UPDATE and PRAYER REQUEST

I know so many of you are praying for little CREW. He needs prayer more than ever now.

The surgery for tomorrow (Thurs)  was cancelled late this afternoon.  He has a yeast/fungal infection that would make the surgery too dangerous. 

I just had a long conversation  with his Mom and Grandmother.  You can imagine the emotional let down when you were so wanting to get it behind you, plus protect the bladder which is outside his body, to be put inside.

But there are even more complications.  There was such a large team of medical staff scheduled to perform the 10-12 hour surgery.

There were doctors coming from other places, anesthesiology  specialists for long surgeries, all marked out for tomorrow…so reassembling this team quickly will take a miracle. 

Keeping Crew well and infection free until that time is the biggest concern.
Please continue to pray for the family.  Just the logistics of being away from home are so hard. 

MY HEART

This will be the post that I will have to try not to drown the computer from tears pouring over it as I type.

Four years ago Amanda was packed and ready to head to the hospital to deliver my husbands little namesake…We were so honored that this boys name would be Jack Voss, named after both his grandfathers.

It was Super Bowl week and coincidentally Eli was the winner that next Sunday…and look who is playing this Sunday..

Parker had been “the one and only” for so long. 
Then Greg married Dana and Austin joined our family, BUT could I love another little boy the same. 

Parker had lived with us, he had grabbed my heart and I had held on tight.  That’s one I can’t explain.
 
Amanda and Micah were so gracious to let me stay in labor and delivery with them and be there when Jack made his entrance to the world. 

(My girl has babies easy) with no drama…I remember seeing his face and instantly falling head over heels in love…instantly…He was perfect..

we laugh now…if we had only known then how different his personality would be from Parker’s.
Parker is quite, Jack is loud.  On the third day he came home totally fine or so we thought…

I have written about what happened next but 2 days after he came home we were in the NICU with him fighting for his life.  He had meningitis.
I will always believe had Amanda not gone with a gut feeling something was wrong, we would have lost Jack. 

He was a very sick little man and we did not take a deep breath for a couple of weeks.  It was one of the scariest times of my life.

Today he turns 4!

Totally fine, the funniest kid ever, a laugh a minute, a strong willed child, a talker, a climber, a mess.  No one makes me laugh like him. 

He breaks things and he’s sorry but don’t make a huge deal about it because he doesn’t care that much. 
He puts stickers on everything and he has signed his name on a wall or two.  He is free spirit. 

You do not want to have a discussion with him in the toy aisle of Target.  He will win.  (At least with Grammy)

He does not like gul stuff…that’s girl in Jack language.  He really thinks he is Woody from Toy Story and don’t try to convince him he is not.
 
He thinks he speaks Spanish because he watches “Dora”!  He tells us certain words he says are in Spanish.
 
He hates talking on the phone so don’t call him. 

I cannot imagine life without him.  So today we are celebrating  the gift of Jack.  We call him our little hippie…

He has long hair with culs (curls)and he does not want them cut off.   The red on his nose in the picture below is because he decided he wanted to be Rudolph and proceeded to color his nose. 
Guess what?  He has my heart too.

Some of the many faces of Jack.

                        

I LOVE YOU JACK STROTHER

On a very serious note, please pray for little Crew as he has his first surgery on Thursday at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
I was not sure what it would be and his Mom said it was fine to share the details.   
The first surgery will be very long.   
It will be to move the belly button up to the right place, putting the bladder in his body, breaking/dislocating (not sure which one they will have to do) the pelvis. He will have a scar from his belly button to the pelvic bone and he will be in a body cast from his chest down. His arms will be free. The cast is for his pelvis to heal and he will have it for 4-6 LONG weeks! It breaks my heart to think about it.  So please remember the entire family in prayer.
    

           Crew and his Mom Marie 

WHO AM I?

How many of you have written an entire post and just as you go to publish it your hand hits some random something and you lose the entire post?

You think  you have saved it and as hard as you try to pull it back up, its nowhere to be found.

Happened to me last night, so maybe it was a post only for me.  Actually it was a good one, but for the life of me I cannot type it again.

We are home from our trip to Chicago.  Flew out in a blizzard right before they closed the airport.  Went  from 3 degrees in Chicago to landing in Dallas where it was 73…

We had a great week in very cold Chicago and met so many new friends. Jack is going to be working for a great company and he is so excited for some normalcy.
 
That’s where this title comes from.  Each night we would go to a fabulous restaurant for dinner and because I was not with Jack everyday during the day , I would get the question “Now, who are you?” (asked very nicely as they just did not know) or “what do you do?”
 
So I thought about those questions, who am I and what do I do.

I can answer that in a few words but in my mind I could write a book. 

What I do I can answer in 2 words but no one gets it. So I would say, “I am Teresa, Jacks’ wife and I decorate trees”. Laugh!
 
I don’t know if they think I go in the woods and decorate trees but people always have a blank look.

But the questions made me think and the long version  if you are new to the blog, is I am Teresa, wife of almost 40 years to Jack,(who just happens to be a miracle after having a stroke 16 months ago).

I am Mom to two adult kids Greg and Amanda (who I would choose as friends if they were not my kids).

Then I am  MIL to Dana (the lowest maintenance person on earth) and Micah(madly in love with him as a son-in-love but no one can go after each other like he and I..that would be having very ALIKE personalities).
 
I am  Grammy to four precious boys,  Parker, Austin, Jack and Gray.  They light up my life like nothing else. 
If you are a regular reader you already know that.

I have been  a Holiday Decorator for the past 20 years.
 I am a blogger, I am a snail mail sender, I am a Pinterest addict, I am a lover of football and depression is already setting in as the season ends.

I am in love with Mickey Mouse, I would spend every minute with the “little's” and never be bored.

Grammy is the best job I have ever had. 
So that makes me a childcare worker and I would say my place is the most fun in town.

I cook none, hate to talk on the phone, hope I am a good friend.  

I stay up late and sleep late…and would love to change that but my internal clock is so stubborn. That’s how I function best.
 
I am afraid to be without a book and you will never find me without reading material.

I am one of those that has not taken one Christmas decoration down and feels no pressure.  I love it and it might still be up on Valentines.

I am a hater of exercise but have never been more convinced I need to do it.

I am a procrastinator (something that only happened later in life).

I am a TV junkie, especially news and politics plus American Idol.
 
I am a lover of Jesus but constantly struggle with how he could love me…just being honest.  I am lover of Beth Moore Bible Studies as she speaks exactly what I am thinking.
My favorite scripture is Lamentations 3:22-23

Now this is just one chapter of the book I could write….but I will spare you anymore. 

In the comments in short form tell me who you are and what you do…

Thanks for all the sweet messages to Marie.  She appreciates them so much. 
Crew’s first surgery is the first week in February. 
I will keep you updated. Please continue to check on her if she crosses your mind. 

I recently sent you to Callie’s blog. 
 She wrote a great post this week!