We made it home and in one piece from our Tennessee trip! The kids did pretty well on the planes, all things considered. Dad traveled to TN with me, and we found out we could pre-board on Soutwest airlines because of Sam's disability. Previously, every time we had taken Sam on an airplane he spent the first 30 minutes screaming! I am not sure if this has to do with Down syndrome, or if it is related to his Sensory Integration Disorder issues, or if he is just claustrophobic (he does this in elevators, too!). I mean, in the past, he was hysterical as soon as we walked on the airplane.... well, this weekend, Sam did great! He started crying on our first plane as we walked onto the jetway, but my dad held him and he really calmed down. I think the pre-boarding thing helped. He got used to his surroundings without a lot of peole on board yet. By the time we took off, Sam had calmed down and was a real pro! I was truly proud! He is making huge progress, in lots of ways! He is also talking more.... has probably 20 words now? Maybe a few less....
I wish someone would have mentioned to his brother, my baby Thomas, that HE didn't have to scream in the airplanes, however! Instead of Sam, Tommy screamed the entire first plane ride. But after that, he was fine, too, and we somehow survived!
I had both my parents traveling back with me, and that made it easier with three adults and three children. We still did the pre-board thing, just to be on the safe side, and Sam was really, really good. I will definitely keep doing that in the future! Wish we could pre-board elevators, too! Ha ha ha
Tennessee was a fun, cold change of pace. Got to meet my new baby nephew, Timothy, for the first time. He is so cute and looks just like his daddy! Lauren had fun playing with her cousin, Zachary, and all the kids enjoyed Chuck-E-Cheese night Saturday night. (I think they had more fun there than on Thanksgiving day with the big feast!)
Only 37 more days until my hubby comes home from deployment! We are counting down! Spence's current return date is set for Jan 9, but it could come earlier. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but am very HOPEFUL anyway! We will celebrate Christmas here in Florida with my family and then arrive back in Ohio and have Christmas as an entire family whenever he gets home!
Hello Shelly Leiter! I was so excited to read your post on here. I am coming up to Bradenton next weekend and plan to be at church on Sunday. I hope to see you then & meet your kiddos! Send me your e-mail address, if you can.
Adios for now!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Much to be Thankful for
On the eve of the season of Thanksgiving, I have so much for which to be thankful!
Thank the Lord that only 48 more days exist until my husband comes home from serving our country in the Middle East! I am thankful that he is doing well and that my sacrifices here enable him to care for so many serving in harm's way! I love you & miss you, babe!
I am thankful for my 3 precious children. They are my life.
I am thankful for our family's health! It is amazing to me how well our Samuel is doing, in spite of all his obstacles with Down syndrome. As Lauren says, "He is a tough little boy!" That he is! I guess when you've undergone open heart surgery at 1-month-old you are bound to be tough!
I am thankful to be in Naples, in such a beautiful locale, while my husband is deployed; and for the help of my parents as I single mother my children. My parents are a God send and I am so blessed to have their daily help.
I am blessed to be surrounded by a great community of friends and family. Everyone from our friends back at our base in Ohio (Wright Patterson AFB) to our extended family from around the country has been so good to check in on me and to send notes & care packages to Spence overseas. Thank you, everyone!
I feel thankful for the kind support of two friends in particular here in Naples, Lacey Demalis & Bethany Gaddis. Both women have been such a huge support in different ways. Lacey's husband is also deployed, to Iraq, and we have both found ourselves dumped in Naples with kids in tow while our husbands serve so far away. We went out to dinner last Friday night. She introduced me to a great new spot in Naples -- Trulucks Seafood and Crab. Wow! It was awesome to have a girl's night out! And, Bethany, our church's worship pastor's wife, and I have connected on a great level. She is such an authentic, refershing human being! I love her fun personality and down to earth Spirit. We met through a Bible study and I will MISS her when I return to Ohio in a month. I wish I could pack up both of these girls and take them home with me. :) Thank you, Lord, for friendship that sees us all through lonely days...
Finally, I feel thankful to be flying to Tennessee tomorrow to visit my sister & her family for the holiday weekend. She gave birth to a HEALTHY (thank you God!) baby boy last week, and I get to meet him for the first time tomorrow! Check out their photos at tnmillerfamily.blogspot.com to see his adorable mug!
Have a wonderful & blessed Thanksgiving everyone!
Thank the Lord that only 48 more days exist until my husband comes home from serving our country in the Middle East! I am thankful that he is doing well and that my sacrifices here enable him to care for so many serving in harm's way! I love you & miss you, babe!
I am thankful for my 3 precious children. They are my life.
I am thankful for our family's health! It is amazing to me how well our Samuel is doing, in spite of all his obstacles with Down syndrome. As Lauren says, "He is a tough little boy!" That he is! I guess when you've undergone open heart surgery at 1-month-old you are bound to be tough!
I am thankful to be in Naples, in such a beautiful locale, while my husband is deployed; and for the help of my parents as I single mother my children. My parents are a God send and I am so blessed to have their daily help.
I am blessed to be surrounded by a great community of friends and family. Everyone from our friends back at our base in Ohio (Wright Patterson AFB) to our extended family from around the country has been so good to check in on me and to send notes & care packages to Spence overseas. Thank you, everyone!
I feel thankful for the kind support of two friends in particular here in Naples, Lacey Demalis & Bethany Gaddis. Both women have been such a huge support in different ways. Lacey's husband is also deployed, to Iraq, and we have both found ourselves dumped in Naples with kids in tow while our husbands serve so far away. We went out to dinner last Friday night. She introduced me to a great new spot in Naples -- Trulucks Seafood and Crab. Wow! It was awesome to have a girl's night out! And, Bethany, our church's worship pastor's wife, and I have connected on a great level. She is such an authentic, refershing human being! I love her fun personality and down to earth Spirit. We met through a Bible study and I will MISS her when I return to Ohio in a month. I wish I could pack up both of these girls and take them home with me. :) Thank you, Lord, for friendship that sees us all through lonely days...
Finally, I feel thankful to be flying to Tennessee tomorrow to visit my sister & her family for the holiday weekend. She gave birth to a HEALTHY (thank you God!) baby boy last week, and I get to meet him for the first time tomorrow! Check out their photos at tnmillerfamily.blogspot.com to see his adorable mug!
Have a wonderful & blessed Thanksgiving everyone!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Alpha Beginning
Countdown to Spence's homecoming: Only 2 more months until my husband, "Spence," comes home from Kuwait...
But who is counting! :-)
Hello to all in blogger land! This is so fun to be able to post my first blog, not that anyone will read it! We are an active-duty U.S. Air Force family, with my husband currently deployed "in the Fight" as a chaplain. It's truly a great ministry and a wonderful call to be able to support our soldiers abroad right now in the war, even though single parenting at home can be tough. My heart goes out to all you other AF and military moms -- especially as you single parent with your spouse away and in harm's way. This is our first deployment and it is been a CHALLENGE to be alone. I don't think I realized how much help my husband was until he wasn't around at ALL! Yet, God has definitely supplied and is supplying a huge amount of grace every day as I am "in the fight" on the homefront, battling two kids in diapers, homework, laundry, sleepless nights with sleepless babies and lots of special needs for our "special" son.
We have three children, Lauren, Sam and Thomas. Lauren is our almost 7-year-old -- vivacious, full of light, musical, gifted, artistic and talkative. Samuel is our special package. God delivered him to us almost four years ago, and Sam has Down syndrome. He is definitely a blessing, though many days he presents many, many challenges. I love Sam for his contagious laugh and yet Sam exasperates me in that it takes him 2,000 times to learn even the simplest of things. God is teaching me patience through Sam... Thomas (Tommy) is our just-turned-one year old who I am enjoying in this fun stage of exploring his world. He is an absolutely adorable baby with a precious newness that I cherish. Tommy refuses to sleep through the night consistently and wants to make sure that his "Air Force mama" remains just enough sleep deprived to remember she better rely more on "her God" for her strength than on "herself!"
I love my kids. They make me laugh and live so fully. Lauren turns 7 the day before Thanksgiving and today she asked me, "Mommy, what is that holiday that falls near my birthday.... You know, the one with the CHICKEN in it!"
Kids. Ya gotta love them for all their antics. Lauren is my wake up smile every day. She is such a ray of sunshine to our family.
The two boys are full of fun themselves. Yesterday I had a few minutes before I needed to leave to take Samuel to his special pre-school program so I ran into the bathroom to blow dry my hair. When I turned off the blow dryer I realized things sounded unusually quiet in the house -- Sam and Thomas were awake and had been in the living room playing with their toys. Since I didn't hear any toys being shuffled or activated, I ran out and didn't seen either baby boy in the room. As I called their names I could hear them in the next room -- the bathroom. Now, my daughter has these plastic green frogs that she won as a prize on Halloween at the "monstor mash" walk at a neighbor's party. As I walked into the bathroom I saw Sam with two of these green frogs in his hands while brother Thomas was "fishing" into the toilet, having thrown three more plastic frogs down the toilet. (As of late, Thomas has had a love affair with the toilets in the house and I am having to practically bolt the doors to keep him out.) As I approached the room, Tommy, with his hand in the toilet bowl looks up at me, shakes his head and says, "No, no, no", obviously repeating the words I had been telling him in regards to that nasty, but necessary porcelin object in our bathrooms. I couldn't help but laugh at the site of it all -- Tommy fishing for frogs and saying "no," while big brother Sam is on the hunt to find more plastic frogs to offer to his brother to throw down the toilet. See, Sam is smart! He just likes to fool me on some days! :-)
What a mischevious duo. I am afraid this is just the beginning of their shannigans!
On another wonderful sidenote: Can I just add what great friends I have and what a fantastic God I serve? Today I was feeling particularly "lonely," being that my husband is deployed and I have actually taken my children and moved to Florida to be near to my parents. While I was belly aching to God via my best college friends and asking for their prayer support, God surprsised me with THREE huge social invites for this week. One of these invites is from another AF mom whose husband is also deployed. Now this is a HUGE treat to be near to another spouse whose husband is also in the Fight. You typically only find this near a base or post. But, here I have someone near me in Naples. It was just a gentle reminder to me, yet again, that God is here, He loves me SO MUCH (and He loves you, too!) and he cares about my deepest needs for companionship and friendship.
As a bonus, my best Florida gal friend, Steph, is driving down from Bradenton tomorrow to spend the day with us! What a gift! Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers and being faithful in the little things, too. Steph is an amazing story of a woman living the daily life of caring for a family member with a disability as well... but anyway.... that is for another post. :-)
But who is counting! :-)
Hello to all in blogger land! This is so fun to be able to post my first blog, not that anyone will read it! We are an active-duty U.S. Air Force family, with my husband currently deployed "in the Fight" as a chaplain. It's truly a great ministry and a wonderful call to be able to support our soldiers abroad right now in the war, even though single parenting at home can be tough. My heart goes out to all you other AF and military moms -- especially as you single parent with your spouse away and in harm's way. This is our first deployment and it is been a CHALLENGE to be alone. I don't think I realized how much help my husband was until he wasn't around at ALL! Yet, God has definitely supplied and is supplying a huge amount of grace every day as I am "in the fight" on the homefront, battling two kids in diapers, homework, laundry, sleepless nights with sleepless babies and lots of special needs for our "special" son.
We have three children, Lauren, Sam and Thomas. Lauren is our almost 7-year-old -- vivacious, full of light, musical, gifted, artistic and talkative. Samuel is our special package. God delivered him to us almost four years ago, and Sam has Down syndrome. He is definitely a blessing, though many days he presents many, many challenges. I love Sam for his contagious laugh and yet Sam exasperates me in that it takes him 2,000 times to learn even the simplest of things. God is teaching me patience through Sam... Thomas (Tommy) is our just-turned-one year old who I am enjoying in this fun stage of exploring his world. He is an absolutely adorable baby with a precious newness that I cherish. Tommy refuses to sleep through the night consistently and wants to make sure that his "Air Force mama" remains just enough sleep deprived to remember she better rely more on "her God" for her strength than on "herself!"
I love my kids. They make me laugh and live so fully. Lauren turns 7 the day before Thanksgiving and today she asked me, "Mommy, what is that holiday that falls near my birthday.... You know, the one with the CHICKEN in it!"
Kids. Ya gotta love them for all their antics. Lauren is my wake up smile every day. She is such a ray of sunshine to our family.
The two boys are full of fun themselves. Yesterday I had a few minutes before I needed to leave to take Samuel to his special pre-school program so I ran into the bathroom to blow dry my hair. When I turned off the blow dryer I realized things sounded unusually quiet in the house -- Sam and Thomas were awake and had been in the living room playing with their toys. Since I didn't hear any toys being shuffled or activated, I ran out and didn't seen either baby boy in the room. As I called their names I could hear them in the next room -- the bathroom. Now, my daughter has these plastic green frogs that she won as a prize on Halloween at the "monstor mash" walk at a neighbor's party. As I walked into the bathroom I saw Sam with two of these green frogs in his hands while brother Thomas was "fishing" into the toilet, having thrown three more plastic frogs down the toilet. (As of late, Thomas has had a love affair with the toilets in the house and I am having to practically bolt the doors to keep him out.) As I approached the room, Tommy, with his hand in the toilet bowl looks up at me, shakes his head and says, "No, no, no", obviously repeating the words I had been telling him in regards to that nasty, but necessary porcelin object in our bathrooms. I couldn't help but laugh at the site of it all -- Tommy fishing for frogs and saying "no," while big brother Sam is on the hunt to find more plastic frogs to offer to his brother to throw down the toilet. See, Sam is smart! He just likes to fool me on some days! :-)
What a mischevious duo. I am afraid this is just the beginning of their shannigans!
On another wonderful sidenote: Can I just add what great friends I have and what a fantastic God I serve? Today I was feeling particularly "lonely," being that my husband is deployed and I have actually taken my children and moved to Florida to be near to my parents. While I was belly aching to God via my best college friends and asking for their prayer support, God surprsised me with THREE huge social invites for this week. One of these invites is from another AF mom whose husband is also deployed. Now this is a HUGE treat to be near to another spouse whose husband is also in the Fight. You typically only find this near a base or post. But, here I have someone near me in Naples. It was just a gentle reminder to me, yet again, that God is here, He loves me SO MUCH (and He loves you, too!) and he cares about my deepest needs for companionship and friendship.
As a bonus, my best Florida gal friend, Steph, is driving down from Bradenton tomorrow to spend the day with us! What a gift! Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers and being faithful in the little things, too. Steph is an amazing story of a woman living the daily life of caring for a family member with a disability as well... but anyway.... that is for another post. :-)
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