Random Acts of Kindness

Earlier this month I received a myspace message from a friend asking me question about what size clothes my kids wore and things they like, etc. I knew she was up to something, but had no idea to what extent. Well today I got my answer! This is the message I received today:

Sarah,

As you have probably gathered from my last few emails, there is something going on.
Now I would like to share with you what it is. You have shown me that your faith is amazing. Just by your blogs, and emails, and comments to me, I have seen you grow tremendously in the Lord.
Have you been praying how you were going to do Christmas this year? Now you don't have to worry.
The Lord have provided me with a way to make sure that you have more than enough presents under you Christmas tree for you children this year. The Lord have provided 10 gifts each for them to find on Christmas morning. They will be wrapped and ready to go.
You see, when you are faithful to the Lord, He is faithful back to you. He gets all the credit and I am so blessed that He has chosen me to carry out His works. I have seen the Lord move in my life. You are a wonderful mother and God sees that you are doing your best. I would like to drop these gifts off to you not this coming week but the next. You let me know when and where and if you don't want your boys to know then we can do it while they are at school.
All I ask is that on Christmas morning, before presents are open, that you would gather your family and say a prayer with them. Explain to them that when you are faithful to God, He is faithful in return! God is good ALL THE TIME! And that with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
Please give me your new cell phone number. I wanted to call you and I thought I had it. But I'm lame and I don't.
My prayer is that you and your husband would excpt these gift as a gift from God and nothing else!

Ashley

Ashley is the most Godly person I know. She is an amazing mother, wife and friend! I cannot even begin to explain how much this means to my family. Just days before this I was driving with the boys and telling them that I really did not know if we were going to have Christmas presents this year. Although they took it well; it broke my heart. Now through her kindness, I will be able to give my kids a nice Christmas. I truly do believe that God chose the best person to carry out this random act of kindness. My prayer is that someday I will be able to pay it forward!

To Ashley and her family:
No words will ever be able to describe how grateful we are to have been blessed by your Godliness! God has used you in a way that is truly the meaning of Christmas. You have brought back the spirit of Christmas that I lost a long time ago; the spirit that I thought I would never have again! Thank you and God bless!

I am not a drama momma

So yesterday was an event full day for us! I had my doctors appointment and had to go get blood work done. Then I had to take my mom out to run some erruns. Then Alex had counseling. Which I was really looking forward to because he has not been in about 3 weeks and needs to go! Well we get to counseling just Alex, myself and the baby. and check in. Luke likes to look out the windows so I asked Alex to lift the blinds up so Luke could see out the window. I was filling out a yearly survey! Anyway, Alex decided to continue to pull on the blinds and they fell. Luke started to cry, so I went over to him thinking he was just scared. When I picked him up I realized his finger was bleeding, so I took him into the bathroom to rinse it off. There was a big gash in his pinkie finger! I wrapped it with paper towel and told the receptionist we had to go! Now I don't do trauma; I freak out! I do not think straight! We just got new medical insurance and my first thought was where can I take him. The closes hospital is Kaiser, but I don't know if that hospital is in our network. Okay, I really do not care my baby is screaming and I am taking him there!I call my husband and he cannot understand a word I am saying because I am upset. I get across that I am taking the baby to the hospital and I will call him back. Well, then I have the insurance card to try and call to see if I can take him there and the card falls under my center console of my car and I cannot get it. At this point I am really starting to feel like I cannot handle this stress! So I call my mom and see if she can get online to find what hospital I can take him to. By the time she gets online I am already int he Kaiser parking lot, so I just tell her I have to go! I get him into the ER and within 15 minutes we are triaged. The nurse says she thinks they will be able to just glue him up and he will be fine, he can be seen in what they call the Medical Treatment Unit and does not need to stay in the Er. So she takes us to the MTU and we wait about 30 more minutes. Meanwhile I am trying to keep his finger from bleeding all over the place. I already have blood on my shirt, pants and arms, he has it on his face and clothes, Alex has it on him; we were all a mess! He gets called to the back and the doctor comes and looks at his finger. He says it is pretty superficial and he thinks he could put a couple stitches in, but that would be very invasive and not make Luke happy. He thinks butterflies or glue would be better. He decides on butterflies. It takes about three to wrap around his finger and then they taped his pinky finger to his ring finger. Luke is fine now and his finger should be healed up in about 3-5 days. The hardest part is keeping it dry and clean! He is a trooper and has not been messing with it. He is still able to play and use his hand, so he does not seem to mind. The picture is the after effect with it all wrapped up!

We have a Thumb Sucker

As of today I am 13 weeks and I am finally feeling good! The last few weeks were rough. I was feeling sick 90% of the time and it was terrible. Ok lets see! We had an appointment yesterday and the baby looks great. It measured at 12 weeks 3 days and I should have been 12 weeks 6 days, so that is good! The ultrasound picture the doctor captured is of the baby sucking it's thumb! SO cute! The doctor said this is probably the youngest thumb sucker he has ever seen! I was a thumb sucker, so we will see what happens!



As for pictures of my belly there really is still not much to see, so I think I am going to hold off on that for a little longer! I really have not gained any weight and have not lost any weight. I am finally feeling like I want to eat, so I think we will have a nice belly shot next time! We still have not decided if we are going to find out the sex or not. At my next appointment is on Dec. 10th; I should be far enough along where they could tell, so we have until then to make our decision. We both think it is a girl and a lot of my friends think that too? If you have not voted yet on my poll to find out the sex please do!

I think that is it for now! Next update will be around Dec. 10th!

Luke Signing

Luke loves to "read!" He will look at books and magazines. He has his favorites that we read over and over and over! The one he is reading in the video is a Fun with Letters book. Some of the letters are flaps that when you lift up there are pictures underneath of something that starts with that letter. As for signing, this is something we have been doing with him since he was born. He started picking it up at about 6 months. As of date, he knows at least 25 signs. Some are made up signs that I made up or he made up. In the video you cannot see it very well, but he signs dog, ice cream and balloon as well as elephant and ape/monkey. Then he goes into showing us that he knows where everyones eyes are. This is something else he is learning right now along with colors! He is a little sponge of learning right now and we are loving every minute of it!

Luke Signing

Trick or Treat

Unfortately, I did not get any pictures of all of us in costume. Here is some of just Luke having fun at our breastfeeding group's Halloween Party and one of him right before we went out Trick or Treating. This was really his first Halloween, since he was only 3 months old last year. He loved his costume and his little trick or treat basket. He carried it and would not let it go! He only lasted about an hour into trick or treating before he fell asleep, but it was enough! We braved the rain and went to a few houses in our neighborhood and then a few houses in my parent's neighborhood. Enjoy the pictures.

The Pumpkin Farm (Cont.)

This year I surprised the boys with a trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a Thursday and normally we go to Alex's counseling appointment, but I had a change of plans. They had no idea where we were going; it was great! This was Luke's first time to a pumpkin patch and he had a blast. He loved the animals and was so excited that he could feed them! We picked out a pumpkin, but have not decided what we are going to do with it. We are either going to carve it or make pumpkin pie or maybe both? My mom came with us which was a little difficult trying to push her around the pumpkin patch, but we managed as always! She had a lot of fun with us and I am glad she came. Enjoy a slide show of our trip to The Pumpkin Farm!