The power of prayer

Dear Kate,

You prayed for me the other day, and I wanted you to know what a difference it made.

I don't know what you prayed- just that I popped into your mind and so you took the time to pray for me, instead of writing it off as a passing thought.

We've all been fighting colds here, and I've been functioning on very little sleep. By the weekend my patience was shot. Saturday night I yelled at my kids louder than I ever have before and actually had to leave the room and give myself a time-out to recover.

Sunday wasn't shaping up to be much better.

But then, it was.

Sunday evening we played. And laughed.

And as bedtime crept closer, I didn't eye the clock and rush them to their rooms so that I could get a break.

Instead we rolled on the floor and laughed and wrestled and read books and sang songs.

And I enjoyed my children for the first time in days.

So thank you, for taking the time to pray for someone you've never met before.

It made all the difference.

A thank you and an invitation

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who took the time to comment, email, and most especially pray for us yesterday.

The little voice that was chanting "icantdothisicantdothisicantdothis" in my head all day yesterday is gone now. I'm still sad, of course, but I feel much more like myself today.

I'm joining Chrissy at Singalullaby in reading "Chocolatherapy" if anyone wants to join us! I just ordered it last night. Since I will be fighting the urge to "escape" during the next 6 months- through food, tv, books, blogs...it's definitely God's timing that she invited people to join her and I read her post the exact day I needed it! Check it out if you're interested.

Praying for Heather

Don't forget that Heather is having surgery today to remove a brain tumor. You can find updates on the surgery at her blog.

The times, they are a-changing

So Isaac's job has changed again!

I tell ya, Navy life is a veritable rollercoaster o' fun!

He is still going to the same battalion, they haven't changed that. But his job in the battalion has changed.

He is now in charge of a detachment of guys in Japan. The good thing is that it's great for Isaac's career. God had to line up a lot of stuff to make this happen.

The bad thing is that they want him to be part of an advance party, which means they want us to move May 1, instead of May 18.

And that's just two weeks after we go househunting.

I've never bought a house before, but I'm thinking that's not quite enough time for things to close and whatnot.

So we're not exactly sure what God has in store for us, house-wise, but it will be interesting to find out!

Just a reminder, we leave Monday, and Isaac's surgery is on Tuesday. The Navy does something that is not LASIK, and starts with a P. I forget the name, but what I do remember is that it is extremely painful for about three days.

And all five of us will be staying in one hotel room while he recovers.

So, if you get a chance, please pray for us next week!

I'll let you know how things go when we have internet access, possibly from the hotel, but maybe not until we get back.

Hoo-Boy!

I just sent an email to friends and family, and I find myself a bit overwhelmed as I contempate the next three months of my life. Here it is:

1. We are still moving to {our new base}, but the battalion Isaac is assigned to has changed. He is now assigned to {a different battalion}, which means he will be deploying {in a few months}. We don't know the exact date or where he'll deploy, but it will be for about 6 months.

2. This means that we are checking out of here and moving on May 18, and then driving to {our new base}.

3. The Navy is also paying for Isaac to get his eyes fixed. He will have laser eye surgery on April 3, with follow-up appointments on April 4th and 6th. The whole family will be staying {near the hospital} during that time, and I don't know if we'll have email access.

4. We fly to {our new base} on April 8th for a househunting trip. We are planning on buying a house, and have until April 11th to find one.

So that means that in the next three months, my husband is having surgery, we'll look for and buy our new house, we'll make a major move almost half-way across the country, have almost enough time to unpack, and then my husband will deploy, leaving me in a new city with a 4.5-year-old, 2.5-year-old and 6 or 7-month-old.

God doesn't give us more than we can handle, right?

So I know I can do this.

But prayer is much appreciated.

Just me whining

I have been looking forward to next week, thinking that my ankle would be basically normal again and I could resume being more than a mediocre mom, and preparing for the new baby.

But we found out Monday that my ankle could take up to 2-3 months to completely heal. I can walk on it now- at times it just hurts some but is bearable, other times it feels like I have shards of glass in there. I am still supposed to be elevating it and icing it, and only doing activity as I can "tolerate" it. Still, it's not fun to limp AND waddle at the same time!

Since we found this out I have been having such a hard time feeling like me. I just can't get back in the groove of things. There is so much to do before the baby comes, and while I technically still have 7 weeks, I have also been having a lot of contractions this week, and I think the baby has dropped, too, so I'm not counting on this one being late anymore.

I just don't know how to feel like me in the midst of third trimester pregnancy and a fractured ankle.

You'd think I'd be happy for the forced break from dishes and laundry!

They found a fracture

I had a follow-up on my ankle today. I still can't walk on it and have a lot of pain. They re-did my x-rays, and this time found a hairline fracture! So, another few weeks to recover!

A forced break from blogging

Just so you all know, I am in the middle of a forced break from blogging. Last week I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle! It is still quite an atrocious purple color and twice the size of my other ankle, and I am still on crutches...the crutches are to be followed by an air boot thingy, which is to be followed by physical therapy.

But the baby is fine, and if I hadn't landed on my ankle, then I would have landed on my stomach. And since I heard cracking when I landed, I am very glad that it is just sprained and not broken!

Since the computer is downstairs and I am currently limited to the upstairs unless I am forced to go to the doctor for yet another follow-up, it will be a few more days before I get back to the copmuter again. I haven't given up blogging, and can't wait to catch up on all my regular reads when I'm mobile again!

Would you trust this doctor? (Chloe update)

We had our appointment with the (one and only) pediatrician today. He was a 50-ish Asian man. Maybe he's really experienced and has seen a lot of kids with transient tics. Or maybe he was really patronizing. I'm not sure.

I told him that Chloe had been blinking a lot for the past 6 weeks, and showed him a video we took when it was at its worst. I said that I have a cousin with Tourette's and that her blinks looked a lot like his.

He guaranteed me that it is nothing (he literally said guarantee). He said we should relax and have fun and it will go away. He said it absolutely will not turn into Tourette's and it's very common (according to my internet research, up to 20% of kids experience some sort of tic while they are growing up). He didn't ask any questions. He didn't ask how often she did it. He didn't examine her at all. He said it can be stressful for her to have a little brother, since they carry on the family name.

HELLO! She's not even 4. She doesn't even know what a family name is.

So I asked if we should have her re-evaluated after a certain length of time if it doesn't go away. He said no, he wouldn't give me any time limit because if he did then I would stress about the time and that would make it not go away. He said moms are for worrying.

He did look at her chart. He said that her immunizations are up to date, and is the first doctor not to comment on the fact that she has not had the chicken pox vax.

So was he trying to be reassuring from his experience, or was he talking down to the mom he saw as overly worried and stressed out?

FYI, our plan is wait another 3-4 weeks, and if she is still ticcing, then we will fight to get a second opinion and probably even to see a specialist. I'm sure it will be a hard and stressful fight since this doctor is obviously not going to give us any kind of reccomendation to see a specialist!

Thanks to those who prayed!

The baby moved just enough to keep us from calling the doctors, and this afternoon she/he finally started getting some good, hard kicks in again! Even had the hiccups for a while :) We don't have another scheduled dr's appointment for a week and a half, but we'll have an ultrasound and find out whether it's a girl or a boy then!

Thanks so much for your prayers and encouraging words.