Parallel Lives

This is my friend Kelley. She spells her name the same way I do. And she was due with twin boys the same day I was. No kidding. I couldn’t even make this stuff up y’all. She went a month later so her boys are younger than mine yet bigger (all my babies are small. humph.). Sometimes she comments on my blog as Kelley. It probably confuses some of you. Because sometimes I’ll see a comment by Kelley and think “I didn’t comment on that blog post, did I?”

And here’s the picture where one of her twins is assaulting Rhys.

Halloween 2010

I thought I’d wait till after everyone else shared their pictures so as to not overwhelm you all at once.

We had a dog ballerina (K), a terrified Tigger (R), a person ballerina (S), and a confused Pooh (O).

Remembering

Yesterday just after lunch, I was holding Rhys in the kitchen looking out the glass door. He had been fussy and not taking normal naps which meant he and Owen were not sleeping at the same time. I was in the midst of a giant pity party that my quiet time was not going to happen when I remembered. A year ago yesterday- after lunch- I was in Houston, Texas. I was in the middle of a 1.5 hour long fetal echocardiogram- a scan that showed that Baby B- Rhys was Baby B then- that Baby B’s heart was starting to have irregular patterns. It showed that the TTTS was progressing and that time was getting short. It confirmed that we had taken the right step in flying to Texas for this space-age surgery. I mean really- who has laser surgery in their uterus with their twins in there?

Rhys

And I looked at my son in my arms- my healthy, strong, perfect child- and cried. I cried over him and how this moment almost wasn’t. All that pity- no more. How can I pity the miracles I’ve seen in my life? How can I begrudge the biggest blessing ever? I have four incredible children- FOUR. I wondered so many times if I’d ever see these days. These days are hard but they are precious. And you would think after all we went through that I wouldn’t forget it. But I do.

Owen left Rhys right

Did I ever tell you that there is one doctor who lives in Spartanburg who is trained to deal with TTTS? And that one doctor just happens to go to our 350ish member church. And that doctor just happens to have a daughter in my oldest daughter's class at church. A class that Kiran is actually 7 days too young for but she just happened to be put into that class anyway. And that Kiran and his daughter just happened to become friends which lead to us befriending the parents. Discovering the twins- a facebook message- a doctor who was able to get me a Maternal Fetal appt one month earlier than my original appointment. My original appointment was for Dec 2- that’s two weeks after I had surgery. I can’t even think about what our outcome would have been if we hadn’t gotten in much earlier. Less than 10% survival rate.

Owen

So today we purposed to remember….to remember what God has done for us. How He was working on behalf of these boys long before we even thought of them. How He preserved their lives and not just their lives but their health also. And what better to remember than with cookie cake?

Anyone get the double meaning?

I am so incredibly thankful and joyful that this holiday season is going to be filled with lots of laughter and music and baking yummy goodies. I have a fresh excitement for the holidays and I can’t wait to share them with my sons.

In the Car

What do you listen to in the car? A friend asked me a while back what kids songs we listened to in the car and I just kinda stuttered that we don’t. The number one requested song in my car is “Revelation Song” sung by Kari Jobe (called Holy, Holy by the girls) and the number two requested song is “Jai Ho” from the Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack.

But I have been thinking about what we listen to in the car. Honestly though, we don’t listen to CDs or the radio all that much. Or its turned way down. That time in the car is usually a fun time of “I Spy” and making up stories (Kiran’s new favorite thing). Do I sometimes want quiet in the car? Yep. Do I sometimes try to enforce that? I try. But most of the time the girls are talking and I enjoy interacting with them.

But I have taken our Seeds CDs out to the car and have been listening to them on the road some. We have these two and we love them (Thanks SIL!).

I was looking for my Sound of Music soundtrack to take but I realized if I had it in the car, we would never listen to anything else. Ever. We sing lots and lots of SofM songs even without the soundtrack.

My parents have some kids CDs that are about the different letters and the numbers and my kids love, love, love them. But I think Chief has limits on those. He probably makes them listen to Car Talk. I mean that’s what he did to me.

So what do you listen to in the car? I’d love some inspiration.