A Leg To Stand On

After spending two weeks in a half leg cast, Faith had her check up today. In the last week, she had committed to hobbling around the house, determined not to let a broken bone keep her crawling for too long. We hoped this was a good sign that things were healing. Since it sounds like we have a resident pirate walking around our house keeping watch over the hard wood floors, Faith has quickly earned the nick name "peg-leg".


The doctor was very happy with her follow up X-ray. On the left was the original X-Ray of the break (where the pen is pointing) on the right is her X-Ray from today. The thin sliver line you see on the right side of the bone, going quite a way up the fibula, is actually NEW growth of bone. All that in two weeks! She has received clearance to begin going cast-less for periods of time under strict supervision over the next 10 days. The break is healed but it is still weak, and we will need to be careful that she keeps her back flips and quadruple toe, triple toe combinations to a minimum (which is like trying to use floss to keep a wild horse tethered).

Ordering A Large Family

What if you could order a family? Sitting in your car, you pull to the speaker and glance at the Family Menu options - The three and 1 combo, the Whacky Pack, the 8 piece bucket. Say you are really hungry, and you ordered the large family sized bucket. How many people would that be? What if you super sized your order? I'm curious. I am.

I did a search on large families last night, and the sites that popped up were intriguing. Different large family forums, one of which might quantify large as 4 children, another which might quantify large as 5. And for large families themselves, many might consider their family large if they have been blessed with 6+, but by American's standards, large might be as low as 3 children. When do you officially become supersized or deemed a megafamily?

To press the issue: When is it that society stops looking at your family as "nice" and starts to view your family as "overgrown"? (Not that society drives my personal vision of family size.)

When Ken and I were at the ultrasound, the tech asked if we had any children. We rattled off their three ages, and she quickly made the comment that "You don't see many couples these days who have larger families. I think it is wonderful." So by having four children we are unquestionably "larger", but I don't think we've achieved "bucket" status. On the flip side, no one would argue with the fact that we are at the very least, a Whacky Pack!

Number Four

Being that our pint sized pressure cooking peanut doesn't have a nick name as of yet, the little one continues to simply be "Number Four". So this morning, while mulling over the great mysteries of the earth over yogurt and coffee (and number three hanging on my knee), I wondered if there was any biblical significance to the number four. After doing some research, I felt much better about the handle "Number Four". Here is what I found:

"The Number 4 is thought to represent Gods absolute control over the world.

4 Directions on the earth (north, south, east, and west).
4 Seasons (summer, autumn, winter, and spring).
4 Things that make up the universe (time, energy, space, and matter).
4 Major provisions for man (earth, air, fire, and water).
4 Divisions of the day (morning, noon, evening, and midnight).
4 Winds (Matt 24:31)

Four seems to represent cosmic order, as in the four phases of the moon, the four cardinal points of the earth, the four rivers of Paradise (Genesis 2:10), the four winds of heaven Jeremiah 49:36), the four guardians of the throne of God, and so forth.

But the number four can also represent God bringing disorder for example, the Four Horsemen who bring calamity on the earth (Revelation 6:1-8) and the four acts of Judgment (sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence) with which God condemns the idolators of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 14:21)."

Excerpt from Bible-History.com

No one can argue that the Lord has proven himself in full control of this family with the introduction of Number Four. And I'm sure adding Number Four will add more disorder! But it is comforting to know that by having Number Four we will have achieved the heights of cosmic order.

For some reason, after Faith, I had this feeling that the Lord had plans to use me in other directions. I had worked it in my mind that He would press the pause button on our growing family for awhile. I don't know why I thought that. It was not a deep seated desire of mine. But Faith has required so much of my time and attention, keeping me from using other spiritual gifts, that I thought He would want to stretch a few muscles that hadn't been stretched in awhile.


At almost 9 weeks, the pregnancy has been going wonderfully. We had our first ultrasound last Tuesday, and what a relief it was to see the white pulsating heart of Number Four on the screen! The insomnia is mostly behind me, and the crazy dreams that accompany my pregnancies are in full gear. The nausea that I had with Faith in the first trimester, is present again, and of course the fatigue, and the incessant hunger. What a juggling act those three issues can be!

Any mother with three children knows that "naps" don't happen on a three child schedule -- especially in a homeschooling household. So I army crawl through my day. What keeps me going is the knowledge that all of this passes, and I should be feeling much better in a few more weeks when everything evens out. I just pray that the Lord spares my pelvis the pressure that I began experiencing with Faith at five months. Mercies on that one please!!

And so, Number Four is the picture of health. I'd be avoiding the truth if I didn't say that I really hope this child is a floor potato. Is that a horrible thing to say? By floor potato, I mean the child that loves to study the details, flipping a toy over and over again in his hands, making hundreds of mental notes. Faith set the bar for difficulty. Floor potato she is not...being Mama's back potato, lap potato or face potato she's really good at. If this one isn't a floor potato, happy to entertain himself in even half hour increments, I will be stretching muscles that are already so stretched they won't snap back into place.

O'Lord, please send me a brilliant floor potato! And if it is not your will, remember that new body you've promised to keep on hold for me. May I be so bold as to ask if it is available for an early release date on earth? I'd be more than willing to be your humble servant and try out a beta version. Not that there would be any glitches...

...maybe a floor potato might be easier.

Letters To Africa

The homeschooling blog is still awaiting the grand merge. I hate that. But I thought I'd share something the children and I worked on this week through the inspiration of our church.

A number of months ago, after our pastor and a group of others from the church had visited Africa, our church was inspired to sponsor an entire village of children who have been affected by the AIDS/HIV epidemic in Kenya. Through WorldVision's HopeChild program, hundreds of children's folders lay on the tables in the foyer of the church awaiting a sponsor. What an overwhelming experience. You just wanted to scoop up an arm full of children and take them home with you.

Ken and I decided to sponsor one child for each of our three children. When we got home, we taped their pictures and information sheets to our fridge as a reminder to pray for our three little ones on the other side of the world, and to keep their needs in our thoughts. We chose two boys, Daniel and Pelengus, and one girl, Chepkemoi. All three were similar in age to Jack and Grace.

In the months that followed, I was very impressed with the information packets we received from WorldVision regarding each of the children, and the follow up phone calls. Last month, we received our first greeting cards that we were to fill out for each of the children. Jack and Grace used their copywork time during schooling, to fill out the cards with their names, add their location of residence, create a little bio about themselves, and then paste a picture of our family on the back of the card. Permitted to send flat gifts, the kids hand selected an array of stickers to include for each child.

The children are excited to have "pen pals" in Africa. What a learning opportunity it will be as they grow up together on either side of the world, exchanging bits and pieces of their culture! If you are interested in sponsoring a HopeChild you can visit WorldVision's web site online, and select a child from the hundreds available.

"Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."
Matthew 18:5