Bridal shower, fainting, goat medicine and Matthew 19

Esther's  church bridal shower  was Sunday and we had a really good time celebrating  the upcoming wedding!

Here Grand daughter  Mady and daughter Esther share a smiley moment in between opening gifts. Mady was the the Gift Bringer and quite happy to have such an important job!

 Esther was blessed with many wonderful gifts  from a vacuum cleaner to coasters, dishes, kitchen laundry (as I call it)  a stock pot, gift cards, and more,   and she was surrounded with love and encouragement all the while!

The "Gag gift'"of the day came from Malachi and Sopheak (mostly Malachi) when he gathered a wide variety of colorful beverage cups from Esther's place of employ MEXICO  JOE'S. (We have so many of them  and we share them as souvenirs with visiting friends because they are THE standard measure and most frequently used beverage cup in all of Stillwater) He wanted to be sure that he didn't repeat  a color in his set  so she has about 12 of all different  hues and tones!

 A Paula Deen stock pot from Mom and the Smith sisters, "Stocked" with lots of other kitchen goodies

 My beautiful Esther Miriam   who could not be much happier with the way God has ordered her steps!

Yellow roses and black cowboy boots represent the wedding itself. Esther's colors are yellow and green ( not quite  John Deere but that was the original plan!!)  and yellow roses will be a favored flower in the wedding bouquets. The black boot? OH YES!!! The bridal party will be wearing those black boots for the wedding! ( Mother of the Bride TOO!!)

On the heels of the shower and planning for the wedding something started happening to 16 year old Jael. She began to get queasy, weak, and to pass out cold. After several hours at our dear doctor's office on Friday , we had ruled out any pulmonary issues with a chest x-ray, ruled out extremely obvious cardiac issues with an ECG, and targeted the simpler issues with a blood draw for analysis, A Holter monitor to evaluate cardiac activity for a 24 hour period was ordered and today we  got that taken care of. It will feed cardiac data to a computer until tomorrow morning and the data will be assessed for any  hidden cardiac issues that the ECG didn't catch. The blood work came back  all within normal parameters so the next thing  is to monitor blood glucose to see if perhaps  hypoglycemia ( low blood sugar) is the culprit.Among Jael's symptoms are nausea, lack of appetite, vomiting, some lower intestinal involvement, but mostly a feeling of weakness and that fainitng thing. I found her on the bathroom floor today right before we went to the doctor.

She had no idea what triggered that episode. Earlier  in the day she had been helping me to trim goat's hooves when one of the bucks kicked at her and ripped off a couple of the Holter leads. THAT caused no problems. When Gideon thought he could help with the trimming and  then seriously injured young buck Edward, Jael went right to work, being the future Veterinarian  that she is. That  too, caused no fainting issues.  I think I will spare you the photos of poor Edward's mis-trimmed hooves. Suffice it to say Jael and I were upset, Gideon was contrite,  and Edward was a mess.

I think we have stabilized him, controlled the bleeding and hopefully got the rest of the hoof trimming done so that Edward is not lame or infected..............

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH life on a farm with a large family. NEVER  a dull monment, ever!!

I am so thankful for God's hand on each of our children! When Jesus admonished His disciples in

Matthew 19,  "Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven, And He laid hands on them"    ( "and departed from there") He showed us how special  and precious children are! He didn't say they were perfect, He didn't say that this blessing was  in any way an imparting of salvation to them, or that they got the blessing  of something that others didn't get  or would not get in some other way, but  He reminded everyone for all ages to come, that children are worth stopping what one is doing  to tend to, to minister to, to encourage  and to treasure as symbols  of Heaven itself...in their simplicity and their basic uncluttered faith and I suspect, their pure desire to just BE with Jesus,   asking nothing from Him except  to BE WITH THEM. It was parents who brought them so that Jesus might lay hands upon them and pray for them , but scripture does not say the children asked for ANYTHING.

How often do our own children  approach US  this way? Wanting nothing but to be with US: their Mommies and Daddies? I love that I have been able to home school my children, work from home when I did have a "Not-the -Mommy- job" but I know I wasted a lot of the "just be with "  moments. Events this weekend reminded me of how special each moment with my children is: be it teaching complicated grammatical terms and uses, or cleaning up a wounded goat, encouraging the wounder of the goat that no one hates him, watching basketball  or tennis games, playing board games, emersing the female part of the family in bridal celebration , reading the Word together at the family table,  re-building a bathroom with help of our children,  LIFE WITH OUR CHILDREN IS PRECIOUS!!    I would remind myself  and each of you who might be reading this

"Let the children come..and forbid them NOT!"

 I do not think that is taking a scripture out of its context or changing its meaning one bit to not quote the entire passage. The meaning is so clear that Jesus valued the lives and presence of the children deeply!

I am praying  for a very specific child  this week who needs a family and soon. She has  known much pain and suffering in her short 8 years, much rejection and much abuse. My deepest prayers are for a family who can lead her to Jesus so she can know that she is not going to be forbidden   or turned away  EVER AGAIN. A family who can lead her t ohealing and restoration and revival... I "think" I know  who that family is. The family thinks so too, but its not a slam -dunk  done deal by any stretch.  Will you pray with me  for " Miss A" and her future? As you do, please take a moment to hug on your own children and thank God for them  one more  extra time. Pray for children in our country and our world  who are waiting to be told "COME TO ME", told they won't be forbidden or denied....loved and accepted by a family who will love and treaure THEM?     I love that God has given my husband and  me  the capacity to love so many children and I know that soon the day will come when we know that our family is complete: no more additions through adoption for us to be Mommy  and Daddy to. My heart is heavy for more families who will also adopt, who will  foster children,  who will mentor children, because the need is not going  away. As we ache to be able to bring our precious African children home, we continue to pray for the many  other children who wait. In my joy at celebrating weddings and birthdays, teaching moments and chastiisng moments, there is a burden for incompleted families and unmatched children. So many children...............so many children.................so many families .............so many people waiting for so many other people!!!!!!!!!!

Show us how You want us to participate  Dear Heavenly Father!