Last weekend was the time for that uniquely suburban invention: The Daddy Daughter Dance. I like to say it’s basically an hour and half of cardio in a suit.
We set up the mini studio in the house again this year and got a some fun pictures. Here’s a few of my favorites:
Even Grady got gussied up for the occasion:
You can see them all here on Flickr… and last year’s are here. I can’t believe how much Abbey has grown.
We went to reach Grady to ride a bike and it turns out he didn’t need any help. He just figured it out himself the first time.
(link to video in case you can’t see it)
Wow he’s growing up fast. Sure do love that boy.
Today was Grady’s last day of Kindergarten! We started by taking pictures, like we did for his first day — then we went a little crazy after school. We might have put a pool in the back of the truck and decorated it when we picked him up.
Before School:
After school, Daddy Got in the back while Mommy drove:
Holly and headed off to Hawaii last week. It was a combination Happy-9-Year-Anniversary and Happy-Being-Done-with-All-Things-Cancer Vacation.
What a gift it was! We mostly just camped on different beaches, talked, and read. I didn’t take many photos, but here’s a few:
(If you can’t see the slideshow above, click here)
We got more than 10 inches of snow yesterday — breaking every Dallas record for snowfall.
Holly is doing great — much better than expected. After getting to bed early she got up at 5:00 am to make her mom scones for her birthday. So, her pain is obviously well controlled, and she’s in great spirits.
Here’s some fun pictures and video from today:
If you can’t see the slideshow, here’s the direct link.
5:30 will come early tomorrow morning. That’s what time we are scheduled to be back at the hospital for the final surgical step in the cancer recovery process.
This final surgery has been hard to decide to go forward with. It’s hard to decide to inflect Holly’s body with more scars when the last ones are just now healing. It’s hard to choose to have a surgery that’s not technically necessary, that just finishes the reconstructive process.
That said — we have peace this is what God has for us. I would have thought this surgery would have been easier, that this would be routine by now.
The truth is it’s never easy to step into pain. We are hard-wired to avoid it, and yet Jesus says things like,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Mt 5:3-5)
I keep looking for the verse that says, “Blessed are those that push through,” or “Blessed are those that pretend it doesn’t hurt,” but I can’t find it. Somehow it is blessed to have our spirits be poor, to mourn and be meek.
These last months we’ve been learning that these places of blessing are not things that happen to us, they are things we choose. We have to choose to step into — feel — the pain of life and let it crush us a little bit.
It’s in that crushed place where Jesus meets us in new and fresh ways. It’s there He blesses us with healing from pain, current and old pains all the same.
God has been so very good to us in the pain of cancer and recovery. He has faithfully met us, healed us, and blessed us. Please pray we will continue to let the pain break us to continue in the blessing.
We had a whirlwind of a holiday season in 2009. I’m just getting around to posting photos. Enjoy!
See the photos here if you can’t view them above.
Sometimes I feel like life is continual struggle to find balance — all in the midst of the gusts of wind life seems to throw us. 2009 definately brought plenty of gusts our way and we are still trying to find the new normal — what is the right new balance in life?
I watched this TED video recently and was struck at the simple wisdom it contained about finding balance in life. It’s a (very entertaining) lecture based on a long study called the Blue Zones of certain groups of people who live to be 100 statistically much more often than average.
They isolated 9 factors that seem to make this possible (genetics seems to play a small part). I encourage you take 20 minutes to watch it and see if you don’t find some part of your life that could be more in balance. Ted Video
A few challenging questions for me:
There’s also a book I plan to read.
Halloween is one of the rare occasions where I take pictures of the kids at the same time every year. As I was looking back at pictures from 2005, 2006, and 2008, I was definitely having one of those, oh-my-gosh-they-grow-up-fast moments.
Grady was the Hulk, Abbey was a Princess, and joining the crew (as always) was my nephew Austin the Spooky Ghost, and newest Nephew Hunter as a very cute bear. Enjoy:
(Can’t see the slideshow? Watch it here, or see the individual photos here.)
Don’t you hate it when people ask you to pray for them and then they never update you on what’s going on? Me too!
I hope we haven’t been those people too bad, but frankly most times someone asks me, “How’s Holly doing?” I have no idea how to answer.
Well she’s making some significant progress worth sharing, so I would take the almost-four-week-anniversary-of-her-surgery to update you…
Progress:
Still issues:
We’re about to send Holly’s mom home for the first time since the surgery, so we will have a good idea of how well she really is doing pretty quickly. She has been a tremendous blessing, and I seriously don’t know what we would have done without help from her and my mom.
So, there’s a quick update for you! Thanks for all the prayers!
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