The second day of school for the oldest Ross girls. Lizzie starts this afternoon:) She will be going five days a week this time! At school, she has Speech, Physical Therapy, social interaction, and snack time. We are so happy with her teacher and the aides that take care of Lizzie. What a blessing that is. As a teacher, you are responsible for a person's most valuable possessions. What a privilege and a huge responsibility!

Pictures are coming soon! Hopefully, we will be on a schedule that doesn't start at 5:30 and end at 11:30:)

School is starting Wednesday! I have Orientation tonight where I will meet my students and their parents. This will be my seventh year to teach at Northridge Christian School. Each year I am reminded of my own school career. As a child, I was under the impression that my teachers lived at school, had no children, and loved to discipline! When I entered Junior High and High School, I assumed all the teachers were born old and had no lives outside of school. They practically lived to teach! As an adult, entering another year of teaching, I realize how flawed my understanding of teaching was:)

Katelyn will be a 5th grader! She is nervous and excited:) She is our little scholar. Lover of rules and polite manners.

Sarah will be a 4th grader! She is just plain happy:) She is our little artsy type. Lover of gray areas and music.

Lizzie will be in Preschool again! She liked school last year:) Our favorite stories of Lizzie's  school career are the times she became upset with the teachers and kicked toys off her tray. We also like the growling when others came in too close:)

Stacy has also started a blog, and I will be starting one up for my class. We are the Blog Family From the Panhandle:)

Lots of stuff still to do before Wednesday, but we are ready for it. I am choosing this year to "Number my days" and "Redeem the time." Each day can be lived only once, and I know that. However, I want to live as though it were my last. The song "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw has a good message, but it's not one with a Christian worldview. I do not wish to live by Bungee jumping, sky-diving, trekking through Europe, or opening my own restaurant, but to live for Christ each day. Who can I share the Gospel with? Who can I help? What does Christ have for me today? I do know one thing I will do - Live Joyfully! Lizzie is by far the greatest example of how circumstances do not pertain to joy. She sings continuously, laughs and giggles, and cuddles like nobody's business. Lizzie is three years old and has had six surgeries, months of accumulated hospital stays and severe GERD that caused her to stop breathing, yet she has way more joy than I do. This year, I will be joyful despite the circumstances, because my God is a good God.

Another school year is approaching! Katelyn will be a 5th grader; Sarah a 4th grader; and Lizzie a Preschooler! We are excited and somewhat "bummed" at the same time:) Yay for friends and new teachers! Boo for homework and "hours upon hours of learning."

Since the last entry so much has happened. Lizzie is doing fantastic and even go to spend a week by herself at her Nana and Papa's! She thoroughly enjoyed it. I am excited to once again start blogging about LizBeth. God is so good, and this is such a wonderful way to tell of His love and mercy.

Lizzie is still quiet sick. She is, in fact, getting worse. Her cough sounds awful! We are planning on taking her back to the doctor tomorrow - this time with Sarah-Berra. She too is not getting better. Since Christmas, she's had a runny nose, horrible cough and headaches. Prayerfully they will both be well before Lizzie's birthday on January 18th!

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God hears your prayers.

When we found out Kelly was pregnant we prayed for her and the baby during our nightly prayers. At this time there was a young mother in our church that was living in the Amarillo RMH while her baby was in the NICU at NWTH. Our girls were very afraid this would happen with Lizbeth so they prayed very specifically about it. Every day they prayed that the baby would be healthy and wouldn’t have to go to the hospital because they didn’t want to be separated from their mommy and daddy.

When Lizbeth was born everything seemed great. She scored high on her APGAR test, kicked, screamed and just generally acted like a new baby should. 24 hours later she lost her appetite. It wasn’t enough to really worry us but it was something that was noticeable. Around 36 hours later Kelly called me from the hospital crying because the nurses said our baby was having seizures. Then about 48 hours after she is born she was no longer able to maintain her own body temperature. Less than 72 hours after Lizbeth was born she was in the NICU at NWTH and we were living in Amarillo RMH.

Through all of this Kelly and I were praying, our girls were praying, our families were praying, the NFWB church was praying, the Fort Gibson FWB church was praying and the Lifeway Christian Center in Guymon was praying. Despite all the people who were praying for Lizbeth to get better she didn’t. Despite all our girls’ prayers for our family not to be separated we were. 

When the exact opposite of what you pray happens does God still hear your prayers? Is this still comforting to you?

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3. You must live your theology.

When someone goes through hard times we seek to comfort and encourage them with reassuring words about God.

 God hears your prayers.

God cares/loves you.

God is in control.

God has a reason for this.

When we say these things we really do mean for them to be comforting and reassuring. When we say these things we really do believe that they are true. During our time with Lizbeth we learned that these are easy words to say when you are not the one going through the hard time. These are easy things to believe when all is well. These are easy things to take comfort in when everything in our world is working as it should.

One thing we all know from life is that at some point we will be the person going through the hard time. A loved one will die. We will lose our job. The test results will come back bad. Sudden tragedy will strike our lives. During these times will we be able to blithely say these words of comfort and encouragement to ourselves? Will we be able to believe these things about our situation? Do these words that are spoken so easily when all is well in our lives still bring comfort in our lives when all is not well? For the next few minutes I want to talk about our experience with these things during our time with Lizbeth.

I've added  two new posts today and a picture! I am really doing a great job:) I would like to add another as well.  Lizzie has aspiration pneumonia which is caused from ingesting fluid into her lungs. While in Alabama for Christmas, she became ill with a terrible stomach virus. We finally took her to the ER because she cried for almost 15 hours straight on Saturday - Christmas Day. The virus ran its course and totally zapped Liz of all her strength. She was having trouble taking her bottle, so I believe that's when it happened. Lizzie does NOT aspirate on a daily basis.  She's been tested twice for that, but since she was so fatigued I don't think she could help it.  You cannot tell by looking at her that she's even sick! Except for the tight, crackly cough every now and again, she acts like her silly little self:) She has a low-grade temperature, but is eating and drinking like a big girl. Please pray that she will be well soon, and not have any complications from the aspiration.


And Happy New Year from the Guymon Rosses!