The Story of a Lifetime: Thanksgiving Tales and A Week of Warfare

I think Brad and I have finally found the happy medium of holiday travel bliss and the warmth of hearth and home for holidays. I have loved every minute of the traveling we have done. Maybe because I just think it's fun to be on the road......even with 7 children in tow. Somehow it makes the holidays come alive with love, excitement and expectation.......healthy expectation, of course, since there are those few family members in every family that drive absolutely everyone completely nuts and make each sane member doubt their own sanity. And those same said members that are observed and tolerated every holiday also spur deep ponderings of the soul as to the physchotic and neurotic nature of people you are actually related to. But, in the end, it was all worth the effort, planning and fun of traveling to reach them all.

An early morning.......about to hit the road for home

And on a wintry holiday note before I even get started........as I sit here bundled up in fleece lined clothes and my sweet tiny baby coos, swings and sleeps in his swing bundled up in blankets and warm cuddly soft flannel clothes the snow continues to fall. I cannot even begin to remember the last Thanksgiving holiday that we saw snow. But in the unusual early cold blast of winter the sleet started to fall last night and the snow falls today. The world is covered in a wintry white Thanksgiving wonderland that has left us anticipating Christmas. It has again wrapped us in the enchantment of everything associated with cold days spent shopping or curled up in blankets with the children drinking hot chocolate and reading stories I read when I was little. As I marvel over the cold white day I have begun to wonder just how long we will be here in our tiny little town. A town that used to be so much of a dream but has since turned into a place that we feel we may be called to leave. Brad and I both have learned in our growing nearer to the Lord and learning to listen to His direction that nothing in life is ever permanent. If we approach life from that perspective it makes everything so much easier to let go of........easier to leave. There is a time to arrive and there is a time to leave......a time to come and a time to go. A time when you belong and a time when you become a foreigner.

As we have begun to embrace the fact that we may be called many different places in a lifetime we have come to learn to stay close to the voice of the Lord when He is calling us elsewhere and where He is calling us. So, I gaze out the windows of this dear old home and I wonder what is in store for us. I wonder where we will be next Christmas. Will we be here? Or we will be located and reunited with nearby family? Or could it be that we would dare be hundreds or thousands of miles away from where we are now.......away from everything we hold dear and familiar? Where will we be called next? From the barrenness of El Paso to the deserts of Arizona to the mountains of Montana to the farms of Vermont to the coast of Maine to the sprawling hill country of Texas to the suburbs of Dallas. It is all a possibility when we have so completely given ourselves and our direction over to the Lord to place us where we can be used most mightily for His service. What an adventure life is. What unknown things are still left undiscovered and unturned........waiting, still waiting, to be lived. And how dear family becomes in that light. How precious and how sweet family is. There is a balance of holding on to everything that is near and so dear to our hearts but letting go in order to follow any direction we are given. A balance of the children being able to know intimately and maintain the relationship with Mother. A balance of the children being able to know and value the true friendship they have within their own cousins.....yet being able to leave it all to pick up and go where the wind of the Lord blows. And, for me........for me, the willingness and ability to leave Mother......the only person outside of Brad that knows me better than even I know myself, that loves my children as much as I love them and would die for any one of them as Brad and I would die for them and that next to Brad is the very best friend I could ever in my life have.......and relocate miles away if we are so called to do that. For me it is learning to be open to leaving things behind in order to discover things ahead. To leave Jackie and the friendship that we have in each other...everything we hold dear and funny that comes from having lived so many of our years in life together.

Sweet smiley Gavin

Where will we be? What mountains will have been forged and rivers will have been crossed? As we search the heart of God for direction my heart begins to wonder where we are being called. We both have begun to know deep within our spirit that our time here is coming to an end. So, where now and what next? I embrace the excitement and adventure of the unknown, the bittersweetness, and even sadness, of a chapter in life coming to a close.

Enough of the deep thoughts.....on to everything I have yet to get caught up on.

Handsome Garrison

This past week started by an all out attack on the family. Satan knows better than anything that sickness within our family will wear me down quicker than anything and bring absolutely everything to a halt. Due to sickness we put church on hold, outings on hold, pretty much life on hold. Garrison had been running a high fever and fought congestion all of the end of last week. After a sinus infection was diagnosed I decided to plow onward and go to church. It was the evil working of the enemy that was trying to hold us home and I was bound and determined to overcome. So, I decided to take Garrison, in pj's if I had to, and have the church pray over him and for protection over everyone else's health for the rest of the family. With Brad on shift I dressed everybody and put Garrison in comfortable clothes and we set off, picking Mother up on the way. Arriving a little late I filed the children in on our row and we begin to sing and join in the praise and worship. We'd been there maybe all of 10 minutes and I was nursing Gavin when Garrett puked up the entire 10 ozs of milk he'd had for breakfast. No one had even had any stomach related issues at all and out of nowhere he just pukes. So, undeterred in my convictions to overcome this Mother swept him up, took him out and cleaned him up. I threw a diaper rag over the bench he'd just puked all over and continued singing...not about to take anybody home at this point. At the end of the service we all went up there to have Garrison and now Garrett prayed for. But........we arrived home only for Garrett to continue puking. Grayson and Evye had gone home with Mother after church but as she brought them home we both decided it would be best to remove them from the sick scene to minimize the exposure to it all. So, after cleaning up more puke she whisked them away to spend the night with her. Brad got OT on Monday so I was left to make judgement calls. By noon Garrett had gone 24 hrs without a wet diaper and I knew things weren't looking too good on his end. After consulting Brad and coming up with every possible way to avoid the ER I finally loaded the 5 I had up and we headed to town to meet Brad and then make our way to the ER. He was seen almost immediately and we were given the option to admit him or have them give him an IV and possibly let Brad go home and watch him at home. We opted for that route if they chose to even release him after his IV was given. With all 5 children Brad and I sat in his little ER room from 1pm until 7 pm when they finally finished the IV and decided he could be released to go home. During our 6 hr stay the other 4 became little hospital mascots as the nurses took turns doting on them and bringing them cokes and snacks. The entire ER portion of the hospital stood in amazement that 5 children were holed up in our little room and things were so calm and quiet and that they had the manners they did. Garrison ended up falling asleep sitting up in the chair while Grant fell asleep on the bed with Brad holding Garrett. The boys ended up waking with 103 fever there in the ER. By this point things started to look pretty bleak to me as I thought about our Thanksgiving plans. I began to give in to the feelings of depression and I could feel Satan exulting in triumph over what he was seeking to accomplish.

Evye looking so much older these days

It was by no accident that the spiritual warfare waged all around us at the exact same time. This is the 1st Thanksgiving in many many years where complete healing has taken place and Jackie and Curtis agreed to come. And at the very same time we sat in the ER with 3 sick kids, one bordering on admission, Mother was being told she no longer has a job with the county and Jackie and Curtis sat in an ER far away with one of their's struggling to breathe while being diagnosed with neumonia. The air was indeed very heavy with warfare in the heavenlies. So, we stood against it. Mother packed up what little she needed and stopped by to pack up a few of Grayson's and Evye's things and she headed for Fort Worth. Grant ended up with croup and both boys ran fever into Wednesday. Brad and I both prayed protection over Jackie's and Curtis' children and that nothing we had would be contagious. We made the call to go ahead and push forward with our Thanksgiving plans. In the meantime, they called to say Maggie did not have any type of pneumonia and she was in no way contagious, but just fighting off severe allergies that presented like pneumonia and they were free to come. Brad and I packed up a sack that rivaled Walgreen's inventory and headed to east Texas Wednesday morning. I had dosed so many kids by the end of that night I couldn't even remember who had gotten what and was tempted to make a chart. I decided against it as I stood in faith that this was an all out attack and we would overcome and push through it.

Life on the road

Thanksgiving day came and was filled with tons of family and fun fellowship. Just from Granny and Grandpa and their 3 children the family now totals 35. It's amazing to me how 2 people can create so much life....bring together so many marriages and so many children and grandchildren that did not exist before the two of them became one. It's just amazing. The group picture is quite astounding and entirely comical. I'll post it when I get copies of it. If each of our 7 children had 7 children of their own we would have 49 grandchilden.......not to mention spouses of each of our 7 and then eventual spouses of our grandchildren. I laugh at the thought. What joy there is in life and having been used to create so many more to accomplish such a purpose and be surrounded with such love.

Busmaster Brad

We finally succeeded in getting Garrett back to total rehydration and then his fever kicked in late Thursday night. The trip home was long as we brought Evye back with us and Grayson continued on with Mother and would return home Saturday. But I found it absolutely educational that once home on Friday Garrett awoke that morning and sneezed out every bit of congestion and no one ever ran anymore fever from that point on. I saw at that point how entirely successful satan is in accomplishing his purposes with sickness. Once Thanksgiving was over and he was entirely defeated, after we all pushed through it and showed up despite it all, everyone's sickness came to an end. It is amazing to me that not even one of them is coughing anymore. It was like a light switch being turned on and then just turned off and the storm completely ended. I still sit in awe over how quickly it started and how quickly it came to an end.

swinging at the lodge in comfort

But.........despite the fact everyone is not only well but shows no signs of ever having been sick Mother still does not have an income at this point. The situation that ended it is so absurd that it has been hard for all of us to overcome. But it boils down to the same thing that Keller boiled down to. It was just time to go and that was the avenue that the Lord used to end it. The entire endeavor was a witch hunt and had it not been this situation they would've found another. So, after many tears on all parts she is packing to return home to Fort Worth. Finding work is a foreign thing in this part of Texas and getting paid anything even close to decent is a joke if something is found. So, she returns home....everything completely ordained by the Lord as Brad and I feel led to move on from this place also.

waiting for Daddy...almost home

Tuesday morning as the warfare continued to wage Brad took Aubrey to the eye dr. I have known for a long while she needed to be seen but it was easier to pretend it didn't exist and that she would "outgrow" it. As it become more and more obvious in pictures and while we have great insurance I knew in my heart the time had come to get over myself and take her in. I was glad for Brad having been home and needing to run errands in town so that he ended up taking her. As I stayed home with sick kids he was told that Aubrey not only is far sighted but that she has a severe and rare muscle problem.....one that both Brad's grandmother had and that Mother suffered from when she was young. Whether it is hereditary we're not really sure but we are breaking generational curses none the less. The gloomy predictions were downright depressing and I got off the phone and cried. Stuff about being re-evaluated after 30 days of glasses and then in 4-6 months if they hadn't improved enough than needing eye surgery on the muscle and another possible surgery at 16. After battling feelings of total defeat, everything I have read the past few months begin to ring in my ears and I begin to stand against all of this. I do believe in total and complete healing. I began to speak against everything that has been diagnosed and speak complete healing to her eyes and command them in Jesus name to function properly so that surgery is not even needed. There is indeed healing in the name of Jesus and we are given complete power to use His name. As we wait for her healing she wears her little glasses and we continue to pray over her and speak life to her eyes. It's a stretch for some people and even way out there for most but after witnessing some of the stuff I have seen, hearing the teachings we have heard and reading voraciously through many books I believe more now than ever that Christians stop entirely short of living in the fullness of Christ. Most Christians stay within their boxed comfort zone and never fully experience the wholeness of knowing what it is Jesus came to accomplish and the power that we have been given by the Spirit. I want to push forward into the Holy Wild and break the chains of living in the typical mediocrity of the average Christian life. There are so very many Christians that only ever touch the very tip of the iceberg. In fact, I know very few that have ever chosen to dig deeper and get out of their Bible thumping box of practical insight on everything average. I want Brad and I to be one of those few that dig so deep that it stretches even the everyday Christians around us. I want to live in the fullness and wholeness of a God that still performs modern day miracles. I want to have a faith that will move mountains.

Aubrey's new look

And many thanks to Helen, Brad's aunt, that sent all of these pictures and some of the above of our Thanksgiving with Brad's family. Since our camera shows no signs of improving it looks like we are needing a new camera. In the meantime, I can get a few of here's and there's but am also posting those that family members have thought to take. All of these were taken by sweet Helen...who adores the children.

Brad's mom, her mom and Brad's sister w/her new baby

Brad's parents with all of the grandchildren. Pam is holding Abby's baby in her lap and then the rest of the kids are, of course, our's! From left to right: Evye, Grant, Pam holding Abby's baby Milo and Garrett, Garrison, Gary holding Gavin, Aubrey and Grayson.