A King for a day

Sean turned 38( 2 more years to 40) AHHHH!!!! So I asked him what he wanted for his birthday this year. He usually says, "oh nothing". He hates for me to spend any money on him or spend money period. I, on the other hand ,never mind if he spends money on me. I guess opposites do attract. So I was floored this year ,when he actually replied with a request. I guess 8 kids and 2 years from forty is about time to start asking for something for your birthday. He decided that the one thing he wanted for the whole weekend was to have no responsibility around the house and get to watch whatever he wanted on TV, eat whatever he wanted and do whatever he wanted. The girls and I thought this would be lots of fun. This was something that I could get into. It was also so fun to finally be doing something that he really wanted. We had lots of fun with it. Kylee made a bell for him out of a water bottle and rocks. He just had to shake it when he wanted something and one of his servants would come running to get him a new drink. The girls made him a crown also. It said " King for a day" .We had him make a menu, he got his favorite homemade beef and noodles and carrot cake and lots of other good stuff all weekend. I think he played more video games than he has played this last year. It was fun to see my sweetie finally taking a break from all his duties and enjoying himself( he never takes a break). Definitely worth it to see the smile on his face!!!!! He was a king for sure. He is king Father and Husband in our hearts already every other day of the year. He just doesn't know that all the time. Its nice to remind him and let him know how much we love him.

Finding Him even in Open Heart Surgery

So Fastina needed to have open heart surgery for the third time. This was a shock to us a few months ago when the doctor sat in the office and told us that this was going to have to happen. We had really been believing that God was going to heal her and make it so she didn't need to have it. So we geared up over the next 8 weeks getting ready for surgery and yesterday March 1st, 2011 our daughter off to the operating room. My husband and I sat in the waiting room for twelve hours, sick to our stomachs and waiting. The surgery ended up being 12 hours. As my husband and I waited for the doctor to come and talk with us we worked on this video of pictures. Fastina has been our daughter for the last 4and 1/2 years. She is a very amazing child. She has a heart of Gold. She has the most gentle, sweet, spirit. She is a go getter and is very determined in all that she does. She loves life, loves to laugh! She can be quite a ham when she wants too. We love her and feel that God gave us a golden nugget. Enjoy this video of her.


HEART SURGERY


Fastina getting ready to be wheeled away to surgery room. All smiles as dad was teasing her about blackmailing her on facebook


This is Fastina after surgery. She gave us a scare. Things got rough for about 8 hours after surgery. She was bleeding pretty bad and they had to slow down. The doctors and nurses worked all night on her to stablize her.

This is Fastina after getting the tube out, she is just waking up. They had her heavily sedated to keep her stable.



One of the workers here at the hospital came in the morning after a very long night of watching the doctor and nurses work. I was sitting on the couch and didn't know what to pray to God. I was sitting there and praying one sentence. " God send your angels to work on her" " Surround this room". I knew this worker at the hospital and was happy to see her and get caught up. We hadn't seen each other for years. So we caught up on all the history and then before she goes to leave she says that she wants to write something down on the window to encourage me. She writes this scripture "He will Command the angels concerning you" it was from Psalms. I about fell over when I looked up to see what she was writing. God had come down and just like in the old testament "wrote on the wall", he used this hand of the worker here at OSF but he spoke to me specifically and to the point. My one sentence prayer was God send your angels to work on her and his answer, "I will command them concerning you." I know that they came to the room because within 3 hours she had the tube out and several more drips off.
Through all of this believe it our not God sees us!!!!! As my friend and this worker at the hospital said. "I just want people to know that God sees them." She didn't realize that she was the hand of God to me, reminding me that God is present, alive, real and he knows you, sees you, and will answer you when you call out to him.
I was doing my daily reading today in scripture and this passage was part of it. A great reminder. "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So I will not fear, even if earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! Psalms 46:1-3. When God touches me with a scripture and I know that he is speaking to my heart I like to pray it back to him. So this is my prayer back to my sweet Heavenly Father ,today." Lord, You are my refuge, You are my strength. I will go to You and rest. I feel myself curling up inside the cleft of Your presence. Your word says that I can find my place in the cleft of the Rock and You are my rock and my fortress as the stresses and things of my life lately storm around me. It feels like earthquakes, and the my mountains are crumbling. You now that,Father ,that there have been so many things the last six weeks from my brother, my neices and nephew, my sweet Viv and Fastina that have made me distraught and lost. The earth trembling beneath my feet and the mountains crumbling describe well what I was feeling in my heart. Thank you my sweet Jesus for reminding me that I need to curl up inside of You! When I am in the cleft of the Rock I can know that I am unbreakable because You are the rock and fortress that I have found my refuge in. As the waves, storms, earthquakes try to bring fear to me they can't- Let them foam and rage and quake and tremble. I Will not Fear!!!! I will not fear. You will intervene and heal my brothers heart, You will heal Fastina through this surgery, You will restore Vivianna's Joy, Sid, Jason and Dani will be Yours, someday. In your presence, I can find Joy, protection and a fortress that is sacred and unbreakable!!! Thank you , Lord. Thank you Lord!

Boys are definately different than girls

I constantly find my son doing things that my girls never even dreamed of doing or I find him being just like his dad.

The Leaves are falling

So every year we have loads and loads of leaves that fall and fill our yard. Here is some fun pictures.

Trip to Las Vegas to see Mom and Dad

Weekend Getaway in Jamaica

Do you see that yellow thing? It is the tip of a Kayak. This is a picture of the coast line from about a mile out on the ocean. Sean and I didn't know what we were doing and got stuck out in the waves with the wind blowing. It was quite the experience laughing and trying to get the boat to row back to shore. We almost smashed into rocks and a couple times were seriously worried that we weren't going to be able to get the boat back to shore. But all in all it was fun.



This is the pool right outside our room. We swam in everyday. Could look out over the ocean while swimming.

They have a saying that you are Jamamerican when you come to visit Jamaica. This is Sean sporting his Jamamerican look.

Bob Marley, the famous singer is practically worshipped down in this island. I thought I would sport a Bob Marley mask for fun. Pretty scary, I know.

This is sitting on the porch at the breakfast brunch. The weather was about 75 and the breeze slightly blowing. So relaxing eating in such peace with the waves making their peaceful relaxing sounds and the black birds singing.

This is Sunshine and Tom Jr. They made necklaces for us for the girls. We had fun joking around with them.

This was the view from our room. We had a little porch that we could sit on and relax and watch the sunrise and set each day.

Enjoying the breeze

Enjoying the sunset.

We enjoyed a candlelight dinner out in the ocean in a gazebo. We wanted to take a moment and thank the Lord for his blessing to us. It is such a joy and blessing to be in a Marriage with a godly man, who loves the Lord and knows it is not from our own strength but His heavenly father that our blessings come from

The first night I met Sean, he gave me a ride home. I knew that night that he was the one for me. As I got out of the car he grabbed my hand and kissed it said something very romantic in french. The photographer was taking a picture and Sean suprised me with a romatic kiss on the hand and some beautiful French. Some things never change.



We mostly laid on the beach and caught the rays and read books. I finished three books and Sean finished 5 of the 9 he brought. We could definately recommend Sandals Resort if your looking for a fun getaway.