Africa!!!

As most of you already know, Wilson and I have decided to travel to Africa next summer on a mission trip with some youth from Cowboy Fellowship.  The youth pastor from our church approached us about a year ago to ask us to start praying about going.  We pretty much laughed, but agreed to give it some thought.  I was VERY hesitant to leave my kids for 14 days.  That is very hard for a mom to do, especially one who stays home and spends pretty much every waking minute with my babies.  We were both praying and I even had my bible study group praying that we would be obedient to whatever God was calling us to do.  After a few months of battling with the Holy Spirit we both felt convicted that this is something we needed to do in order to obey God.  Our thought is who are we to tell God no.  The God who gave us life and has blessed us beyond belief and the God who sent his son Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins.  His SON!  Who are we that we can't sacrifice two weeks out of our life to glorify His name and expand His kingdom.  I can't speak for Wilson, but once I made the decision a peace came over me and I know this trip is going to be amazing!!!!  We have been busy sending out support letters, rasing funds of our own, applying for passports, and praying, praying, praying.  We will leave in July for Kenya and although that seems like a long ways off there is a lot to do to prepare.  Please remember us in your prayers.  Pray for our team, that we stay strong and healthy, and that we will stay in the will of the Lord and not our own.  Pray that God will use us in a mighty way and His light will shine through us.  Please pray for the people we will meet in Kenya, that their hearts would be open to the Lord and that they would be accepting of us.  Also, please pray for my kiddos.  I know this time apart will be tough on them, but we are so thankful for our family and friends who have already offered to help with them.  Thank you!!!

William's Surgery

I am going to go back a bit just to document it for my kids.  Last winter William developed a sty on the lower lid of his left eye.  We tried everything to make it go away on our own, but after about two months we were referred to a paediatric optometrist.  He said that William would have to have it surgically removed.  We scheduled the procedure for April, but then our family went through a long spell of different viruses, infections, and illnesses.  During this time William developed the hand, foot, and mouth virus.  It was NASTY!  It was a solid two weeks of blisters covering the out and inside of his mouth.  Poor thing was miserable.  We had to cancel his procedure.  By this time we were into early summer and had so much going on so the surgery kept getting delayed and actually his sty was looking better (mainly because while practicing t-ball he was hit on the sty with a ball twice, which caused it to come to a head and pop.)  I scheduled the procedure for July 22 because even though it was a little better it was not completely gone.  We left for our Disney trip at the end of June and while we were gone William developed another sty on the same eye but the upper lid this time.  It is a good thing we had the procedure scheduled already because this was a big one.  We left very early on the morning of the procedure to be on the north side of San Antonio by 6 am.  They took us back very quickly and prepped him for surgery.  The nurses were very nice to him and brought him coloring sheets to take his mind off what was about to happen. They gave him some medicine to make him a little silly and relax him a bit before taking him to the operating room.  Unfortunately he didn't do or say anything too funny, but he was super relaxed and didn't mind a bit when they wheeled him away from us.  The procedure only took about 30 minutes and he was supposed to be in recovery for a while, but they came to get us pretty quickly because he had woken up very quickly and was extremely disoriented and scared.  We could hear him screaming from the waiting room so, Wilson and I rushed back very quickly. It took a while for him to calm down, but once he did he crashed out.  We carried him to the car, buckled him into Keaton's car seat because he couldn't hold himself up in his booster, and headed to pick up Keaton.  Wilson's parents were so sweet to keep Keaton for us so that we didn't have to worry with him.  We met Sharon at Target and I ran in to get him a little surprise for when he woke up.  On our way home we pulled through Taco Cabana. While waiting on the food William woke up, saw where we were and said, "I am so hungry!"  He quickly scarfed down a burrito and a glass of sweet tea.  I guess he was back to normal!  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and recovering.  This procedure does not prevent him from ever getting another sty, so we are hoping and praying that he won't have to go through this again!!




The following two pictures are William when he developed Hand, Foot, and Mouth.  Kind of gross, but I wanted to document for him.



William being silly at Disneyland, you can see where his eye is swollen



The sty on his upper lid was hit and this is what it looked like right before surgery.



Getting a little breathing treatment before being sedated.



A little iPhone action to pass the time.