November 12, 2008
Blaze has just become Mr. Social lately! Until last month he had never visited anyone's house before and now he’s been to three, with a fourth to come tomorrow night!!! After visiting Grandma Becky & Grandpa Floyd last month, I took him to Chris & Martha Stanley's on election night. Both Tim & Melissa had to work that night and I didn't want to be home alone with Blaze watching the results roll in. Blaze always looks around in amazement at the different surroundings. It was the first time in quite some time he had gone out at night. He was still wide awake by the time I got him to Hollister, which surprised me. He had fun there and I was so glad for the company! It's nice to have friends you can pop in and visit when you need a break. Saturday some of Tim's friends from Bolivar stopped by to visit us on their way back from Christmas shopping in Branson. Chris & Kristen have a boy, Kale, who is about 2 and a half, but he stayed home with Grandpa & Grandma. Joel & Amber are expecting their first baby, a girl (whose due date is my birthday, March 1st) so they were all prepared so be slobbered on by the teething Blaze. I was excited for Kristen to see the nursery, she had found the border and pattern when we were expecting Blaze. It was fun to point out to Joel & Amber the things that were very helpful for us with our little one. It was nice to have them visit! Yesterday we went to visit Tim's grandparents in Springfield. Tim's Uncle Rick was visiting from Tennessee. Blaze stayed awake the trip to Springfield, took a nap while we were there, then slept most of the ride home. He was terrific for most of the time we were there. I was so glad he chose to be sweet and charming when visiting his great-grandparents. We had a nice time with them! It’s always nice to visit grandparents!!! Tomorrow we're going to visit Hiram & Sally Catlett. I'll have to let you know how that goes! We're looking forward to it!
After visiting Grandpa & Grandma Gilzow yesterday, Tim went into town with a friend, Blaze and I were settled in at home when I got a call from Melissa. She had been in an accident. Her car has now been declared "totaled." Please pray about this situation. She's sore and somewhat shaken up, but everyone was okay. Melissa is working at Books-a-Million in the evenings and weekends, which means Tim or I will be taking her back and forth to work in the coming days. Considering she gets off work at midnight, things will get interesting. I plan on taking Blaze with me when I go pick her up tonight, if he's still awake. Lately he's been waking up at 9 p.m. and refusing to sleep until several hours later. I'm hoping the car ride will knock him out so he'll be sleepy once we're home!!!
Before the accident, the "big" news in our house is--we got Dish! This is my first time in my entire life that I've had something other than an antennae or rabbit ears for t.v. signal. Tim & Melissa both love watching t.v. and we can't go out as much as we used to, so we have more time at home. The prices came down tremendously and Tim's birthday is coming up, so that's his birthday present from me this year. What we had before was okay, but this has made a huge difference in our viewing shows. The big thing that strikes me, besides the variety and choices--and not having to squint at the squiggly lines on the screen to figure out what is going on--is how OLD the t.v. anchors look when you can see them clearly. The weatherman I used to always watch must be SEVERAL years older than I thought he was! Who knew? Ha! AND Blaze has more shows that I feel better about him being exposed to. We couldn't even get Sesame Street before, now he can see Dora the Explorer! Melissa wasn't happy to watch Elmo's Birthday party on Sesame Street the other day, but Dora she can handle. HA! All in all, we're pretty happy about the change.
Everyone has been so kind to ask how Blaze is doing. We can't go many places without being stopped for an update. It's so wonderful to be among such a caring group of people. We're doing okay! Some days are harder than others, of course. Because of his condition, we are hyper-sensitive, I think, to changes in his condition. We really are careful where Blaze goes. We are still avoiding large crowds of people and small children. Before we go anywhere we call to make sure how people at the house are feeling, to see if we should bring Blaze. We're so grateful for everyone's understanding of our situation. I thought we might be overdoing it a tad, but all our healthcare providers are applauding how we're handling things. He does have a check up on the 19th, so I'll have more "stats" for you next week. I've also recently become aware that we have an outrageous amount of pictures of Blaze. I won't apologize or defend this situation, or change anything, we are silly about our child. Plus, with three adults at home, there's always someone within arm reach of the camera! At first we were taking pictures because we were afraid we wouldn't have him with us and also because our situation was unique and people were curious (hospital pictures.) Now we take them to celebrate Blaze and his funny personality. We also document his progress. He's doing so much better than we were expecting him to. We are just amazed by him. Someone asked me this past week if I print off all his pictures. No, we have them stored digitally (in several places), then we print off what I want for baby books, special pictures or surprise photos for grandparents. There are a couple of photos that are currently my "favorites", those will definitely make it to paper! Twice in this past week, we have shown off Blaze's scar from his incision. We know people are curious. We're not offended when people want to see how he's healing and he's too little to care right now. We'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Sleep--or the lack of--is what we're currently struggling with, please pray for peace for Blaze as he sleeps at night. We're so grateful for your encouragement and support. We've been so blessed through your faithful prayers.
Speaking of prayers, I think another by-product of having a child with a unique health situation makes you extra sensitive to other children and parents in your shoes. My heart just aches for these little ones and their families: Please continue to pray for Jake. He is a little over a year old now, but he was born with the same heart condition as Blaze. He ran into more complications than we had and he had a heart transplant a few weeks after we came home from Children's Hospital. We recently found out that he suffered some nerve damage in his hand, from not having the correct blood flow. There are some repercussions from that and he will deal with those repercussions the rest of his life. We’re saddened at how his life will be affected, but we celebrate the fact Jake is a fighter and he's alive today! Please continue to pray for him and his family. I also look at Skyler Sander's website, http://www.skylersanders.com/ almost daily. Skyler has a brain tumor which is inoperable. We're praying his tumor goes away and never returns. Skyler returns to St. Jude's next week for a check up and MRI. Skyler's family attends the same church as we do, and through him we learned of a little girl they met at St. Jude's named Sydney. Just last month her mom was getting "quality of life" counseling. It didn't look like they were going to get their miracle--then she had a MRI last week that showed the tumor had shrunk! WOW! Way to go GOD! What a blessing! Also, please pray for Kamryn and her family. Kamryn is a beautiful little girl at our church who has hearing difficulties. Thankfully she doesn't have a condition that is life threatening, but this is still a huge challenge, and it's an adjustment to all in her family, too. This time of year, I'm guessing, must be more difficult. People tend to look at Christmases past and compare with how things were before and it's typical to think about things that occurred in the previous year, and this was a challenging year for all these families. Please pray for continual peace and encouragement for these kids and their families…Blaze included.
Thank you! We know "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And we're clinging to that as we look ahead for Blaze and for these other precious young ones.
Love,
Joy
After visiting Grandpa & Grandma Gilzow yesterday, Tim went into town with a friend, Blaze and I were settled in at home when I got a call from Melissa. She had been in an accident. Her car has now been declared "totaled." Please pray about this situation. She's sore and somewhat shaken up, but everyone was okay. Melissa is working at Books-a-Million in the evenings and weekends, which means Tim or I will be taking her back and forth to work in the coming days. Considering she gets off work at midnight, things will get interesting. I plan on taking Blaze with me when I go pick her up tonight, if he's still awake. Lately he's been waking up at 9 p.m. and refusing to sleep until several hours later. I'm hoping the car ride will knock him out so he'll be sleepy once we're home!!!
Before the accident, the "big" news in our house is--we got Dish! This is my first time in my entire life that I've had something other than an antennae or rabbit ears for t.v. signal. Tim & Melissa both love watching t.v. and we can't go out as much as we used to, so we have more time at home. The prices came down tremendously and Tim's birthday is coming up, so that's his birthday present from me this year. What we had before was okay, but this has made a huge difference in our viewing shows. The big thing that strikes me, besides the variety and choices--and not having to squint at the squiggly lines on the screen to figure out what is going on--is how OLD the t.v. anchors look when you can see them clearly. The weatherman I used to always watch must be SEVERAL years older than I thought he was! Who knew? Ha! AND Blaze has more shows that I feel better about him being exposed to. We couldn't even get Sesame Street before, now he can see Dora the Explorer! Melissa wasn't happy to watch Elmo's Birthday party on Sesame Street the other day, but Dora she can handle. HA! All in all, we're pretty happy about the change.
Everyone has been so kind to ask how Blaze is doing. We can't go many places without being stopped for an update. It's so wonderful to be among such a caring group of people. We're doing okay! Some days are harder than others, of course. Because of his condition, we are hyper-sensitive, I think, to changes in his condition. We really are careful where Blaze goes. We are still avoiding large crowds of people and small children. Before we go anywhere we call to make sure how people at the house are feeling, to see if we should bring Blaze. We're so grateful for everyone's understanding of our situation. I thought we might be overdoing it a tad, but all our healthcare providers are applauding how we're handling things. He does have a check up on the 19th, so I'll have more "stats" for you next week. I've also recently become aware that we have an outrageous amount of pictures of Blaze. I won't apologize or defend this situation, or change anything, we are silly about our child. Plus, with three adults at home, there's always someone within arm reach of the camera! At first we were taking pictures because we were afraid we wouldn't have him with us and also because our situation was unique and people were curious (hospital pictures.) Now we take them to celebrate Blaze and his funny personality. We also document his progress. He's doing so much better than we were expecting him to. We are just amazed by him. Someone asked me this past week if I print off all his pictures. No, we have them stored digitally (in several places), then we print off what I want for baby books, special pictures or surprise photos for grandparents. There are a couple of photos that are currently my "favorites", those will definitely make it to paper! Twice in this past week, we have shown off Blaze's scar from his incision. We know people are curious. We're not offended when people want to see how he's healing and he's too little to care right now. We'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Sleep--or the lack of--is what we're currently struggling with, please pray for peace for Blaze as he sleeps at night. We're so grateful for your encouragement and support. We've been so blessed through your faithful prayers.
Speaking of prayers, I think another by-product of having a child with a unique health situation makes you extra sensitive to other children and parents in your shoes. My heart just aches for these little ones and their families: Please continue to pray for Jake. He is a little over a year old now, but he was born with the same heart condition as Blaze. He ran into more complications than we had and he had a heart transplant a few weeks after we came home from Children's Hospital. We recently found out that he suffered some nerve damage in his hand, from not having the correct blood flow. There are some repercussions from that and he will deal with those repercussions the rest of his life. We’re saddened at how his life will be affected, but we celebrate the fact Jake is a fighter and he's alive today! Please continue to pray for him and his family. I also look at Skyler Sander's website, http://www.skylersanders.com/ almost daily. Skyler has a brain tumor which is inoperable. We're praying his tumor goes away and never returns. Skyler returns to St. Jude's next week for a check up and MRI. Skyler's family attends the same church as we do, and through him we learned of a little girl they met at St. Jude's named Sydney. Just last month her mom was getting "quality of life" counseling. It didn't look like they were going to get their miracle--then she had a MRI last week that showed the tumor had shrunk! WOW! Way to go GOD! What a blessing! Also, please pray for Kamryn and her family. Kamryn is a beautiful little girl at our church who has hearing difficulties. Thankfully she doesn't have a condition that is life threatening, but this is still a huge challenge, and it's an adjustment to all in her family, too. This time of year, I'm guessing, must be more difficult. People tend to look at Christmases past and compare with how things were before and it's typical to think about things that occurred in the previous year, and this was a challenging year for all these families. Please pray for continual peace and encouragement for these kids and their families…Blaze included.
Thank you! We know "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And we're clinging to that as we look ahead for Blaze and for these other precious young ones.
Love,
Joy
posted by Blaze @ 2:24 PM
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