Conversations with Paige

For those of you that dont know her, this is Paige. She is 5 now, and pretty much runs his house. She talks ALOT. I mean ALOT. Which is just fine with me, considering 5 years ago this was Paige.

Born at 32 weeks, with IUGR. She was a whopping 2 lbs 6 oz, and 15 in long. She was completely blue and listless, and scored a 1 on her Apgar.

So tonight I am cleaning the kitchen and she is in there yapping away She finds a tongue depressor (I still have no idea where she found that) and starts asking a million questions about why the Dr does this to you... She then jabs it down her throat making herself gag. Then cracks up. She is crazy LOL. Then she suddenly stops that conversation to move onto asking if she can help me wipe of the counters. I hand her a rag and let her wipe off the stove. I walk out of the room to check on another child and come down the hall to hear her in the most irritated voice ever " I AM TIRED OF CLEANING UP AFTER WHAT OTHER PEOPLE COOK" I hide behind the corner and try not to laugh. I would like to think she didn't hear that from me, but she probably has :( So while I compose myself and come back to help her finish her "job". She continues on about how other people should clean up after themselves so she doesn't have to wipe up their mess. LOL So I remind her she asked to help. So then she tells me "Well then they should clean up so YOU don't have to clean up their mess." Oh Paigey I can only dream LOL

I forgot to mention...

the reason I am so glad we chose to go to the lights is because, had we not. She would have been in bed. We were told that had she went to bed in that state she could have slipped into a coma.

The scariest moment of my life :(

Monday night we were invited to go to the Mesa Temple to see Christmas lights with some friends. We had went a few weeks ago, and almost didnt go. I will forever be grateful that we did......


Normally the kids are in bed by 8pm at the latest. We didnt get back from Mesa until just after 10. On the way home our 10 year old Emily feel asleep in the back of the van. We arrived home, and all the kids including Em came in the house. She seemed kinda groggy I just figured she was tired. I was in the kitchen area handing out meds to other kids, and all of the sudden Emily stumbled into the water cooler. I told her to go to bed, still thinking she was tired. Next thing I know she falls to the other side, into the kitchen counter and drops to the floor unconscious. My husband and I rush over screaming her name. My husband goes to roll her over and she goes into a seizure. Thank goodness my 16 year old son had enough sense to get the other little kids into the back of the house. I call 911, while on the call the seizure stops. She is then totally limp and unresponsive. I though we had lost her......


The firetruck was right near us for some reason and were there within 2 minutes. They took her vitals, blood pressure was high, blood sugar was 36. Got her to repsond to some simple questions. Wisked her off in the ambulance, I followed in the car.
They took her to the nearest hospital. This turned out to be very helpful since our former Bishops wife works in peds there, and came in to see us, and also later helped start her IV which was very helpful for Emily since she was so scared. They did the CT scan there, and luckily that came back good. They then transported her to St. Josephs hospital. They have a world renowned Neuro center. ( Bret Michael's was sent there) Tuesday was spent doing ekg, eeg, and blood work. 


EKG: Good
EEG: Not good
Blood work: Good


We are in the playroom with Emily when the neuro Dr's come in and ask us to step into the hall. They talk about "bursts on the eeg" and we 1st hear the word epilepsy. And the epilepsy specialist will be coming in to meet with us later. I pretty much loose it. I am already a mess, and to hear that she may have something that will cause more seizures is more then I can deal with at that moment. I recover in a few minutes, pray and thank Heavenly Father that it is nothing terminal. And go back into to play with Emily.


It was then a long day of blood draws, and just sitting. Adam stayed that night with her, and I went home to be with the other kids. During the middle of the night they came in to do her MRI. I asked that she be sedated as MRIs suck anyway, and a child with autism it is worse :( They give her Ativan and she sleeps through the whole thing.


I come back 1st thing Wed morning. They come in and ask if Emily would like to go down with some other kids and have hot chocolate and cookies with santa. Of course :) So off we go downstairs. There are firetrucks, and firemen all around Santa. They handed out toys and took pics. During this Emily got really dizzy and almost fell, but Santa caught her :( We get  wheelchair and take her back upstairs. Then more sitting and waiting. Finally the epilepsy specialist comes in. He says a whole lot I dont understand, but what he did say was after looking at everything including the MRI , he feels it is not epilepsy. So yay yay yay! But then frustration of WHAT IS IT!!!


They then want to run some test to check for Addison’s disease, and Cushings syndrome. Neither which I have ever heard of. So we wait, and wait. Adam goes home to stay with the other kids and I stay the night with Emily. The run the tests that evening, and we have to wait til the next afternoon since they take awhile to get back. So finally the Dr comes in Thursday and tells me the results were good , and she has neither of those things.  So after running every test , for every horrible thing, and looked at all the data, they have come to the conclusion that she is hypoglycemic. Which I am happy to take as a dx. We will have to watch what she eats, and when. But i am hoping if we are vigilant she will not go into a seizure again.


I am so grateful for an amazing team of Drs that took the time to rule out all the "what if's" before they just settled on the "easy explanation". 


I am so grateful for good friends that stepped in to help with Priesthood blessings, babysitting, meals, and prayers. 


Most of all I am grateful to have my sweet baby girl home and okay :)


 Her biggest worry in the hospital? She was worried that she wasn't going to be home before Christmas to take the hairbrushes she collected down to the homeless shelter.


So this Christmas eve we will spend doing service for others, and counting our blessings.


Merry Christmas to you and yours. May the Holiday Season bring you the blessings of family, love and health. Because really, what else matters?

This is what Christmas is all about..

 I think I need to read this every year at Christmas....



"Pa never had much compassion for the lazy or those who squandered their means and then never had enough for the necessities. But for those who were genuinely in need, his heart was as big as all outdoors. It was from him that I learned the greatest joy in life comes from giving, not from receiving.

It was Christmas Eve 1881. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas. We did the chores early that night for some reason. I just figured Pa wanted a little extra time so we could read in the Bible.

After supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Pa to get down the old Bible. I was still feeling sorry for myself and, to be honest, I wasn't in much of a mood to read Scriptures. But Pa didn't get the Bible, instead he bundled up again and went outside. I couldn't figure it out because we had already done all the chores. I didn't worry about it long though, I was too busy wallowing in self-pity. Soon Pa came back in. It was a cold clear night out and there was ice in his beard. "Come on, Matt," he said. "Bundle up good, it's cold out tonight." I was really upset then. Not only wasn't I getting the rifle for Christmas, now Pa was dragging me out in the cold, and for no earthly reason that I could see. We'd already done all the chores, and I couldn't think of anything else that needed doing, especially not on a night like this. But I knew Pa was not very patient at one dragging one's feet when he'd told them to do something, so I got up and put my boots back on and got my cap, coat, and mittens. Ma gave me a mysterious smile as I opened the door to leave the house. Something was up, but I didn't know what..


Outside, I became even more dismayed. There in front of the house was the work team, already hitched to the big sled. Whatever it was we were going to do wasn't going to be a short, quick, little job. I could tell. We never
hitched up this sled unless we were going to haul a big load. Pa was already up on the seat, reins in hand. I reluctantly climbed up beside him. The cold was already biting at me. I wasn't happy. When I was on, Pa pulled the sled around the house and stopped in front of the woodshed. He got off and I followed. "I think we'll put on the high sideboards," he said. "Here, help me." The high sideboards! It had been a bigger job than I wanted to do with just the low sideboards on, but whatever it was we were going to do would be a lot bigger with the high side boards on.

After we had exchanged the sideboards, Pa went into the woodshed and came out with an armload of wood - the wood I'd spent all summer hauling down from the mountain, and then all fall sawing into blocks and splitting. What
was he doing? Finally I said something. "Pa," I asked, "what are you doing?"

"You been by the Widow Jensen's lately?" he asked. The Widow Jensen lived about two miles down the road. Her husband had died a year or so before and left her with three children, the oldest being eight. Sure, I'd been by, but so what?

"Yeah," I said, "Why?"

"I rode by just today," Pa said. "Little Jakey was out digging around in the woodpile trying to find a few chips. They're out of wood, Matt." That was all he said and then he turned and went back into the woodshed for another armload of wood. I followed him. We loaded the sled so high that I began to wonder if the horses would be able to pull it. Finally, Pa called a halt to our loading, then we went to the smoke house and Pa took down a big ham and a side of bacon. He handed them to me and told me to put them in the sled and wait. When he returned he was carrying a sack of flour over his right shoulder and a smaller sack of something in his left hand. "What's in the little sack?" I asked.

"Shoes, they're out of shoes. Little Jakey just had gunny sacks wrapped around his feet when he was out in the woodpile this morning. I got the children a little candy too. It just wouldn't be Christmas without a little candy."

We rode the two miles to Widow Jensen's pretty much in silence. I tried to think through what Pa was doing. We didn't have much by worldly standards. Of course, we did have a big woodpile, though most of what was left now was
still in the form of logs that I would have to saw into blocks and split before we could use it. We also had meat and flour, so we could spare that, but I knew we didn't have any money, so why was Pa buying them shoes and
candy? Really, why was he doing any of this? Widow Jensen had closer neighbors than us; it shouldn't have been our concern.

We came in from the blind side of the Jensen house and unloaded the wood as quietly as possible, then we took the meat and flour and shoes to the door. We knocked. The door opened a crack and a timid voice said, "Who is it?"
"Lucas Miles, Ma'am, and my son, Matt, could we come in for a bit?" Widow Jensen opened the door and let us in. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The children were wrapped in another and were sitting in front of the fireplace by a very small fire that hardly gave off any heat at all. Widow Jensen fumbled with a match and finally lit the lamp.

"We brought you a few things, Ma'am," Pa said and set down the sack of flour. I put the meat on the table. Then Pa handed her the sack that had the shoes in it. She opened it hesitantly and took the shoes out one pair at a time. There was a pair for her and one for each of the children - sturdy shoes, the best, shoes that would last. I watched her carefully. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and then tears filled her eyes and started running down her cheeks. She looked up at Pa like she wanted to say something, but it wouldn't come out.

"We brought a load of wood too, Ma'am," Pa said. He turned to me and said, "Matt, go bring in enough to last awhile. Let's get that fire up to size and heat this place up." I wasn't the same person when I went back out to bring in the wood. I had a big lump in my throat and as much as I hate to admit it, there were tears in my eyes too. In my mind I kept seeing those three kids huddled around the fireplace and their mother standing there with tears running down her cheeks with so much gratitude in her heart that she couldn't speak. My heart swelled within me and a joy that I'd never known before, filled my soul. I had given at Christmas many times before, but never when it had made so much difference. I could see we were literally saving the lives of these people.

I soon had the fire blazing and everyone's spirits soared. The kids started giggling when Pa handed them each a piece of candy and Widow Jensen looked on with a smile that probably hadn't crossed her face for a long time. She finally turned to us. "God bless you," she said. "I know the Lord has sent you. The children and I have been praying that he would send one of his angels to spare us."

In spite of myself, the lump returned to my throat and the tears welled up in my eyes again. I'd never thought of Pa in those exact terms before, but after Widow Jensen mentioned it I could see that it was probably true. I was sure that a better man than Pa had never walked the earth. I started remembering all the times he had gone out of his way for Ma and me, and many others. The list seemed endless as I thought on it.

Pa insisted that everyone try on the shoes before we left. I was amazed when they all fit and I wondered how he had known what sizes to get. Then I guessed that if he was on an errand for the Lord that the Lord would make sure he got the right sizes. Tears were running down Widow Jensen's face again when we stood up to leave. Pa took each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug. They clung to him and didn't want us to go. I could see that they missed their Pa, and I was glad that I still had mine.

At the door Pa turned to Widow Jensen and said, "The Mrs. wanted me to invite you and the children over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. The turkey will be more than the three of us can eat, and a man can get cantankerous
if he has to eat turkey for too many meals. We'll be by to get you about eleven. It'll be nice to have some little ones around again. Matt, here, hasn't been little for quite a spell." I was the youngest. My two brothers and two sisters had all married and had moved away.

Widow Jensen nodded and said, "Thank you, Brother Miles. I don't have to say, May the Lord bless you, I know for certain that He will."

Out on the sled I felt a warmth that came from deep within and I didn't even notice the cold. When we had gone a ways, Pa turned to me and said, "Matt, I want you to know something. Your ma and me have been tucking a little
money away here and there all year so we could buy that rifle for you, but we didn't have quite enough. Then yesterday a man who owed me a little money from years back came by to make things square. Your ma and me were real excited, thinking that now we could get you that rifle, and I started into town this morning to do just that, but on the way I saw little Jakey out scratching in the woodpile with his feet wrapped in those gunny sacks and I knew what I had to do. Son, I spent the money for shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand."

I understood, and my eyes became wet with tears again. I understood very well, and I was so glad Pa had done it. Now the rifle seemed very low on my list of priorities. Pa had given me a lot more. He had given me the look on Widow Jensen's face and the radiant smiles of her three children.

For the rest of my life, whenever I saw any of the Jensen's, or split a block of wood, I remembered, and remembering brought back that same joy I felt riding home beside Pa that night. Pa had given me much more than a rifle that night, he had given me the best Christmas of my life."

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

"I am always shocked at the anger and defensiveness directed at those of us who have seen biomed treatments work. Many, many parents do not want to wait the 10-20 years it would take for the pharm companies and traditional medicine to decide to do the double-blind studies to verify the legitimacy of treatments they won't be able to make a profit on... hmmm, yeah, maybe 10-20 years is a generous estimate. The fact is, unless a treatment comes in a patentable pill, it ain't gonna get studied.

Thank God doctors and researchers and other parents didn't wring their hands and give up. Thank God they found things that work for many kids, and spoke up about them. Thank God they are STILL working and investigating to hopefully find things that will help ALL kids, instead of pronouncing a diagnosis and handing out a pamplet and showing them the door. Do you realize, if it weren't for parents and doctors who refused to accept the medical wisdom of the day, your children's autism would still be considered YOUR fault, the result of cold-mother syndrome?

And I really don't understand the hatred toward parents who say their children were hurt by vaccines. Do you think they are just incredibly stupid? Studies show these parents are more likely to be highly-educated and involved than the norm. In my experience they have also been adamantly pro-vaccine, until a very specific incident with their child. Do you think they are naive? Over-anxious? Lying? THAT many of them?

You mentioned genetic causes... is it really that much of a stretch to believe that a genetic component or defect could cause some children to be more susceptible to vaccine reactions, or environmental toxins, or whatnot? Why such an absolute refusal to even consider the possibility?

No one in the "DAN / biomed" camp looks over the line and says "No way. Your child did NOT get better with early intervention and speech therapy. That is a bunch of a hooey; autism is a medical condition that will only respond to biomed treatments."

Why can't they get the same consideration from "traditionalists?" "

I dont normally respond to Anonymous, because well I dont like people that came ranting and dont have the nerve to say who they are.  I have read, re read over and over again and have yet to find out where I said or even sounded like I hate anyone. MY post on MY blog is about MY family, MY journey. What has worked for US. I never said I hated anyone that believed any of those things worked. What I did say was that I am tired of people "selling" cures, and watching loving, desperate parents LITERALLY go bankrupt trying these methods. The article in my local paper a few weeks ago raved on and on how they recovered less then 40% of the kids in their test with ABA, and some other things. That number is not high enough for me to believe that it justified spending MILLIONS on these treatments for under 20 children. I would like them to take the same number of children, and just do early intervention services, including OT, Speech, Hab, and a special needs pre school program and report how many are recovered. 

I "mentioned" genetic causes" really? I am pretty sure I did more then mention it. I pretty much told you our family history and rambled on about it for awhile. I have 3 kids with my 1st husband who in neuro typical. I have 3 kids with my husband who has a LONG LONG line of ASD in his family, and ALL 3 OF THOSE KIDS ARE ASD. Do I think genetics play a part in MY families journey with autism. Ummmm ya.

Do I wish they would figure out what causes it. Of course I do. Do I wish people would would stop pointing the finger OVER AND OVER  AND OVER again at vaccines. YES. My 3 ASD kids were NOT vaccinated. my 3 NON ASD kids were. IN MY HOUSE THAT THEORY DOES NOT ADD UP.

As a person living in a home with a ASD spouse, and 4, yup 4 kids since our foster son also has ASD . I think I have well earned to have my opinion on what I would like to see for the future of autism. And NO ONE ever has suggested to me that I detox my kid, or see a DAN Dr, or any of those things. We got dx and were directed to early intervention. 

I am curious though on why a lot of people that believe it is vaccines, or environmental toxins are so quick to get angry? Cant you just not understand that someone may not believe YOUR side of the fence?

Since it is a week before Christmas I will no longer be discussing this, since I would like to focus my time on making memories with my beautiful children, and honestly I think I have said all I really care to on this subject. Hopefully maybe one day both sides can just agree to disagree. 

Autism is not a dirty word

I woke up today to a "conversation" on facebook with a link to a video a Dad made showing how his son was "cured" from autism. The article was wrote by a Dr who did all this magical stuff to "fix" this child.
At the bottom there is a VERY short, VERY edited video of the child who is now 6. In the video of the "cured" child, you can see his shifting his eyes all over, and playing with his fingers. ALL very typical autism traits.

I am REALLY sick of people touting their "cures" and giving parents false hope, and they go and bankrupt themselves paying for these treatments. Sadly we have NO idea what causes autism. Or why some kids are more severe then others. I also do not believe it is an epidemic due to immunizations. The numbers are increasing because we are more aware, and less severe kids (Aspergers syndrome) are being included in those numbers. These are the kids that 20 years ago and so were just "quirky, odd, weird, nerdy,etc" I can say this. I am married to one :) He had no idea he had aspergers until our son was dx at age 22 months.  He had learned coping skills to deal with things while he was growing up. We were together for 5 years before I found out he wasn't making actual eye contact with me! He has trained himself to look at peoples months, or forehead. It was actually kinda a relief when he was dx. Now we understand why he kept switching jobs, and a ton of other things he does that I just couldn't understand before.

I came into our marriage with 3 children. None of whom have any signs of autism. Not even a tiny one. They had all their immunizations, they ate crappy junk food, had toys from china which I am sure had lead paint. They are now 20,19,and 16. Still no autism.

I have 3 children with my now husband. They were not immunized, I ate all organic, used only natural cleaning products, cloth diapered, etc. You know all the "right" things. ALL 3 ARE ON THE SPECTRUM!

My husbands grandfather has pretty severe aspergers. He had no idea until our son was dx and we were talking about it. The profile fit him to a T. He managed to live 70+ years just fine. Today he would be counted in the "epidemic", as would my husband.

My husband just met his 3 little brothers for the 1st time 6 months ago. They are 15,13,and 11. Guess what? They all have autism traits! All 3 are now in the process of seeing someone to get dx. This would have never happened had my MIL not came back into my husbands life, and noticed the behaviors comparing them to my husband.

My son was the most severe. I knew at 2 days old something was just not right. He was our 5th child. He screamed ALL THE TIME. Would only let me hold him, and would have raging meltdowns over nothing. He also didn't say a word. NOT A WORD until he was 4. He spun in circles , flapped his hands, and screamed. For YEARS. We got him dx at 22 months. Early intervention at 24 months. He has Early intervention, Speech, and OT. We have never seen a  DAN dr. I have never had him detoxed for metal, he eats dairy and gluten on a daily basis.

He is almost 10. He is fully verbal, has friends, can hold a full conversation, goes to cub scouts all by himself, and does pretty typical 10 yo boy stuff. Is he recovered? Cured? NO. I will never say that. Is he better? Higher functioning? YES. He still has a hard time sometimes, he still obsesses on stuff he is interested in, he still is the pickiest eater I have ever seen. But on a regular basis I get asked " Are you sure Corey has autism?" And while that is nice to hear, yes I am positive. Corey will ALWAYS be autistic. It is not bad, or a "dirty word". It is just part of what makes him Corey.

Now my other 2 ASD kids. They are girls. They are very high functioning, and odds are had Corey not been so severe we would never have noticed anything with the girls. Odds are I would have found them "high strung, quirky, etc"

So in this long rambling post I guess what I am trying to say is, instead of selling snake oil, lets work on earlier detection, genetic links, more education, more support groups, MORE FUNDING FOR MORE SERVICES!!!  And a whole less blaming.

A beautiful reminder.....

I have been so busy cleaning, and sorting, and organizing before gifts are opened. And stressing on the "right" gifts, and the cost of Christmas for 9 children.  I realized I am forgetting the "reason for the season". This video is beautiful and exactly what I needed today...

Please stop asking me if "I am done" !

I REALLY REALY hate this question. Perfect strangers, ALL THE TIME, will see or hear about the # of children we have and ask:

Are you done?
I hope your done!
Your not having anymore are are you?!

And various other forms of this question.

I hurts my heart. And I am pretty sure hurts my childrens feelings like you are implying something is wrong with having all of them.

I have been VERY blessed to birth 6 amazing kids. I am very aware that this has been a blessing. But also please do not call me "greedy", or something else mean (even in a joking term) when I tell you I wanted to birth more, but physically am unable to. The longing to be pregnant and birth a child is unlike anything I can describe.  The loss of infertility still hurts even if you have birthed children. * I am in NO WAY comparing it to those who suffer from infertility and have yet to birth a child.*
But for me it is a loss and it hurts my heart.

On another yet similar note:
Please dont tell me how fabulous I am for "taking in THOSE children".  They are not THOSE children, they are MY children. Given to me by a different mode of transportation, but mine just the same.

And on that note, yes the children we adopted have some problems. Some HUGE problems sometimes, but please dont use this as an excuse to ask me " Why in world would you want to adopt again?!" It makes me feel as if you are saying " THOSE children are so awful, why would you want to risk getting a bad one again?"  Even on the worst days (which have been a lot lately) I would NEVER EVER EVER change the fact that I get to be these kids Mom.

Okay rant over :)

Because I have a lot of cleaning to do

and that is never truly fun. ( Even if I tell the kids it is) I am going to rock this footwear to keep my spirits up :)

And just to let you know my feet are not as huge as they look, they are a 7 1/2 LOL, And yes that is a craft feather on the end of one. I had just walked through the school room :)

A Few Christmas Pictures :)

Sat was BUSY for us. It started with taking the kids to the local Waldorf school for their "Winter Faire". It was wonderful and the kids had a great time. ( I will post those pics tomorrow, I need to upload those still)

Then after that was Bryleighs baptism. In our church you get baptized when you are 8. She was SO excited, and had talked about it for a year. She turned 8 back in Nov, but they were not doing baptisms again til Dec 4th. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friend come out and support her! The 1st pic is with her and her Dad right before she was baptized.

Well that was at 4pm. We then had to be at our Church Christmas party before 6 since I signed up to bring a salad, and a centerpiece. So we all rushed out in front of the church building to get a family picture :)

We only took 2 so luckily 1 has everyone looking at the camera!

Then off we headed to the Christmas party. A wonderful time was had by all. I forgot the camera so there are no pics of that sadly. But when we got home I made each of the younger 6 kids stand in front of the tree for pictures...

Bradley age 4

Paige age 5 ( yes the hairbow is HUGE, I swear it looks cuter in person LOL)

Elayna age 6

Bryleigh age 8

Corey age 9

Emily age 10

I still need to get the 3 oldest kids in front of the tree Christmas Eve. 

The Rich Family At Church

We have had quite a few things going on. I will upload pictures tonight and make a long rambling post tomorrow with all of it LOL.

I read this today and wanted to share it.  It mentions Easter, but I thought it was really appropriate for this time of year...

The Rich Family In Church
By Eddie Ogan

By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.

We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.

We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.

That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.

We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed—I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.

Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

Holiday Hairbrush Project

My daughter Emily is almost 11 (she has Aspergers Syndrome) and has quite the servants heart. Today she was talking to me about her and her siblings going through their belongs to see what they could donate to our favorite thrift store. I was thrilled at this idea and a date for the whole family to go through items to take down and donate was picked.

Then she continued on talking about what else we could do as a family. Years ago I worked at a local family homeless shelter doing early childhood education at their on site preschool. She remembers this as the people I met their touched my heart forever. So she asked if there was anything we could do for them.

I went to their website and looked at their Holiday wish list.  You can see it here:

http://www.cass-az.org/Copy%20of%20Holiday%20Wish%20list%20Items%202010.pdf

She noticed one of the things they were asking for is Hairbrushes. I think this spoke to her heart because yesterday we were downtown and there was a homeless man walking by us. She noticed his hair was in dreadlocks and asked me about it later. While it may have been a hairstyle choice for him, it opened up a conversation about how sometimes people that are homeless do not have basic needed items, or a place to shower.

So with all these things in her mind and on her heart it has become very important to her that we donate hairbrushes to the homeless shelter this Holiday season.

So my dear readers I am reaching out to you if you are so inclined to help us with our goal of 100 hairbrushes. If you are local I am happy to pick them up, or if you want to donate any small amount so that we can purchase them you can do so through paypal (donate button under post). If you cant or don't want to help that is okay to, but  could you please pray for a sweet little 10 year old girl that she is able to accomplish her Holiday wish this year?

Quick update to the mouse post

If you misses the "festivities" of the mouse-capade as I now like to call it LOL you can read it HERE

We ended up buying some little trays of mouse "food" AKA POISON. Insert evil smiley here

Dh went out 2 days after setting the tray out. IT WAS EMPTY!!! Which made me glad they were eating it, but also FREAKED out at wondering exactly how many are there????!!!

So he set out another tray. Honestly I don't have the heart or the stomach to ask him if it is empty again.

Well we found out that the bait is working. Which is a great thing. How we found out NOT a great thing.
In my original post I mentioned my sweet dog that was trying to catch the disgusting thing that ran across my foot. Well he managed to complete his task!

Luckily I had a migraine and was knocked out on pain meds. I guess Dh walked into our room and the dog had left HALF a mouse body on our bedroom floor. Words cannot explain how happy I was to miss all of this. It was bad enough I could hear the conversation about it and the kids yelling EWWWWWW GROSSSSS. But am forever grateful to not have got the full visual.

So I am glad they are going to where mice go when they die, yet I am sad to realize just how "girly" I am .