One Proud Mama

A few months ago, Kat came to me in tears. Weeping, she explained that God had begun to give her visions, images of children's faces from around the world. She said that God had told her that these children didn't have parents, and that they needed her help. She melted into my arms, crying, "What do I do Mommy? How do I help them?"


I had no idea what to do. Or say.


So I told her to pray. To ask God to give her ideas, ways she could help.


Fast-forward to last month. We are prayer partners with a ministry called Tender Hands, which fights human trafficking in India. One major component of their ministry is an American-style bakery where they teach the girls how to cook, how to run a business, how to survive outside of slavery. They asked their prayer partners to host a bake sale fundraiser in honor of these girls, to raise both money and awareness for their ministry.


Kat read the email and immediately said, "Yes Mommy! That's something I can do!"


What began as a simple email turned into so much more:

-An email to our church administrator asking for the use of tables in the foyer one Sunday turned into, "What if we dedicated this Sunday to Tender Hands? Took up a special offering for them along with the bake sale?"

- A question of "Would you mind if I asked a few other people if they'd like to bake something to contribute?" turned into 14 people from our church showering us with enough baked goods to fill 4 8-ft tables.

- A simple plea of a child's heart, to help children just like her, turned into $1,524 that will go directly to Tender Hands to continue working with the women and children who so desperately need the hope and help THI provides.

- And, most importantly, my daughter saw that when you have a dream, friends and family will rally around you, support you, and encourage you to chase that dream with everything you have.




*If you'd like to learn more about THI and the amazing work they do, you can check out their website at http://tenderhands.org/.

The Whirlwind Adventure

Nina and I arrived home last Thursday evening after a whirlwind week. Our schedule while in Denver consisted of:

Sunday: Drive 7 hours through the worst storm of the season, check into the hotel, praise the chain restaurant gods that a Red Lobster was across the parking lot, eat, swim, go to bed.

Monday: Go to the doctor's appointment at 9, have an impromptu ultrasound while we're there. Go to the Museum of Nature & Science (AWESOME), eat at the mall food court, walk around the mall, swim, go to bed.

Tuesday: Go to the American Girl store (an entire post in itself). Meet my college roommate for lunch. Begin the "cleanse" for the procedure the next day. Don't venture further than 5 feet away from a toilet. Clean up both puke and poop from the cleanse. Go to bed.

Wednesday: Let the very-cleansed kiddo sleep in a bit. Work out and eat breakfast on the sly so as not to tempt the kid. Brave rush-hour downtown traffic to report to the hospital by 10AM. Kiss the kid as she goes under. Knit to keep your hands busy while you wait. Meet with the doctor, watch your kid come out of anesthesia. Get a CT scheduled for the next morning since the endoscopy and colonoscopy were both clear. Learn how to flush an IV so we can keep it in overnight. Find sushi for the brave kid. Snuggle in bed. Watch her sleep.

Thursday: Get up bright and early to pack up, eat breakfast, and get back downtown to the hospital by 8:30. Find out that the kid does, in fact, have to drink contrast. Watch her swallow a piece of gum in a desperate attempt to camouflage the taste of the contrast. Hold her hand while they do the CT. Wait around for the doc to get results. Find out that he suspects what you've suspected all along. Get the IV removed. Eat lunch at the hospital cafeteria. Drive 6 hours to be able to eat dinner at home. Go to bed.


Nina's doc suspects that she has chronic appendicitis. It presents very similarly to acute appendicitis, but over a much longer time frame. He felt like, because she was not in the midst of an episode, we did not have the strongest case to present to the surgeons for immediate surgery. He sent us home with a medicine for IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) that she is to take 3 times per day for the foreseeable future. If she has no more episodes, we know it's IBS and treat it as such. However, he feels very strongly that she will have another episode, and that we will have a very strong case at that point to remove her appendix.


It was a relief for her to have a doctor take her seriously and believe her. It was a relief for me to have answers and a plan.