Love was everywhere.

Okay, so imagine you're a single young woman. Imagine you're seven months pregnant with your first child. Imagine you're alone. Imagine you have nowhere to live, so you've been sleeping in your car.

Now imagine walking into a fully furnished 1-bedroom apartment and being told it's yours. The kitchen table is yours, the couch is yours, the TV is yours, the bed is yours, the crib is yours.

Can you even imagine what that must feel like?? I can't. But I caught a small glimpse of it last Saturday, thanks to Agape.

For those who don't know, Agape has a ministry called FIT, which stands for Families in Touch. The FIT program provides housing for single, homeless pregnant women and their children for up to two years, while helping them develop the skills they need to live self-sufficiently and parent successfully. A week ago yesterday, I attended the grand opening of the second FIT campus, which can serve up to twenty women and their children. There were balloons, food, games, lots of volunteers and Agape supporters, and eight families (one of whom I described above) who had just moved into their new homes. The new FIT families were showered with love and gifts. As my friend Marka said, "love was everywhere." It was an awesome day.

Of course, before the big grand opening, each of these twenty apartments needed to be furnished, so donations were collected from various churches. Many volunteers worked together to set up each apartment and help make it feel like a home. My mom, Marka, and I took on a two-bedroom apartment, recruited some friends to help (thanks, Sarah, Cindi, and Carol!), and had a blast getting it ready for its first FIT family! I put together a slideshow with pictures of our apartment (which doesn't have a family in it yet but should in the next couple of weeks) and the grand opening, but first I have to show what our apartment looked like when we found it . . . because I'm just a little bit proud of how cute it turned out. ;-) Here are the "before" pictures . . .

the living room

the bathroom

the mom's room

the kids' room (baby bed will come when the baby does)

I don't have a "before" picture of the kitchen, so just imagine a dirty kitchen with nothing but a table in it (no chairs). And I realize the "after" pics of the kitchen are missing a couple things; the stove and refrigerator will come when our family does.

Now you have to watch the slideshow to see the "after" pictures and pictures from the grand opening celebration. Enjoy!

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." -Matthew 25:40

P.S. Hilton (as in the hotels) donated lots of furniture, sent lots of volunteers to help with the grand opening, and gave each of the families huge gift baskets. So if you're looking for a hotel, pick a Hilton. :-)

April 3rd (x2)

Last April 3rd, I was pretty obsessed with these eyes and these eyelashes.

Turns out, this April 3rd was no different.

How many pictures can I take in 24 hours?

Recently (okay, fine, it was over a month ago - I'm playing catch-up here!), we had Halle/Niva Grace and her sister Cierra for a day and night while their mother played violin in an out-of-town wedding. We had so much fun! Or, should I say, we had so much fun during the day. Halle had a double ear infection and swimmer's ear, so trying to get her sleep and keep her asleep that night was not easy (brought back many memories of staying up with her while she coughed her little head off all night long!). But, other than missing out on a few hours of sleep, we had a great weekend. Here's a recap . . .

We visited Grandmother & Paw Paw and played outside.

Happy because she had my phone . . . little did I know she made a call to my friend Cari-Beth.

Mom, Tekia, and Cierra feeding the horse and cleaning up the barn

trying to put her clothes back on after we'd changed her into her pajamas :-)

breakfast!

Me and a sleepy, sick baby girl. I'm not sure how either of us were keeping our eyes open - we'd been up from 3am - 8am straight!

Dad gave the big girls wagon rides.

And, since it was Easter weekend, we dyed Easter eggs.

Niva Grace very much wanted to do her eggs totally on her own!

Our 24 hours went by way too fast. We can't wait for next time!

It's raining, it's pouring . . .

Sorry I've been slacking on my blogging lately. It's raining babies in Memphis! I've been doing lots and lots of this lately . . .

Meet Riley

Carter

you already know Brody
and Nolan

and the newest arrival Kellen, who was just born yesterday! He'll be the star of a photo shoot soon. :-)

I haven't had too many days off to play photographer the last couple of weeks, though. As I said, it's raining babies in Memphis; therefore my work is super-busy! So I've also been doing lots of this lately (I took this while holding our dinky little NICU camera - sometimes I can make it do what I want it to do - with one hand and holding her feisty little legs still with the other).

And we've also had some literal raining and pouring. Here's what our backyard (and our poor, freshly-planted garden) looked like after the storms and flooding that hit west and middle Tennessee a few weeks ago. Fortunately, we just lost a couple rows of our garden, but there are many families in Millington, Dyersburg, Nashville, and everywhere in between who lost everything.


Things have finally dried up around here . . . I'm still waiting for the stork to slow down, though!

Paw Paw update

5/11/10 pm update: Well, Paw Paw didn't get bad news from the doctor today, but it wasn't really good news either. Basically there was no news. My mom went with them, and she said she's not sure why the doctor wanted to see him again today. He only talked with them. He talked a lot about the possibility of ALS, so that's not totally off the table, which is discouraging. He said that, if it is ALS, it is a very atypical case. He still wants another MRI, which will hopefully be scheduled soon. We keep praying.

Jared and me with Paw Paw outside his law office in Bartlett Station (I guess you would call this our "downtown") in 1987

In the NICU we tell our parents that no news is good news. If we go a day without calling them, it means their baby is behaving himself and doing what he's supposed to. Unfortunately, on my blog, no news usually just means I'm too lazy or discouraged (or unable, due to privacy reasons) to post about something.

In that case of my Paw Paw, no news has not meant good news. His muscle weakness has progressively gotten worse since his last surgery (he has now had to two unsuccessful neck surgeries for this). He is now unable to walk without the use of a walker, and even that has become very difficult and exhausting for him. Last week, he finally received a motorized wheelchair, which makes it much easier for him to go outside again. :-) Once he and Grandmother have a way to transport the chair, getting to and from doctors' and physical therapy appointments will be so much easier for them. Hopefully he'll be able to go back to church as well.

After realizing that this last surgery in January didn't work, his neurologist referred him to a muscle doctor, who mainly sees patients with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's disease). We had a feeling this might be coming. A couple of weeks ago, after some testing, this doctor told Paw Paw that he does not think he has ALS - praise God! However, he does not know what's wrong. He said his leg muscles are actually in pretty good shape, leading him to believe there is something going on in or around Paw Paw's neck that's causing him to be unable to use his legs and right arm. He said he wanted to another MRI of the neck to try to pinpoint the problem. Then a week later, the doctor's office called to say that the doctor wanted to see Paw Paw again before this MRI. This appointment is today! We have no idea what to expect here and no idea why the doctor suddenly decided he wants to see Paw Paw again. It could mean he has a diagnosis, it could mean more testing . . . who knows. But please pray with us about this! Pray that God will lead this doctor to the right diagnosis and hopefully treatment for Paw Paw. Pray for Paw Paw's spirit. His body may not be working right, but his mind is the same as it's always been, and these last few months have been so frustrating and discouraging for him. And being cooped up in his house since January hasn't helped much either.

Also pray for my grandmother, as she has become Paw Paw's caregiver 24/7 and has also recently had some health issues of her own. Paw Paw can no longer stay by himself due to his frequent falling. They've recently found a neighbor (thank you, God, for Betty!) to sit with Paw Paw when Grandmother needs to go somewhere; hopefully having Betty around will help take some of the pressure off Grandmother and allow her to better take care of herself as well.

Oh, and during all of this muscle doctor stuff, Paw Paw's had a tumor removed from his bladder via outpatient surgery and Grandmother's been in the hospital twice for fainting spells. The tumor was malignant, but they feel no further treatment is needed at this time; he'll continue to have regular check-ups. Grandmother's fainting was possibly related to low blood sugar and/or related to problems with her blood pressure medication. Whatever it was, it seems to have resolved, and she's doing much better now.

I'll post an update after Paw Paw's appointment today, if we get any news at all.

In summary, getting old stinks. :-)

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." -Abraham Lincoln

(except for the smart alec part or the part that tells corny jokes - I owe that to my dad. Man, we're funny sometimes.)

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Bayside is the school that's cool and you know that it's true.

Recent conversation between my mom and me . . .

me: (humming)

Mom: Why are you singing Home on the Range?

me: I don't know. Actually I'm not singing Home on the Range; I'm singing Screech's school song from Saved by the Bell.

Mom: I think that's worse.


Speaking of, if any of my fellow Saved by the Bell fans missed Zack Morris's appearance on Jimmy Fallon last year, here it is. It's kind of awesome.