I Feel Like a Stuffed Turkey

So besides being up at 5am this morning because I no longer am able to sleep, I also feel like a big overstuffed turkey just waddling around. This pregnancy has made me feel bigger than my first and what's scary is that I still have about 15 weeks to go - so I'm only going to keep getting bigger. That's sort of scary!!

But it is Thanksgiving! So I am thankful that I am housing a growing baby for a few more months even though I will be a sight to see with a huge gut leading the way. And I am thankful that my house is warm right now (although some might say it's still cold as we don't set our thermostat for 70 - it is set for a  few degrees below this). And I have a family who loves each other. And that Tony is such a good dad to Ava and his son already.

Fun story - on Sunday we had a sort of mini thanksgiving lunch after church at home. And Tony was showing Ava the wishbone and explained to her the whole wish thing and whoever gets the bigger piece when it breaks, yada yada yada. So it breaks. And Ava gets the small piece. And just when it looks like she might cry, Tony says "Do you want to know what I wished for?" So she says yes and he says, "I wished that your wish would come true." And boy, did she just light up and smile. What a wonderful daddy who just saved the day and made her day! So Ava was BEAMING and smiles at us and says "Oh good because I wished to be a fairy!" Oh jeez - didn't see that coming. So even though Ava won't turn into a fairy ever, Tony gave her a great moment.

But the 1 thing I am most thankful for (if I had to pick just one) is that "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." - John 3:16-17. Isn't that remarkable? That God SO LOVED the world - SO LOVED. Not just cared for or like the world, but SO LOVED. And when I think of all the rotten things I have done in my life, I am THANKFUL. And grateful. And humbled. And ashamed even. Because I have done and continue to do rotten things. But He did it anyway, even knowing all this. So I am thankful.

Now that I have a child, I could never in my whole life imagine sending my one child as a ransom for the sins of the world. My sinful self sees other sinful people and I think, "No way would I give my one child away to die for so and so." Especially then if no one cares about the sacrifice later and forgets all about. Or says it really didn't happen - NO WAY would I give my child up to do this when so many people would reject it or ignore it. But God is not me. And God SO LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . . wow. That is the best thing ever. And that has to be the number one thing I am thankful for - how could it not?

Everyone please have a wonderful thanksgiving! And give thanks for the Lord is good. And I am so excited that my family is here and we are already enjoying the next few days together. And I will get to see a friend tomorrow who I haven't seen in years! Literally - years! Wow - what a wonderful Thanksgiving :)

"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms." Psalm 95:1-2

-Emily

Drugs or no drugs?

The cold weather is upon us and I am bracing for Ava to, once again, have her asthma start flaring up. Every year around this time she starts coughing - she will sometimes throw up from coughing so hard, sounds like it is difficult for her to breathe and of course all of this happens at night so I don't tend to get much sleep because I'm just waitng to hear her cough and need help.

Every year around this time I start her on her Singulair, QVAR, and albueterol to try and prevent it from getting worse. Every year, even though she uses these meds, it gets worse - she has coughing attacks, we end up going to the doctor, and she usually starts to run a temp because she gets an infection, or she gets strep throat. And every year I tell her doctor, "I don't really see that the medications help her that much when she's coughing." To which he smiles at me and says, "well she would be much worse if you didn't give them to her."

Last year, she was having such a bad time coughing and breathing, I put her in the car to drive to the emergency room. When we went back to the doctor, I again told him the meds weren't working well and he told me to keep using them. I also notice the meds make her more moody and irriated - she's typically a very happy girl.

So now we are in THIS YEAR. And it is my first time using my oils on her for her asthma. Two nights ago, she started coughing - the kind of coughing where I would normally grab her inhalers, give her some honey, and if it still didn't work, I've put her in a steamy shower to help open her up and pray like you wouldn't believe. Well, I just bought a bottle of oil called RC which is a blend of a few oils including eucalyptus, pine, marjoram, lavendar, and peppermint. I dilute two drops in my hand with about 4 drops of grapeseed oil and rub it on her chest and back. Two nights ago, when she started coughing, I put some in my diffuser in her room and I kid you not - within 7 minutes she was done coughing. All night I kept waiting for it to start up again (because it ALWAYS starts up again). And it didn't. She slept like a log until 7am. I put some more on her chest in the morrning along with some thieves oil on her feet and sent her off to school. So I was quite impressed and I'm hoping it continues to work as well for the rest of this fun asthma season.

The bottle of RC was $22. A jar of grapeseed oil is maybe $5. Ava's Singulair costs me $147 for 30 5mg tablets. Her QVAR is around $45 and her albuterol I think is $15. So $22 plus a jar of grapeseed oil? I will keep using it. Because so far, it has worked far better than those meds. And I'm actually crying as I'm writing this because so many times in the past few years, we have struggled to buy these meds. And when a doctor tells you to get them because they will help, I bought them. And sometimes I could only buy one or two of them because I couldn't afford all of them and I would cry because I felt like a terrible mom who couldn't provide something her child needed. I always asked for samples at the doctor and sometimes they would have some to give me. I spoke with the doctor about the cost of the pills and they gave me numbers to places that maybe could help me. But they couldn't because it was based on income. So Tony and I would feel stuck because we didn't qualify for anything low-income but it's not that we made so much money that I could just go buy any prescription Ava needed. I was finally successful with one of the meds when I sent a form to Merck and they sent me a years worth of Singulair for free last year so that helped quite a bit with the cost.

So again, I praise the Lord for helping us and I'm hopeful these oils will continue to work well. Because the meds sure didn't impress me with their effectiveness for Ava in the 3 years we've used them. And the preventative meds she had, I made sure we followed how they were supposed to be used but she would still have horrible coughing attacks, strained breathing, etc. Maybe some people have had great results with the meds - I'm glad for you. And I will continue to monitor Ava to see how these oils work this season. But so far, so good. And at the end of this cold season, I will report my findings!

-Emily

The Boy

So as many of you know, we are having a boy (Tony actually did a sort of reflex fist pump during the ultrasound - I say it was a reflex because he has said, "It just happend - I didn't even mean to do it"). He was also very excited when we found out we were having a girl with our first pregnancy so don't go thinking we prefer one gender over the other - does not matter to us in the slightest. The Lord will give us what we need to be given.

I felt we really tried to prepare Ava that the baby "will either be a boy or a girl - we don't get to pick." Anytime she would say "maybe it will be a girl," I always replied with "we don't know, we can't pick, it may be a boy, God will give us what we are supposed to have," etc. So when the day came where Ava heard It's a Boy! from the lovely ultrasound technician, she responded with "he can sleep in the office." So, I'm thinking she was really hoping for a sister. Her face just said it all - she was not planning for a brother.

I think I sort of get her hesitancy. I didn't grow up with brothers and I don't know much about males other than what I've observed from people around me and from what I know from Tony. I know about girls - I am a girl so that's my specialty. But, never fear! We have an expert in our home to help! Tony is a male! So this is actually perfect and takes so much pressure off me to know how to teach someone "guy" things. Now, in all seriousness, I love that God made man and woman. What a perfect design. When I think of Tony, I love that he is strong, protective, masculine, chivalrous, etc. It just warms my heart and brings me comfort knowing he protects our family and just loves us. He brings so much to our home that I can't bring simply because I'm a girl and we're different. I am really looking forward to having a son and to raise him with Tony to be a good man who loves the Lord. Wow - what a big responsibility having children is?! All of the things you have to think of - so much responsibility! But the Lord is guiding us and as long as we stay focused on Him, we will be on the right path.

Now, Ava is getting more excited every day and warming up to the idea of a brother. She took all of the ultrasound pictures and taped them on the wall in our dining room. She has now felt her brother kicking which she laughed and smiled and thought was just great. She has even seen some toys that she thinks he would like and has said, "maybe we can get that for the boy." THE BOY - so that is apparently what she is calling him now. She does give my belly a hug everyday and say, "I'm giving the baby a hug" so she is coming around. We have talked about what we will need to teach him and she lit right up and had a ton of ideas.

I can't wait for Ava to meet her brother. Other than Tony and the staff who will be there deliving the baby, Ava will be the first one to see him in our family. It only seems right for us to do it this way. Our little family. I love having a family.

Ava will love him - and he will love her. And Tony and I love them so much it just fills my heart and sometimes I get tears in my eyes. What wonderful gifts we have been given to cherish and love and teach (among many other things). I pray for them everyday.

"Only love can be divided endlessly, and still not diminish." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

-Emily

Witch Doctor

Okay, so I'm feeling like sort of a witch doctor but I use that term very loosely because I really don't know what a witch doctor is and it doesn't sound like it would coincide well with my Christian beliefs. So maybe that's the wrong word. And I'm too lazy to look it up. But let's not get crazy about it - just know that I'm now into using essential oils.

I learned about them from a long-time friend (thanks Ash!) and after my daughter got sick with bacterial pneumonia this year, I figured, let me try it. I had heard about an oil called thieves that helps with sickness or you could use it to clean with, as well as a bunch of other oils so I thought, why not? Well, let me just say - I am loving all of the oils I have so far and I am putting them on people around me and diffusing it in our home. I feel sort of like a crazy lady and people may think I have jumped off the deep end but have no fear - I think I am still mostly sane.

So I gave my mom a bottle of an oil called Valor, which is a blend of some oils (I don't remember which) and told her to rub a drop under each big toe and behind each ear so that she wouldn't snore at night. She laughed at me, I laughed too, and that's when that witch doctor song popped into my head. But I said "just try it - the whole neighborhood hears you snoring at night (we do - I live around the corner from her)so what's it gonna hurt?" Well, she didn't snore for a week which had everyone impressed and my stepdad gave me a hug and nearly cried. BUT THEN she gave the bottle back to me and told me it was because she wanted to see if it was really the oil that was helping (but she could have been thinking she had gone off the deep end too using the oils so she returned it). Needless to say, the snoring started back up the first night she didn't use it and my stepdad came back to my house in search of the bottle. He also asked me how it works to which I replied, "I have no idea." But it works (and I've heard there actually is a description of how it works out there, but again, I'm too lazy to go check it out).

That is just one example so far of how I've used the oils. I've also been cleaning with them, diffusing them, putting some into a spray bottle and spraying it everywhere, etc. Last night, I felt a sore throat coming on so I diffused some thieves in my room at night while I was asleep - I feel perfectly fine this morning. My daughter was coughing the other night so I diffused some stuff in her room - she slept like a baby and I didn't have to use her inhalers. I had a cut on my finger - I put a drop of lavender on it - within 2 hours it was practically gone. Tony had a toothache this morning so I told him to rub some thieves on it - pain is gone (and I am NOT paying for ANOTHER root canal by the way! He can go find a random person for all I care to pull the tooth out for a small fee - I am not doing it!). Remember the saying - "You don't need to floss all your teeth - just the ones you want to keep!" Tony needs to get on it (whew, that was my pregnant lady rant right there where all of your feelings just come pouring out at once with no filter).

Anyway, that is why I feel like a witch doctor. People tell me something and I say, "I have an oil for that!" So if you come to our home for a visit, you may find yourself being a hit with random oils - AND I even think you will love it :)

-Emily