Greetings, Moms!!! I hope you’ve had a wonderful day today. Were you able to do anything special or fun with your family? I have been taking special care of our son as he had surgery on Monday . The surgery was successful; the pins and tension wire were removed from his elbow. He’s very resilient in that the first day out he says, “Mama, look!!  I can turn my wrist full rotation out!! “ I was greatly excited to see this as this has been a limitation due to the hardware being in the elbow. I just wanted to open this up casually before getting to the challenge. I didn’t want to leave you hanging for too long. 

Now for our challenge to think about. I am part of a Mom’s Connect Group in our church. We read through books to study. We will sometimes do a devotional study as we are now. The current study that we are doing is “Grouchy to Great: Finding Joy In The Journey Of Motherhood.” The challenge that was presented to us was to write five things we are grateful for. We are to do this for the next five days. While this activity may end in our group; I choose to keep it going and will continue in my journal. I find that this activity really puts a different perspective on how you decide to open your day. Maybe you had interrupted sleep. I for example last night and the last few weeks have been up several times in the night due to pain in my back. I could have chosen to complain about it, but I haven’t. I in fact have been putting things up with friends “Thank you Lord for the middle of the night wake up. What do You have planned for us these wee hours??” I will now post for you my five things that I have been grateful for since the start of this activity. 

Monday:

I am grateful for...

1. Family; whether we agree or not we will come around one another. 

2. Special friends that are there for you in good times and difficult times, but that I too can be there for them. 

3. Small Group-Mom’s Connect-friendships made and reconnected. 

4. Pastor who cares for us in the church and those who are not that we mention for prayer. My church family. 

5. God bringing people into my life and opening doors to opportunities that I never saw coming. I am excited to see what God has in store for these opportunities. 

Tuesday 

Grateful for....

1. Successful surgery for our son. Great surgeon, caring team. Huge Praise! First day out FULL ROTATION OF THE WRIST!!! The hardware and tension wire prevented him from having full range of motion. 

2. His friend called just to check on him. The encouragement that came from the phone call. We were all blessed. The support of others praying and checking on him — grateful!! My friend Bev, my co-conspirator who spent the day with us at the hospital-beyond blessed!! 

3. My husband, his service to our country, a Veteran, provider for our family.  That he’s able to allow himself vulnerable to express how great love between us. 

4. God’s Word, able to read it daily; grow from the reading and able to apply to my life. 

5. For being able to change perspective on things in my life that otherwise could be negative. I put a perspective of positivity on it instead. This also has become an area of ministry as I was able to minister to someone at the hospital during our son’s surgery. 

Wednesday 

Grateful for....

1. God’s Amazing Grace! 

2. The Lord is my Shepherd wherever He leads I’ll go. 

3. Beautiful warm sunny day.

4. Middle of the night wake up times. 

5. When plans don’t seem to fall into place-God puts them into place in His time. 

I hope to hear some of the things you’re grateful for. I pray that you will be able to see the good and not let circumstances steal your Joy, but that you’ll be able to keep your Joy!

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Afternoon, Everyone! I hope you're enjoying your day. I have been enjoying the time with my family and now spending some one on one time with my son. We have been working on a project together that he'd like to get started in the building.  

Yesterday was a day of many appointments with our son. We had to first go to the Children's Hospital for an ultrasound then to the Urologist, Dr. Mason for the reading of the ultrasound. We had discovered over a year ago now a calcification in our son's testicle. He had been experiencing some testicular pain. We found the calcification; at first as all parents do we worried about our son. What are our options? What is our next step?? Who do we see from here?? What is the plan of care?? We then paused after the running of the fast forward button of our minds.  We went to the throne. We went to God in prayer; we sought Him in our next steps. We knew and know He is the Great Physician, the Great Healer.  We trusted Him with this and prayed that in His Will, His timing that this calcification is removed. God has His plans, His ways; we have to trust the way He leads in our circumstances. 

The ultrasound went smoothly, two technicians came in and took pictures as one of the techs was just learning what is expected and being trained. I was fine with this because I was able to be there to see the photographs that they were taking. Meanwhile, our son slept through his entire ultrasound. Yes, he was that relaxed. We then walked across to the urologist's office. We arrived for our appointment and discussed the results with Dr. Mason. He assured us that everything looked good. The calcification was still there but had not changed at all in size or shape. He also told us that unless there was an issue he would see us in two years!! We praise God for this!!! 

We then left for the Diabetes Center to get our son's DEXA scan for his bones. We need to see where he stands with the density of his bones to determine if infusions are again needed or if we can continue on with our break from having to go to the Children's Cancer Center.  I was in the room while they performed the DEXA and what I saw of the previous scan to this one his bones look much better. I will know better after his appointment with the Nephrologist where we stand far as infusions. 

I must say again that I am seeing great things with the Vitamin D-3 that we are taking. Our levels have improved instead of decreasing. I know we are in our Lord's hands. I am so blessed that we are Children of God as it says in I John 3:1-2 "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

I will update this post as soon as we have the results of the levels and his bone density. I am not worried about this result. I know God has him in His care. 

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Evening! Hope you all have had a wonderful day.  I titled this "Grateful for my Family" because I am. I know simple right, but it goes so much deeper than that.  I recently went through an injury that had me laid up these last three months; it was a difficult journey. I not long into it started sensing things with my husband. I didn't know what to think. I would mention it to one of the beautiful ladies that came out to help me. They really touched my life, my husband's life, and our son's life in so many ways, on so many levels. I said I didn't know what to think about what I was sensing, feeling from my husband. I must say that God moved in such a way with him to touch me to my core. I say that because he made himself so vulnerable. I mean I could have hurt him so big, I mean big if I was that kind of woman. Thankful that God made me not that kind of woman, but a woman of great patience. I listened to his words that he shared with me, he said he had to disconnect himself from me, separate himself from what is going on around him, separate himself from watching me struggle to walk. He said that it crushed him, it hurt him deeply to see me that way. I was humbled by his words because they spoke to me so deeply. I cried my heart out to him even through my pain. I told him I loved him so much already, but I love him even more. We are even closer now that I am starting to come around from my injury.

I am not going to end the post here just quite yet. I must also include our son. I am so thankful for him. God really had me wait a long time for him. God knew the desire of my heart; that I wanted a child. God knew also that in 6th grade when we were asked to write a paper about what we thought our future families would be when we grew up and were married. I wrote in there that I wanted children, but I also asked God for a special needs child that I could love and nurture the way He would have me to do. I prayed that He'd give me the heart of a Mother for a special needs child. I prayed and watched, heard others and friends having babies around me. I remember saying "that should have been me;" I had shed so many tears in this time of waiting on God's timing. His wonderful timing that we are sometimes too quick to try to speed things up, but God still makes us wait. The time for me was fifteen years. I know that may seem like a super long time, but I am glad that God had me wait that long. He was making me be the mother I am today. Our son is such a wonderful young man. He is my special needs child that I prayed for and also shares the same bone disease with me; Osteogenesis Imperfecta. This is a speck in our lives it's not a part of us. You say, yes, yes it is. Hear me out, I said a speck in our lives because that's what it is. It's not a "part" of us meaning that when we meet someone we don't walk up and introduce ourselves and add on there "I have Osteogenesis,......"  We just don't do that and I have taught him that it is a piece of him that it doesn't identify him. Yes, his friends and others know he has it because they've been there with us through the infusions that we have to receive. I have received so many compliments from teachers, friends, family, and others about him. In fact, one teacher bragged on him because of his stepping up to ask if he could do his class project on his bone disease. She thought this was very big of him because he could have been ridiculed by classmates, put down, bullied, and others could be nice and accepting. I have to say that all his classmates have accepted him and they treat him like their other friends and will brag on him to me as well. She said he was very informed about the disease. He wasn't afraid to share about it; he explained about the anger that we deal with because of the continuous breaks with the bones. He even included in his project about my diagnosis after his. Mine being diagnosed as an adult; the teacher said you could hear a pin drop with the class. They waited eagerly for his next word. Then he told them how many fractures I've had. The sound they made, made the teacher laugh. He then told them how when he broke his elbow that after he fell and said "OW! My ARM!........Is my camera ok?" We got a good laugh when it happened. I told him we needed to get his arm fixed and we will find the camera. Our son is such a blessing. He and I have much time together and we enjoy one another. Yes, there are times when he may not be on his best behavior as is expected with children. I have a phrase that now I cannot finish without him interrupting. I have told him when he does he must tell me what it is. We then discuss his behavior and he then writes scripture out based on the behavior. I then have him write a prayer to God also about his behavior.  The phrase that I use with him during these times is the following, "When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences!" I haven't had to use it a lot, but it really hit deep with him the first time I used it that it didn't need to be used much.  I now can get "When.....(that's it) and it's "Mama, no, please, please don't finish it. I would reply, "Ok, I need you to tell me what my phrase is and what it means." Well, I have gone on for a bit. Go spend some time with your families. Thanks for stopping, feel free to leave a comment. 

Have a great day Moms!!

Hi, Everyone!!! This is a new blog for me. I thought I'd get into writing from the heart of a Mother. I am a Mother to a very special, special needs child. My son has many challenges before him, but he hits them head on one at a time. I love him he's my precious gift from God. His special needs are as follows although I do not let these define him. He has Sensory Processing Disorder, Developmental Motor Coordination Disorder, Dyspraxia, Hypotonia, and Aspergers. 

There is one that he and I share together is Osteogenesis Imperfecta. The last one Osteogenesis Imperfecta we have a funny beginning. Our son was eight years old at the time, his school nurse told me that she thought our son was fracturing way too easily. She then recommended that we have him seen by his pediatrician. I set the appointment and we were off. We went they sent us out for an x-ray from his current injury than after we returned to discuss the next part of the protocol.  We were then directed to a nephrologist, a kidney disease, and transplantation physician. We were a bit more frightened now being directed here. How much more serious is this we thought. Well, we found out that Osteogenesis is a fatal disease. Now, the funny begins, yes you heard right "the funny". The doctor calls me over to where our son is on the table to take a look at his eyes. Our son speaks up and says, "My Mama's eyes are blue too." The doctor says, "That's nice, but I am talking about something different". Here comes our son back at the doctor; "Ok, but the whites of her eyes are blue too." Yes, he did just say that. Ooops! Bad idea here comes that little light, you know the one, the famous one that likes to blind you when the doctor says "let me look at your eyes". Yes, that one that one came at me quickly. The doctor told me to look up, look to the side, look to the other side, now look down. Yes, I think you have it too. You need to see your doctor as well. Here have your doctor run these tests on you. I took the list of tests that he wrote and took them to my doctor, sure enough, my doctor added more tests to that list. After eleven vials of blood and a bone density test, my doctor came back and told me that I too have Osteogenesis Imperfecta. This was difficult to accept all together at the same time. I felt overwhelmed. I didn't know if we were going to be ok. They told us that this is fatal. We have a bigger God who is in control. He has been with us throughout this journey. He's shown me ways to help our son understand the disease from his point of view, but also to teach him what it is like at an adult point of view. While some of you may disagree with doing things this way. This is a disease that he's going to live with for the rest of his life as am I. I wanted him to know from both points so that when he grows to adulthood he wouldn't have surprises in the waiting for him. I didn't think this was fair to do to him. I would want him to know and be comfortable when he got to this point. We are a team and now we do things together. He goes for infusions I go with him and spend endless hours and days at the hospital to be with him and he does the same with me. Not only do we have that special bond and Mother and son, but now even closer bond with our both having Osteogenesis Imperfecta. If the moment you're in is a blessing or a challenge, realize that you're alive and one day God will call you home. Take each moment and find the blessing within that challenge. I say that because with the OI this is something to find a blessing can be challenging. I must say that a friend of mine sent me a shirt that says the following,"I am an Osteogenesis Mom, just like a regular Mom, but only cooler". This may sound strange or may be taken in a wrong way. The way that my friend took this was that she looked at my personality and how I was taking the OI - she said this is so you - you are so positive and fun. The shirt to me I took as the "cooler" part is we always have something going ... friends have laughed when I break because I say something like "Oh, I just went snap, crackle, oops!" So now you can see that the shirt fits me. I appreciate your stopping by. I will let you go now- enjoy your day. May God be with you - spend some time with HIM.

Have a great day, Moms!