A Quote from a book I've been reading lately:

Mobility and a prime commitment to oneself are virtues in the job world; stablity, selflessness and a commitment to others are virtues in the family life. Qualities needed for career success also include efficiency, a controlling attitude, an orientation towards the future and an inclination towards perfectionism, while their virtual opposites - tolerance for mess and disorder, an ability to let go, an appreciation for the moment and an acceptance of difference and failure - are what is needed for successful parenting.

I love this, a "tolerance for mess and disorder." Oh, how I wish I had these qualities.

Tomato Rainbow

These are some of the tomatoes from our garden this year. We have a HUGE crop of a different variety. Including, Green Zebra (these are very yummy), White Queen (the large yellow one), Orange, Orange Cherry Tomatoes (I eat these like candy all day long), Cherry Tomatoes, and then lots of normal red ones. We are loving them! Thanks to Erik, our master gardener.

Dancing in the Minefields

I know I've mentioned him before but Andrew Peterson is BY FAR my favorite musician. He just came out with a new CD, Counting Stars, which I recommend and really more than anything I want you to watch this video AND enjoy dancing in the minefield with your love.

Lemonade Stand

When the kids were at my parents house in NJ Karis had a lemonade stand. Guess how much she made in just a few hours? $28 dollars!!! Granted this is the beach and she was on a street with a lot of foot traffic. She was only charging 25 cents a cup but most people gave her a dollar and wouldn't take change. One man gave her and Jotham each a dollar just for being cute. She did pay Jotham $2 for helping, she is a very generous employer.

Photo Shoot

Our great friend Jonalee took some photos of our family and our little man a few weeks ago. Check out her talent here.

We are Glad!

In an a surprising and amazing twist of events the doctor came into my room last night and said, "Guess what! The virual panel came back positive." This was a specific test a specialist from Georgetown wanted them to do. What this means is that he did not, after all, have bacterial menigitis, instead he had viral menigitis, which is far less serious, and did not require us to stay in the hospital for IV treatments any longer. The doctors were very surprised because they were all sure that it was bacterial.

So.... we are home! They took him off the IV last night (praise God we didn't have a central line put in) and monitored him overnight and this morning released us.

Psalm 126: 2-3

Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.

I had been reading through these verses the last few days, trusting God's promises for us and now I can truly say, with shouts (and tears) of joy, "The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad!"

Thank you so much for praying for us. We were sustained only by the grace of God that we experienced through your prayers, your love and your care.
A few special thank yous:

• To Skye who literally picked up her own baby and walked out her door to come and care for our kids on Friday when we needed to go to the ER. We ALL love you and Dan and are so grateful to you.
• To my parents, who have our 4 oldest kids in NJ, thank you for taking them without question.
• To Esther, who probably texted with me 1,000 times over the past 5 days, visited me twice, made me food, brought me fruit, prayed for us and carried our burden, so grateful for you!
• There are so many others who prayed and cared for us who remain nameless here but your crowns are in heaven.

love my men

Loving my men

IVs

This is a photo of our little man's first IV in the ER. It is so sad to watch him get these put in. Yesterday afternoon, the one in the picture blew (meaning it wasn't able to be used anymore) so they had to put a new one in. The new seemed to make him really uncomfortable and by the middle of the night he was pretty inconsolable about it. It broke my heart but I was really glad that they pulled it out and put a new one it. He is now back to his quiet sweet self and is sleeping again.

At this point it seems like we will be here 7 to 14 days. They are pretty confident that it is bacterial meningitis (because of how high the white blood cell counts were) but they are waiting on one more culture to see if it a specific viral meningitis.

Thank you for your continued prayers and care for us.

100.9

This is the number that put Titus (& me) back in the hospital for a couple of days at least.

Yesterday morning when he woke up he felt warm and as the day went on it continued when I took his temp at 1 pm it was 100.7, which for a newborn is considered a fever. About 20 minutes later it had gone up to 100.9, I called our doctor and he told me to bring him to the ER. His temp here was the same and they began to do a "work-up" on him, urine sample, blood tests, spinal tap. Our poor boy was a trooper though it all. Mommy was a bit emotional and Daddy was our rock through it all.

Last night the spinal tap came back with high white blood cell indicating that there is an infection in his spinal colomn, which could mean menigitis. He seems to be responding well to the antibotics they have him on (no fever since the middle of the night).

Please pray for our little guy (& me). There is a chance that we could be here for 14 days. I'm living in the hope that it won't be that long.

Here he is...

We came home from the hospital last night. It is SO good to be home as a family. Loving our little man.