Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Come on Sing it with me.. Glistening once again With candy canes and silver lanes aglow... no snow here for Christmas yet, ..I'm dreaming of a brown Christmas... But, Christmas starts in your heart, not out the window, so I'm gonna just get myself a nice cup of hot cocoa and a cookie or two, read Luke chapter 2 and listen to some Mormon Tabernacle chior Christmas music. Because... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, Soon the bells will start, And the thing that will make them ring, Is the Carol that you sing, Right within your heart.

Have a fantastic Christmas! make some good memories, make this Christmas one that will stand out in your memory for the rest of your life, and make sure they are good memories. Do something you are proud of, something you want to write home about. Do what you can to make Christmas better for those around you. YOU have been given great blessings, go out and share them....
And Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas now.

letter to the world from a missionary mom

My oldest boy just left on a mission. I really want to pin a note to his shirt...

Dear World,

This is my precious boy, please be kind to him because he loves you, he loves you enough that while other youing men his age are going to college, dating and partying he has volunteered to forgo all that, spend his life savings and dedicate the next two years of his life to bring you a gift. This gift is a simple message and a knowledge of something so wonderful that it has made his life better and given him peace and joy. All he wants to do is share this with you. You may choose to reject his gift, that is your choice, he knows that. But, how will he know who wants this gift if he doesn't ask? So if you are not interested in what he so lovingly offers just smile and say “no thank you” you really don't need to be mean or rude to him, Is being kind to someone who loves you so much such a bad thing to ask? So as a favor to me, his mother, please be kind to him?

With Love

A Missionaries Mom,

Melody

Jim's choice

We told Jim he would have a vote in the decision on weather or not to have the surgeries to help his seizures. We thought it would be wrong to force him to have the surgeries. We went to the doctors to talk about it Friday, at the appointment Jim was saying “no way I don't want any more surgery.” He didn't even want to talk about it, he would get upset if we even suggested talking about it, so we told him when he was ready to discuss it to let us know. Well last night, just before bed, he said he wanted to talk about it, he wanted Dad to make a list of the pros and cons and we talked about it and prayed about it and Jim decided that he wants to do the surgery. So this morning he woke up at 6am wanting to know if we had scheduled it yet. He just wants to do it right away. I do feel better about having the surgery done but, it probably won't happen for a few months because of the doctors and hospital scheduling.

Decisions, Decisions...

We get to make a really tough decision tomorrow. Not one I'm looking forward to . We need to decide weather or not to have Jim go through 2 more brain surgeries that would hopefully make his seizures stop. *ugh* how do you make a decision like that, how much input do you let the kid have? His other brain surgeries he was too young to really understand and the decisions were no brainers, (no pun intended) he was 4 and it was either surgery or die. Now Jim is back up to 2 or 3 seizures a day, he was having 6-12 a day this summer so three seems pretty small in comparison. In fact it seems downright minor compared to what he has been through, unfortunately the seizures seem to be increasing again even though we have been increasing his medication. So if he says he'd rather have the seizures than the surgery do I let him have the final word? Is 10 years old too young to make that decision? If he really wants to not have surgery and we think it best do we force him to do it?