I've been feeling so frustrated that I am not keeping up with our daily Little Loves. I am either functioning a bit better and then I am pushing too hard to get things done, or because of all of my overdoing, I end up back in bed and feeling like I've been run over.
Probably the hardest trial I have right now is keeping myself from getting fearful of the coming EMG and a possible diagnosis that I don't want. And, the hugest part of that is worry for my children...what will it mean for them.
No matter what happens, my eyes have been opened to the extreme challenges that many families face and I have read so many uplifting stories of those who face these challenges valiantly. There is so much sorrow *and* so much strength that I have been unaware of.
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| I have so much admiration for the accomplishments of Stephen Hawking now! |
And, it is interesting how one's perspective changes from fear of things like MS and Lyme disease to actually wishing for it, over a disease like ALS or MND. I have also suspended myself from reading any further information until after the EMG.
Because of all I have just mentioned, I actually would like to discuss our Little Loves out of order today. It is a bit of a "cheater".... because it wasn't actually us that did it. It was something done for us.
It came unexpectedly from family friends that I just have to describe. Hopefully, most of you have some friends like this too and will also have some heartwarming memories come forth.
Since this is a public blog, I will just call them the V family. I literally grew up with this family. I don't ever remember not knowing them. I actually found out in my teen years, that Mrs. V was responsible for bringing my parents together in the first place. So, I guess you could say I literally owe my life to her! :)
As the story goes, my Mom knew Mrs. V from school and they also went to the same church. My Dad and Mr. V were also friends from the other side of the US where they went to college together. I actually can't remember what in the world they were doing on the west coast in that small town. I think they were doing a college internship in Seattle area but I'm still not sure what brought them to my mom's small town.
Anyway, my Dad owned his own small plane. I must admit, that is a pretty cool thing for a young man in his early twenties, and though my Mom was terrified of flying, I think I can make a pretty good argument that his plane is what made all the difference in wooing my Mom.
Mrs. V and Mr. V were going on a group date (they weren't married yet) with my Mom and another nameless and faceless guy....so strange that he could have been my father. ;) My Dad was introduced by Mrs. V to my Mom, and my Dad was regrettably informed that the four of them were going out on a date.
Ah, but my Dad had other ideas. He offered to take them all on a ride in his plane.....but *alas* there was only room for four. There simply wasn't the room for my Mom's date to come. Such a pity!
I laughed and marveled after learning of this story...just trying to imagine my Dad doing this. He is an electrical engineer so I wouldn't describe him as being the "forward" type.
So, Mr and Mrs V got married and my parents got married. They went on to have two girls and my parents had two girls. We went to each other's birthday parties and holiday pot lucks. We also frequently met up to eat dinner at Pizza and Pipes.
I feel sorry for any of you that never had this experience. While you ate pizza you were entertained by a huge organ playing popular music of our time from movies like Star Wars. You could even go up and write a request and place it in a box...can you imagine the amazement and happiness a child has when "their" song is played! There were also dancing puppets and bubbles and band instruments like drums and a tambourine that the organist controlled. It was so much fun!
I can even remember riding in the V family car and their plastic bubble seat covers that had little blisters I liked to poke in.
We also had two main traditions.
A. We spent nearly every fourth of July together. We have laughed and laughed about the fact that since we lived in the Seattle area, it was usually rainy and we took a multitude of pictures of all of us huddled in the garage together while the dads would dart out and light a firework and then run back in.
B. We went nearly every summer to the beach and spent several days staying in a cabin together. We went to several different places until finally settling on one specific cabin that we considered "our cabin".
Oh, the fun we had! Both of our families also loved dogs so we would bring our dogs and run around on the beach and just play and play.
Mrs. V even helped us all come together one more time some years back when we were all adults and Amelia was just a baby. It was so fun to see our children experience the joy that we had growing up.
I had to give the background of all of this because their family means a lot to me and Mrs. V continues to stay in touch with our family and even offers encouragement and love to our children at a distance through Facebook.
So, recently, Mrs. V had posted on FB that she was contentedly growing older and thanking God for her life and the ability to rock in a rocking chair with her dog in her lap and all of her blessings of grandchildren and family. Then she made the comment that she was officially old. I commented that it could not be possible because if she was indeed old, that I could never be seven again and heading to one of her parties and eating chip/dip and Japanese candy. She acknowledged our good times and I admitted that I wished I could be her someday...
Fast forward to yesterday...
It was a very hard day. I was exhausted....not normal tired but so bone tired that if it was any worse....well, let's just say, it was about the most tired I have ever been. My arms and legs ached like I had the craziest workout ever when I had hardly been able to move and my muscles were twitching and jerking. I think the worst of it was that I had been functioning better the day before and was getting my hopes up that I was on the upswing rather than just the same silly cycle I have been on going up and down this roller coaster. So, I was feeling pretty defeated and to top it all off, we hadn't done our Little Love for the day.....
Can you imagine what we received in the mail???
An entire box of Japanese candy from our thoughtful and dear family friend. I laughed, and I was in tears, and I was so grateful.
What she didn't know is that the reason I remembered about the Japanese candy, was that I was fascinated by the idea that you could eat the wrapper it was in. But, I just couldn't bring myself to do it! Year after year, they would have these Japanese candies at their Christmas parties and I promised myself that I would be able to eat it...and then I just couldn't bring myself to actually eat that "wrapper" in my mouth.
So, this act of kindness helped me to also accomplish something I had been unable to do. I guess you could say that it was on my unknown bucket list. I not only ate the candy....wrapper and all....but I also quite enjoyed it. And, the children all got a kick out of teasing me. They also enjoyed showing me how brave they were and how easily they could eat it.
Tomorrow, I will attempt to keep the blog going. I really want to detail our new family tradition of the Icelandic "Yule Lads" that are going to be visiting our house. We were supposed to start today...and my precious children all lined their shoes up by the door last night....and I was pretty well out of commission last night and of all things....*forgot* and they woke up to empty shoes!
Even if a child is "bad", they are supposed to at least get a potato...so what in the world did an empty shoe mean!?! Ugh! I apologized profusely that it was my fault and that I forgot to put out his milk....and added that we forgot that the dogs were in the living room with their shoes and they probably scared the Yule Lad away.
The children seemed to be understanding of that and Robertson was sweet about trying to put little things in the shoes of the smaller children before they came downstairs. I really have amazing children and I am so thankful for them.
I will close with some pictures of our Christmas tree expedition and Maria's birthday:
Happy Birthday Maria!!!
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