Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I had a good time wrestling the roast and trying to get it into the pan.  Felt like I was bathing Marcus when I was seasoning it.  :-)

Reflecting on the year and what I was thankful for, I couldn't help but think of the hard times.  For some reason, I remember those times more than the easier ones because through the heartache and tears, the Lord has revealed even greater blessing to me.  For some reason, His grace is sweeter during bitter seasons.  And Christ looks more beautiful when my own life looks ugly.

So my huge list of thanksgivings can be boiled down to this:  I am wretched, untrusting, unfaithful, and in despair, yet He saved me and continues to lavish His love on me through Jesus.  What undeserved grace!

When They're Alone

The funniest things happen when you leave your kids alone.  Here are 3 separate incidents that happened today.

1)  I left the kids to play by themselves while I did some stuff upstairs.  They seemed to be playing nicely until I heard Marcus' angry-man crying fit.  I assumed he either was frustrated at not being able to do something, or that Audrey wasn't sharing her toys with him.  Being the presumptuous mom that I am, I was ready to give a reprimand, until I heard Audrey sighing.  She had a Starbucks napkin in hand and said, "Mom, I'm trying to wipe Marcus' nose."  She was so discouraged at Marcus' reaction to her helping him that she sighed, gave me the schloppy snot napkin and said, "Mom, can YOU do it, please?"

Oh, Auj.  The snot must have been crazy because she KNOWS how much Marcus hates getting his nose wiped.  Brave soul, that girl.  Kind of reminiscent of this, no?  What would Marcus do without the Auj?



2)  After that, I brought Marcus upstairs to play while I finished my stuff.  He was exploring in his room and in our room and crawling back and forth.  There was a stack of really big books that we took off the shelves to use for trapping some wildlife that came into our house AGAIN (surprise, surprise).  Apparently, he was interested in his dad's book collection because he was quiet for a long time.  And when I went to check on him, he was intently reading one of the big books he picked out.  Move over Brown Bear and Goodnight Moon, it's Expository Preaching for our boy now!



3)  Marcus had a hard time settling down to nap today, so I went into his room and we ended up napping together while Audrey had her rest time.  After she played with her beads and read books and did who knows what else, she decided that she needed something else to do.  All of a sudden, I heard her tap Mike's drumsticks in the air and yell, "A one, a two, a three for five!"  Then she performed the loudest drum solo on every different kind of box, toy, and drum.  That was then followed by, "I AM A ROCKSTAR!!!"

She sure knows how to have fun...even if it's all by herself!

What My Kids Love

Audrey:  being outside, breathing the fresh air, feeling the sun, moving her body in the open space.  That is her happy place.







Marcus: playing music with Mom & Dad, listening to music, exploring all kinds of instruments, tapping to the beat.  He just can't get enough.







But what I hope they love more is...just being together.

The Sweetest Testimony

I MUST share this amazing testimony of a precious boy named Bennett Key, who also has Joubert Syndrome.  It is encouraging beyond words and now, our prayers are even more fervent for Audrey and Marcus to know our loving Savior!

Hillary, thank you SO much for finding my blog and for sharing his testimony with me.  I sent it to Mike at work today and we were both filled with so much hope that our champ will one day have a testimony like Bennett's.  Thank you!  (By the way, can I get your email?  I have so much to ask you!)



We'd like to think that Gospel seeds are being planted in our kids' hearts.  One neat thing is that Marcus has started to initiate prayer by putting his hands together before each meal.



Lest you think our son's prayers are motivated by a pious devotion to the Lord, let me tell you his true motivation:  "The faster we pray, the faster I get to eat!!"



"Lady, will you please put that camera down and pray already!?  I'm starving!!"



Uh, we got a little ways to go before Marcus has his own video testimony.  :-)

He's On A Roll!

Marcus' PT has been wanting to teach him how to walk between parallel bars.  To our amazement, he just "got it" this morning.  With the crawling and now this, our hearts are full!



The biggest "wow" about this is that he learned on his own what his body needed to do to turn around and walk to the other chair.  For a kid with motor planning difficulties, this really amazed us.  He just knew what he had to do (turn around, grab the other bar, reposition his feet, etc.) and then he did it!

Now, we just need to get longer bars.  :-)

Newest Milestone

After 10 months of belly crawling, he's doing some big boy crawling now.  The Lord always seems to save new milestones to encourage us at just the right time.  We're so thankful for gifts like these!