Malia's 7th Birthday Party Slide Show

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Donate Life!! - please read this

This past Saturday, I had the wonderful privilege to go to the Donor Network of Arizona Family Gathering as a guest of a donor family.

First, I'll explain how I was able to go as a guest of a donor family. Five years ago, this past July, we had a good friend named Nick. He was 21 years old. He lived upstairs from us at the apartment we used to live in. He and James were very close. It was pretty much constant that either Nick was at our house or James was at their house. Early in the morning on July 10, Nick had a really bad asthma attack and despite attempting to use his inhaler and SVN machine he passed away before the paramedics got there. They were unable to revive him.

Nick was from Oregon and was here going to school. His Mom came here and we met for the first time after he passed away. In the past five years, we have come to know each other really well and have become family.

This is the second time we have gone with her to the Family Gathering. It is such a beautiful, amazing, emotional event!! The people who are there running the event(employees and volunteers from Donor Network and also Recipients) are so loving, compassionate, respectful and giving. They presented each person there with a book called "Remembering Everyday Heroes" with all of the Donors with their picture and a little about each person. They fed us amazing food all day long, from the moment we arrived and all throughout the day.

The most emotional part of the event was hearing the stories. About 15 families presented their story about their loved one who passed away or who was a recipient. Their ages were completely varied from a 2-day old infant, children, teenagers and adults both young and old. Their stories were griping about how their loved one died and they made the decision to give life to someone else. They told what items were donated and some told the ages and situations of how an organ or other item had saved or improved a person's life. Among the families presenting about their loss, there were families who were recipients of the gift of life. There were a few children who were so cute and said that now they're "healthy and happy" because of a lung (or heart or liver, etc.) transplant. It was so precious and so awesome. I really loved to hear the story of a young man, who was 19 years old who donated his organs after a deadly car accident. With his family was a gentleman (and his wife) who spoke after the mother and said that the day after the family lost their son, he gained his life. He was given this young man's liver (I think - it may have been lungs). It was so amazing and wonderful to see both families together.

I really hope that all of you have registered to be donors. Our bodies will just rot in the ground. God doesn't need our body parts. He will make us perfect. Like all of the families I met, you never know when death will come. Please talk to your family members to find out their wishes, if they were to pass away suddenly. I know that this is not a topic that is fun to think about or to discuss. But, it is so important. We won't need our body parts after we die, and many, many people are waiting for the most amazing gift you could ever give. Please don't put this off. You never know when God will call us home. Please go here to register to be a donor. http://www.azdonorregistry.org/ You can give the greatest earthly gift that can be given.

The State Fair

We've been really busy lately. A few days ago we went to the State Fair. Every year, I say that I want to go, then never end up going. This year we went and had so much fun! Funny enough, the best thing about it was the petting zoo and the other animals. The kids were so impressed with the size of some of the cows. It was really cool to see how huge they are. The petting zoo was amazing!! They had a giraffe, zebra, ostrich, and lots and lots of other animals that you normally don't get a chance to see up close and pet. It was awesome. I only got one pic of the kids with the animals. You can see the zebra in back of them. It was hard to get the right angle.

The photo-op cut out was fun. The first one is Loegan, then Malia. Aren't they cute farmers?

We had a really fun time. We rode a few rides and had a snack and saw lots and lots of exhibits. It was so much fun. We got really tired, but had a lot of fun!!

The last two pics are of Loegan roping a "cow" and Malia riding a "bucking bronco." They loved this area that was all about farming. It was fun and educational too.

Yet, still another fun do.

This is what we did for Malia's hair for last Saturday for a wedding. The nice thing about hair styles like this is they last a long time and keep her hair out of her face.

Even Big Kids Say Cute Things, part II

So, we were at the doctor's office today getting follow-ups from our crazy medical-problem prone week and the doctor was examining James. She put the light thing in one of his ears and asked Malia if she could see the light on the other side. She said, "Hmmm, a little." We all laughed really hard. They get bigger, but, still constantly say and do funny things. Free entertainment, huh?

A post about nothing in particular...

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while, so I thought I'd give you a little update on what's been going on with us the past few weeks. I've not been busy doing a whole lot physically, except being "sick." I got this funny infection bubble above one of my teeth that caused a nasty fibro-flare-up. Last week, James got some crazy allergic reaction in his eye that looked really nasty and required some shots and some meds. Then, he strained some muscles in his back really badly the other day at work. So, urgent care has been our best friend over the past few weeks. Thankfully, nothing has been too serious, just little speed bumps in our road. It's been really nice to be able to skip school 2 of the days when I was really sick and on other days, we were able to do school in the dentist waiting room, in the urgent care waiting room, in the car, etc. We were able to get finished every day, except those 2 days we took off. It's so nice to make our own holidays and be flexible when we need to be.

Also, I want to talk about my sister-in-laws. James has two sisters who live in Fresno. He grew up without knowing them until just a few years ago. We went to visit them a few years ago and they are so great!! I want to get to know them better. I really wish that we could get together with them more often! For now, emailing and blog-checking will have to do. We have a nephew and niece also. They are so cute!!

Last Sunday, we found out some really exciting news at our family meeting at church. It was announced that they would be planting two new churches in the next year. One will be in Peoria and one will be in Colorado Springs. We are so excited for this growth. It will be sad though because two of our pastors (and probably some other members) will be leaving us to plant those churches. Malia has a friend who she loves so much. She tells us all the time that she was her first friend at this church and that she is her best friend. Her dad is the pastor who will be leading the church plant in Peoria. Thankfully, they won't be moving too far away. This will help us to make sure we make it a point to get together for play dates. When I told Loegan and Malia, I tried to help them remember that we were created to bring God glory. Sometimes this means that we need to make sacrifices so that others can learn about Jesus and hear the gospel. They were both sad, but also saw how exciting this news is. It was really cool to see the timing of this announcement. Our pastors just finished preaching through Acts and we watched the gospel continue to go forth like wildfire even while Paul was imprisoned. He was punished for preaching, yet, he continued to preach, and people continued to listen and were saved. God is so amazing! His timing and His Power and His Love for us is so beautiful, yet, we are so undeserving.