Blessings

Maybe you've heard this song on the radio; I can't even remember who sings it right now. "His love's like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy. When all of the sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. And I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me. Oh, how He loves us. Oh, how He loves us, oh, how he loves!" I felt these words (I've heard them many times before) just a few days ago as the song played on my car's radio.

My dad has polycystic kidney disease, causing the function of his kidneys to fail. After his kidneys dropped below a certain level of function, he was put on two donor lists in order to receive a transplant. They told him the average wait-time to receive a kidney was five years. God had a plan. When my parents began to spread the news of my dad's condition, we were blessed beyond belief by several people who came forward to be considered as donors. One of those people proved to be a match, and the planning and testing for the transplant began. Surgery was scheduled for December 10, 2009. A week before the surgery, final blood tests were done on my dad and his donor. On December 8, my dad found out that there was one antigen in his blood that had changed, which meant he would reject the kidney. The surgery was cancelled. It was a hard realization to grasp. God still had a plan.

On Saturday, January 2, 2010, the University of Toledo hospital called my dad about a kidney they would be receiving. He and my mom drove to Toledo for final blood tests. They waited at a hotel while the rest of the family waited by our phones. The transplant coordinator called my parents to let them know that there was a good chance that my dad's antigens would be too high to match. God had a plan. At 5:00 Sunday morning, the final match was confirmed. The surgery ended up being Monday morning at about 9:00.

My dad was supposed to have surgery on Tuesday, Jan. 5 to prepare a spot in his abdomen for dialysis. The dialysis would start on January 18. Instead, he was blessed with a young, healthy kidney a day earlier! We are still praying for the continued health and recovery of his body. His attitude and faithfulness amaze me. My dad has had several difficult health issues to overcome, and through them all, he has been a shining testament for his savior. I am so thankful that God has given me an earthly father to mirror my heavenly father.

When the realization of the surgery, and the prospect of a better quality of life, finally hit, my dad's affliction was 'eclipsed by glory', the glory of our faithful God who plans and provides for our needs. My dad, and our family, have been showered with prayer throughout this entire process. Oh, how He loves us!

I love you, Dad!

Sledding

After 20 months of living with Luke, the 'firsts' in life are becoming more scarce. This past Saturday, we made our own 'first' by taking Luke sledding. He could have cared less that it was about 20 degrees outside; he loved sledding!

Strawberries are not called Apples

This is just a fun lunch time laugh that Luke and I had the other day!

Elmo

Make no mistake, Luke loves to play like a boy! He throws his toys across the room, shoots his arms in the air to yell 'touchdown' when he sees football on tv, and 'vroom vrooms' his cars all over the living room. But, our boy has a sweet, tender heart that I love! He saw me crying a couple weeks ago and came over, wiped my cheek, gave me a kiss and kept saying, "Mommy, better." He's especially into giving kisses right now, complete with sound effects. He's so much fun:)

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, filled with lots of family time. We were able to be in Portage with my family on the 23rd and 24th and then came back to Byron Center for the 25th and 26th with Mike's family. Luke was great at opening presents! He now has lots of new toys here at the apartment (some of which are packed away for future excitement).

Apartment Life

We are getting more and more settled into our apartment as the days go by. Really, there is not much to settle, as you can see from the picture of our living room, we don't have our furniture here! We have decided to leave most of our things at the house until it sells. Thankfully, we do have a comfy bed, and Luke has his crib, to sleep in. Having so few things here has actually been eye opening...it has made me think about the things that I really NEED. My husband, my son, my Savior, food and warmth. I am so blessed to have it all!

Mike is enjoying his new position in the product development department of Universal Forest Products. There are a lot of new things for him to learn about, but he catches on quickly. He gets to work on different projects all the time and I think that will keep him on his toes.

Luke is getting used to apartment life. It's been a challenge to keep him busy and occupied. He drew on the wall with crayons the second day we were here. He likes to watch the squirrels and the birds that come to play on our deck. We went outside this morning to enjoy the first real snowfall of the season. We got over 6 inches of snow last night! Luke and I bundled up and stomped through the snow. He wasn't sure what to think of it at first; he wanted me to get it off of his boots!

Counting...trying:)

Our little baby is almost 19 months old. Luke is beginning to act more like a little boy than a little baby. We are so proud of him and all that he is learning; he seems to soak up and repeat everything that he hears. His vocabulary has expanded greatly in the last few weeks. One of his favorite topics of conversation is his family. He goes through everyone's names and I ask, "Where is Grandma (or whoever he is talking about)?" to which Luke replies, "Home." Sometimes I'll find him looking at books and 'reading' them to himself, with amazing inflection in his voice, I might add. He has a rocket to play with in the bathtub, he loves to say BLASTOFF (you'll hear that in the video). Luke has the sweetest personality and he loves to help everyone. He's always willing to offer a bite of his food (if he can feed it to you himself), or a drink from his cup. He helps set the table for dinner, always wants to put his shoes away in the closet, and his newest fascination is getting the mail from our tiny mailbox in the apartment. We love him dearly!