Our Wild, Wild Ride!!!

            Well...if I chose one word to describe life right now, it sure would not be 'boring'! Right now I am hanging out drinking a diet coke because little Miss Georgia and I have a late night party date to prep her for her EEG. It turns out that she is having a 'sleep deprivation EEG' meaning that she needs to stay up until 11pm and I get to wake her up between 3-4am! An EEG is a 2 hour long test where she will have around 30 electrodes glued to he head to measure brainwaves. They say they can get better reads on a brain that is sleepy, I wish they could test mine instead! Can you say fun???? All at home with all three kids and just little old me :) I can feel the gray hairs popping out by the second!
             Add to that my sweet, sweet Parker who instead of having pneumonia actually had a massive asthma attack on Saturday. So he is on prednisone and albuterol. We hve not experienced these lovely meds in a child before. Turns out albuterol can cause hyperactivity and prednisone makes kids prone to massive mood swings! Parker has been spending his days literally running up and down, up and down and up and down the hallway while giggling at the top of his little voice and bouncing his body off the walls. Then, at some point, someone looks at him wrong and he melts into a wailing puddle and nothing can console him...until he is up air karate-chopping his sisters, the Christmas tree, his Mama! Hit repeat and you have the flavor of my days :)
       Add to that...on Tuesday I brought Ravenna to Parker's follow up appointment because she had been coughing at night (and has coughed while running ever since she was small), do you see where this is going? She too was diagnosed with asthma :) Yep. 2 kids with asthma, 2 inhalers, 2 very hyped up children. Ravenna does not typically air karate chop though, she likes to get her energy out by grabbing hold of my leg and wailing like a pretend baby :) Thank God this is just a 2 week albuterol trial!
     So...the real reason for this post is to share this gem.
     Yesterday Parker, Georgia and I picked Ravenna up from school. Georgia had decided not to sleep during naptime which means she is cute as a bug but at at a massively high volume. Both big kids were wheezy so I gave them their 'invisible medicine' (cue karate man and pretend baby). We needed to do their Operation Christmas Child boxes so we headed to the store. The next hour was spent laboring over what to pick for which child...all at hyper speed. It went something like this, "Mama look! Look here! Here! this one? No this!" on Chipmunk speed punctuated with Georgia wailing because she did not understand why the toys were not for her! We finally got all of the goodies picked out and realized that this store did not have the plastic shoeboxes....so we tumbled into the car to hit Walmart just for plastic shoeboxes.
    As we enter Walmart Parker hits one of his emotional phases and from the back of the cart begins wailing for some unknown reason. Georgia decides that she is just done and starts throwing off her shoes, socks, my purse, really anything that she can get her hands on. Ravenna in a fit of extra albuterol enhance energy darts into one of the clothes hangy thingys and hides...and right about then I hear a man's voice say, "Hey! get control of your children!" and look up to see our Senior Pastor standing there.
      Thankfully, he was grinning and gave me a big hug and reminded me how much he loves our family. I gave him the brief version of the story of what all is going on and then noticed Ravenna re-arranging the lipsticks in the beauty aisle! I'm not sure if I even said goodbye!
      Truthfully, life is crazy but God's grace has been huge. Somehow most of the stuff going on is just making me laugh (a serious miracle). But also, I feel like God is starting to speak to me about some pieces of what this is all about. He keeps whispering to me that He is strengthening our eye muscles...teaching us again and again and again to fix our eyes on Him and not on the waves around us. When Peter stepped out to walk on the water he rose above the waves when he kept his eyes on Jesus but when he moved his gaze to the waves, he began to sink. I am learning how strong my power of choice is, look into the fear and worries or look to the One who promises that He knows and will carry me through. It is not perfect and many time I am up to my chin in the waves and crying out but every time He again reminds me of where to keep my eyes, where to pour out my fears. It does not mean that the storm is not raging or that the worries are not real but the promise is that when I look to Him I can take the next step.
     Tomorrow will be yet another adventure into  a part of the medical world I have never seen. My faith is so little and many times I feel so filled with worry, but Miss Georgia Mei and I do not go alone. The very author of the waves goes with us.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

Matthew 14:30-31