Isn't it ironic?

I find it ironic that I have two college degrees (which means two college graduations) and managed to spell Graduation wrong on one of my previous post titles!  Just a funny thing I noticed...

More Conversations with a three-year-old

Just some more conversations or cute happenings that I want to remember.

While playing at the house:
Shawn:  Sit down mommy, I want to be the teacher.
Mommy:  Okay.
Shawn:  I'm going to tell you a story from the Bible.
Mommy:  Okay, I'm listening.
Shawn:  Jesus and Moses were walking down the street.  Jesus told Moses, "Listen to your mommy and daddy!."  The end. 

While getting dressed in the morning:
Mom:  Time to get dressed.  Let's take off your shirt.
Shawn:  No, I don't want to.
Mom:  You can't wear pajamas to school silly.
Shawn:  But they're my really cool Buzz and Woddy pajamas!

While getting dressed in the morning another day:
Mom:  I really like the super hero shirt you picked out today. 
Shawn:  This one is like grandpa (pointing to the Incredible Hulk), this one is like Ethan (pointing to Flash Gordon), this one is like me (pointing to Spider Man). 
Mom:  Wow, which super hero is like Daddy?
Shawn:  Handy Manny!

Shawn is really good at reminding us when we need to pray.  The other night was the first time Shawn branched out and said his own prayer.  He usually says the prayer they say at school for meal time for bed-time prayers and meal-time prayers.
School Prayer:  Let us thank him for our food.  Amen, Thank you God. 
And he says that prayer even at bed-time.
Spontaneous Prayer:  Let us thank him for our Mommy and Daddy, Grandma, GiGi, Nana, Papa, Aunt Jen, Ethan, and all my other cousins, my teachers at school, my kids at school, and for Daddy's work.  Thank you God.  Amen. 

He really is a character, and LOVES to talk so we have lot's of interesting conversations!

So... here it is

Well, we went to the neurologist last week and all of Shawn's tests were normal (EEG, MRI, blood work). We still do not know what has caused Shawn to have two seizures. The doctor is confident this is something he will grow out of in a couple of years. Since he has had two seizures the doctor started him on medication. Evidently once you've had two seizures you're more likely to have more. He has to take the medication twice a day for two years. If we can go two years without a seizure then we can stop the medication. The neurologist gave Shawn a diagnosis of Idiopathic Epilepsy. Which basically means he's had at least two seizures and there's no obvious reason why. I also learned that the term epilepsy doesn't mean a disease or a condition, it's a descriptive term that means someone who has had two or more seizures. So saying he has epilepsy just means he's had at least two seizures. I also learned that about 70% of children diagnosed with epilepsy have idiopathic epilepsy and they never find the cause and most of the time the kids just grow out of it and never have another seizure again.

Those are the facts, now onto the emotions. How did we get to the point where our child needed a neurologist? Why is this happening? What is causing the seizures? Will he have more seizures? When will the next one happen? The anticipation of the next time is the worst part. I'm a nervous wreck when I wake up in the morning and around nap time at school. Shawn's seizures have only happened in the early morning right around the time he's waking up (around 7-7:30). The doctor said this is the most common time for people to have seizures. I constantly pray when I'm going to sleep, when I wake up in the morning and between 2-3:30 in the afternoon.

So, since the last seizure on June 24th I've been reading Max Lucado's book, Fearless. Here is what I've learned that has helped me:

- The Bible is full of stories of worried and concerned parents (Mark 5, Matthew 15, Mark 9)

- Christ never turned away a concerned parent, after all, our kids were his kids first!

- The Bible tells us to go to God on behalf of our children (Lamentations 2:19), "Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young children."

- We can't protect our children from every threat in life but we can take them to the source of life. We can entrust our kids to Christ.

- I absolutely LOVE this paragraph:

"God has a heart for hurting parents. Should we be surprised? After all, God himself is a father. What parental emotion has he not felt? Are you separated from your child? So was God. Is someone mistreating your child? they mocked and bullied his. Is someone taking advantage of your child? The Son of God was set up by false testimony and betrayed by a greedy follower. Are you forced to watch as your child suffers? God watched his son on the cross. Do you find yourself wanting to spare your child from all the hurt in the world? God did. But because of his great love for us, he did not spare his own Son but gave him for us all. So with Jesus, God will surely give us all things."   I completely see God differently, more compassionate, more human, more like a father.

- It isn't all sunshine and roses. Sometimes your prayers do not get answered the way you want. "God hates death." So much that he abolished and conquered it! This is a scary and painful thought but it does happen! Keep giving your child to God and at the right time in the right way God will give your child back to you.

- Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed your faith and your fears will.

- Jesus faced his ultimate fear with honest prayer.

- Yann Martel describes fear like this (and it is oh so true!), "I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with it with little trouble. You become anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread... Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies; hope and trust. There, you've defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.

- So, how do you conquer fear?  "You must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you."

So that is what this post is about, I'm exposing my fears. I'm shining the light of the Lord and my faith in God upon them like a flashlight. I know there are still dark shadows lurking in the closet but I plan to pray my way through them and seek refuge in the words God has given to us for comfort, "For I know the plans I have for you, declare the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Our 10-year Anniversary Date Night

On June 10th Jacin and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary.  It wasn't as eventful as we had hoped since we would be going on a big family reunion vacation in a few weeks.  But we had dinner at my favorite restaurant, Rosario's.  We had a nice time reminiscing over the past 10-years and talking about our wedding.  We've come a long way in our relationship and our walk with God.  We were so young when we got married and didn't really seem to have any direction but here we are 10 years later just where God wants us to be.

Here are a few pictures from our date night courtesy of my mother-in-law and our waiter.

 

Grauation

I have two nephews that graduated from high school this year.  Rene and Rey Anthony both graduated from Stevens High School.  These two boys are very bright, respectful, and outgoing.  No, they are not brothers but the sons of my older brothers who are twins.  Rene is attending St. Mary's University (my graduate Alma mater) on a baseball scholarship.  Rey Anthony is attending Our Lady of the Lake University on an academic scholarship.  Rey Anthony would like to pursue psychology and Rene would like to pursue a professional career in baseball. 

Here are some pictures from graduation and the party afterwards. 

Rene

Rene and Grandpa (my dad)

The proud grandpa with the two graduates

Rey Anthony

Rey Anthony and his brother Marcus

Rey Anthony and Amber (my niece, their cousin)

My sister-in-law Betty, Rey Anthony, my brother Rey, and my nephew Marcus

My great-nephew Xander watching the "photo session."

When we walked out from graduation it had been raining and there was a beautiful rainbow stretched out over the Alamodome.

At the after party.

Rene's cousin (my sister-in-law's niece) also graduated the same night from the same school so it was one big party!

Random Pictures from June

This post is going to be very random.  I captured a few moments on camera that I wanted to remember but nothing too big.

Ethan and Shawn LOVE to take all of the pillows off of the couch, put them in the middle of the floor and jump off the couch onto the pillows.  Shawn usually yells, "To infibity (infinity) and beyond!" when he jumps and then gets up and says, "Now, that's falling with skyle (style)!"  The first time I heard him say that I about rolled on the floor laughing! 

Caught in the act!  Another thing Shawn and Ethan like to do lately is dump all of the bins from the nicely organized toy box onto the floor.  This usually occurs while I'm cooking dinner or folding laundry.  This time they were caught red handed.  Notice the couch cushions on the floor too!  These boys are sneaky, they can usually manage to make that big of a mess without a peep so it's truly a surprise when you walk into the room.

I caught a few moments of Shawn and Jacin just hanging out watching some TV and playing. I Love those candid moments memories are made of. 

Sea World

We got Sea World passes for Christmas and they are fantastic.  It's so nice to be able to go just for a few hours and not feel pressured to see every show and do everything all in one day.  It's also a great way to sneak in some exercise.  On this particular trip, we only saw two shows but walked the entire park several times looking for the alligators.  Shawn is fascinated with alligators right now and we couldn't find their exhibit.  We must have walked the park five times before we finally found them. 

We also saw the water skiing show for the first time and Shawn loved it.  He likes to go on boat rides with my aunt when we go down to the coast so I knew he would really enjoy the show.

We also found the playground which I don't remember them having before, or at least we never found it.  We spent lots of time on the playground.

We saw the penguins.

We saw sharks.

But mostly we just walked around a lot watching people and talking.

This was my poor attempt at getting Shawn to sit still for a nice picture on the rocks with the flowers.

All in all, it was a nice leisurely day at Sea World and I look forward to many more.