New Year, New Car.

So we bought a new-to-us Ford Excursion today. Insanely large vehicle, and I feel like I'm driving a bus. It's really nice though, gotta say! And to all you big car haters...we didn't buy it just to get a big car...we need it to fit a pediatric wheelchair in a few months :). We'll be getting an "arm" for the trunk of our Excursion that will lift D's wheelchair and place it into the car. Pediatric wheelchairs weigh about 200-300 pounds, we have discovered, so that's why we won't be doing much lifting of the chair on our own! And having four kids that need boosters or car seats, well, that limits the car selection a bit! Its a great vehicle, and we are excited!

Happy last day of the year to us! 2012 was a fantastic one that brought many blessings and, most importantly, a new wonderful addition to our family in little Dillon! We're sure 2013 will be great as well as God is always good! We are so blessed. Thanks for loving on our family this year! Excited to see all that 2013 will hold.

1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you! May the love of Christ fill you this week and always.

Love, The Mezey fam

Grateful...Joyful...

Two special things to share from this holiday season...

First - Our church, Tri Lakes Chapel, takes time each Thanksgiving to spotlight or share testimonies from members that help capture and express the spirit of the Holiday. This year, the focus was Thankful In Spite of. We were approached to share and agreed to shooting a video (after some prayer and consideration mind you). While we are still hesitant to share too quickly, we are also trying to be open to how the Lord wants to use us all for His purposes. We thought this would be a great way to share our joy through the journey so far, and encourage others to find their own joy and thankfulness in any circumstance. We also thought it was a tactful way to introduce our family to other church members more broadly. This is, of course, the body of believers that will need to know and embrace Dillon most, as well as all of our growing children. In the end, it turned out great and we'd like to share it here. A special thanks to Marty at TLC for the video and our friend Allison Easterling Photography for some of the portrait images.

Jason & Kristin Mezey Testimony from Marty Hill on Vimeo.

Second - we got to meet Nick Vujicic! If you don't know Nick, you can Google him, or check out his website here: www.lifewithoutlimbs.org. A few weeks ago, Nick was able to bless Compassion International's chapel time with a powerful message of encouragement and hope. Compassion's caring and incredible staff was amazing to facilitate a meeting for us while he was there at headquarters. We got to spend some time with Nick and his wonderful wife, Kanae, at lunch...and it was a true joy sharing Dillon with them and hearing from Nick as someone who's "been there". Nick is a true inspiration to so many - he surfs, skydives, writes books, runs/leads a ministry, tours the world, swims, and does everyday life without limbs...all the while loving Jesus deeply and making the Gospel known everywhere he goes. It was an honor to have met him, and we pray our paths cross one day again.

So...Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to YOU from the Mezey family (covering our bases as we are not the best or most frequent bloggers...and most likely will not be on here before January - ha!)! We pray that you find yourselves grateful and joyful this Holiday season...in any circumstance.

Amidst the stares

Picture this...10-12 kids, their parents and siblings packed into a pizza joint after the final soccer game of the season. This was the stage for the experience we had last night.

Little J has been playing soccer on the same team for a few seasons now, and the kids have become rather close. We've really enjoyed watching him and have enjoyed the community of parents, coaches, and kids. While Dillon has accompanied us to every game and practice most of the kids haven't "seen" him outside of a baby carrier. As I've mentioned before, he lives in the Ergo carrier. Love that thing. Anyway, we had him out and about at the dinner party as it's become pretty normal for us to do. And of course it didn't take too long before we started to notice a few stares. After a little while two of the kids on Little J's team came right over to our table and pretty much planted themselves right in front of me, as I was holding Dillon. Their mouths were agape and eyes were fixed on him. It was a bit odd...both of them just standing, not saying a thing, staring at my baby, for what was probably a few minutes but seemed like an hour. Right when I was about to say something to them (ya know, something like "shark attack") Little J excitedly ran up to his baby brother and kissed him on the face, laughing and hugging him saying, "Hi Dillon!" It was amazing to see the faces of his two friends completely transform from astonishment and confusion to relative acceptance. They, in turn, smiled, said hi to Dillon, and walked away with Little J, as if nothing had happened and it was now the most normal thing in the world. Our little six year old had completely transformed the moment from one of innocent awkwardness...into happiness and normalcy. His love for his brother set his friends at ease. What a blessing it was to watch our son be used by God to influence.

Vacation

We just went to Florida on vacation and it was awesome. Our kids had an amazing time! We went to Orlando...but no, we did not go to Disney. Sorry all you Disney fanatics, but the price of that place is just ri-dic-u-lous! We had an excellent time around Disney (ie, downtown Disney, riding the monorail and boats to the Disney hotels - which is free, by the way), went to an alligator show, drove to the beach for a day, and hung out at the water park at our hotel daily. It was wonderful, and was a blessing to just be together. Our kids were pros on the airplane - a first for D and basically a first for B as the last plane she was on she was an infant herself. I think if we could just do the airport travel experience alone our kids would think it was a vacation - I mean, who wouldn't be excited about riding a bus from the parking lot to the airport, riding a train at the airport, and then getting on a plane! Transportation mania. Anyway, we greatly enjoyed our time and wanted to show a few of our favorite pics. Smile away :).

 B riding in style

 Soaking wet kids from the splash fountain

 Treasures!

 Our little spot...thanks to John and Cindy (love you!) we were all decked out!

 Does my little girl's face scream excitement or what!?

 Grandma and B enjoying the waves

 Paddle boating. Be warned: ridiculously hot and sweaty when in Florida.

 Loving the gator.

 Rainforest cafe volcano 

 Riding the boat

 Lounging with dad.

 If you know our children you know that this=heaven.

 Completely addicted to water slides.

Can't wait to go on vacation again!

Oh, and to end with a very funny encounter today which has absolutely nothing to do with our vacation: Jason was holding D and a gal at church looked at him then asked "so are his legs just all tucked up in his outfit?" J had to then tell her "well, no, he doesn't have any." We just laugh at these hilarious comments sometimes. I don't think a five month olds' legs could be tucked up in his little onesie outfit :).

Dillon's 4 Month Super Giggles!

Hopefully this video will be more accessible on mobile platforms. It is absolutely awesome. What amazing kids God has blessed us with. Pay attention to these little ones...no matter who they are...by them we receive much more than we think.

Mark 9:36-37

"36 And (Jesus) took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

New things

Lots of "firsts" this month! J started Kindergarten (but with a 1st grade curriculum - we homeschool - its a weird thing to figure out your "grade") and started a one day a week program at Home School Academy. He loves it. And so do I. He gets art, music, PE, science, social studies, and clubs when he goes each week, and he's thrilled about the opportunity to be in Lego Club! H also started Pre-K (but with a K curriculum) and is thriving and enjoying it. Our curriculum is super. B is enjoying being "in school" too, as she colors and gets to do science experiments with us. She starts soccer this week - first time for her - and she can't wait! Dillon also had his first hysterical laughing-fit, which has had us all laughing for hours. He just thinks his brothers are hilarious! I'll try to attach a video soon - just gotta figure out this iphone to blog thing (or my husband does, rather). And D is almost rolling over - he's at a half roll right now - so that's an "almost first!" Another fun first was Dillon swimming in the lake! We went with our wonderful base camp (small group) to Las Animas last weekend for Labor Day and D was able to get in the water with dad. We haven't taken him swimming yet mainly because we haven't had a swim diaper that we're comfortable putting him in the pool with (ya know, fear of leaks when you don't have legs!). I left a regular diaper on him and put some swim trunks on him to let him swim in the lake...and he loved it. Had a blast. It was awesome. Here he comes, world, gonna be the next Rudy Garcia-Tolson (Rudy is in the Paralympics going on right now and just won a silver - he doesn't have legs but is swimming and running in the Paralympics - an inspiration. Look him up!)!

 J's first day at HSA

 B about to ride a jet ski with dad

 Little D sleeping at the "beach"

 Just had to include one of these - H found so many fish bones that he insisted on bringing home!

 Swimming!

 Dad and B on the jet ski - a first for both of them

The fam

Three Month Giggles

What a great (and fast!) three months it has been! Happy three month birthday to D! Now just sleep through the night, will ya :)? Watch the video...it rocks (sorry, mobile version not working).

Protecting

Protecting. 8 weeks into his life we already feel a need to protect little D from the stares of strangers, even though that's not yet a regular occurrence and he can't possibly understand that anyone is staring at him!  He spends a whole lot of his current life in a baby carrier, an Ergo Carrier - the greatest invention ever! Just as his siblings did before him, he promptly falls asleep the minute he's strapped in. It's marvelous. J and I realized, however, that it's only so long until D will be out of the Ergo infant insert and carried normally in the same carrier, but where a child's legs usually "come out," his won't. People will notice a lot more. People will probably stare a lot more. I'm all for curiosity and teaching others about loving people that are different and acceptance and all that...but sometimes you don't want it to be your kid that has to be the one to teach them. You don't want it to be your kid because you want them to be protected. You want them to be safe, and not stared at. I'm not ashamed of my little boy and wouldn't try to hide him in any way, let's make that VERY clear. God made him perfect, I think he's perfect and want everyone else to think he's perfect, too :).

A blog that has been such a blessing to me through the last few months is www.thislittlemiggy.com. I came across her through another blog and I was hooked. Her daughter has limb differences too, and she's very transparent in her feelings. I love this post and wanted to share it - its called "In the Hot Seat" - you should read it. My favorite part...the last little paragraph...where she talks about her experience in a restaurant with children staring at her daughter, known as Lamp:

"From almost the beginning, back when I was still pregnant with Lamp, I have felt and continue to feel the importance of handling these situations with kindness and respect.  I want to give people, especially children, the benefit of the doubt and model positive response behavior for my girls.  I truly feel that this idea is part of the bigger picture and purpose. 
But sometimes, I just want to punch little kids in the face and tell them to go away." 

http://www.thislittlemiggy.com/

Ah, yes, I love children so much. And yet I can see my "momma bear" coming out sometime in the future when Dillon begins to get those stares more regularly. Gonna be interesting, that. 

Courage Classic for Children's Hospital Colorado

I am very excited as this year will be my first Courage Classic ride to benefit Children's Hospital Colorado! With the introduction of Dillon to our family, this ride is very significant. Children's has played a small role so far but we are very sure they will be helping us with Dillon quite a bit down the road. Please visit my Rider Page and donate to support my ride!

Jason

http://www.couragetours.com/2012/prouddaddymez

Riding on behalf of this guy!

Dillon, 4 weeks old

Thankful for that little hand!

Dillon is here! He came into the world on Monday, May 14th, at around 6:15pm weighing 5lb and 13.5 oz (our wonderful doc rounded up to 14 oz, since his birthday was 5/14 and we thought it would be pretty darn fun to weigh 5 lbs 14 oz on 5/14!). He's beautiful, and wonderful, and perfect the way God made him, and we are so blessed. We are also thankful for his little hand (pictures below). His hand has three fingers, one being a thumb, and he has a great grasp. He'll be able to hold a pencil and do millions of things with that hand, and we are thrilled. Here are some photos from this last week...thanks for looking through our brag blog today!

 So excited to meet baby brother in the hospital!

 B checking out brother's hand

 What everyone does when they get home from the hospital!

 H adores his little brother.

 Thankful for that little hand w/three fingers!

The boys!