Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Homeschool- How does being a Christian affect us?

This is going to be a long post, with lots of pictures because I'm REALLY excited about this experiment I did with my guys. You know those few moments you get as a homeschool mother where you think "this was cool, I did this right". This was one of them for me. :)
Last week we were in Ch 11 of our Answers in Genesis Bible Curriculum and the lesson was on old earth/new earth and the job Christ left for us until he returns. This they titled "The Great Commission".
Matthew 28: 18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, h“All authority iin heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 jGo therefore and kmake disciples of lall nations, jbaptizing them mint he name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them oto observe all that pI have commanded you. And behold, qI am with you always, to rthe end of the age.”

 So he's told us to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you". Let me make a few things clear that get confused in "christianity" today. 1-he DID NOT say YOU have all authority and power. I hear so often from the Word of Faith types that "we have been given the power and authority" and that is simply NOT TRUE. HE has the power and Authority from God. So in HIS authority HE tells us to go and make disciples, to spread the gospel. The other dangerous thing is that many whom are spreading the word is NOT Christ's word. It's what the world wants to hear and thus fake christianity. So be careful what you choose to spread is straight from the bible.

Therefore, we connected his Command with what makes a Christian, because without the foundation of HOW we are to be as Christians it's impossible to spread the gospel. And I used a science experiment to be a visual that they will hopefully remember in the future when discerning themselves AND those they listen to on the Word of God. For the experiment and the connecting lesson we used AIG Science & the Bible curriculum.

2 Cor. 5:17
Therefore, is anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

I explained to the boys that once Christ begins a work in us he HAS PROMISED to finish it and that once we are HIS we are changed. Some times this change comes slowly, others very quickly as if he's picked us up by the collar, shaken (not stirred) us, and put us back down. My husband was one of those lucky ones, I am the more stubborn type to see the slow work in me and changes being made. NEW! I asked of them "if someone claims to be a Christian but is seen at the bars drinking and partying while their children stay at home, does this actually mean they are a Christian?" The answer is "no, most likely not". This doesn't mean we don't fail and have times of despair where we make bad choices like this. It just means that by and large they will begin making BIG changes in their lives and will choose (this is the only place our choice comes into play by the way) not to follow their friends to the bar. It means we look and act different even if by only a few actions at first but over a period of time the difference is HUGE (sometimes HE chooses to spend time teaching us lessons). 
If you do not see a difference in their daily actions and choices, chances are...they are not God's children...or at least not yet. Hey, don't hate the messenger, I'm ONLY stating what the bible says. This is truth whether you like it or not. 

Back to the experiment: 
We took a mason jar, filled it halfway with dirt, then put as much beans as we could. I then shook it up till the beans were all mixed with the dirt. Then I filled it with Water and shut the lid. 
The jar is the world. 
The beans are us. 
The water is Christ. He promised to be our water of life. 
And I illustrated. 
When Christ fills us with his life giving water we are no longer the same. WE MUST GROW in him. We have no choice but to begin growing, albeit slowly at times. We can no longer be conformed by the world or stay within what the world says we must do or be. We have to change, to be a new creation. 

By the next day this is what we found. 


 The beans had grown so much they actually popped the lid off the glass and then when I put the lid back on top (because it wouldn't screw in any longer) they actually broke the glass to get out!

 When God takes you for His. You are new. You are to be new, to make new choices, to begin a new life. Sometimes it's hard, stressful, and painful but it is what we are commanded. But we make those new choices for a new life because Christ, well, he is worth it.



Friday, January 18, 2013

My most favorite high school memory

I've been all serious lately on the blog, and although they are things needed to be said, I think we'll lighten it up a bit.
I want to tell you my very favorite highschool memory.
Highschool wasn't a great time for me.
I was looking in the wrong places for love and acceptance, I overworked myself, didn't enjoy life like I should have, the verbal abuse from my mother became physical abuse and I moved to live with my father and left behind all my friends/boyfriend only to be all too prompt at finding other semi-not real friends and a boyfriend. Most of all I was confused, sad and running.
But, throughout everything in my life and today I have a mean streak, a very ornery part of me that laughs when I shouldn't, stands up and fights when I should have more grace, and sort of...well...enjoys torturing people.
The high school I graduated from is well known for it's football. Ever heard of Friday Night Lights? Yeah. That's it. I was actually at that big game that made the movie so great.
So, it's an understatement when I say the football players there are well known, HUGE guys, kings of the school.
Twice a year we had "hat day" where we all wore hats and the winner of the hat contest won...yep....football game tickets. At the same time I had an Iguana that was about a foot and a half long. I decided on hat day to wear my iguana across the bill of my hat and there she sat, all day long. I think I must have a picture somewhere but who knows where that might be so I'll leave it to your imagination. Towards the end of the day this well known, mean, football coach grabbed me out of class and told me to come with him. Ummm ok?! They could do that you know, interrupt class for whatever reason because they were the coaches, and kings of the kings. lol
Down the hallway I see several HUGE football players standing around talking (yup, during class the kings do what they want too) and the coach tells me "see that big black guy over there"? Me- "Yes". He then precedes to tell me to walk up to him and show him my iguana. aha. I get it. I'm too mean not too grasp this concept and I looked forward to this almost immediately.

So I took my Iguana off my hat, walked up behind this 6'5, 350 lb dude and held that little lizard up to his face and said "Hi, I wanna show you something".
And the chase ensued!
That big ole guy screamed a high pitch shrill girl scream complete with JAZZ HANDS and took off running. I chased him down the hallway till I couldn't run anymore I was laughing so hard.
Needless to say I won hat day that day...and a lil more respect from the kings of the school.

Also, I then inherited an immediate open path in the hallway anytime I happened to walk by this big guy for the rest of the year as he'd shrink into the lockers while I walked by.
Ahh good times good times.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Miracle of Life- My First Miracle

I have lost 5 babies. 1 Ectopic, 3 miscarriages, 1 died in utero and my body did not miscarry naturally so I had to have a DNC.
They came in this order (this is important, I'll explain why) Ectopic, DNC, 3 miscarriages in a row.
Upon the third miscarriage within a year the doctor I went too was monitoring my blood HCG levels. Your HCG levels go up when you are pregnant because your baby needs this to survive. With each test my levels were going down, unusually slowly for some reason.
Well, this Dr decided he wanted things to be finalized rather than slowly as they go and wanted me to have a DNC again. For some reason I felt very strongly that my body was handling this naturally and that all would be ok. When I told him this he got angry. He said that he could declare me medically incompetent and have the police take me into the operating room against my will. He left us in the office to "choose" which route to take, willingly or against so. We left. I was so very angry. What nerve and what a horrible Dr!
We ended up moving about a month after that. We felt God calling us back to where I grew up and followed the call. It was a first for us in our marriage and we saw God working in our lives to bring us to him (not until later but he was definitely blessing us).
1.5 months after that horrible Dr appointment I found out I was pregnant. I was 4 weeks along (do the math in your pretty lil head...that means I got pregnant 2 weeks after the appt).

Quick insert- My body is deficient and does not produce HCG, Folic Acid, or Boitin as it is needed to sustain pregnancy. We found this out with my second miracle. This is the reason for my losses, or one of them. Having said that, let me make this clear. HAD we chosen to follow crazy Drs opinion my HCG level would have been 0. HAD we chosen his path my body would have never had enough HCG, Folate, or biotin to sustain him until I could get into the Dr.
God also provided in that I was considered high risk and the new Dr I found in my new town got me in immediately. My blood levels were all so very dangerously low and I risked losing him so they gave me immediate shots to raise levels and put me on supplements to make up for what my body did not produce.

Back to my point...
During my 8 week appointment they did a heartbeat monitor. They could not find the heartbeat.
My own heart stopped and I did everything I could to hold it together. It just so happened my husband was with me (I had just told him the week before). We said no words, but our eyes met and we saw the pain and knew what each were thinking. We just held hands and I tried so hard to hold it together, thankfully I did. Ok, maybe one little tear slipped by but it was quickly wiped away as the nurse brought in a sonogram machine. It was the "special" sonogram meant to see early pregnancies. She began looking, screen turned as they always do.
Holding my breath and then she giggled. What?! Why in the world would she....she turns the screen and says "you MUST look at this".
The screen turned and all of a sudden we see our baby. Not as we expected either. There he was. Just a lil alien looking thing, you could make out his body, and his arms and legs were but nubs still. The most striking thing?
HE. WAS. DANCING. 

It was full frontal shot, his heartbeat bright as the sun, arm nubs and leg nubs raised out as if he was doing jumping jacks, and he bounced from one end of the sac to the other, wiggling and bouncing in this joyous dance. 
We burst into laughter and fell in love immediately. Our child. He danced. And he was 8 weeks old. 

Fetus? No. He was absolutely a baby although he had yet to form arms and legs (or if they were they weren't yet visible to us) and he exercised already, doing his job developing into an amazing human being...as we all do. 
This was Charlie Brown. He is 9 TODAY. He's an amazing child. Always was. 



Monday, January 14, 2013

Miracle of Life-what made me active anti-abortion

I have had several encounters with the value of life. I am extremely pro life. There are many reasons for this. I'm going to first explain when my heart was struck so with these beliefs and then why I've lived a life to cancel out all excuses made by women in early pregnancy. This will happen in three different blogs titled "Miracle of Life".

First, my first exposure and beginning.

When I was young, and I mean very young my father brought in some pamphlets to me showing me horrid real life images of babies aborted. Those images will never leave my mind unfortunately but it made me very decided...and my mind has never swayed since.
Then he gave me a small set of feet on necklace to wear. And I did and I shared with everyone I knew and showed them my baby feet.
The feet were the size of an actual 10 week old baby in utero (on the necklace, not the blog). 

Now. I don't know if I agree in showing a young child such awful images. At best they were truthful, but I DO know that they are what has made me very passionate about the subject and I'm thankful I have my mind made up that is backed up biblically.
I can't imagine showing those pictures like some organizations do on a daily basis. I don't feel it necessary to make an impact. I choose a different route. Just knowledge. Bible verse, and scientific fact backing bible verse.
Also my experiences. And that is what I'll share with you. Or share on my blog which is really more of my personal diary to leave behind for my children to hopefully read one day (should the world not fall before then).

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Charlie Update- Strabismic Amblyopia

Today was Charlie's last Visual Therapy appointment.
We've been going to the top rated place in Oklahoma for intense visual therapy for, what?-6 months now!
Twice a week we've traveled over 4 different highways (one way) and spent 2.5 hours a day to meet our appointments along with doing therapy at home every day (ok, we got bad at that I admit).

It was alot of time. It was ALOT of money. I wish I could say we see ALOT OF CHANGE. But we don't, and it's hard to let that not be discouraging I have to be honest.

Still. The Dr says "SUCCESS", and "This is a long haul process because we hope his eyesight can now continue to improve as he gets older but for what we intended to do, we did it".
From what they say his right eye is completely connected now and no longer disconnected (strabismus) but just this morning I saw it disconnect. And his eyesight HAS improved. In his right eye it has gone from 20/50 to 20/25 or 20/30 depending on how tired he is. The Dr says now that he no longer has a strabismus his eyesight can improve as he gets older and that is what they hope to see...but it will have to do this on it's own.
Without the therapy I guess he would have gone completely blind in his right eye and never been able to gain focus without intense therapy.

I'm not going to hide the fact that $7500 (out of pocket) and six months later we are disappointed. We are. If that makes us negative ninnies so be it.
I guess our expectations were too high. I thought he was going to see well, not still be blurry when he looks out of his right eye. What is the point of wearing glasses when you are still blurry?! Why not change his RX to make his eyesight NOT blurry. I DON'T GET IT.
I thought it would correct some of his color blindness, I was told today that there is no correction for it (I do not know this to be true because my research has shown me otherwise but I"m not a pro so that's all I'll say).
I thought he would be completely connected and we wouldn't see his eye move at all on it's own, now I hear it can when he's tired...well what's stopping it from going off again. Come on. For that much moula I would think there would be a more definite answer than this.
I thought his reading and writing would improve. It has only slightly but just on monday we had a sit down crawl under the chair fit over writing a paragraph. He still skips lines and struggles to see words.

Are we meant to say..ok we see slight improvement after 6 months and $7500 so that's good enough? And just look into our sons eyes who has been so patient, positive, and worked so hard and say...it's good enough for you son. We've done good enough. Your eyes sometimes work together. You can see a little better. We're good.
REALLY?!

I don't get it.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Thyroidectomy 4 months out

This week I had my 4 month check up after my Total Thyroidectomy in September.

Here are my official stats from 1 month out (October visit):
TSH: 7.28
T4-1.2
T3-2.69
_____________________________________________
My official stats from Jan visit:
Blood Pressure: 145/89
TSH-2.90
T3-2.37
T4-1.4

She also tested these that my body is deficient in:
Iron-32, Saturation 8.5
Vit D 2, 29
B12-465
Folate (Folic Acid)-15.7
______________________________________________
Normal Levels: 
TSH-.3-3.0
T3-2.3-4.2
T4-.7-2.0
Vitamin D-30-74
B12-200-900
Folate-2.7-17
______________________________________________
What this means:
Thyroid Hormones are all on the low range normal, meaning I'm within "normal" levels but leaning on the HYPO side of things. It's easier for me to gain than lose, and losing is a struggle. My meds need to be tweaked still and she is adding Cytomel to my 150mg Synthroid. In the thyroid struggle it's best if the doctor doesn't just look at the stats of what is called "normal" and looks at your body alone and where you function best. I'm not there yet and she knows this and is working with me. Cytomel is a new and controversial drug but I"m so glad she's looking into it because, to me, this means she is doing her own research and not just looking at prescribing what the government feels best for my care (which would be synthroid alone). There is lots of research this new drug is helping thyroid patients because it's already broken down into the needed thyroid hormones rather than depending on only two of the thyroid hormones and expecting the bodies to break those down into the third we need, which, for many ppl never happens and they are always tired.
There is good research out there that states patients are feeling better and living better with including this med in their regimen. I'm excited to try it. I need to be on the low end of normal so I'm not struggling so much with not gaining more, that would be BAD.
My B12 and Folate looks great, finally at a normal level.
I am more anemic and my iron is not taking so I have to add more iron in my meds.
My Vit D is also not taking for some reason, I'm currently taking 6000 iu's of Vit D a day and for some reason it's not absorbing but she is not worried about it, she said it could take 6 months for vit D to register so continue on the 6000.

Ok so there was one more test done. It's called an ACTH Stimulation (cortisone kidney infusion) test. She gave me this test because I also have a very small adenoma (tumor) on my pituitary gland in my brain. She tested several things this fall that it could affect by being there and this was the last one. Basically the results were normal but barely above the normal range. (norm is 3-16, mine went to 18.7). This suggests my body is making too much due to the adenoma, which would explain alot in my body over the last 7 years..even longer!
So I may have to treat this as it could mean I have cushings disease or just overactive adrenal glands as a result of the tumor. I will continue to research and address this issue over the next several months. In the meantime we are not treating it yet. I want to make sure I'm treating the issue and not just the symptom here.

All in all, I still have issues (surprise, ha). But it is getting much better and even earlier than expected too. I do not regret having my thyroid removed in the least. I'm so thankful for new health and hope!