Thursday, October 20, 2011

Speech and Brussel Sprouts

Thank you for all the amazing comments and tons of email you have sent me about yesterday's post. Clearly the majority of us struggle with worry.  I hope we can all work together on giving that worry over to God.  I like to have a mental picture of packing it all in a box and just putting it in His big hands.
I just feel a load lifted already!

 Thursdays are shaping up to be a busy day.  Harper has speech therapy at the University of AR on Thursday mornings so we drive 30 minutes both ways and spend an hour in speech.  Add in lunch and most of our day is gone.  But Harper is LOVING speech.  I can already see results and she is having such a good time.  It almost makes me want to go back to school and work with hearing impaired kids once the girls are in school.  (I'll add that to my list of careers I want to pursue one day like lunch lady (I'm serious) and church secretary). 
 Since we were in town - we met two of our friends for lunch at chick-fil-a.  Rebekah and Sydney are two of my favorite people.  I have so much in common with both of them. We all 3 have big girls about the same age and Sydney and I have baby girls a month apart.  So it's like we are living parallel lives. But even without kids I would love being with them.  It's just a HUGE boost to spend time with people in the exact same stage - to compare dramatic girls and sleepless nights.
 Hollis and Emerson look THRILLED to be hanging out - don't they?
 Harper and Stella had fun together. This picture makes me laugh because it's like Harper is being a clown and cracking Stella up. 
I was trying to take pictures of Harper outside but she would NOT look at me.  But she just looked so big in this picture!
I mentioned I am doing Weight Watchers.  I've lost 8 lbs so far (in about 2.5 weeks).  I found the best site - called skinnytaste.com.  It has great recipes for low points.  I'm making these great chicken roll ups tonight and I'm making sauteed brussel sprouts.  These are so good. I would never think to shred brussel sprouts. I LOVE roasted brussel sprouts but these are SO good too! And just 1 point for a ton.

AND I received this awesome testimony from Rachel Pennington about Compassion:
My name is Rachel and I have sponsored a child from Compassion for 3 years.  I actually started following your blog right after Harper was born. I saw something on your blog that led me to Compassion.  After I got on the site and began looking at the pictures of the children, I told myself that if there was a child named Grace or Gracie that I was going to become that child's sponsor.  Not even two pages later I found the child.  Her name is Gracia Hernandez.  The reason I chose to sponsor this child was because I wanted to do something in memory of my precious Gracie.  You see, my second child, was born on Jan.14,2008.  She was 9 weeks early.  She had to be delivered by emergency c-section because I had developed Help Syndrome.  Right before she was delivered my doctor was very reassuring and told us after several weeks in the NICU things should be okay.  Little did we know that our lives where about to change forever.  As soon as Gracie was born the doctors knew something wasn't right.  After some testing, they confirmed that she had a genetic disorder called Trisomy 13, which is fatal.  Our sweet Gracie lived for 13 days before entering heaven.  So, one of my prayers has been that our family could touch another child's life because of our precious Gracie's life.  I have to say I love receiving mail from this child and knowing that I am making a difference in this child's life as well as her family.