miracle monday

well, i'm a little late, but here it is...

on december 24 of '07, my nephew had a horrific car accident. he was driving his car too fast, and of the 3 kids in the car, one had no injuries to speak of, one died, and my nephew had a broken neck, and a fractured skull with major brain trauma. we spent the entire holiday and several days just praying for him to live...and several weeks praying for him to not be paralyzed and months praying for him not to have have major memory loss or loss of brain function. he was a brilliant kid. he was a gifted athlete. we were hoping and praying that we wouldn't be saying "was" for ever.


fast forward to today...he is in college going for a degree in engineering. he is walking and has no major issues from his accident. (aside from some weight loss that he is trying to gain back still) he has had some battles with depressions, and with adjusting, but he is doing well now.

it's so hard to believe he has come so far in such a short time.!

miracle monday

today i want to tell you about my husband's aunt. she is one of the most remarkable people i have ever met. she has one of the biggest hearts and i want to be like her so much!

aunt "em" and her husband married and moved to another state. he was in the military. they tried for 5 or 6 years to start a family, then decided to adopt. they adopted a healthy little boy first, then when he was about 10 months old, they started the process again. this time they were adopting a little girl. when they were finalizing the paperwork, she found out she was pregnant. baby number three was born less than a year after adopting baby number 2! she had 3 little babies under the age of 3! and that was just the beginning! they moved back home to missouri where they went on to add babies numbers 4 through 10 in the years following. as hectic as life must have been, she always was there for everyone in the neighborhood and family. her home is a warm and loving place where all are always welcomed. she now has 30 grandkids, with one more on the way. her children are her children whether they were adopted or born to her...or just friends of her kids that needed a mom. i don't know if i have ever seen anyone so in love with her family. she sees most of her kids everyday. they stop by on their way home from work to see her. to see if she needs anything. just to be around her. they have one of the most special families i know. i see the love she brings to the world around her and well, she is truly a miracle.

for more miracles, visit beth at http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com/.

miracle monday

i have shared with you the story of jessica. she is the wife of a man i knew in high school...and has cancer.

unfortunately, the news has not been good as of late.



please take some time to visit her caring bridge site http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicainchiostro and leave some words of encouragement for her and her family.


please pray for her husband and son, and her mother and sister. jessica is an amazing woman and will truly be missed...when that time comes. until that happens, please pray for her. pray for her comfort and strength.

thank you to all who have kept her in your thoughts and prayers.

miracle monday

how about another birth story?

my grandpa just had a birthday, i think he's 73. this is the story of his birth...

my great grandparents had tried for several years to conceive a child. they had several years of sadness and no child.

then my great grandma found out she was pregnant. it was a pretty normal pregnancy. no major issues. she went into labor at home, and he was born at home, and pronounced dead at home. you see, he was over 11 pounds when he was born. he wasn't breathing, or moving. they assumed he had died, and put him in the sink so they could finish with my great grandma. she was pretty messed up from having such a big baby, and consequently was never able to have any more children. she asked to see my grandpa, and when they picked him up, they found him actually breathing. his arm was not moving right (they thought it was trauma from the birth) and thought it would be crippled. my great grandma wrapped it close to his body, and it healed. my great grandparents were so thrilled. they had prayed so long for a child. they doted on him...spoiled him, and even with all he was given, he was (and still is) so kind. they raised a wonderful person full of love and kindness. he has always given so much to those around him. we are so lucky my great grandma wanted to see him. i don't know that they would have looked at him as closely if she hadn't.

for more miracles, go check out beth at http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com/

miracle monday

i know everyone is scared about the economy. people are having a tough time getting loans, losing money in the market, paying an arm and a leg for gas...and well, i think many are afraid for their jobs.

not exactly the best time to be a car salesman. (like my hubby)

he's been having a tough time the passed few months. he "sold" many cars, only to find out the people couldn't get financed.


and here i am, staying home with our kids. i was feeling pretty low, not helping him out much on the financial front.

so i said a few prayers...
one for thanksgiving. how could i not thank him for our health, the fact my husband has a job, our kids and our families.
one was for direction. how could i help my husband? how can i help take some of the burden from him? the man makes himself sick with worry, how can i help?

this month, God sent me another little one to watch over while his parents are at work.

and the possibility of one more a couple of days a week.

i was worried that i might be taking a little more than i can handle. with caring for my own kids, and the 2 little ones i already watch during the day, but He quieted my mind. He sent them into my life, for me to help their families. if they weren't meant to be here, their parents would not have chosen me to watch them.

i can handle this.

please check out Beth at http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com/2008/10/miracle-monday_13.html for more miracles!

miracle monday

when i was 16, there was a terrible car accident before school, and a friend of mine was killed. he had been a passenger in the car, driven by his best friend, and the driver was the only one wearing his seat-belt.

the driver (i'll call him jay) and i had been close our freshman year. closer than we had any business being. we ended things because, well, he didn't feel the same way i felt.

and i hated him.

well, hate may be too strong of a word.

it hurt to be around him. to see him.

our junior year, we ended up having a class together again.

and it still hurt to see him.

and then the accident happened.

and we both lost a friend.

i visited him at his house afterward...and i forgave him for all the hurt. it's horrible that it took our friend's death for me to see how short life could be. how forgiving him was also forgiving myself. i was just as much to blame for what happened between us as he was.

we became friends again. just friends.

our senior year, we had our last class of the day together. we sat at the same table together. he helped me so much. we talked more than we ever had before. we talked about what had happened our freshman year. i got a better understanding of him. of the man he was becoming. and then i became pregnant with my oldest. he never treated me any different. he saw me as the same person. he helped me in so many ways, just treating me as he had before. most of my guy friends kept their distance, they didn't want to be mistaken as the dad. jay still treated me as he had before.

for that, i will forever be grateful.


i would like to ask for you to pray for jay's wife. she has been fighting cancer for too long now. they have a beautiful little boy, and a wonderful family together. please pray for them all.

this is her caringbridge site http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicainchiostro. she is a remarkable woman.

miracle monday (and some other stuff)

the kids are home. they had a great time...you know, almost dying on the river.
that's how they put it...almost dying on the river.
i guess the river is a little high, and well, a little cold. they got the raft stuck under a tree. as it filled with water, my dad said all he saw were the little faces in the raft with him..."thank God i brought the kids that can swim" was what he was thinking. (he brought my 3 oldest...and skipped my 2 neices that are in between haley and grace)


this actually happened when i was a kid, too. except when i was a kid, the raft popped. my dad went under, along with the cooler, and for several terrifying seconds, we didn't know if he was going to come back up.

he did, and he still had the cooler. priorities man! the cooler had all the beer! (the soda was in the kids' cooler).

only half of the raft popped. but it was next to impossible to paddle. so they gave it to us kids, and we took an extra couple of hours (no joke) to paddle it back.

*the place we rented the raft from actually tried to make us pay for the raft...saying that we did it on purpose. i don't think we ever went back there after that.

those were some of the best hours...just me and zack and caleb (my dad's friend's 2 sons that were so very very very cute).

that is one of my most favorite childhood memories. i'm not sure why my dad almost drowning in a river would be, but it is.

anyway, back to the kids. they had a great time. no raft popping, just one lost fishing pole, some name calling, and lots of laughing and fun.

next weekend, my dad gets to help us build a chicken coop.

whooo-hooo! i am so glad he's home from detroit!

now i have to design it, and decide where it will go.

do i put it directly behind the neighbor's house? or ours? or do i move it all the way down by nathan's? who should i stick with the stink?

anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend!

**beth, i'm not sure if this would be considered miraculous...if you don't think it is, feel free to delete the link.

miracle monday

i have been thinking about this post for a while. i guess trying to figure out the right way to put this out there.

when i started high school, my mom asked me about some of the people in my school...you know, names, in case she knew anybody's parents. it is a small world, and as it turned out, she actually knew a couple of people's parents.
one in particular was terry. he was in a wheelchair. our moms were friends in high school. as terry put it "we rode in car seats next to each other". terry's mom had lost her brother tragically, the year before he was born. she named him after her brother. she was young, i think 16 when she married terry's dad, and had terry.
our moms lost touch after both of them moved. they kept up with each other a little through a mutual friend...but really didn't keep up as they should have.
and then we had to move, and i went to high school. and there was terry...in a wheelchair. he had been diagnosed with MD when he was a pre-teen. he had been athletic..played sports, and was a pretty outgoing kid. his parents were told it would be a miracle if he lived to be 18.
terry was a party guy. my husband and several others would go and pick up terry and take him to all the parties. he had lots of friends, even if he couldn't walk, and you had a hard time understanding him sometimes. high school was great for him. he wasn't left out, as some may have been. he lived his life to the fullest.
funny thing about doctors, they aren't always right. terry lived to be 18...and 21...and 30...in fact, he's still around. it hasn't been easy. his MD has progressed.
for his privacy, i won't go into how he's doing as of now...
please pray for him. i had no idea how much pain MD can cause. please pray for his mom, she is having a really hard time right now. please pray for his sister, and the rest of their family.

miracle monday

i spent this weekend with my mom. we have not always seen eye to eye. to say we have "issues" is putting it mildly.
my mom loves me. it may not always be apparent in the choices she's made or her actions, but she truly loves her kids. she has done her best to be a good mom.
we talked quite a bit over dinner saturday night. we talked about when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer (she never had HPV for those who think the vaccine is a cure-all) and when she had her surgery. we didn't get to see her for weeks. that was her choice. she had left my dad about 6 months previous, and we were stuck at my aunt's house, going to a school where we knew no one, and our mom was totally out of commission living at our grandparents' house because she wasn't able to take care of us. i guess is still held a little resentment about this.

and then it happened.

she told me about how hard it had been to not see us. how scared she had been because she hadn't been told about how hard this surgery would be on her physically. i don't think she thought she'd be walking out of the hospital the next day, but to be almost completely unable to walk on her own for weeks...well, that she wasn't prepared for. how, it took all her strength to put on make up for the one and only visit we were able to have with her in the hospital. she waited until she was off of most of the machines (or they were well hidden) so not to scare us more than we already were. (i tend to pass out with that kind of stuff...something i got from my dad.)

i started to see things a little differently. God opened my eyes. i know that as a mother, i make mistakes every day. every single day, i pray that i have done right by my kids. that i haven't done anything that will damage them as a person, or that they will hold against me in their hearts.
i realized that is exactly what i have been doing to my own mom. she has made plenty of mistakes. some she takes responsibility for, some she doesn't. that doesn't matter. i know, mother to mother, that she did the best that she could. she tried. she succeeded for the most part. she didn't raise perfect children, but she did the best she was able to. that has to count for something.
i forgave my mom. in my heart, i know she meant me no harm. she did what she thought was best. that's what really matters. i love her.
thank God my hubby talked me into going with her, and having an open mind and heart.

miracle monday

today's miracle involves my little brother. he's a great guy. he's funny, charming, and a good looking guy (reminds me of myself. heehee). he's also had a drug and alcohol problem from the time we were kids. like preteen years. yeah, that young. there's three of us kids, i'm the oldest. my sister is almost 18 months younger than i am and my brother is 14 months younger than her. so there are 3 of us in less than a 3 year span.
anyway, my brother has been in trouble here and there all through his teen years. he had 2 DUI's before he was 21. but honestly, he hadn't had any since then...until this year. he had 2 more. now, there has been almost 10 years in between the first 2 and the last 2, but he could have been facing up to 7 years in the state prison. he hadn't hurt anyone, or caused any property damage, just got caught. plain and simple. with his third, he didn't seem to "get" it. he was into this "poor me" mind-set. you know, they're out to get him. he was driving my dad crazy. poor dad, i can totally see why his blood pressure is so high...he's had a rough go with us 3. the 3rd of july, he was picked up again. no one knew it. he had gone to see a friend who was in a rodeo, and didn't get back the next morning. my step mom and dad were pretty worried, but couldn't let on because they had all the grand kids there. he called them at 12. he explained what had happened, and that he needed a ride home. my dad went up to get him, and on the ride home, my brother talked to my dad. my brother finally took responsibility for his actions. he realized he needs help, and that pot and alcohol aren't it. he's going to AA and counseling and has made peace with the fact that he may face jail time. he's talking to us. he's opening up. he's not as angry as he had been. he's finally dealing with some of the crap that's been dealt to him since our parents split when he was in 4th grade.
so you see, it's a miracle that he never hurt anyone or himself while driving. it's a miracle that he is finally taking responsibility for his actions. it's a miracle he finally see's that he does have a problem. thank God that he has watched over my brother as much as he has.

please pray for his continued recovery.

miracle monday

hi everyone! i just wanted to update you about jessica. for those of you who may not remember her, or didn't read the original post it's here http://amymomof5.blogspot.com/2008/04/miracle-mondaywell-how-about-asking-for.html.
she is defying the odds, and doing so well now. thank you all for the prayers and support for this woman and her family. please visit her caring bridge page and learn about what a strong and inspiring woman she is. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicainchiostro

miracle monday

ok, i meant to have this ready for last week, but my days got a little confused and as i was getting ready to write it, well, i realized it was tuesday. so i figured i would wait until the next monday to write it...and well, that's today.

well, you all know we had our local county fair a couple of weeks ago. we had to be there every day. every morning, and every afternoon/evening. alex's pig went the first day of the fair, haley's lambs went on wednesday. the animals aren't released until saturday night at midnight, so we have to be there every day, a couple of times a day, to make sure they have food, and clean their pens. it was a very expensive week. besides the fact i wasn't able to babysit, the passes we had to get ended up costing us about $100, the gas to drive there twice a day, plus buying a soda/water, and dinner up there...well, let's just say, the money added up pretty quickly and i was getting pretty short on cash by the end of the week. saturday came and i was down to $30. i had my 5 kids, and grace's little friend with us, and it was lunch time. it was so very hot, and i knew they wouldn't eat a lot, so i bought them some drinks, and told them to pick something small to eat, so i would have enough to buy them some ice cream for the long walk to the car. every one wanted a hamburger or hot dog or huge thing of fried potatoes...and i just didn't have enough money (and i knew they wouldn't eat all of that) so i told them "look guys, i don't have unlimited amounts of cash, if you want an ice cream for the walk home you have to get something small...like one or two dollars". as i was getting their orders ready and counting out my money (just enough to get what they wanted...not enough to get ice cream later) a $10 bill gets put in my hand. a man and his wife overheard me talking to the kids and he told me to get the kids an ice cream. "oh no, (i am red faced with embarrassment over being overheard) please, it's ok." he tells me "get your kids some ice cream". his wife smiled, and he grinned. "please, really, it's ok". "get your kids some ice cream" he says. smiling, he and his wife walk away. i said " thank you" and made the kids say it too (they didn't even know what was going on, but did what they were told.).
the people at the fair were some of the nicest and most helpful people i have ever met. these people volunteer their time to set it up, work the booths, and help out those of us (namely me)that have no clue what we are doing.
they even help out frazzled moms (that have more kids than they know what to do with) get the kids a cool sweet treat on a unbearably hot day. (and $10 was the exact cost to get the kids their ice cream)

ok, maybe 30 isn't as bad as i thought..

last night my family threw a surprise birthday party for me. i was TOTALLY surprised. i had no clue they had this going on. it was at my dad's house. i thought we were going over there because we had started this tradition of the adults going out for an adult's birthday. even when i saw all the cars, i still had no idea. it wasn't until i saw the crowd on the front lawn. my wonderful husband started planning this in may. he did such a fabulous job. i guess my kids had known for a while too...well, at least the older ones. josh and zack had no idea what was going on. the boys and i had had the day to ourselves. we went up to the fairgrounds, we went to a feed store, we went out to lunch, zack helped me wash the pig. it was a great day for us. they were just as shocked as i was.

this is my 3rd surprise party. i have had no idea anything was going on at any of them. my best friend jessica (she was there last night) threw me a surprise going away party when my parents split up and i was having to move away. well, she and her mom (we were like 13). her mom was there last night too. she was like a second mom when i was growing up. i actually called her mom and her husband dad for a time. i practically lived at their house for months before my parents split. i was so glad to see them, and jess's 2 kids. i hadn't seen them since they were like 4 and 2. they are like almost 9 and 7. beautiful, well behaved, and i could totally pick them out of the crowd. brady looks just like he did, jenna is the spitting image of her mommy.
i think jessica threw the second one too. for my 14th or 15th birthday . she and shawn. maybe sara helped too. and my mom helped of course. i can't remember my teen years to well. i want to say my 14th birthday because i wasn't into drugs at that time...and shawn was around a lot then...but i don't remember that well. i just remember thinking (before the party) wow, the house sure is clean. then friends started showing up. i can't believe i have been so blessed with family and friends that find me so worthy of all that planning and sneaking around.

what's funnier is i had told hubby i didn't want a party. no thanks. not because turning 30 bothered me so much. more because i don't like putting my mom and dad and diane in the same room...or town. it is too nerve wracking. i spend the night hoping mom doesn't drink enough to decide she wants to start something. my dad and diane, i don't worry about them. mom, well, she's another story. i would have been sick for weeks had i known about this party. (like i was before my wedding and my sister's wedding...and jeff's 30th party). mom "had a little captain in her" but she was well behaved. i am so glad. (maybe i'll put this in for my miracle on miracle monday)

thanks to my dad, diane, hubby, mom, sister in law deb, for putting this together for me. i have truly been blessed with you all in my life. thanks to all the friends and family that came. you people totally rock! for those that couldn't make it, i'm sorry you missed it, it was a great time.
thanks to my kiddo's. you didn't spill the beans, you decorated the house so beautifully, and you got along! i couldn't ask for more (except you to help clean the house and your rooms once in a while!). i love you all! thanks to God for putting you all in my life!

miracle monday

hello all! i've been a tad busy with the summer starting and all the kids out of school, so i haven't really posted much at all. here is a miracle that happened right around memorial day this year.

joy is a woman i used to bowl with. she's a really nice woman. she just lost her husband the previous may, and at the time this happened she had 2 of her daughters living with her. one daughter is mentally handicapped, and the other is going through a divorce.

i am sure you have all heard about the flooding here in the midwest. the mississippi jumped it's banks and flooded many towns and fields...janet's miracle happened before all this.

memorial weekend, we got around 9 inches of rain in one night. i'm not sure exactly when because we were on vacation in florida at the time. places that have never flooded before were under water. joy lived next to a creek. she had lived there for 20+ years. the water had surrounded her house once before, but never had it come inside. at least, not until that night. she was home with her daughters, and the storm was raging. she looked outside and saw the creek had risen quite a bit, enough to make her tell her girls to leave the house. they were finally able to get her handicapped daughter to leave the house, the water was at the door. joy went back in to get her purse and some belongings, and leave by the front door. as she tried to step onto her porch, she couldn't find it. it was gone! the water was at her waist by this time. she looked to the neighbor's house and it was not in the same place. at first she thought his house was moving, but she noticed the power lines, and realized her house was the one moving. she tried to get out the back door, but the furniture was all floating in the way. the house caught a power line and snapped it. she felt a slight buzzing sensation in her legs. her neighbors called 911 and the firefighters tried to decide what to do. they decided the best thing to do was to wait until the water had gone down some before mounting a rescue. when the water was down to only a couple of feet, they got geared up and went in to save joy.

her house was a total loss. she didn't have flood insurance. the cars were the only things insurance covered. thanks to her church, and many friends, she is on her own and has some belongings.
joy is not a good swimmer. had that furniture not blocked her path, she may have tried to swim for it. flood water overcomes even strong swimmers. (that's why the firefighters had to wait before going in to save her) she wouldn't have survived it. her house stayed intact while traveling 50 feet in a raging flood. God was with her that night.

this is the article about joy that came out recently. http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/07/02/news/sj2tn20080701-0702stc-pokin0.ii1.txt

miracle monday

hello dear readers! i would like to share what happened to a friend a couple of years ago. jeff (the friend not my hubby) is the step dad of one of alex's friends. he's a really nice guy, very "faith" filled man. he lost his mom to breast cancer when he was pretty young. he's a great dad. he's also a duck hunter. a very avid duck hunter, as are many men out in our parts. (not my hubby though) he and several of his friends have a really nice duck blind...complete with a cooking stove and chairs, a lower level...very nice. this cook stove is a propane stove. he arrived early one morning so he could get some breakfast cooking before his friends got there, and when he went to light the stove....

BOOOOM!!!!!!!

the stove had been left on a little, or there was a slight leak in the tank, no one is really sure, but the result was the same...the lower level of the blind had filled with propane. when he went to light the stove, it exploded and blew him into the water. his friends heard the explosion and called 911 on their cell phones, as they rushed to him. he was in the hospital for over a month recovering from the burns on his arms, hands, and face.

there are so many miraculous things that came together here for this man.
1. he was the only one in the blind, it could have been so much worse had they all been there.
2. he didn't bend down to light the stove, he just lit the match and lowered his hand. his burns would have been so much worse, possibly could have caused his death.
3. he was blown into the water. had he not hit the water, his burns would have been worse.
4. his friends were right there.

this man's wife spent every day at that hospital with him. they had friends that spent every day with them, helping them with their kids, helping them at the hospital. they had our parish praying for them constantly.

today, i am so happy to say, he has really no visible scars. there are no scars on his face at all. there may be slight scarring on his arms, but you can't tell. he is a different man. before his accident, he was involved in so many church committees. he is taking things a little slower now. he's appreciating life more now.

this man is truly a miracle.

miracle monday

hello all!
i have been thinking a lot about the birth of my second child. the birth of any child is a miracle in own right, but haley's was a little more complicated...for me at least.
i found out i was pregnant with haley a couple of months before i turned 20. we were really excited, i knew she was going to be a girl. lucky me, i had a grandparent die while i was pregnant with my first 3 kids. with alex, it was my great grandpa, with haley, it was my grandma. she was only in her 60's. it was tough. even tougher was the fact that i delivered my haley in the same hospital that my grandma died in. it was so very hard on my dad, my grandpa, and my uncle (he visited me with every kid).
anyway, i measured big with haley. in fact, the doctor mentioned the possibility of twins. no, no twins, just a big baby. i had a great doctor. he took me seriously when i mentioned some concerns about having a baby over 9 pounds. "you think she'll be that big?" he asked me. i did. he said he'd induce me a week early. that's as early as he could do it without medical cause for the insurance company. well, haley had other plans. my water broke 2 weeks before my due date. she weighed 8 pounds, 15 oz. for 2 weeks early, that's a good sized baby. as miraculous as having another healthy baby was, that isn't the end of the story.
haley was born at 11:45 am. they decided to leave my IV in for a while. my epidural had actually worn off during her delivery, and so i was feeling a little worn out. we had lots of visitors, and a little boy that wanted to meet his new sister, so i lost track of time. i think between 12 and 6:30 pm, i had one nurse come in to ask me if i had to go to the bathroom. i didn't. i didn't think that was strange. i really didn't think about it at all. not until i realized i hadn't gone in 6+ hours and had an IV in the whole time.
i asked the nurse if she could come in and help me go to the rest room. i still didn't feel like i needed to go, but i figured i needed to try. that's when all "H E double hockey sticks". as the nurse helped me to sit up, i felt a rush of warmth, and felt really light headed. as i stood up, the blood just gushed. apparently when your bladder gets really full, it stops your uterus from contracting..well, that and the trauma of having a huge baby. the nurse called for more help, and the two together tried to get me to the bathroom with out dropping me. i felt my legs a little, but i kept almost passing out. i still couldn't pee. they couldn't get me to stop bleeding. they carried me back to the bed, and called the doctor. my poor husband was there watching this all while (hang on a sec, while i compose myself) holding our new baby. needless to say, the man was scared to death. at this time, my dad and little brother show up. i told jeff to take the baby and go in the hall while they worked on me. the doctor had to catheterize me again. it took for ever, and i was feeling everything. i was so scared...scared i would never have any more kids, scared that i wouldn't see my family again. they finally were able to get the bleeding under control. i wasn't allowed to get up without at least 2 nurses. they brought in one of those potty chairs, that's what i had to use for the following day. they left the IV in until i left the hospital.
i didn't need blood. i didn't need to stay any extra time. i went on to have 3 more children (we had to be very cautious after each birth because i had the same problem with all the others). i was blessed with a beautiful little girl, a doctor that shared my faith, and a grandma that i know was watching out for me and her little namesake.

for more miracles, head on down to beth's at http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com/. if you have any miracles, she'd love to hear them!
tell your friends, family, shoot, perfect strangers about her blog. we need to hear more miracles!

miracle monday

sorry about missing last week! this post has been on my mind for a few weeks now, but i wasn't sure about how to post this. here it goes.

my niece celebrated her first communion a couple of weeks ago. her class is a great class...nice kids, nice parents...but it is a very special class. you see, there are 28 kids in this class. there are about 210 kids in our entire school (that's pre-k through 8th grade). out of the 28 kids, 3 have lost a parent to cancer. out of the 28 kids, one child has had cancer...twice. there is also another child with a major illness.
this could be a class of tragedy, but it isn't. this could be a class of sadness and loss. it isn't. these kids, and their parents have come together as a small community. they have supported each other, they have banded together. when the little girl with cancer had a relapse, the parents of this class had a fundraiser and raised over $30,000 in one night!
i think the best thing about this class is...they are still kids. they aren't little adults dealing with issues that are hard for adults to deal with. they are kids, and they continue to be kids. they are truly inspirational to see.

welcome miracle monday readers

today, i will tell you about my mom. when my mom was 31, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. (she had never had HPV) she had to have a radical hysterectomy (her uterus, cervix, and lymph nodes were removed, but she was able to keep her ovaries), and recovered. she didn't tell us (kids) that it was cancer, my dad told us...after her surgery. they had been split up for about 6 months when she had her surgery, but he still wanted to be there for her...and us.

this isn't the miracle.

two years ago, my mom was having problems with pain in her back and abdomen. she went to the doctor and found out she had a cyst or tumor on her ovary the size of a softball. she had already had problems with her thyroid having tumors (non cancerous), but the doctor was sure that she had ovarian cancer. she had surgery, the doctors took out the tumor and both her ovaries, and thank God it wasn't cancer. the doctors were mystified. she had been so sure she would have to tell my mom she cancer. my mom said, "God told me it was just a tumor, and i was going to be ok."

for more miracles, go see beth at http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com .
please continue to pray for jessica and her family. the numbers haven't looked good.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicainchiostro

thanks everyone.

miracle monday

first off, i would like to thank everyone who has prayed for jessica and her family. if you would like to see the impact it has had, please go to her caring bridge site.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicainchiostro
read her last journal entry...

as for the miracle...
my hubby is the sixth of seven children. the oldest five were born in a five and a half year spread (yes, my mother in law is a saint) and my husband was born nine years after the fifth, and five years later his younger brother came along. this is just some background info on his family, so you can see where my sister in law was coming from.

my husband's oldest sister is the most maternal woman i have ever met. she was born to be a mom. she helped to raise my husband and his younger brother. she couldn't wait to be a mom. she and her husband started trying for a family when she was in her late twenties. a year went by, no pregnancy. she started seeing doctors. they couldn't find anything wrong with her. they put her on fertility drugs and hormones, still no pregnancy. she was miserable. her husband was miserable. they wanted a child so badly.
they had been trying for 3 or 4 years when everyone found out about that i was pregnant. it tore my poor sister in law up, knowing that she had been trying so hard for so long, and here we were trying not to and get a baby. it was so hard on everyone.
she went to a new doctor after our son was born. low and behold, he found a tumor the size of a softball in her uterus. her womb was the size it should be if she was three or four months pregnant. all of the medications she had been taking, had worked, but with the tumor there, she miscarried each pregnancy before she missed her period. she never even knew she had been pregnant. they removed the tumor in november, she was pregnant in december, and our nephew was born in august, two weeks before my oldest child's first birthday!
my nephew is my oldest's best friend. he's a great kid, smart, funny, friendly and helpful. he's also stubborn, and has a bit of a wild streak. he has enriched our lives.

for more miracles check out beth's blog http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com/
please keep praying for jessica and her family! it's making a difference!

miracle monday...well, how about "asking for a miracle" monday

i know, today is a day when we tell about miracles we have witnessed. i have seen miracles happen after a community prays. i could give examples, but instead i would like to ask for some help.
i was friends with joe in high school. in fact, he was one of the few people that didn't treat me any different after i found out i was pregnant with alex. he and i had been "close" our freshman year, and became friends again senior year. he is one of the strongest people i have ever met, and truly one of the coolest.
anyway, we drifted apart after high school. he went to college, and i began my family, but i still think of him as a friend and wish nothing but the best for him and his family.
this is where you all come in...his wife has a rare form of leukemia that usually children get. she has had her second bone marrow transplant, and it isn't really working. in fact the doctors have told her any treatment she receives will only be to buy her more time, not for a cure. she is young...she is a mom of a young child...and a wife. she has a great heart and awesome sense of humor...i have never met her, and yet, i hope you all will join me in praying for her and her family. even if her miracle is just some more quality time with her husband and son, please pray for them!
that being said, here is her caring bridge site. please visit it. you will see what a wonderfully strong woman she is.
www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicainchiostro
thank you all for reading this!
thank you beth, for creating miracle mondays.
please stop my beth's blog and see the miracles.
http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com