Prayer request

Hello all, just a post to ask for prayers for a dear young man I met at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital while John was there. His name is Matthew Litchfield, and I mentioned him in an earlier post. He had his Bone Marrow Biopsy today, and preliminary results are not good at all. His blast counts are up to 15%, which indicates his leukemia is back. Please pray for him and his family, and ask for him to be healed and to pull through this latest setback. He is only 15, Just a little older than my B.J., and I know how terrified his mom is. When he had his BMT, he had a lot of problems, but has been doing so well, but now the monster is back. So please, if you would, lift the family up in prayer with me.

Dear God, our gracious heavenly father, I ask that you please touch the Litchfield family tonight. Let them feel your loving arms of comfort around them. Take this awful illness, cancer, from Matthew's body and help him to defeat it once more as you did before, and please let it be gone forever Lord, if it be your will. We understand that you know what is best dear Lord, but we ask for him to make it through this illness to live a full and happy life. In Jesus' most holy name I pray, Amen.

Hello all, just a little update here. We have been okay the last couple of days. I was worried about my oldest daughter, but I finally know where she is and what is going on with her, so I am not so worried anymore. I am mixed up about my feelings with what is going on with her, and the things she has asked of me though. I do not trust her father, due to the past and all, and with her being there with him and knowing the power of persuasion he can have over her, I just don't know how much I can trust her. I know she trusts her dad, and what he advises her to do, but I was married to him, and I have seen him in action so to speak, and I do not trust him in the least. We made an agreement with her about the car she got a loan on, and now she is trying to change that as well, not to mention asking me to pay one of her payments. She doesn't realize that we don't have the money either. She wants me to use the back-child support, but with gas prices and food prices on the rise like they are, I am having to use most of it to help feed the ones that are living in this house. I don't get much as it is, and when I have to take B.J. to get her glasses in the next town over, it takes almost all of 1 payment. I don't know, I did tell her before that the car was her and my husbands dealings, and to leave me out of it. I guess I am just going to have to tell her to talk to him about it, cause I do not want to be involved. She also wants me to get the girl that was living with her out of her apartment, but that is not my place to do. She let her move in, so she should make sure she is out and that she has the keys, not me. Just because she decided to go out of town, doesn't mean I should tend to her business. She doesn't even want my advice, but yet she wants me to do her dirty work. I don't think so! I am just so mixed up. For 4 days I didn't hear from her, didn't know where she was, or even if she was alive or not, and I felt like I had maybe been to hard on her. But then when I do hear from her, all I hear is that she is back at her dad's, and she needs something. Just a little, "Sorry I haven't talked to you for a few days." Who cares if I was worried sick, and thought that maybe one of her "friends" had done something to her, and she was hurt somewhere with no way of letting me know. I pray that if she ever has a child, she doesn't have to feel the things that she puts me through. I earned some more gray hairs this weekend.

Lord, please help me and guide me through these times with Becky.

God bless you all,
Until next time,
Judy

John's tree dedication.

Hello all, John's tree dedication went well. It was hot, but the ceremony was short and very sweet. Here are a few pictures.

This is the tree, the plaque is of course glared with sunshine but it has a picture of John as well as the cub scout badges he earned.

This one is of me after I removed the cover from the plaque. You can almost see the plaque in this one.

The scouts that were present during the dedication, and helped with the planting.

I do believe John would be pleased with the dedication. He loved nature and scouting. The tree is behind the scout building at our local park. There are 4 ball fields, a public swimming pool, community buildings that the people of our fine community can reserve and use for different activities. A 1 mile walking track is also there, and along the track are benches to sit on and also a pond to relax at. Of course, though we are a small town here, we still have juveniles that like to try to trash some of these things, but with the boy scouts and girl scouts and stuff like that, the place stays real nice. We are all blessed to have a place to go for exercise and fun, and except for a small fee to swim (which helps with the upkeep of the pool and fees for a life guard) it is free for all of us.

The family is doing well, and my husband is dealing better now than he had been in the past. I am proud of him. He went to the dedication with me, as did my mom and dad. He also started going through some of the toys of John's and was able to give them to a friend and his wife, they have been approved as foster parents and now they have the beginnings of toys for when they have foster children in their home. They are great people and I am proud to know them as my friends. John may not be here in body, but I know he is in spirit, and in our hearts, and I think my husband is starting to realize this. John wouldn't want his stuff just sitting here collecting dust, he would want another child to benefit from them and play with them.

B.J. is still dealing in her own way. She doesn't like going to the memorial type stuff for John, or even the cemetery since his burial. But she said that she will always have him in her heart and that she will remember him by when she grows up and decided to have a child, if it is a boy she plans on naming it after her brother, at least the first name. I think she is dealing with his death, just in her own way.

Well, enough babbling for now. May God bless and Keep you all!

Until next time,

Judy

John

Well, it seems to have helped.

The last post, I mentioned that I was going to make chore lists for around the house. Well, it seems to have helped a lot. B.J. now knows what she needs to do on a regular basis, and we also talked about the fact that even if it is not "Her Chore" or not on her list, if she is asked to do it or she sees it needs to be done, she is to do it. I don't have to ask her as much to do things around the house, and even though she wasn't too happy with it at first, she is using this tool well, and now I don't have to ask "Do you have your work done?" every day. She knows that if I see it is not done, she need not ask for friends to spend the night, or to go to her friends houses, because I will say no. So that seemed to work better than I thought.

Tomorrow, the local Cub Scout troop is dedicating a tree in memory of John. They found out that before John had to have his transplant, he was in the cub scouts, and had made it to the bear cubs. He had also earned an Environmental badge, so they planted a tree in his memory and the dedication will be at 2:00pm tomorrow afternoon. I think it is so nice for them to do that. It will be outside the local scout building, and will have a plaque and picture of John as well as a small fence around the base of the tree so that dogs can't mark the tree and stuff. I will try to remember to take some pictures and post them later in the week.

We are doing okay, but a friend from Vanderbilt Children's who had a BMT about a month before John died is having a rough time right now. They think that his leukemia is coming back and they are quick tapering him off of his immunosuppresents trying to get a GVHD flare up started but managed so that they can get the cancer in check. It is a very scary time for them, and they need our prayers so if you read this, please life up Matthew Litchfield, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewlitchfield , in your prayers. And if you have time visit his caringbridge site that is the link I just posted. He is only 15 years old and is getting discouraged, as is normal with all he has been through. More information on him is at his site. Please, please lift him and his family up to God in prayer, they really need it right now.

Until next time, may God bless and keep you all,
Judy

Hello All!

Hello all! I hope this post finds you all doing well. We are doing okay here. Today is the first day since school has been out that we haven't had to go anywhere. I can tell you this much, I am enjoying not having to leave the house for a while. B.J. had friends over last night, but they had to go home and do their work there, so we are here and just relaxing for the time being. Little does B.J. know, it is about time to get to work. I am fixing to do a chore list for her to hang in her room, and when I do, she will not be allowed to do anything else until the list is done. I feel like she is old enough that I shouldn't have to do a list, but since I have to keep repeating myself every day about what she is to do, and when to do it and all that stuff, well let's just say that if she is going to regress and act younger than she is, I am going to treat her that way too. She may not like it, and may get mad at me, but my job as her mom is to teach her how to do these things, and not to just be her friend. So, if she gets mad at me she will just have to get over it I guess. So, wish me luck, it is time for me to reverse some of the spoiling that my husband did while I was gone. I have been trying to do it real nice for over a year, now it is time to get tough!
May God help us both!
God Bless and take care,
Judy

God looked down from Heaven above,
Saying I need someone with a perfect love.

She must be patient and sweet and kind,
and use her sensible, open mind.

She needs her hands and heart and soul.
because she will travel a long ,lonely road.

For the child that I send her will be special indeed,
and She is the one who will fill all their need.

She will have to have the strength of a rock,
For the pain she will witness she can never stop.

The child that I send her will be hers for a while,
Before they travel that long lonely mile,

Then when I call, the child must return,
leaving her there all alone him to mourn.

For the child will be there for a very short time,
Then return here to Heaven and again will be Mine.

Then She has to realize just how special she was
Cause I chose Her for her pure sweet love.

She was the one who was above all the best,
To love one of My Angels until she put him to rest.

You were chosen to be the Mother of one of God's Angels

I read this on a page that belonged to a mother who had lost a child, and this about says it all. So here's to all the special moms out there that have lost a child to death of any kind.

Hello again, sorry it has been so long since I last posted, but I got sick the day after my birthday, and have been struggling every since. My allergies flared up real bad, causing my asthma to flare as well. I went to the doctors, and got a shot, and they realized that my blood sugar was out of whack and put me on more meds and stuff and since then it has been a roller coaster ride. My sugars have been up and down and driving me crazy. They dropped far enough to make me feel like I was going to pass out while I was at the store, and when I got home and tested, my sugar was at 79. At 70 my doctor wants me at his office, so I ate and kept an eye on it. It has been better for the last couple of days, but I have to really watch my eating habits and make sure I do not skip a meal, that is for sure. I am still a little weak from it all, and still battling with it, but I am dealing with it. When I get it under control, I will start exercising again and maybe I can drop enough weight so that I can get off some of these medicines again. I hate not being able to eat the stuff I really like, carbs of course, but I guess I will just have to get used to more veggies and less starches. Oh well, that's life.

Other than health stuff, things are going well here. Today is B.J.'s last full day of school for the summer. She goes for about an hour and a half tomorrow and then she is out until sometime in August. It is hard to believe that she will start high school next year, oh to be a Freshman again.

My husband and I are doing okay, and life is good for the most part. Of course with the gas prices so high and getting higher, and expenses starting to follow suit, it is hard and I may have to get a job real soon. But we will manage with God's help. So life goes on.

I hope life is good for you all, may God Bless and Keep you all Happy and Healthy.
Judy

Well, It is my Birthday!

Well, it is my birthday today. It really doesn't feel much different than every other day. There is still laundry to wash, meals to cook, and dishes to do. There is activities I need to be at for B.J., and of course I am waiting for Becky to call and ask for something. Just another day I guess. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do much today except for B.J.'s award ceremony, but no, I have way to much to do or I will have to work twice as hard tomorrow. Oh well, that is the life of a mother I guess. We have teen meal tonight before our Church services, and I have to bake some cookies for that as well as go to the bank and stuff to get ready for B.J.'s trip with the Beta Club tomorrow. She will leave from school at noon, and they will return on Saturday night, late. Her bronchitis is better and she sounds and feels a lot better. I will still worry a lot while she is on her trip, but she has the right to go and have fun and be a kid. She has been on honor roll every grading period this year, All A's, and I am very proud of her. I will post sometime later tonight and let you all know what award she receives.
God Bless,
Judy

The award that B.J. received is a plaque for placing in the top ten of her class, she placed 7TH! I am so proud of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a Birthday Present!!!

Wow

Wow! It is hard to believe that in 2 more days I will be 44 years old. I still feel like it hasn't been that long since I graduated High School, but I have 2 kids that have graduated High School, and one that will start 9TH grade next year. Talk about reality check! HAHAHA! But I am feeling well, and doing okay. Going to Church, helping there whenever I can, and taking care of my family. Oh yeah, I have also been knitting. I have completed one baby afghan, and started another one. I have a friend who's daughter is expecting her first child, so I am making afghans again. The first one I did is a green one, and now I am working on a pink one, this way, no matter what the sex of the baby is, I will be prepared and have one ready to give to them. I am also going to try to work on getting my yarn supply down a little. I have a lot of types that I don't have enough to do a complete project, so I am going to start some scrap yarn afghans when I complete the baby ones. So, now you know where my mind is lately, NEEDLE WORK! Love it.

B.J. has bronchitis again. I had to take her to the doctors this morning, and since she just had antibiotics last week for sinuses and sore throat, they decided to give her shots this time. She was MAD to say the least. She hates shots, but with her Beta Club Trip this Thursday, it was either a shot or she would have to miss her trip. Man she hated the choices, but I let her and the doctor know that there really wasn't a choice, if oral meds didn't work last week and caused it to drop into her lungs and turn into bronchitis, than it was time to get it under control with the shots. I don't like playing with lung issues with her, she has asthma, and if we don't keep things under control, it will get bad real quick. I have asthma, and I will do everything in my power to keep hers under control because I know from experience how it feels to not be able to get enough oxygen into your body. It is a really bad feeling, and I know she has been there before, but I will do my best to not let her get there again. It is to scary. People tend to think that asthma is a common thing and no big deal. But in reality, even though it is more common now, it can be very deadly if not managed properly. It has to be controlled, and watched very vigilantly. Okay, I am getting off the soap box now! HA, sorry about that, I get wound up sometimes.

Other than that, things here are okay, and life is good. Of course, of you truly believe, than life is always good! Maybe not always easy, and hard to see as good when hard times and fears hit, but it is good. If we believe, than we can trust that life will be as God wants it to be, and we will understand when He feels it is time. May God bless you all in every way, and may you open your heart and life to Him.

In Christian Love,
Judy