovery as well. Thank you again!!! We want to serve them well, but are limited by the cautions they have received by the NICU to avoid germs. We would like to arrange meals three days a week for them. They will have a cooler on the porch for the meals to be placed into, but we are asking everyone to just leave the dinners in the cooler without coming inside or visiting with Lori. As much as she would like the fellowship and encouragement, she understandably doesn't want to risk Addie catching a virus. Please send notes with scriptures and prayers for them! Lindsey will be contacting you again about meals, and you can email her if you are able to serve them on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday. I know many of you have made multiple meals over the last several months, and I want to thank you!!!! I'll link a map to their home w/ their address to send cards to. Please use the map to bring their dinners to their home so we don't need to call them for directions.http://maps.google.com/maps?li=rwp&q=3503+Arklow+Rd,+Charlotte,+NC+28269
I know many of you are saddened by what has happened. It's a paradox to be celebrating Christmas with our happy children while they are suffering so isn't it? Lori and I talked about what a comfort it is to have friends just walking through trials with you, even if they can't fix anything or help in substantial ways. Just knowing we truly, deeply care and are praying means everything to them. And God is at work - always for His glory, always for His good. And His glory IS our good. With love,Laura

So friends, please continue to pray. Michelle and I will be fasting this week, so I will let you all know when so you can participate if you want to.
May God receive all the glory,
Lindsay

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas


Jeremy, Gracie, Piper, Reilly, and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May celebrating the Birth of our Savior fill you with hope and joy tomorrow. We love you all!

Please Pray

Hey Everyone. I realize many people probably aren't checking blogs on Christmas Eve, but if you are please pray. Joe and Lori Childress' baby girl is fighting for her life right now. Jessie, the smaller twin went in this morning for a very routine surgery, a 10 minute one to get a feeding tube inserted. Then she was going to get to come home on Thursday. When they went in for surgery they perforated her esophagus. They spent several hours working on her and she was without oxygen for a while. They have been trying to stabilize her all day. She needs another major surgery to fix the tear. They have called in three surgeons to do it. In the meantime her lungs have been filling up with fluid which is causing infection. very bad! So they can't even do the surgery until she is stable enough. The surgery is very complicated and MAJOR. They have to open up her chest to get to the area they need to fix. It is supposed to take about 4 hours.
As you can imagine, Joe and Lori are devastated. They are at Jessie's side now. Please pray for their baby girl and them as well. This is obviously the hardest roadblock they have hit, although they have hit many. They are such faithful prayer warriors and I know Lori spent all afternoon on her knees.
Our God is sufficient and He will be glorified!
Thank you for caring and praying for them.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Pictures are In!

Back row-Abbie (sis),My Dad, My Mom, Meemaw (Dad's Mom), Mimi (Mom's mom)
Second Row-Jeremy, Gracie,Piper, Me, Lauren (sis), Tristen (niece), Chris (bro in law)
oh and baby Bella- in Lauren's belly:)


My family has wanted to get pictures done with all four generations for a few years. But we've been procrastinating! So I told mom I was going to call Jason right then. Here are the results! Jason, you ROCK!!!!

I have been trying to add them for a few days. There is a slideshow below and to the side. Thank you for letting me share them with you!

Check out my Slide Show!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Busy Baking


Well this is a nice picture, but she ended up eating ALL that green icing
Gracie, Jackson, and Lucas
Um, yeah. There is a cookie under there

The girls have been busy the past two days baking. First it was our annual baking day at Nanny's and then today was our preschool party where we baked again.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Pray for my girlies

Hey all, Can I ask you to pray for my little girlies? They both had double ear infections three weeks ago and I took them in for rechecks today. Actually I was just taking Piper cause her ears usually don't clear up the first round of antibiotics. And sure enough, she still has one infected ear. And my sweet Dr offered to check Gracie's ears too and I said, "I think she's fine but sure you can check," and sure enough she still has one infected ear too. So now they are on high powered antibiotics again:( I imagine this one will tear their little stomachs up since the last one did.
Thankfully they are doing pretty well. You wouldn't know there was anything wrong. Piper is restless at night and had a little fever this morning, that's why I decided today was the day to take her in:) But I would appreciate prayers for their ears to heal this time. Thank you faithful friends!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Honor

Well, it has continued to be crazy around here so I haven't been able to blog as much. So this is rather late in coming, I have wanted to honor these ladies for a few weeks.
I posted a help please email a few weeks ago for a dear friend Lori. She had 30 week old twin girls who are in the NICU and was in need of breast milk for them. She wasn't making enough herself and it costs $8 an ounce to buy it from the milk bank!!! That's $350 a day! So I just asked for this odd thing, "Can anyone donate any milk to these babies?" Well God always answers and this was no exception. Jessica Moore, Holly Morales, and Erika Dahl graciously agreed to pump for Lori!!!!! I mean, they quickly responded to my email! Jess called me and we had some tears over how God was moving women to care for another family in this way. I am so humbled by their sacrifice. These three ladies are nursing their own babies and then pumping for Jessie and Addie. This is certainly no walk in the park people! All you women are saying Amen about now:) What a gift! They are sustaining life for another woman's children:) Each week they bring their milk to me at church frozen. How kind of them! So I just wanted you all to be encouraged as you see God meet needs like this! And thank these women if you see them for their care for the Childress family. THANK YOU SERVANTS OF THE LORD!!! Love you all:)
Oh and Addie is home from the hospital!!! She came home on Saturday! Please pray for Joe, Lori and Macy as they adjust. Addie requires alot of care. Lots of meds and a 24 hour heart monitor. It is taking almost two hours to do one cycle of feeding, pumping, and giving meds and that's only for one baby! Then throw Macy into the mix as she is getting used to her baby sister.
Jessie will come home as soon as she learns how to eat enough out of the bottle. She has a cleft palate and they have had trouble finding a bottle she will take and then getting her to eat enough. Pray that she can get home soon!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Update

Gracie Girl
What your mom posts when you won't smile!
Oops!

I haven't been writing as much lately. I guess we have been really busy? Life has seemed like a whirlwind! So I thought I would just update you all. Like the stuff I should have written on the Christmas card but didn't think up till it was already done:)

So here goes,

Gracie- she is just so precious to us. Almost every night after we put her to bed, Jeremy and I look at each other and say just that, she is so precious. She helps me so much. With Piper, Reilly, around the house. She is just so sweet and caring. She loves to be right there with me, whatever I am doing. I sure do cherish that. She loves to do crafts and bake. This week she decided to potty train Piper:) She has been putting her on the potty alot and actually got her to pee pee in it once. I'm not sure I'm ready for this, so we'll just see what happens. She is starting to ask questions about educational things, like what each letter is. She has cared nothing about this the whole year. That's been fun.

Piper, Piper, Piper-what a trip! This kid is full force all the time. Almost two, so in to everything:) She is really struggling with some bad ezcema. Hopefully we will have that under control soon. She is starting to put words together for sentences. Thank you Lord! It makes life much simpler when they can tell you what they need. It is so cute to hear her little words. I don't really like correcting the "uh huh" with "yes ma'am" cause the "uh huh" is sooooo cute. I know, I know. She loves for mommy to hold her still. And that's fine with me. She is not into getting her picture taken anymore:( So don't expect anymore cheesin out of her:) There is much training that needs to take place, gotta buckle down! Love this adorable little one. She is really changing quickly.

Jeremy is knee deep in work. Actually his full time job is a little slow, thank goodness. The side jobs are in full swing. Today they came out and staked off the footprints for a few of the houses. Yeah!! We are so excited to get started. Please pray for all J has on his plate. He does such a great job managing it all. But it is a ton to juggle. I don't see how he does it all.

I am still battling the migraines. But I have faith they are going to get better. There have been two weeks this past month that I only had one. That is improvement. My kinesiologist says to give it two more months and we should really have some progress. So I am hopeful.

We are excited about the church plant and feel a strong call to stay at CrossWay. We can't wait to see what God is going to do in us and through us. We hope He uses us mightily in our church. I really appreciated Mickey's message on Sunday. Wow what pastors we have! I love their perspective and how they are helping us walk through this.

We have been thoroughly enjoying this awesome weather. I don't mind that it's almost Christmas and 80 degrees. Fine with me! I just imagine that is what it would be like if I were in Hawaii for Christmas.
My sister Abbie is going to Appalachian to get her masters in education. She just graduated from Gardner-Webb.
Reilly, our dog, is a keeper! The girls don't know yet that she is ours. Jeremy is making them wait till Christmas to find out. I am trying to adjust still to all the hair. And having another body in the house:) She is so sweet and an excellent dog. God was so kind to give her to us!
I want to buckle down this week and get some Christmas stuff done with the girls. Baking, gingerbread house, nativity,... still have to bake at Nanny's, whew I am going to be busy! But it will be great fun:)

That's all for now!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

12 Days of Christmas

I was doing research for my preschool lesson last night and I came across this about the song The 12 Days of Christmas...
It originated during the middle ages when Catholics were persecuted for their faith. They came up with this song to teach Children about God.
True love refers to God, me refers to the baptized, and the partridge in the pear tree refers to Jesus!!
2 turtle doves- The old and new testaments
3 French horns- Faith, Hope, and Charity
4 Calling Birds- the four gospels
5 Golden rings- The first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, which gives the history if mans fall from grace
6 Geese-a-laying- the six days of creation
7 Swans a-swimming- the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the 7 sacraments
8 Maids a- milking- the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing- the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords a-leaping- the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping- the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming- the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed


Hmmm, guess I'll think differently of this song from now on:) Have any of you heard this?

Saturday, December 8, 2007

A Little Game

I was supposed to do this for Juli a few weeks ago.. Since today is her birthday!! I'll do it today!

1. Jesus or Santa- Jesus of course, but we do have santa stuff here at our house
2. Egg nog or hot chocolate- Hot chocolate
3. White lights or colored ones- White all the way. It's soooo classic!
4. Do you hang mistletoe- nope
5. Do you hang a wreath- yes on my front and side doors
6. Do you hang garland- yes, outside on the porch
7. When do you put up your decor- The Sat after Thanksgiving
8. What's your favorite holiday dish- we started doing filets, potatoes, and salad on Christmas, all of which I love
9. What's your favorite memory as a child- I used to read the Polar Express to my sisters and then we would all sleep in the same bed. And we would get up super early.
10. When did you find out Santa wasn't real- WHAT??? I still believe....
11. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve- No
12. How do you decorate your tree- It is mostly silver and red- balls and ornaments. Then ornaments we have been given through the years.
13. Snow- love it or hate it- Love it.
14. Can you ice skate- Yes
15. Do you remember your favorite gift- I have very fond memories of many Christmases but a piano, nintendo, and the pearl ring Jeremy got me the year Gracie was born top the list
16. What is the most important thing about this holiday to you?- Spending time with our families and making sure that my girls know about Jesus and why He came
17. Favorite holiday dessert- anything chocolate
18. Favorite holiday tradition- Baking at moms with my sisters and daughters and niece
19.What tops your tree- A globe with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus inside
20. Do you prefer giving or receiving- I love giving but I can't lie, I love opening presents too
21. Favorite Christmas Song- Mary Did you Know
22. Do you like Candy Canes- a little
23. Are they gone by Christmas- if the girls know about them:)
24. Do you think Christmas is too commercialized?-Absolutely. Have you all heard about the push to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas and sell family trees instead of Christmas trees? ABSURD!!! At Lowe's the sign actually says family trees.

Whew! Anybody wanna play along?

Thursday, December 6, 2007

My Favorite Christmas Song

I got tagged this week to tell you my favorite Christmas song. Jessica and I share the same one! It's Mary Did you Know. When I was in highschool we had a live nativity at our church every year and I was Mary. When this song was played I immediately thought about what it would be like to be Mary, carrying the beloved baby Jesus. My aunt is an incredible singer and she too would sing it every year at church. Now that I have my own two precious little ones I think even more about what Mary must have felt carrying my Savior. What a task, what trust she had.
So if you are ever around me and this song is on, cover your ears. I always belt it out, and I can't sing a lick:)

Mary Did you Know?
Mary did you know, that your baby boy would one day walk on water
Did you know, that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters
Did you know that your baby boy would come to make you new
That this child that you delivered would soon deliver you

Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man
Did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod
And when you kiss your little baby you have kissed the face of God

Mary did you know
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
And the dead will live again
The lame will leap again
The dumb will speak
The praises of the lamb

Mary did you know
That your baby boy is Lord of all creation
Did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect lamb
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the GREAT I AM

This song in essence, is what Christmas means to me.
What is your favorite Christmas song?

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Sin and Grace

During worship at Care Group on Sunday night one of the men shared something from Spurgeon. It went something like this... Our sin is very serious but God's grace is abundant. He compared our sin to a grain of sand and God's grace to the ocean!!! How awesome that my sin is like a little speck but God's grace is as vast as the whole ocean. I hope this encourages all of you today.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Gracie's Birthday Party

Nanny and Piper
Presents galore, Faith and Rhiannon
Some of the gang:) Ellie, Faith, Jackson, Gracie, Logan, Rhiannon, Pipey
Da boys
Finish it off with Pinata time!


We had so much fun today celebrating Gracie girl's birthday! We love to make a big deal out of their birthdays. Each year the Lord gives us with our children is such a gift we DON'T deserve! I was telling Gracie the other day I couldn't believe she was going to be four and I was saying it sadly. She said, "Mommy, you may not complain." Well at least she is listening to something I am trying to teach her! What a blessing each day is with my Gracie!

Gracie's Birthday Party

Gracie's buddy Logan
First, you get a tattoo like the Doodlebops have on their hand
Then you make your pledge flag for the Doodlebop pledge
After the pledge, it's cake time! They all sang to Gracie with their microphones:)
Sisterly love! and Logan!

Gracie's Birthday Party

Daddy wanted to make Gracie's cake. So here they all are mixin!
He waited on his mom to start the icing!
Yes, he made it with no molds! He cut that schoolbus out all by himself!
The finished product

Gracie turns four tomorrow!!