Prayers are welcomed and needed!!!

Well, Erlanger called this morning to inform me that Kevin's surgery would be moved up to 11:15am. So, we have to be down there around 9:45am. I think it is sinking in more and more. I could barely sleep last night. My stomach has been so upset trying to deal with all this. I think Ken and I are handling this worse than Kevin. We have explained a little to him and he says he's fine with it. He is so grown up.....maybe too grown up. The poor little kid hasn't had a "normal" childhood by any means. But, it's normal to him, so that's all that matters. I am just praying that everything will go as planned tomorrow and he will be fine, bounce back and never remember any of this. Prayers are welcomed and needed. Thank you to all who have kept us in your thoughts and also sent words of encouragement.


On a brighter note, Ken and I were up till almost midnight covering all the plants and I think we have won the fight over the frost last night. Hopefully this will be the last frost till Spring. I have so many vegetables coming up and my apple trees are in bloom. Try covering a 10 ft tall apple tree with garbage bags!!! Our neighbors probably thought we were some strange prowlers last night. But the blooms still look great and hopefully won't fall off. All our neighbors say that we need to set Kevin up a vegetable stand in the drive way this summer. He actually wants to do that. So much for lemonade stands....


The palms did great also. I am afraid that one of my Windmills may have died over the winter, so we will have to wait and see. I would hate to imagine how much it would cost to replace it with a similarly sized one. I moved the rest of the plants into the greenhouse and they look very happy. Looks like we should have plenty of lemons and limes this year....I hope. Kevin wants to try growing soy beans so that we can make his soy milk and various other products here. I don't think we are going to try that. It's much easier to run to WalMart and buy that stuff.


Well, that's all for today. Of course, I will post Kevin's results as soon as I get the chance tomorrow. Hopefully there will not be much to report. And again, thanks for the prayers, we still need them.

Welcome to my first blog!!! Over the past months, so much has happened in my life and my family's life that I have decided to put it all down for family and friends. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this daily, but I am praying that there will not be enough drama to report...only good things.

Today, I want to express my concerns over our son Kevin and his upcoming surgery Thursday April 9th. This will also be my aunt Gayle's 60th birthday, so this will be a day to celebrate and a day to worry. Hopefully the worry will not last too long and we can celebrate both events.

For those that do not know, our son Kevin is a wild 5 year old boy that has over come many challenges in his life. He was born 10 weeks early and survived 35 days in the NICU. He has bounced back from 3 surgeries and survived 2 anaphylactic reactions to food allergies. His food allergies have grown to milk (the worst), eggs, peanuts, treenuts, and coconuts. He has a ton of environmental allergies....too many to mention. But this has yet to stop this child. He loves life and is always happy. He is a blessing in more ways than one, and continues to show us that his many limitations will never stop him, just push him to jump over them. He has taught us more about patience, life and love than I could ever imagine.

Now, we are facing new wonderful challenges, all of which Kevin is helping his parents through. The first is our adventure into home schooling. Due to his increased food allergies, the thought of taking him to school to just bite my nails all day in hopes that he would not lose his battle to food allergies was too much for us. Of course, home schooling was a new chapter for us all. I was so scared into thinking how I was going to be responsible for teaching my child...it was very nerve racking. But, as this year has progressed, we are having more fun and I am amazed at how easy a child can learn, or how much they want to learn. Instead of dreading school work, we both look forward to spending time together and seeing the light come on when he gets something. That is the best feeling in the world!!

The second adventure has been with our garden. I was recently able to buy a small greenhouse for the back yard. Kevin and I have had a blast this past winter growing seeds. I have been growing vegetables and citrus, while Kevin has been focusing on flowers. He has grown Sunflowers, Marigolds, Zinnias, Daisies and Poppies. Now if the weather would just stay warm!!!

The third adventure is going to be little league baseball. Kevin has decided that he will play baseball this year. He will be playing in Collegedale, TN for the Baltimore Orioles. He is so excited. We will be going next week to pick out his pants, cleats and helmet...all of which I will report on. Ken has been working with him and he is getting really good. At his first game, I think we will need to reserve a whole section of the stands. From neighbors, to family, to friends, they all want to be there. It will be a great day!!


Some bad news....a few weeks ago our beloved cat Kitty of almost 13 years passed away. We are still mourning the loss. Many friends have tried to encourage us with new cats....but we are just not ready. At this time, I don't think that another cat could fill Kitty's paws. He was a wonderful part of our family and will be greatly missed.


So, for now, you are pretty much up to date. Until tomorrow........