It's Oscar Time!

On January 26th at 3:30am my sister, Andrea, gave birth to Oscar! He was ELEVEN pounds and 22 inches long! She tried so hard to get him out but he was just too big and ended up with a cesarean. Amy and I drove up to Raleigh because we wanted to be there when he made his first appearance. Everybody expected he would be born on the 25th. Amy and I were afraid we’d miss it, but things went a big longer than we anticipated! While poor Andrea was laboring, my dad, Amy and I hung out in the waiting room, ate at the cafeteria, surfed Dad’s computer and talked. It was actually a pretty cool time spent with my dad. Once Oscar arrived, we got to see him in the nursery and Andrea announced his name on her way to recovery. Then we all went home to get some rest. Amy and I finally went to bed about 6am! Later that afternoon, we went back to the hospital to get to know my new little nephew. The next day, after saying goodbye on the way out of town, we went home. He is now two months old! I miss him and want to see him again. I’m sure he has changed a lot. Here are some of my favorite pics that Andrea has taken since I saw him last:

I can't wait to see him again in a couple weeks! I miss you Oscar!

Question #9

What was a moment that when you BLINKED your whole world changed?

Question #8

What is a moment of Faith for me?

Journaling: When I was about 16, my cousin, sister, and two friends went to Camp Suwannee to be counselors. We had a great week. Before we left for home I joked around with a prayer “Lord, if we get in an accident, please let me be asleep!” On the way home we got in a car accident. Yes, I was asleep at the time. It was pretty serious. The car went through a barbed wire fence and flipped three times. This was an accident that easily could have killed all of us, but there were mostly only minor injuries. I was knocked unconscious. The accident occurred on property belonging to the local sheriff and occurred right across the street from a church. It was a Saturday, yet the pastor was outside talking to someone in a pickup truck. The pastor jumped in the back of the truck and they drove over to us. The dust was still settling when I awoke to the sound of the pastor praying for us. As we waited for the ambulance, my friends were walking around picking up their belongings off the ground. They wouldn’t let me move because I had blood all over me. Sherry found the tape recorder somewhere and put in the first tape she found to see if it still worked. The song playing was one of my favorite songs at the time, ‘Fear Not My Child’ by Carman. The ambulance arrived and took us all to the hospital. Everyone else was treated and released. During an x-ray they discovered I had a fractured skull. They decided to transfer me to Gainesville, FL which specialized in head injuries. It was a 2 hour ambulance ride away. During this time, our families had all been notified. They put me on the prayer chain at church. My parents drove up to meet me at the hospital. When I arrived, they gave me a CAT scan. There was no longer a fractured skull! During the two hour drive, while the people from my church were praying for me, I had been healed! I stayed at the hospital one night for observation, and then went home the next day with a large epidermal hematoma on my forehead and two black eyes, but no fractured skull. From the beginning, God took care of me. He even answered my flippant prayer about being asleep if we had an accident! I awoke to the sound of prayer and the song, ‘Fear Not’. Then, he healed me. Never at any time was I afraid. I felt completely safe in the arms of God. Interesting note: on the back of the car is our church bumper sticker ‘JESUS now more than ever’.

Question #7

If you could freeze one moment in time what is that moment?

Journaling: The moment I became a mother. Well, maybe not that exact moment, I was kind of out of it! But those first days of holding my very own baby in my arms, there is nothing better, and that goes for all three of my babies! I guess that makes three moments in time…

Question #6.

Who is the storyteller in my family?

Journaling: Well, I guess that would be me. I’ve been scrapbooking for 12 years, and a few years ago I started a blog journal. Dean is better at writing than I am, though. He’s a great storyteller, but doesn’t have much time for it.

(Yes, that's my friend Debby from 'Debby's Dare' giving me rabbit ears! She's so silly!)

Question #5

On whose life have you had influence outside your immediate family?
Journaling: "My best friend Angie doesn't understand why I love her the way I do. I don't think that I tell her enough how dear to my heart she is. I think I love her because I hope to be like her someday. She brags about her mother being the Proverbs 31 woman, but I think she is well on her way to being just like her mom."

It’s very humbling when someone says something like this about you. She’s right that I don’t understand. I can be very selfish. I’m not a very good friend. She has other friends who are much more involved in her life, more generous, more loving. What have I done to deserve the place she gives me in her life? I’m the one who doesn’t tell her enough how I appreciate her in my life. She has influenced me.

I'M BACK!

About a month ago, my computer crashed, horror of horrors! I have had occasional access to computers, either on Dean's work computer or the library, but the worst of it was that I couldn't digi-scrap AT ALL. This was very bad. Anyway, I finally have my computer working again. We had to get a new hard drive. Fortunately, all my pics and digi-stuff was on an external hard drive. WHEW! So, now I'm behind on my 'You in 52' challenge. I finally got to scrap again last night and caught up on a couple more questions. Here they are:

Question #3 - If I could change one thing about myself, what would it be?

Journaling: As a grown woman looking back, there are many things I would change. Most of them, however, are a result of choices I’ve made or things I could still fix if I really tried. So, I decided to go back to when I was young to answer this question, back to when I was more or less content with who I was. I WISH I COULD DANCE! In highschool, I was in an ensemble for two years. I loved to sing and dance with ‘Windsong’. Being in Windsong was the highlight of my highschool years. The problem is, you can teach me the choreography and I will get it right. Technically. I was a bit stiff and can’t dance at all without knowing the moves. I certainly wouldn’t look cool trying! That’s what I wish I could change. I wish I could just dance what feels good and look good doing it.

Question # 4 - What 7 decisions changed the course of your life?

Journaling:

1. My parents trained to be missionaries in Mexico. Mom was pregnant with me when they decided God was leading them in a different direction. I was almost born in Mexico!
2. We moved to Clearwater, FL when I was 4. Dad became pastor of Maranatha Chapel. I grew up there until I got married.
3. My parents gave me the choice to attend college or not. I chose not. It was perhaps not the wisest choice, but it put me where I am today.
4. Dean came to Roan Mt. when I was 19. My cousin Dan knew Dean liked me and they offered to pay for a plane ticket home so I could drive up with them to visit my cousin, Tami. At first, I wasn’t interested in Dean and thought it would be taking advantage if I accepted knowing what they were after. But they knew how I felt, so I said yes. I talked to mom the night before we left and asked for her advice. I rode with Dean and Dan to Connecticut. By the time we arrived 12 hours later, we were holding hands!
5. 2 weeks after Dean and I got together, I left for 4 months to YWAM in Scotland. While there, Dean and I wrote many letters but they were full of superficial “I love you’s”. One week we had a great speaker who spoke on ‘binding words’. I called Dean and told him I didn’t want us to say ‘I love you’ anymore. I tried to explain, but he thought I was being brainwashed! I sent him the cassettes so he could hear it for himself. He was only 18 but he listened to all 10 hours! Then he called me and agreed. From then on, our letters were full of content and we began to get to know each other for real. He even sent me a greeting card that said ‘I like you’! This made it so much more special when we were ready to say we loved each other for real.
6. We chose to get married pretty young. We were married right after Dean’s sophmore year of college.
7. We waited 6 years to have kids. When we had Alyssa, we decided that I would stay home with her. It was a real sacrifice to eliminate my income, but totally worth it!

Life in general has been kinda crazy lately. In addition to my computer problems, Dean's car died! It was a red, Mazda Protege. We've had this car since 1993. He has nursed it along and was determined to make it last as long as it could. It was a good little car. Dean affectionately called it 'Red'. Red lasted 220 thousand miles. So long, Red! Thanks for the memories!

I've also started working this past month as a substitute. I've taught kindergarten, 3rd grade, worked in the school office, was a cafeteria monitor, and I've worked in the cafeteria. Believe it or not, I like the cafeteria best. As soon as things settle down for us a bit, I may try to get a permanent job there. We've also been trying to fix up the house to sell, but have had very little time to do so. Right now we're working on painting the interior. So far, we've done one bathroom. *Sigh* MORE TIME PLEASE!

Another thing that has happened since I lost the use of my computer is that my nephew was born!!! But Oscar deserves a post of his own. So tune in next time for a little bit of this... and a little bit of that: