March to Mandaree–Home

Sunday was the final day of the March to Mandaree.  We walked together for the last miles down to Nathan Goodiron’s grave site for a service and breakfast.  Words were spoken from the heart and taps played.  It was a beautiful service on a beautiful morning.  It was also a bittersweet ending to this 415 mile journey.  The roads were long but the sacrifice was worth the remembrance of these fallen heroes.  Chris Kleinwachter.  Travis Van Zoest.  Curtis Mehrer.  Nathan Goodiron.  Remember those who have given everything. 

Learn more about March to Mandaree at www.marchtomandaree.blogspot.com

May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month

Did you know kids have strokes, babies have strokes, even the unborn can have a stroke? Our little girl is a stroke survivor. May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month and you can learn more about pediatric strokes at Kids Have Strokes.  This year I am raising money for Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association.  CHASA is first international non-profit organization to offer information and support to families of infants, children, and young adults who have hemiplegia or hemiplegic cerebral palsy, often due to perinatal stroke, childhood stroke, or other rare causes.  I hope you can help us meet our goal by donating.  Even one dollar helps out!!  You can click the button on my sidebar any time, or this nice button below!!  Thank you for helping kids like Piper and their families!

 

Snuggies For Seniors!!

You’re laughing aren’t you?  This is serious!  Kristina from Pulsipher Predilections and Stephanie from The Daily Blarg are teaming up to donate Snuggies to local seniors and we can all help.  Please click on their links to read more about the good a blanket with sleeves can do for not only seniors, but the disabled as well.  I’m donating, will you?!
        click the button! ->    

Because everyone deserves a Snuggie!!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

 

I  am a volunteer professional photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS).  This organization provides bereavement photography to families show have lost or who will shortly be losing a child or infant.  It is a difficult job that not many can do, but so very rewarding.  My heart goes out to all those families with whom I’ve worked, and all the others who have received the NILMDTS services.  This organization runs on donations of time, money, and services. 

If you have Facebook, please take a moment and Fan & Vote for NILMDTS.  Chase Community Giving is giving away $5,000,000 to charities around the U.S.A.  They are using FaceBook voters to decide what charities will receive the money, so please go vote!!

Or if you feel led, click the banner below to donate to NILMDTS. Thanks!

Prayer for a heart in need…

Please pray for Stellan McKinney today.  He, at this moment, was just wheeled back to surgery to undergo another heart ablation.  Pray for his safety and recovery.  Pray for guidance of the surgeons’ hands.  Pray for peace and strength for his family no matter your feelings.  Their hearts all need it.

Journey For Jess

UPDATED: The local newspaper has run an article HERE.

ORIGINAL POST:

In just 3 days a family will be taking an important journey. Two years ago Jason and Amy lost their sweet little 3-year-old girl Jess. She fought against epilepsy for most of her short life. Now, with their older son Noah, they are taking a trip that will use Jason’s talents as a photographer to raise awareness and money for the Epilepsy Foundation and the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance. Starting July 10 they will travel to several National Parks around the western United States and take photos. The photos will then be sold to benefit these two groups. This is an important and healing journey for the family. I urge you to check out Journey For Jess as well as their blog (which will be updated as they travel) to see the story thus far and to keep up on their Journey. Also, I ask for your prayers for their safety and health during the trip!

<a href="http://journeyforjess.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Journey For Jess!" src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq208/affectionatelyyoursphoto/JFjessbutton.jpg"/></a>

Trying to do my part, I offer in my Etsy shop a pendant dedicated to Jess, and of which $4 goes to Journey for Jess.

Please, if you feel led to donate, visit Journey for Jess or purchase a pendant!

Friday Fragments – Week One

Gather up all those little thoughts and air them out for all to see read. It’s time for Friday Fragments, my weekly “spring cleaning” of the mind. If only real spring cleaning was so easy! Thanks to Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissing Time, we all get to share in the cleansing!

• We went ahead and purchased a family membership to the local pool for the summer. Now I just need to make sure they go at least 25 times to make it worth the cost!!! I am pretty certain that when I was a kid I was there every day they were open so I don’t think 25 days in an entire summer will be difficult.
• Can you believe Michael Jackson is gone?? Seriously? I know he really went downhill this last decade or so, but I mean the King of Pop? Even with all that has transpired, he was an extremely talented musician. I used to have a big time crush on MJ. I still have a whole box of memorabilia my mom brought over to our house when they moved and cleaned out my old room. Hmmm, I guess I may have to visit e-bay this afternoon, I bet the market value has gone up.
• I’ll be listing some new stuff on Etsy this afternoon, I’d love it if you all would drop by. ALSO… the reason I started really listing on Etsy was to HELP COLE. I have listed a Baseball themed Scrabble Tile Pendant that you can personalize. The proceeds go to help sweet little Cole go to a special care school and pay for necessary equipment. Any of you with special needs kids know how expensive things can get, even with good insurance. So, please, take a few minutes to check in on Cole and if you feel led, buy a pendant!! There is also a button on my sidebar that will take you directly to my shop on Etsy (if you REEAALLY want to help, e-mail me, I’ll send you the code for the same button for your blog!!)->->->
• The kids and I have been making little cardboard houses for AM’s miniature cats to live in. I get to show off my prowess with craft paper and a hot glue gun, the kids get “new” toys. Even MD will play with the girls and live in the houses. They were upstairs for almost 2 hours on Tuesday just playing “kitties”. Ahhh, a little quality computer cleaning time!

• PM and MD love to push each other’s buttons. I know this is what it’s like for siblings, but they both seem to be particularly good at it. MD will say or do over and over again the one thing PM reacts to. PM on the other hand, finds that one thing that bugs MD and stores it in that little Rolodex of a brain she has and keeps that nugget for a time when he least expects it. She analyzes the situation, then accesses her file of things-that-bug-MD and pulls out of her arsenal something that will almost frustrate MD to tears.

• We are almost done with Week One of PM’s CIT. Here’s today’s numbers:

# times asked for “pink off”: 1

# times MD got clobbered with cast: 0 (woohoo!)

# kitchen gloves mom bought for swimming: 2

# hours PM was in the wading pool: 2.5

# ounces of water in said kitchen glove and dripping out of cast later: maybe 1

# times mom kicked herself for taking PM to the pool: most of the evening!

Orange For Stellan

Please pray for Stellan & his family. As I type this he is in surgery! Pray for the skill and wisdom of his doctors and peace for his family!

Goodbye Dear Friend

A very dear friend has passed away. I asked for prayers for Ruth and her family on Friday. Early this morning she left this earthly life of pain and cancer to sit whole and healed beside our Lord. She was someone I looked up to, my breastfeeding and cloth diapering guru, and a role model parent to a wonderful family that I had the privilege of being a part of for quite some time. My prayers are again with her family as they say goodbye. I wanted to share a few photos I had....

Where else but at a lake...

At my wedding....

and because you can't have a good time unless you play with your food...

We love you guys!

Not Me Monday - Stellan Style

This week we are honoring Stellan by praying and asking everyone we can to help us in this quest. "Not me!" Monday is hosted by MckMama at My Charming Kids. I DID NOT pray all week that Stellan will get better. I DID NOT use my Fragments Friday post to ask for prayers for lots of friends and family. I DID NOT post seeking prayers for Stellan several times during the week on Facebook. I DID NOT join the FB group Pray for Stellan. I DID NOT Tweet about prayers for Stellan. I DID NOT check Twitter all week waiting to see what was going on at the hospital. I DID NOT ask a local "blog" group that has probably never been to a "real" blog site to visit My Charming Kids, meet Stellan, and pray for him. I DID NOT write Stellan's name in the snow in front of our flooded park for Stellan's Name Gallery. I DID NOT ignore a ton of housework in the process. I'd better start cleaning.

Fragment Friday - Prayers all around

From Half Past Kissin Time, Friday Fragments. All the little stuff too small to make it's own post, but too good to discard.

I have been praying constantly this week. So for my fragments this week I want to share some prayer requests with you...

First, you all must know Stellan by now. I pick up my little JC and think of Stellan every time, they are the same age and yesterday when I was on MckMama's site my MD thought the photo of Stellan I was looking at was JC. My heart is aching for any mother that has to sit by their child's side and only hope that the good Lord will heal them. Please pray for Stellan and his family.

Stellan's name gallery.

I got a call from my BFF last night. When we were in 6-11th grades we babysat tag-team style for a family ever day after school. We were basically nannies. The kids were "our" kids. That family was truly our second family and we spent many summers with them as well. The mom, Ruth, got breast cancer about 7 years ago. She fought and won...at least until the last year. Cancer appeared everywhere in her body. She still lived with such courage, love, and devotion to God. My friend called to let me know that she was in Pallative care. They're keeping her "comfortable". The kids have come home. Of their 3 kids, the youngest is 17. Last night the hospital was evacuated due to rising flood waters and she was placed in another hospital. Please pray for Ruth and her family.

My other girlfriend's 1 year old is sporadically turning blue. Yes, blue. I saw the video. And the doctors wanted her to wait until mid-April for a new pediatric cardiologist's appointment. We all encouraged her to demand that they at least do an ECHO to let her know that her heart is OK, or not. The baby is turning blue!! She has an appointment this week. Please pray for E. and baby D.

My husband has been activated with the National Guard in Fargo to work on the dikes and help with flood evactuations. He left this afternoon. Chances are we won't see him until possibly Sunday for a short time. They'll keep him on orders most likely until the water recedes and the temporary dikes are cleaned up. Please pray for the National Guard and all the families bracing for the flood.

That has all been on my heart this week.

On MD's mind:

He's holding a film camera (with no film) and trying to snap a photo. "Say cheese!" he says. He clicks the button then stares at the back of the camera. "Where's the picture?"he asks. Dad says "It needs film, you can't see them yet." Max looks puzzled "What's a film?"

A Thousand Words Thursday - Cookies with Love

Do you have a photo worth a thousand words? See ours at Cheaper Than Therapy.

AM told me last night that if we are making cookies, the only way they'll be really good is if we put lots of love in them. That's how you make good food, mom, with love.

Puttin' love in the cookies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please take a moment to pray for Stellan and his family this morning.

Flood Update

The Maple River near our house looks like it has gone down today. It snowed a lot so it's hard to tell for sure. Here's the photos I've taken.

The Red River in the Fargo-Moorhead area isn't expected to crest until Saturday at 41 feet. The previous record was in 1997 at 39.6 feet. CNN is even covering the flood HERE. Obama has signed a declaration of state of disaster for ND & MN. Please keep the flood fighters in your thoughts and prayers over the weekend!

Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day!!

Earlier this week I started to tell PM's story HERE. Here's a few more facts about Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy:

IS HEMIPLEGIA A PROGRESSIVE CONDITION? No hemiplegia is not a progressive condition, nor is it a disease. As children experience growth spurts, they may have more problems with muscle spasticity, but this does not mean that the initial injury has gotten worse.

ARE THERE TREATMENTS FOR CHILDREN WITH HEMIPLEGIA? Children with hemiplegia cannot be "cured", but therapies can help with some of the symptoms. Medication can be prescribed for seizures. Orthotics, braces, and splints may help with spasticity and gait (walking).

From Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association

The average prevalence of cerebral palsy is about 1 in 278 children. This first report of the prevalence and characteristics of CP, the most common cause of motor disability in childhood, are from Georgia, Alabama and Wisconsin. Can you even begin to imagine the numbers if there was a national surveillance?

Resources: Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Reaching for the Stars (RFTS)

Now that we have a diagnosis, let me tell you a little about what's gone on this past year. PM sees an Occupational Therapist, wears AFO braces, walks (she's still quite a bit more "clumsy" than kids her age), is talking (I interpret often for Dad) and we are so very fortunate not to have any seizures so far. I've put a little more detail HERE about what we've been doing.

Our friend at Life of Logan is hosting a giveaway in honor of Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. Please visit them to see how you can send your support and read more about CP!

Please also visit these friends:

Cole at Caring For Cole (and here)(and Cole's mommy the RaMbLeR)

Brendon at Brendon's Smile

Jack at Our Incredible Journey

Max at To The Max

Darsie at Cerebral Palsy Baby

March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month

Did you know March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month? You may have seen some of our friends' posts about CP. Let me tell you a little bit more. Meet my daughter PM.

PM's birth was completely normal. I only had a 2 1/2 hour labor and no drugs of any kind. She came out perfectly and there was no indication that she should have any problems. We didn't notice the little signs.....
She was a lefty as soon as she started reaching for objects, she rarely used her right hand for anything. We didn't understand what that meant. It wasn't until she was closer to one year of age that we began to question our pediatrician about it. Here is what we finally found out.

PM has Right Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy due to a stroke shortly before or after her birth. Here's what the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association says:

HEMIPLEGIA is a type of CEREBRAL PALSY that results from damage to the parts of the brain that control muscle movements. The term HEMIPLEGIA means that the paralysis is on one side of the body. In children with hemiplegia, the paralysis in the body occurs on the side opposite the affected part of the brain. For example, if the left side of the child's brain is injured, then the paralysis will be on the right side of the child's body.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF HEMIPLEGIA IN A CHILD?

The symptoms of SPASTIC HEMIPLEGIC CEREBRAL PALSY may differ from child to child and over time. Symptoms may include:

• difficulty with fine motor tasks like writing or using scissors


• difficulty with walking and balance


• stiffness and weakness in muscles on one side of the body


• seizures


• delay in reaching expected developmental milestones such as rolling over, sitting up, crawling, or smiling
  
• about one fourth of children with spastic hemiplegia may have an IQ below 70

What happens next? Throughout the week I will continue her story.

Please also visit our friends:

Cole at Caring For Cole (and here)(and Cole's mommy the RaMbLeR)

Logan at Life of Logan

Brendon at Brendon's Smile

Jack at Our Incredible Journey

Max at To The Max

And to our other friends I may have missed, please e-mail me and I'll add your name to our list!!!

PM on her first birthday!