teaching our kids to WORK!

There are many things I love about my church.  But, one of my absolute favorite things is that when someone asks for help, we help.  Not just help, but show up in droves to HELP!

A man in our church, who is dealing with some health issues, reached out for some help at his home.  Several large trees had fallen on his property, some with the recent ice storms, and he didn't have the physical ability to cut them up and move them out of the way.  

So, what do you get when you ask our Life Connection class to bring some tools and trucks?  You get about 6 or 7 chainsaws (I lost count!), a log splitter, about 10 leaf blowers, 30+ rakes, and LOTS of people who show up ready to work!  

You also get several work trucks ready to haul the wood around.

And, you get LOTS of noise!  

It's pretty funny, because when you get in this kind of environment, you can see the testosterone oozing. Guys throwing on their safety glasses and starting their power tools.  

Did I mention that this was a FAMILY work day?  Women and children were encouraged to come and help.  LOVE this!

We had them raking leaves, carrying branches to the burn pile, picking up sticks...they loved every minute of it! 

This was the burn pile shortly after we started working.  It quickly grew, and grew, and grew...

And, before we knew it, we started to see some real progress. 

We told Levi where we were going and why we were helping and didn't have to tell him twice to get busy working.  He threw on gloves, safety glasses and was ready to pitch in.  I love his helping heart. 

Maggie was a big helper, too.  She enjoyed trying to rake leaves.  ;-)

After the trees were all cut up, the kids found a giant root that became their fort.  They were in heaven.

Maggie found something she liked waaay better than working.  Eating snacks.  Ha!  My child for sure!

And, she also liked playing with one of the dogs that was roaming around.  (I'm honestly not sure what is up with her "Elvis" smile.  Crazy kid!)

Just a little of the progress:

Love these people and their servant hearts.

A few more pictures to savor

I have a few more sweet pictures of Griffin to share.  I know my blog has been bombarded with pictures of him, but I can't help it!  Who wouldn't love to look at this sweet face?  A reunion with his sister...precious.

Family photo while in Peds ICU

This was taken the day after surgery when the cousins came to visit.  The staff let ALL of us back in the ICU to see him.  There were 14 of us crammed back in his little corner!  My sister started a project for G -- a box of prayer cards.  Several area churches, some schools, and many friends wrote cards for Griffin.  SO SWEET!  Thank you to everyone who helped.  I think she had around 600 cards...maybe more!

My niece's school did a "caring thoughts" paper chain for him.  Each student in their school filled one out.  My dad does security at the school one day a week, so they called him in during the morning assembly and presented it to him. How sweet is that?

This little man right here could NOT wait to get in and see Griffin.  He was really worried about him.  :)

First meal request post op: a sammich from Jimmy Johns, compliments of Papa and Grammy.

Doing his first lap around the nurses station - a little CRAZY to me how quickly he was up and moving around!! 

We went back for more visiting on Wednesday after school and the boys got into an intense game of Battleship. ;)

LOVE THIS PICTURE:

Oh, and these are strictly pictures for me.  THE BEST no bakes around and the hospital had a Starbucks.  Thank you, Jesus.  

LOVE.

On Thursday, I guess G-man was doing so well, they really couldn't keep him any longer.  It was time to pack up and go HOME!  They seriously could have fed a small army with all the goodies people brought.

A little nap before it was time to head out - priceless picture.

Going home. :)

Griffin is doing great!  We couldn't be happier.  Thanks for your continued prayers for his healing. 

And, I'm gonna take a proud momma moment for a second.  This is an email that Levi's teacher sent Eric on the afternoon of the surgery.  I cried.  Times like this make you think you are doing something right.  

I've prayed all along that God will be glorified during this time.  I think He is.

Griffin's Surgery: Kicking open heart surgery in the rear!

Proud Aunt alert...

Griffin's surgery was Monday and he was a ROCKSTAR!!!

The surgery was originally scheduled for 7:30 am, but got moved back to 11:00.  We all started trickling in around 9:00.  There were grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, pastors...we seriously took up half of the surgery waiting room! 

Griffin's name (bottom left hand corner) - I cannot tell you how awesome KCH is!  The "C" stands for Children's and that is exactly what they cater to...children.

A nurse came to get Griffin shortly after 9:30 to get him registered and take his vitals.  Since all his grandparents were in the waiting room, they let him come back out and hang with us until it was time to get ready for surgery.  

Somewhere around 10:30, they took Griffin back to get him prepped.  Watching that little dude walk away was A.W.F.U.L.  I can't imagine being Travis and Jenny and watch him roll away into the operating room.  Ugh.

After they got him settled, they let family come back two at a time and visit with him.  

He was pretty funny...telling Jenny to stop crying, making bets with Uncle Eric on if Papa Bobby had cried yet that morning... Good stuff!  Eric won the bet, saying that Papa had cried already, to which Griffin replied, "Hey, you can't take my money...I have a hole in my heart!"  Ha!

Love that picture!  However, I think this more accurately portrays my brother:

And, then, we waited.  And waited.  WAITING IS THE WORST, even when you have a good family to hang with.  

We got word that they moved the surgery back again until around noon due to an emergency that came in.

We started to amuse ourselves with selfies...

And even resorted to some silly fun.  My poor dad! Ha!

A short time later, Travis sent a pic that they had just wheeled him off.  Oh my word.  

They told us it would take about an hour to get him all ready and the actual surgery would be about an hour and a half.  They took us to a separate, private waiting room which was for families of heart patients during surgery.  It was nice to just be us.  MORE WAITING.  Some tears.  Lots of laughs and smiles.  More tears. At some point, a nurse came in to tell us Griffin was on bypass.  I'm not gonna lie, that kind of took my breath away.  MORE WAITING.  Same nurse told us things were going well and the hole was huge.  The surgeon was patching the hole and would be in to talk to us soon.  Before too much longer, the doctors came in and I could not have been more impressed!  They were awesome!  Talked to us for quite a while, answering questions, explaining things as they went along.  In case you don't know, Griffin asked one of the doctors if they could take a picture of his heart so he could see what it looks like when he woke up.  Not only did he get one, he got FIVE! 

From recovery, they transferred him to the PICU and said Travis and Jenny could go back to see him within the hour.  I could see the anxiousness on their faces to just get in and see him.  Travis' Facebook status summed it up great:

"Finally here in the ICU.  He's extubated.  Not on pressors.  Will open his eyes and answer questions.  I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.  My deepest gratitude to everyone for keeping us in their thoughts and prayers.  My family has been tremendous as has the staff at KCH.  I'm truly humbled here today."

Pretty sure this is one of the most precious pictures I've ever seen.  

Travis posted this one which was taken about 8 hours post op.  He was doing great! 

Travis' morning update:

"It was a long night.  We had trouble controlling nausea.  The IV pain medicine fentanyl causes lots of nausea.  It's hard on a kid to yak after open heart surgery and hard on the parents to watch.  But other than that he is doing great.  Sitting up in a chair, a line out, foley out.  And they are planning on kicking us out of the ICU."

It is now more than 48 hours post op and the kid is doing incredible!  He has been up walking, sitting in a chair, reading books, and playing Battleship.  Each passing moment, he seems more and more like himself.  He still has quite a bit of pain, but they are managing it pretty well.  I know I speak for my whole family when I say that words cannot describe how truly blessed we feel with all the prayers that were prayed over Griffin.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  Griffin is one special kid and we love that you love him, too!  Thank you.