Thankful...

Can you tell these two adore each other? I'm so thankful for them, always am, but this past week made me even more. I took Hollynn to get her immunizations on Wednesday and Hudson to get his ears checked to be sure the fluid was gone, which it was. By that afternoon Hollynn's face broke out in a rash and I called the after hours line and they told me not to worry about it. She was also cranky but at times unconsolible, I put it off on a regular reaction to the shots. I gave her some tylenol for her low fever and went on about my work and plans for church. Then she started straining really hard and I thought, what in the world did I eat to make her tummy hurt? So then I thought I had eaten something even though I had no clue what it was, surely I had given her diarrhea and caused the straining. It came and went that night and she went to sleep like normal. In the night I woke up and she was straining in her sleep so I picked her up and rocked her until she fell back into a deeper sleep. The next morning she was not hungry and so tired and from 9:30-12:30 I had changed 9 poopie diapers and now there was starting to be blood in them. I called the dr., they asked had she thrown up along with this? No. So she was going to talk to the dr. and call me back. As soon as I hung up the phone she threw up everywhere. So I called them right back and they had me bring her right in. There she had 2 more diapers with mucus/blood and by that point that's all it was. They sent us to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital E.R. When we got there they were ready for us and ran several tests, xrays, and an ultrasound. They were thinking she was having intussusception (where her intestines were telescoping inside themselves). The tests came back okay and they said it must have reversed on its own. She had been so lethargic it was scary and they had given her an iv, after that she perked up just a little. They sent us home with a list of "if this happens...come back". Well, we got home I put her in the bath and then fed her and she threw up everywhere again then went back lethargic. I immediately called and thankfully another Dr. talked to me (the first one seemed to just be rushing us out even though her symptoms hadn't changed). They told me to bring her right back. By the time we got 1/2 mile down the road, she had thrown up again and was very hard to wake up. Needless to say, the flashers were on and I drove like crazy to Vandy. She stayed in critical care that night, her x rays weren't good but by the time the ultrasound lady came in (at this point it was almost 4 a.m.) to get a better look it had reversed itself again. She had several more spells the next day and her stool started actually having stool in it and not just blood, so things were looking better. We finally got to go home on Saturday. It was a scary time and there were lots of people praying for her. Jason said it best when he was praying over her while in the hospital, he said something like, "We know that 'it reversed itself' really means that You reversed it Lord." The scripture I have been reading over and over here lately was the perfect sword, it was all about anxiety, worry, and trusting in the Lord. I'm so thankful He is trustworthy. I'm so thankful He healed her and no surgery was required. I'm so thankful she's back to her bright eyed happy little self. I'm thankful for sisters and sister in laws, grandparents, and all of our family who was right there to help us with any and everything.

And I missed Hudson so much, that's the longest I've been away from him. He stayed with Casey and had a blast. By the time the second night there though, he had a few tearful moments where he wanted his mommy! Mommy wanted him too! She said he would come up to her and say, "I need to go home and see my mommy then I will come back and play with you!" She would just distract him with something fun and they watched lion king 1 1/2 before bed so he wasn't thinking about his normal routine. Since they just moved back home he got to help Uncle Will put lots of things together so that was right up his alley!

Yesterday she had a follow up where there were more test results, our pediatrician is sure this was a reaction to the rotavirus vaccine. No more rotavirus vaccines in her future.

On a different note, she has a new record for bed time, last night: 11:15!!! And guess who couldn't fall asleep until after 1:00? I was wide awake, like, what do I do now? So I tossed and turned. Hopefully it won't take too long for me to fall asleep earlier because she seems to be more consistantly falling asleep towards 11:30/midnight :)

What are you doing?

This is my new favorite picture of him, there's nothing like a little left over lunch around the mouth, a piece of trident, and pure joy!

One minute these two were feeding cows and the next minute Hoss had a feeder hooked up to the four wheeler, these two are a perfect match, huh?

Do you notice how their sun glasses match? Those are the ones Hoss special ordered for Hudson! Why didn't I get spoiled like that when I was little!?

He was working just like his daddy the other day, they were putting furniture together in the garage! I love the tongue hanging out in the pic below, he was in deep concentration and had no idea I was taking pics of him.

Yep, my goofy little man, who I love to pieces and is the reason behind this post. This has been on my heart for some time now and I just haven't had the time to sit down and write it, but I hope you have the time to sit and read it...

I have the joy of hearing his giggles every day and drying his tears, and getting asked to "hold me" and "mom, play with me". He has an endless amount of energy and LOVES to be outside. He adores his daddy, and thinks it's hilarious when he gets his sister to laugh at him. He's precious and I just can't imagine mine and Jason's life without him. I also can't imagine my Daddy's life without him, they just make each others day. Every morning he asks me when he gets to see Hoss. I love watching him crawl up in the same lap I have time and time again, my Meemaw, he just lights her up. He and Casey squeal every time they see each other (well, Casey sqeals, but he is just as happy). He thinks playing blocks with Grandmom is too much fun. Before he made his debut as Hudson Carney, what did we all do with ourselves?

I hate to go there in my mind, but I need to for this post, what would have happened had we not listened for God's voice and perfect timing in our adoption? Would my Mr. Personality just be a number in orphanage #20. Would he still be eating the same meals day after day and spend all day in a room full of other kids and no one to hold him and tell him how much they love him. I think I heard my heart just break. I don't even want to think about it anymore, but you get the point. And there are MILLIONS of orphans in the world. My question for you is, what are you doing? Has God spoken to you about adopting? Oh if He has, I pray your ears will be open to hear Him clearly and that you'll jump into your journey, never looking back. And He may not be calling you to adopt, even so, there's still so much you can do. The #1 reason people are scared of adoption is the money. It is scary when you look at those #'s and think, how will we ever afford this? I can testify and so can many others I know, about how God provided every single penny. We never borrowed a dime for Hudson's adoption (which was close to $50,000). We watched God send money our way, always right when we needed it. One night we prayed, how are we going to come up with the money we needed to accept his referral, we needed almost $10,000 and Russia was $20,000 more expensive than the program we had originally been in, so we were short on what we had raised. We didn't tell anyone we needed more money and within the next 24 hours I was handed checks for $4,300. Why? Because God laid us on two peoples hearts! AWESOME! But what about the people who gave $25, $10, $50, $100, just as AWESOME! It was friends, family, church, coming together and being giving, that's how God provided for us to be able to get our little man home. I'm sitting here shaking my head in awe as I think back to how it all worked out, if you are reading this and you gave to our adoption, let me just say again, THANK YOU from the very bottom of my heart, thank you for your heart and for being a way that God helped us become parents.

So back to "what are you doing"? Let me be blunt, have you helped bring an orphan into their forever family lately? Can you afford to give a little to a family that is stepping out in faith and believing God to bring them to their child? What a special thing for you to be able to do! I believe God can multiply your $10 or however much and help a family more than you will ever know. Maybe you don't know someone who is adopting right now, well guess what, I do! So you can e-mail me at lindsey@treasure2farm.com and I can get you their info. You can make a difference in not just a child's life, but in a husband and a wife, in a grandparent and great grandmother's life, in an aunt's life, and I could go on and on. You could have a part in a child going from hours on end in an empty crib to a home where they can run down the hallways with a milk mustache, and crawl into their mama's lap to hear her read the book that they've read dozens of times, and hear that they are loved and you are never going to leave them. It may cost you a night of going out to eat, but to us (by us I mean parents of adopted children), it's priceless!

If you've read all this post, thank you, and thank you for how you are going to bless someone!