Lilly's new wreath

Today I bought myself a Mother's Day gift:  a new Lilly-colored wreath for Lilly's grave.  The wreath that she currently has on her grave has been there for over a year.  I love it but it's worn out.  I haven't had luck with flowers at her grave - both beautiful spreads disappeared quickly.  But her wreath has lasted.  I got this wreath at A.C. Moore today and it was on sale.  I don't like it as much as the current wreath, though it's certainly lovely.

I would really like to learn to make my own wreaths for Lilly's grave.  I've made a few wreaths in my life, but never anything that needed to be weatherproof.  I saw a lot of the netting kind of ribbon for sale today, in Lilly colors.  I will take a closer look at the old wreath, and study this new one, to see how they did it.  Of course I don't need any new projects!  But it would be special to me to make my daughter's grave decorations myself.

I like that the new wreath has some pink lily flowers and two red-white-blue stuffed animals.  Only I'm not sure how stuffed animals will hold up outside.  But they are sweet looking.

Tomorrow is our big day to take our first Lilly Memorial Project donation to the hospital.  It's been ready for a few weeks now, but the boys and I got so sick for a couple of weeks we had to wait.  But we're all set to go tomorrow.  I was trying to figure out how to get everything from the parking garage to the hospital and decided to try our wagon to see if that would hold everything.  I think it will work fine, as long as I tie everything down.  Here is Hunter trying it out:

Any one of you that knows Hunter, knows his stuffed German Shepherd dog Sam.  Sam has been Hunter's loyal dog for 3 of Hunter's 4 years of life.  Hunter lives through Sam and is always talking about what Sam can do or doesn't like, etc.  Recently Sam went missing.  It was a very sad time for Hunter.  We prayed several times a day to find Sam.  He talked frequently about how sad he felt.  He even posted this sign:

(It says:  Sam please come to Hunter)

Thankfully, 6 days later Sam turned up.  In the bottom of the laundry hamper!  Hunter was one happy, grateful little boy.

What was lost was found.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" - Philippians 4:4

Peep! A Taste of Freedom & Lilly's lily garden

Yesterday was a nice sunny day and warm enough for the chicks to go outside for the first time.  Frank and Tabby cleaned out the chicks homes while the chicks explored.  We currently have them in two tall boxes because they got too big for their swimming pool home.

At first they stood baffled in two groups.  They must have thought they had to maintain the segregation that had experienced in the two different boxes after being separated a few days ago!

Finally their tiny chick brains remembered that they were not foes, but friends:

"So how's it been guys and gals?"

The dogs wanted to meet the new biddies so bad!  Not yet girls ...

Cleaning out the feeders:

Awwww ... the chick is so cute!

Meeting at the water cooler!

Solomon is slightly amused:

The biddies were all tired out after several hours of getting to scratch and peck outside.  Here they are back in their clean temporary homes:

On a different note, my little garden in memory of Lilly is doing pretty well.  Tabby had dug up the bulbs in her garden we had at our old house.  I replanted them, along with a bunch of new lily bulbs.  Things are growing:

I haven't tucked her decorations back in yet.  I thought I ought to wait to see where the lilies appeared so I didn't accidentally cover any up.

Solomon wore this outfit to church today - it is smocked with owls.

Hunter made me laugh - he said he loved Solomon to wear clothes like this because the white part of the smocking made him think of air filters in cars.  LOL!  He's right.  I made this one extra large, trying to show the white part of the smocking for those of you that don't pay attention to this sort of thing, but it's not too easy to see.  

Air filters.  What next?  :)

Peep ... ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz

Are you ever so tired at the end of the day that you feel like this chick?

 

This is one of those days for me!  I can't wait to crawl into bed tonight.  The above chick was so funny - it originally fell asleep standing up.  But by the time I got my camera it had crashed.  :)

All the other chicks must have thought that was a good idea because they soon decided it was nap time too:

 

Yesterday, one of the Jersey Black chicks attempted the great escape.  Unfortunately for him he was immediately busted by Chicken Guard Tabby who grabbed him and put him back in his home.  The chickens were later all moved to a new home with higher walls ....

I never would have thought that baby chicks - or biddies as my mother-in-law said they should be called! - could be so cute and amusing.

God is so wonderfully creative and has such a great sense of humor.  :)

Compassion

"As [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  - John 9:1-5

I almost always think of Lilly now when I read the above passage from the Bible.  In the past, before I believed that God was sovereign in all things, I would have wondered what had I done wrong to cause Lilly to be born with Trisomy 18.  (OK - I admit it wasn't just the past. I did have that thought a number of times!)  I love Jesus's response to the disciples' compassion-less question:  "this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."  

Why did Lilly have Trisomy 18?  A genetic disorder that most of the world sees as a horrible thing?  "So that the works of God might be displayed in [her.]"  I can tell you that I have never seen how a little girl, who only lived 17 months, could bless and change so many people.  And she is still doing it even though she is no longer on earth!  Wow - that is God's power!

In the latest issue of Compassion magazine, the president, Wess Stafford, used the above verses as he wrote about children of special needs and how they are even more vulnerable when born into poverty. (pages 2-3)  Stafford paraphrased Jesus's response to his disciples question as:  "Get your mind off blame and get it on how God will work in the life of someone He loves!"  

Jesus doesn't leave that man blind.  The scripture passage continues:
"⁶ After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing."  - John 9:6-7

Stafford pulls these lessons out of those verses:

"Intervening for those with special needs is gritty work.  Like mud, it can be messy and unconventional.
 Intervening is also personal.  Jesus could have simply said the word and everybody would have witnessed a healing.  But he applied His own saliva, His own effort and His own touch.  He personally committed Himself to a special need.
Intervening takes faith, too.  Even with Jesus' unconventional actions, the man had to take a literal walk of "blind faith" to wash off the mud.  Healing came at the end of the path, not the beginning.
And finally, intervening means seeking out and providing a place.  The rest of the story [John 9:8-41] tells us that the healed man is case out of the community by the religious authorities. But Jesus seeks him out - tracks him down, really - to confirm the work of God in his life.  What an amazing affirmation when the once-blind man heard 'the Son of Man ... is the one speaking with you.' The man found a home in Jesus."

I have learned much of this from Lilly.  How rewarding it was to see her smiling responses to us.  Or to hear her laughter!

How I miss kissing Lilly's soft little neck!  I missed her dreadfully this weekend.  



If you are wondering what Compassion magazine is, it is the quarterly magazine of Compassion International.  This is a wonderful (and honest!) group who's mission statement is:  "In response to the Great Commission, Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults." 

I have sponsored a child through Compassion for about 9 years now and it has been very rewarding.  Here our girl, Selene.  She lives in Mexico:

 
Every week, Selene goes to the "Compassion project" which is held at a local church and she is given nutritious meals, taught about God, and does different activities.  The leaders at the project also make sure she is healthy and check up on her family.  Selene writes us letters and draws us pictures several times during the year.  (I can only read a little Spanish, so am thankful there is always a translation included with her letters.)  We send money for her birthday and Christmas, and the project always sends pictures of her with the gifts that they purchase for her.  

To my shame, I have not written her as often as I would like to in the past few years.  I have let my own overwhelmed feelings of life get in the way of me taking 10 minutes of writing a letter which I know that she delights in.  So, I am recommitting myself in this.  I am going to write Selene once a month from now on.  No more sporadic patterns!  If you read any of the stories on Compassion's website, you can see what a difference this can make for a child. 

Compassion has a number of different programs, and I am so grateful for their work.

Peep peep peep!

What's that noise?  Peep peep peep!

 

That's 26 baby chicks!  You know, we homeschool and live on a farm ... I bake my own bread from the wild yeast I caught in the air and wheat berries I grind ... I guess chickens are just a requirement.  ;)

We got several of each of these kinds:  Silkies (Tabby's request), Buff, Ameraucana (my request), Rhode Island Red, Jersey Black, and Deleware. 

Showing the chicks where their food and water are:

I told Tabby that when I was growing up, I sure never imagined I'd live the life I'm living.  God is always surprising me with "what happens next?"

If someone had said I'd have chickens in my living room I'd have stared at them in bewilderment!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11

OK - God!  I remain curious about those plans ...

About that SPOONful of sugar . . .

Last week I mentioned that I was having a HORRIBLE time getting Solomon to take his medicine.  I was trying to give him an antibiotic using a medicine dropper and he was screaming and crying, and most was coming back out.  I had the idea of trying to feed it to him using a spoon instead of the dropper, and amazingly it worked!  He fussed the first few minutes and then was, and has been, fine for the most part.  Maybe the dropper was just too foreign to him?  I just wanted to pass that tip on in case anyone has the same issue with a baby or young child.

Tabby, who I think would be happy spending most of her days beading, made me Lilly-colored angel earrings and a suncatcher.  I love them!  Solomon loves the earrings so much that I can't wear them anymore until he's a little older.  ;) 

 

The old farmhouse we live in was built before the time of electricity and running water. These things were added later.  Air conditioning never did get put in upstairs.  So last week, when the weather turned hot, Frank put a/c window units into the two rooms.   Hunter (aka The Appliance Kid) loves his window unit so much that he had Frank help him make one to play with out of a box.  It even has working knobs and an old electrical cord.  It is named "Knobby."

The other day Hunter took his little fan and put it in the box and plugged it in.  He pointed out that his window unit now made noise and blew air, just like a real window unit.  

Tabby and her friend Cassie (angel baby Hannah's big sister) both have businesses in honor of their sisters.  They frequently like to trade things they make.  Last week a big package arrived from Cassie and it had gifts for all of us.  Cassie had even made bow ties - with Lilly's picture on them - for the boys!  Here is Solomon sporting his bow tie and a big smile (can you tell he's all better now?):

"This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." - Psalm 118:24

Lilly Memorial Project - Project #1 is finished!

Last Sunday, I FINALLY finished putting together our hospital donation of 17 angel boxes (for Lilly's 17 months).  It took much much longer than I initially had planned, thanks to a new baby and a surprise move and other life happenings.  I hope to get in touch with my contact at UNC Hospital this week to set up a donation time.  Probably for next week because I am still sick.  (Solomon is doing so much better.  Hunter still is coughing and has a runny nose.)


Here are the contents of one of the donations for an angel family:

1. Journal & pen - journals are composition books that Tabby took and covered both the front and  backs with pretty scrapbooking paper
2.Model magic - clay for hand and footprints (donated by Jordan's mom)
3. Angel ornament - also by Jordan's mom (see her Trisomy Tea page here)
4. Disposable camera - donated by my sister-ln-law Nikki
5. Envelope for Wisp-of-Hair
6. Small Kleenex pack
7. Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep business card - from Lilly's photographer
8. Far Flutterby - beautiful comforting book by Karen Kingsbury
9. Lilly & Jesus notecard - with a handwritten sympathy message from me
10. Outfit for burial - this was VERY important to me as I was so thankful we had a beautiful dress already that I was able to use for Lilly - I can not imagine shopping for a burial outfit while mourning.  I have a number of outfits I bought off Ebay, a bunch of crocheted dresses (made and donated by a young woman and her mom who I met through the purchase of one on Ebay), and several burial pouches made by me and some by G.C.
11. Package of Forget-Me-Not seeds
12. Memory box - I used letter, angel, and butterfly stickers to decorate the lid of a photo box
13. Drawstring bag - I made a bag for each donation to put everything in.  I used Lilly-colored ribbon to tie them.

Here are a few photos of Tabby and Hunter helping me fill the boxes:

Everything fit inside the memory boxes (except the book) and I wrapped the outfits in tissue paper and carefully placed in the top of each box:

Here is the big heap of packed bags ready to go.  Pink bags for girls, blue for boys, green for either:

Besides the project tag on each bag, I also made a tag that shows the outfit inside each bag.  On the back I wrote the size and measurements of the outfit.  I figured that would make a nurse's job much easier. 

Now the biggest question is, how to transport all these from the parking lot to inside the hospital?!  Perhaps Hunter's red wagon would be allowed inside ....

The kids and I prayed for the families that would receive these bags.  I know that everyone copes with death in their own way.  But I do pray that there are some things in each bag that will provide some comfort and hope for these families.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." - 1 Corinthians 1:3-4