Mon Oct 30

Larry is home!  Last night & today, he suffered through some HORRIFIC muscle spasms.  They toyed with several different muscle relaxers today before finding the right one.  He finally got released to come home about 7:00 tonight.  PTL, that part is over & we're on home field now!

Sun Oct 29--Larry update

Just a quick update before I go get the kids ready for bed---

Larry has had a rough day.  He's pretty stiff & sore.  I'm not sure if it's because he over-did it yesterday or if it's because he had a bad night last night or what.  He didn't sleep a lot last night because he kept getting uncomfortable & without anyone there to help, he was stuck trying to get situated in the bed by himself.  He said there were a couple of times when he called for the nurse but it took them 20 minutes to get there & by the time they arrived, he was so exhausted from trying to get settled that he was hurting more than he was when he called.  I'm not sure if it was REALLY 20 minutes or if it just felt like 20 minutes to him.  Whatever the case, he had a bad night.  Tonight I really felt AWFUL leaving him alone again because I sooo wanted to stay with him, but I know that there are nurses there & they are capable of taking care of him.  While I was there today, he got up & went for a walk twice and I took him for a "roll" in the wheelchair outside.  He's struggling to get comfortable & stay that way today, so I hope that he rests well tonight & tomorrow is better.  He is ready to come home & be uncomfortable here....and I'm ready for him to be here.  They took out his drain, IV and pain pump today, so he's really on his own now.  I will get the kids to school in the morning & then head back up there for the day, and hopefully will bring him home.

The kids are all home now.  Everyone is playing & giggling & enjoying each other, but I've already broken up a couple of arguments...and it's only been a couple hours.  Whew....back to the grind.

One biggie----Andrew called me "mommy" today.  Right after he got home, the phone rang & he was closest, so he answered it.  I guess whoever it was (can't remember now) asked if Larry was home & he said "No, but my mommy is here".  I just about broke down in tears right then!  I got on the phone & answered the question of whoever it was....but was totally stunned the whole time.  Wow.

Sat Oct 28--Larry update

Larry's surgery was yesterday morning about 8:20.  It went smooth & quick.  By 9:35, I was in a family consult room w/ the doc.  He said there were no surprises & that everything went great.  (Thank you, Lord!)

Larry woke up from the anesthesia fine (which was a concern of his, as he's been nauseated by anesthesia in the past).  He woke up from the sleepy-part of the anesthesia & felt pretty alert & was cracking jokes when they rolled him into the room.  When the pain-part of the anesthesia wore off, though, he wasn't so happy.  He had a hard time getting on top of the pain at first, but since then it's been manageable w/ the Demerol PC pump.  He hits the happy button faithfully every 10 minutes.  :)

By bedtime last night, they had him getting up to walk to the bathroom.  Today he got up 2x w/ the physical therapist & then another 2x just b/c he wanted to get up & move.  Although it's GREATTTTTT that he's up & moving so much, I'm afraid it may be TOO much.  I hope he's not horribly sore tomorrow after all the movement today.  I guess we'll see!

I'm home for the night to pack up Avon orders and get some real sleep.  The fold-out uncomfortable bed at the hospital is ok, but nothing is quite like sleeping in your own bed!

Thanks for the continued prayers & support.  We love you all!

Tomorrow --Friday Oct 27th

Tomorrow morning at 5:30am, Larry & I will be checking into the Texas Spine & Joint Hospital in Tyler.  (If you'd like to see the place, the website is: http://www.tsjh.org/.  At about 8:00am, he will have surgery.  He will be there for 2-3 days before coming home.

We are incredibly blessed in that we have a friend coming here to spend the night tonight so that she'll be here in the morning to wake up the kids & get them off to school.  THANK YOU CINDY!!  We have friends from church coming to pray with us before the surgery.  We have friends from church bringing meals over after it's over.  Wow....we're blessed.

For those of you who don't know the details of this, here ya go.  Larry broke his back when he was 13.  Ever since he's lived with all sorts of back problems (spasms, severe pain in the break area, etc.).  About a year ago, he aggrivated it somehow (we still really don't know what happened) & he's been taking pain med's ever since.  We found out a few weeks ago that he has a tear in one of the discs.  Every time he strains or stretches the wrong way, the fluid in the disc is squeezed out & causes a muscle spasm.  This surgery will remove that disc & replace it with a titanium cage filled with his own blood & marrow, which will in time harden, creating a new bone & fusing the vertabra above & below it together permanently.  (There will also be some screws in there holding the cage in place.)  We are really anxious to get this over & done with!!

Please say a prayer for us.  If you don't hear from me (on the journal) for a few days, this is why!

Prayers for Andrew

 

Today was a really bad day for Andrew.  He woke up wet (nothing real new there, but still...not a fun way to start the day).  Before he left for school, he got into trouble for not cracking down & getting ready.  He was dilly-dallying around & goofing off repeatedly.  (again, nothing new, but I always hate to have the kids leave the house already feeling like their day is off to a bad start!)  Then at school, the same mean kids teased him.  He's got a few little brats who tease him about being "dumb" or "stupid" because he's in special ed. classes.  This week is Red Ribbon week & each day there is a theme.  Today was sunglasses day, so the kids had something new to tease him about---they told him his sunglasses looked like girl's sunglasses.  He came home upset about all that.  Then he was really frustrated & angry about his homework.  He kept screaming at the paper through sobs, saying "this is all so stupid!", "homework is dumb!".  When I calmed him down & reminded him why we have to do school, why it's important to have a good education, he started ranting about how he didn't care if he got a job or had money to live on, how he doesn't care if his grades are bad, etc.  Once he finally calmed down & we finished his homework, he was okay until the next big blow-up.  When it was church time, we couldn't find his Royal Rangers vest.  He went into his room to look for it & when I walked in 2 minutes later, I seriously couldn't see HIM for all the stuff he was throwing up in the air (& over his shoulders to land behind him) as he tore apart the bedroom in search of his vest.  Every pair of shoes & all the blankets got ripped out of the closet, half the books from the shelf, clothes from his drawers, sheets....you name it.  I tried to calm him down, but he was just frantic.  He was so totally wigged out that it was almost as if he was posessed.  I went & called Larry to have him talk to him.  They talked for a few minutes & he did seem to get calmed down some.  They hung up & it was time to walk out the door pretty much immediately.  He layed down on the couch, facedown, and began to sob so hard that his whole body was shaking.  When I talked to him, he said he didn't want to go to "stupid church" because he was "too stupid to finish his Royal Ranger stuff" (tonight was an awards ceremony & he didn't get finished w/ this work in time to earn his patches for the ceremony)....and because he couldn't find his "stupid vest".  (Think stupid was the word of the day today?  :::grin::::)  I sent the other kids to the van & continued to try to calm Andrew.  I've seen him meltdown before, but these were more like true panic attacks, like the ones that Savannah used to have day after day.  The things he was saying about himself, the way he said it & the tone he used, I could tell this was a matter of self-esteem & not just a rageful fit...it was heartbreaking to watch & feel like I can't get inside his little head to help him see that these things are not worth the panic he was feeling.

As I drove to church, it all finally hit me.  Today was the day that G was officially sentenced & the family (Kelly's family) got to give their victim's statement.  Was Andrew's horrible day any coincidence?  No way!  Satan would love nothing more than to get to Andrew.  He's already got his claws half-sunk into this little boy & he would love to be able to claim him for his own.  Andrew's got a lot of "junk" to work through as he gets older.  He's hard a very unstable past with a lot of 'stuff' embedded in his mind & heart that he's having to break through one step at a time.  I know that Satan would love to carry on a generational curse of sin & shame, but I'll be danged if he's going to do it on my watch!  I spent the entire drive to church rebuking Satan's presence in this sweet boy.  I screamed (silently!) for him to get out of my van, out of my home & get away from this child!  I kept telling Satan "You can't have him!".  The Spirit of God is present & Satan can NOT reside where the Lord is!  I claimed every promise I could muster from memory for Andrew & asked for God to intervene & bind Satan from our home.

After he's been asleep for a while tonight, I plan to go in & pray over him again.  I think I'm going to anoint him and his doorway as well.  I will not stand & watch the Enemy carry away one of the little lambs on my watch!

Grrr.........can you hear the mama bear growl?  :)

Sun Oct 22

This week has been a tad stressful.  The A&K's dad had a court hearing on Wednesday.  He was offered a bargain, but denied it.  That meant he'd go to trial in a couple of months.  I thought he was sorta crazy to want to do that given the circumstances of his case.  I really felt like a jury would give him a MUCH harder sentence than the deal he was offered, but alas....that was his choice.
And then on Thursday, the news came that the DA renegotiated a new deal & he took it.  He will be officially sentenced on this coming Wednesday (25th).  He is accepting a 10 year sentence, which means that he will be eligible for parole in 2 1/2 years.  He's already served 8 months, so I'm sure they will apply that to his prison time, which means that he'll be eligible to parole in about 18-20 months.
In a lot of ways, I'm nervous about the future.  I guess one thing this whole saga has taught me is to be calm, rely on God's promises and just relax.  If I try to take this in big gulps, I'm bound to choke.  Going one day at a time is best.  It makes me nervous for the kids.  Unfortunately G & Kelly were not responsible parents and I fear what the future holds for the kids.  I'm certain that G will want to get the kids back once he's out.  There will be a tall & treacherous mountain for him to climb before that can occur.  I suppose if he's able to climb that mountain successfully, it won't be as hard to slowly let the kids go....but I am beginning NOW to pray for that time as I know it will be *EXTREMELY* difficult for all of us.  The emotions involved with all of that threaten to overwhelm me if I think on it too long, so onto something else!
On Friday, Larry is having a Lower Lumbar Interbody Fusion surgery.  I think that's the right name anyway!  It's a lower back fusion if you're like me & don't know all the medical terms.  A friend from church is going to take care of getting all the kids up & to school that morning (THANK YOU CINDY!!!!) so that Larry & I can get to the hospital at 5:30am.  :::yawn:::  Surgery is scheduled for 8:00 & is supposed to last a couple of hours.  He & I are both anxious for this time to arrive & be done.  He's ready & feels very much at peace about it all...just ready to get it done!  He will be in the hospital at least through the weekend, possibly into Mon or Tues.  We have a lot of friends planning to come pray with us prior to the surgery, help with the kids all weekend, and meals coming in for that first week.  We are blessed!!!!!  Please join a great army of friends & family who will be praying for a successful surgery, quick healing and a smooth recovery time.  After he's released from the hospital, Larry will not be able to drive for 2 weeks and will be required to spend most of that time resting & recovering at home.  The doc wants him to get up & walk as much as possible, but not to push himself too far either.  After those first couple of weeks, he's free to slowly ease back into regular life as he feels up to it.  The story we get is that by 6 weeks, he'll be "back to normal" (whatever normal is!).  :::GRIN:::
THanks for your continued prayers & support through this great journey of our lives.

Saturday Oct 21--Fun day!

This morning at 9:00, Andrew had a soccer game.  When we got done, we planned to go pick up Larry's glasses and get Sarah & Kourtney's hair cut.  It turns out that the glasses place had about a million people waiting in line at the time, so I left Larry there & took the kids to the hair place.  When we got back, he was done.  I needed to go to the bathroom, so we pulled up at Ken's Pizza & I was going to run in to use their restroom when Larry announced "Let's just stay & have lunch."  Everyone let out a big 'hooray!' since this was a nice surprise!  While we were eating, Larry got on the phone & called someone.  I wondered who he'd dialed b/c he'd been sitting quietly listening the entire time...never speaking.  When he hung up, curiosity was killing me, so I asked who he called.  He was calling to check the time for a movie!!  When we left the pizza place, we surprised the kids for a 2nd time today by going to see "Open Season".  We all enjoyed it.  It's rated PG & I can see why...there are quite a few questionable jokes, but luckily they went right over the kids' heads and the storyline to the movie was very sweet, so it was a good movie for all of us.  I think it would've been equally great if they'd taken out the questionable stuff & given it a G rating though!

When we got home, we were all sleepy, so we took an hour's down time & we all took a nap, then it was back to work!  :)  We're trying to get all the laundry & daily housework caught up so that we won't have anything waiting for me after Larry's surgery.

Tonight I made this soup for supper & it was SOOOO good.  Only Andrew & Savannah really liked it (of the kids, that is), but if your family likes Mexican food, they'll enjoy it!

Mexican Black & White Bean Soup

 

1 T. vegetable oil (I used olive)

1 c. chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced (I used 1T. of the kind in a jar)

1/4 c. flour

1 pkg taco seasoning mix

2 c. milk

14oz can chicken broth

16oz pkg frozen corn

15.5oz can black beans, drained

15.5oz can great northern beans, drained

4oz can diced green chilies (I didn't have one, so I left this out, but I bet it would be good!)

2 T. chopped cilantro (I used dried b/c I didn't have fresh)

 

Heat oil in a large soup pot over med-hi heat.  Add onion & garlic, cook until onion is tender.  Stir in flour & taco seasoning mix; gradually stir in milk until blended.  Add remaining ingredients except cilantro.  Bring to a boil, stirring often.  Reduce heat to low, simmer 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Turn off heat & stir in cilantro.

 

I sprinkled a little shredded cheese on top of each bowl just before serving.