Monday, April 22, 2013

They Are Home!!!



They got home yesterday about 2:00 pm!  I praise God and Thank Him for keeping them and us safe the whole time.  I also thank you all for keeping us in your prayers and for the notes saying so.  It was very encouraging to know people care for us.

Our oldest son Stephen had come in the morning to bring cheese cake and makings for root beer floats in celebration of his sisters birthdays, that both take place this month.  He played me a really intense game of scrabble (I won by a landslide :)  )  Also he played video games with the others for a while.  He really kept our minds off waiting for the guys to get home.  Thanks Stephen!

We came through the whole weekend with no troubles.  I could feel I was being prayed for.  This was actually the best we have done, out of all the years they have went away.  Praise God, I felt healthy and had strength the whole time and the little's (Carolyn, Zeke and Elizabeth) being even older this year actually were a wonderful help. 

The hardest things, the whole time the guys were gone, was Antonio’s physical care and also all the farm chores.  But Zeke helped me care for Antonio.  He helped me use the lift and move him from bed to wheel chair.  Or bed to bath.  Zeke was very helpful. He was very mature, strong, caring and just so very willing to help me in whatever I needed him to do.  Just little things like putting on Antonio’s socks for me was a big help so I could attend to something else.   We all worked together at the chores and even though it took a long time, was not a lot of heavy work as we all worked together. 

We only had what I would call two issues, out of the ordinary, the whole time.  The first, when I was getting Antonio up and out of bed the first day.  I was using the lift and his very full diaper (Think, so full of pee because he gets all his fluids at night via his g-tube, full)  caught on the lowered bed rail and tore open.  Yes, laugh if you will.  But there was more, filled to capacity, diaper gel all over the floor than I have ever seen in my life.  It looked exactly like a huge pile of snow but let me tell you, it was not!  It took me a good thirty minutes to get it all cleaned up and a whole roll of paper towels and many wipes.  I will be so very extra careful to never have that happen again.   Antonio kept saying that Daddy and William never made that happen before.  I jokingly replied well I am not Daddy or William, I guess I am out of practice!  He thought that was funny.  As he laughed his deep rolling laugh for quite some time as I was on my hands and knees working away.  Needless to say I didn’t get him totally ready for the day and to the breakfast table till at least 9:30 that morning.  It just takes so long to move him around, toilet, bathe, dress and such.  Getting him to the table for breakfast takes some time and that didn’t help. 

The second thing was Carolyn wanted to do a lot of the kitchen work and meals through the weekend.  She was so sweet and wanted to be helpful and was she ever!  But on Friday night the kids always have movie night and William was not here to make the popcorn.  We have no microwave, by choice.  So have a hot air popper for pop corn.  I thought…. Carolyn is about to be 13 in a few days.  So I taught her how to make popcorn on Friday night.  She was so excited and caught on really fast.  Pop corn is healthy so I told her whenever they want a snack thru the weekend, to go ahead and make a batch of popcorn.  I think she made 9 batches thru the weekend!  Sounds like a lot but with four big kids here this weekend eating it,(and some being snuck to the dogs and parrots) it goes fast.  Well…..on about batch seven, I would say, she set off the smoke alarms in the whole house.(they are all connected together and are very loud and very ear piercing)  When I asked her what happened she said she was trying to get those last few little kernels to pop and they burnt and set off the alarm.  Picture in your mind, Zeke, standing on a kitchen chair with a towel fanning the fire alarm, Elizabeth, opening and closing the back door over and over again, to clear the air, Carolyn, almost in tears as she knows it was her fault and she thought she was going to be in trouble and Antonio laughing his head off.  (Can you tell we set off our overly sensitive fire alarms quite often around here?)  The air circulation crew sprang into action, to quickly clear the air!  So funny.  So Carolyn now knows not to do that.  Silly girl.  There will always  be a few kernels that don’t pop. 

Yup, that was our two big incidents when the guys were gone.  Praise God, all went well and the guys had a great time!  They came back all crispy sun burnt.  I warned them that they come back burnt every year and sent them with sun block.  Oh well. 

I guess the guys ate out a good bit. (which is a real treat as we hardly ever do that)  Went to an antique shop in the area for fun.  Tim bought some Normal Rockwell coffee mugs.  I guess William spent a huge amount of time in the book section but didn’t want to spend any money as he was saving it for Bug-a-Paluza the next day. 

William gets the t-shirt for this event every year.  So he got the new one for this year. He bought two framed old advertisement sheets, from a magazine,  for a VW bug, to hang in his room.  I guess in the little box he brought back was a small part he needed for his carburetor?  He got a VW key chain and a Herbie style 53 sticker.  He said it was for on his computer I think.  I am always amazed at what my children save their money for and spend it on.  What things they desire and want. 
It really was so quiet the whole weekend with the guys gone. The kids all missed each other so much.  They were all laughing and happy to be back together again.  Zeke and William right away started their wrestling thing they do.  They can’t seem to walk by each other without playfully punching each other on the shoulder. 

It feels so good to have them home and be all under one roof again like it should be. God is amazing and so good to us all.  I am so grateful for God and His great care of us, for my family and for good friends all over the world.


Psalm 3:8  Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. 


May God richly pour out His blessings on you today and always,
susan

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