Name them before you forget them

Morning y'all.  It's another night of waking up at 3:30 am and being unable to go back to sleep. Dad called before 6 am because he saw my house lit up on his way to breakfast with the boys. ;)  

We've had a few more bits of tough news this week. I won't say bad because it may all be overcome simply through medicine. Mom had been concerned about Macy's vision and took her to the elementary school she retired from for a vision and hearing test. Hearing was good, vision not-so-much. Took her to the pediatrician who basically said - we don't do eye tests on three-year-olds so we'll refer you. As a side note here: it's amazing how little doctors know about their community. He had no idea if there was a pediatric optomistrist in our area and flabbergasted that it was requested. Thank heavens for the nurse who knew the answer and got us referred to a great doctor. 

Mom took her to the eye appointment. Pretty much immediately mom knew something serious was up. Both sides of Macy's family has Marfans. Marfans impacts connective tissue - most frequently eyes and heart. Macy is only seeing out of a small portion of her eyes right now. She'll have to head back to the dr for a more thorough checkup for heart issues. She's getting special glasses that will hopefully retrain her brain concerning her eyes, but if that doesn't work, she's headed to Duke for eye surgery. *DEEP BREATH* I'm sure you can try to imagine Katie's reaction to hearing this about her baby girl. But let me tell you about this doctor. The fact she has heard of Marfans is impressive. The fact she sent my sister her cell phone number with instructions to call at nine so she could explain everything - WHOA. This lady rocks. And let me say here: thank you, Lord, for placing this lady in our lives. I give Him all the credit for making it happen. 

My family is pretty familiar with Marfans because we assume our dad has it, and all three of us kids have signs but haven't been tested. Don't want that not covered by insurance as a pre-existing condition. It can be bad ma'am-a-jama stuff. 

That was Wednesday. 

Thursday, my brother and his wife were told both of their micro-preemie baby boys have heart murmurs. Things have been going really well for the boys so this was a toughie. Granted, you knew there would be setbacks along this path. Anyway, this is a common issue in preemies and they are trying to address it with meds, too. However, if that doesn't work, it's surgery for the little fellas, too. 

In the midst of all this, I realized I let all the negative news in our lives dominate my very well-being. My heart, my soul, my health. It's like everything in me is weighted down with sacks of heavy boulders I'm desperately trying to carry everywhere I go. So last night I vowed to make a change. 

In my prayer journal, I will start with five things I'm thankful for- Five Blessings. Because I know if you get out of the habit of being thankful, you can't even see your blessings anymore. 

Last nights blessings: 

1. The doctors found this heart issue with Liam and Kellan, are familiar with it and know how to treat it. 

2. The Lord led us to a wonderful eye doctor for Macy, who believes in supporting her patients- even at nine o'clock at night! 

3. My cousin's abdominal mass (10 lbs!) was NOT cancer!!! Huge cheer!!!! 

4. The Lord has given Clay & Angela and huge network of supporters praying for them and their sons. 

5. The Lord provided my mom a friend in one of her sister-in-laws when she needed one. It's been a huge blessing because she's trying to deal with all these issues, too. 

I'm going back to the basics, count your blessings and name them one by one. 

Yup. This is a long wordy post. Sorry about that. Sometimes I just need to unload it somewhere. 

You know, I think we may need to check! I mean, it couldn't hurt, right? Ok y'all, I'm heading into work. Gotta try to get Macy a minions Halloween bucket from Mcdonalds today. :)  I mean, yeah it does seem like the world is crumbling beneath my feet, but you still gotta have priorities!! *wink*  thanks for your prayers!