We’ve been praying so hard for Gammy and for Zander’s sweet family.

I wrote this on Instagram right after Zander’s beautiful service and figured it would be good to write it here: Little Zander’s service was yesterday. There is much but two things especially – his parents are the bravest, most selfless people I know (which I already knew but was just reminded of yesterday). Zander was adopted one year ago and they knew as they said yes that his broken heart would likely lead to theirs. But they still said yes and he was LOVED. At one point, I looked around at the standing-room-only service and thought about how not long ago, this little kid in China didn’t have anyone. And now, he is leaving behind a huge family who adored him, a church family who treasured him and so many, many friends who delighted in him and the stories of him. What a legacy and at only 3 years old. At the service, they told about how right after he died, his dad led the family in worship just like Zander was doing in heaven at that moment too. God is good, friends. Even in the horrific. He is good.

Lots to pray about these days.

Eisley is headlong into the “help you” phase that all our kids have gone through and it’s so sweet. She went out and helped Jon fix Nathan’s bike the other day.

Finally got his real cast on! He was so cute. He debated what color he wanted up until the night before his appointment. That morning, he came downstairs and declared he wanted a Viking cast. So we did our best to make that happen, with a little magic from Gammy’s Cricut machine.

At dinner: “Look, Mom! I learned how to cross my eyes!” It’s a good skill to learn, I guess! Love the weird, half-rubbed-off tattoo on his arm too. Ha!

These two. They are constantly fighting and bickering and yelling at each other but then they have these moments of just being so, so sweet. It gives me hope for the future! We went bowling and after every turn Parker had, Eisley would run over yelling, “YAY PARK-BEAR!” and give him a huge hug. I have a feeling they’ll be just fine.

It’s exhausting to be this cute. 😉

So many prayers and worries and concerns this month. It has put so much into perspective for me. The things that would have been a GIANT deal are not so giant, when you think about it. Trying my best to soak in my kids and retreat into the Word and not get distracted by the little annoyances of life.

Eisley and I escaped from the chaos to Target. She has constantly complained about everything being “too bwight” and so I found these little glasses and she was SO happy. “I wike Mommy!”

My little sunshine girl.

The day before Valentine’s Day, our sweet friends sent their son, Zander, back for a surgery to put in a pacemaker and he coded on the table. He turned three on Valentine’s Day in a coma. My heart is just aching so much for them.

Between everything going on with Mom and Zander, my heart wasn’t really in a good place for Valentine’s Day. But we still did a little thing with the kids that night during dinner. In the chaos of it all, I’m so thankful for these loud, silly people who call me Mom. I hope I never take one day with them for granted.

Sweet little Zander went home to be with Jesus two days after his third birthday. Please keep our friends in your prayers.

Well, February has taken a turn we weren’t expecting.

We had a little bit of time to kill before Awana one afternoon and the kids and I were so tired of being cooped up in the house, so I called my neighbor and we took the kids on a walk. We were almost there and Nathan went down a hill on his scooter and totally ate it. At first, I thought he was just screaming about the road rash, but we shuffled everyone back home and I pulled up his sleeve and was like, yeah, let’s go to the ER. My neighbor, bless her heart, is a nurse and pretty much knew right away that he’d broken it, but had the kindness to not mention it until we had gotten back home. She stayed with the other two and I took Nathan in. A loooong night later, we were back home with a new temporary cast to get us through the weekend.

The Beechem girls came over and helped us not feel so bad about just sitting there. 😉 They are so sweet.

A week or so before this, Gammy called me and told me she’d found a lump in her breast. They did biopsies and x-rays and the morning after Nathan broke his arm, we got the news that she had breast cancer. This is just not a good week. We’re researching all of Mom’s options now. Thankfully, it appears to be contained to the lump. But, oh, how I hate this for her.

In happy news, this little mister had his surgery for his cleft lip and recovered beautifully!! My sweet little Sammy is just the best!!

February came and with it, the kids’ new favorite holiday to hate, Groundhog Day. 😉 We watched the video of Phil being yanked out of his little hiding hole and declaring six more weeks of winter and the kids all lost it.

I was laughing so hard because it’s not like it’s really been a winter over here. We’ve barely dropped into freezing more than a handful of times and we had absolutely zero snow. Phil’s name was basically a bad word on this day, though. “Thanks for nothing, PHIL.” “Of course, PHIL would see his shadow.”

Sick again. These two have basically been sick since September, it feels like. We’ve had a constant runny nose between the two of them for MONTHS. On Super Bowl Sunday, they were both sick, so I stayed home and played games with them while Jon and Nathan went to our neighbor’s super bowl party.

I trip on her constantly because this is where Maila likes to be. About six inches from my leg at all times. It’s cute until I’m trying to do something quickly. And great news – she’s finally sleeping!! Morale is definitely improving. 😉

I can’t believe how quickly the year is already flying by.