Yep, my wee one slept 10 hours!

Just had to shout out a little THANK YOU to those of you praying for sleep for us! Little D went to bed last night around 7:15pm and woke up this morning at 5:15am! So refreshing and such a blessing. Thankful.

Also, I think this creamer is amazing. That is all. Have a great day today!

7: An Experiment

A group of girls and I are going through Jen Hatmaker's 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. It's kinda rocking our world! We've only just finished the first chapter on food, and its been difficult, but a great blessing at the same time. You can choose seven foods that you want to eat for a month (or in our case, a week) and then eat nothing but those foods. My 7: chicken, sweet potatoes, apples, whole wheat bread, eggs, lettuce, and coffee (because coffee should be a food, plain and simple). Honestly its not that hard and I don't feel like I'm lacking in anything, except for the fact that I want to snack...and I would like to snack most of the day. So, I've resorted to snacking on apples, which is wonderful, but I've been going through about three to four apples a day. A day. By myself. That's a bunch of apples. But when you want something sweet, apples are marvelous. So why this study? Taken from Hatmaker's book, "7 will be an exercise in simplicity with one goal: to create space for God's Kingdom to break through." (p 4) I want to have that exercise in simplicity. I want to figure out just how much is too much. It's amazing to think about the fact that most people around the world don't even have the choice of seven foods. They get to eat rice and water, or a small piece of chicken, a day. Sometimes they don't eat one day and hope for food the next. Seven choices are a lot of choices, really. It's humbling to think about all that we have available at our fingertips and all that we take for granted. I have tons of choices in my pantry, and there are thousands of things at the grocery store that I can choose from. This study is really making me focus on the poor and how I can better pray for them. How I can better pray for my Compassion sponsored kids. How I can teach my children about what most of the world experiences on a daily basis. A question Hatmaker asks really hit home with me..."How can we extract our children from this filthy engine where indulgence and ignorance and ungratefulness and waste are standard protocol? Where they know they can throw perfectly good food away because there is always more in the pantry?" (p22). We're so blessed. And we're so spoiled. Our food experiment will be over this Thursday and we'll be moving on to other areas: clothes, spending, waste, possessions, media, and stress. I'm excited for what lies ahead and for what God will continue to teach me through this study. How much is just too much?
Check out the 7 book with us. And if you're looking for a way to talk to your kids about helping kids in need, you should learn about the work of Compassion. I strongly encourage you to do so. www.compassion.com/kristin_mezey
1 John 3:17-18 "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

Loss

I have a heavy heart today. Dear friends, and our former youth pastor, lost their son last night. We didn't have the opportunity to know Wes Evans, but I hear that he loved the Lord with his whole being. He is with Jesus! Wes was in a tragic ski accident over a year ago and hit his head on a tree. He was in college. Since the accident his parents have been transporting him in and out of hospitals and care centers, loving on their son, showing Jesus to everyone around them in the process. They have been a complete inspiration to us, as they never forgot to write and encourage us about Dillon, even in the midst of their struggles. I am honored to know the Evans family. Thank you for your continued example, Jon and Jo. If you're reading this, please lift up the Evans family in prayer today.

Here's what was written on their last Caring Bridge update:

Wes is With Jesus

Last night, around 10:40 Wes got to go home to be with the Savior whom he totally loves. The suffering and the pain is over. The countless proddings and pokings are done. No more Hoyer lifts to get in and out of bed. No more wheelchairs. Wes is in heaven with his Savior.

Since the day we started on this journey, we have tried to be honest with you about how Wes is doing and our situation. You have followed us through some crazy ups and downs, and you have prayed for us and supported us in ways we can’t even begin to imagine. Thank you so much.

Yesterday afternoon we made the decision to stop medically treating Wes. He had developed a blood clot at his right lung. This made it very difficult for him to breathe, it made his heart rate go way up, and his temperature had been very much out of control.The treatment would have been to give him a blood thinner, however, he had already had two very serious bloody noses, the second one being almost unstoppable. Since Wes breathed through his nose, this was a huge problem. It was time for us to let him go.

Wes was given medicine to keep him comfortable, so that he would be in no pain. The doctors and nurses couldn’t give us a timeline, but they expected that this would take several days. We went home for dinner, and shortly a nurse called, and by the time we got back to the hospital, Wes was with Jesus. We had no idea how sick he really was.

Jo and I both said to each other that we had noticed a change in Wes’s demeanor recently. He had had enough. He has fought the good fight, he has finished the race, he has kept the faith.

For those of you in the area, we expect to have calling hours on Friday and a Memorial service on Saturday, we will let you know the times as soon as they are set.

We’ve held onto this verse since the beginning, and that is no different today, “ I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13. Thank you so much for continuing to be in this with us.

Sleep, poop, and other things

Life is so funny sometimes. You never sit around talking about poop unless you are a mom and have a child that has a "poop issue" (well, I guess if you are a teen boy you may sit around and talk about poop, too, but since I have no experience with that, well, here I am). It's hilarious to me that what I once would have thought as gross and strange, I now so freely talk about. Our little D has one of those poop issues, and it breaks my heart. Wow that constipation thing can be a drag! So we've seen doctors and tried lots of things, and take it day by day. His belly wakes him up sometimes in the middle of the night and he screams, and I hate it. I guess I just mention this as its something you can pray about! Pray for the poop!

And sleep. Whew. We went away the last two weekends with dear friends and both times I remember saying "yes, he does that almost every night." What I mean by "does that" is not sleep! The kid just wakes up. Sometimes its related to that belly-poop issue, sometimes he wants to nurse, and sometimes he just wants to hang out. While I absolutely ADORE hanging out with my children and find it the most fulfilling calling, I do not love waking up four or five times a night to do it. I'm tired, kid! Let's hang during the daytime hours! Anyway, that's just something else you can pray for. And thanks to those dear friends for just going with it and letting D keep you up all night, too!

Upcoming event in our household - we will be going to Children's Hospital towards the end of April to order D's wheelchair. It's a stressful thing, selecting that wheelchair that will suit your child for the next few years. And they are as expensive as a car, so its a big money-deal also. After we've chosen I'll send a link to a video of the chair we've selected - there are lots of them circulating on youtube, and I thought you might like to see how cool it is!

Life is great, we're blessed, and enjoying each and every day. Thanks for checking in on us!