Latest Tyson News

Good News:
Tyson is growing! He is up to 21.5 lbs! His kidneys have sort of leveled off...meaning they are not getting worse very rapidly.

Bad News:
Since Tyson has not been using his bladder or urethra they are not working properly. We are going in a week from today for the first of many surgeries to try and remedy this urinary tract problem. We have to fix the bladder & urethra before the kidney transplant or his body will not be able to process the urine the good kidney will produce...in effect ruining the good kidney.

Please keep us in your prayers that the surgery next week goes flawlessly and that we can resolve all of the problems before his kidneys get much worse.

Love to you all!
~Annie

Blessings!!

So I have been in a funk lately and this will be a good exercise for me. I need to write down all the blessings I have and thank God for them. It is not that I have not been thankful, I have just been out of it in a weird way. I am praying it is not anything huge that is making me crazier then normal for another month. I need on more month to get my head together. Cool here we go.

1.I have a Father in Heaven who loves me so much that He sent His only son to die on the cross for my sins and short comings.
2. I have a husband who loves and adores me and whom I love very much and after 9 years I find him a lot sexier now:)
3. I have the most beautiful kids ever and even while driving home yesterday from Barbies with Taylor whining and Brecken screaming I still sat there thinking I love this and I would not even trade this moment for anything. I love being their mommy! They have no idea the impact they have made on my life and if they could only realize how much I love them. They cannot know though until they have children. They are truly miracles and I honestly wake up loving the fact that I get to take care of them for another day.
4. My mom. We have been talking a lot lately and I have loved every minute of it. I never knew how much she loved me or why she did the things she did until I had Taylor. I love my mom and she is one of the strongest woman I know for all the things she has had to go through and the things she is still going through. I do not think I understood a lot of it until our talk the other night but now I feel like I understand better. She did things a lot of other moms never had to and that I pray I never have to. I just hope she realizes how beautiful she is and that God only allowed all this to happen because He knew she was strong enough to handle it. She may wonder why He brought her and my dad together in the first place but I would not have the loving brothers that I do or these beautiful children if their marriage had never happened. I love you mom:)
5. My friends...oh my I love that I have some of the best friends ever. I have a wonderful mommies group who has helped me through deployments with my sanity and I just wish they could all know how much they mean to me. My best friend Annie is my life saver in Colorado and I know she thinks I avoid Colorado because everybody is crazy there (sorry but you all are) but she is wrong. I love going out there and I love her so much and that baby boy she is being a mommy too. She has no idea how much I look up to her! I love that bean she is carrying in her belly too. I wish I could be there to be their Aunt Jenny. I will love them Skype style:) I also love my military issued family. Jenna and Ryan and Jax have been my family away from family. Ryan is the brother I wish I never had...LOL!! Jax is so cute and I can't wait to see him grow up. Jenna is my BFF Forever and I am glad I have someone here to keep me sane in the middle of all these crazies. We may butt heads a lot Jenna but you know it is because we have similar personalities. I am not sure if that is a good thing. Our poor kids have to deal with us. Haha. Anyways I love you for letting me be me and not judging. I had too many friends that did that before.
6.I have a home, running water, I can clothe my children and myself, I can pay all my bills, I have food on the table, cars that run and money in the bank...sorta. I am taking care of in every way and have no excuse to complain about anything. I am spoiled and I am repenting for that on a daily basis for taking that all for granted.
7. I am healthy. My kids are healthy. My husband is healthy.

No complaints today. No worries. No pity party. I really want to use my time today to be humbled and understand the blessings I have in amounts that I do not deserve.

Lord, thank You for everything You have blessed us with. I have no reason to come to You with a complaint. I am blessed beyond what I deserve. I am loved by my family and most of all You. I have Your book to try and live by and I know how much value that is too me. I have complained and criticized what I have while You patiently sat back until I was done with my temper tantrum. I now ask for your forgiveness. I deserve nothing more then hell from You and yet You still try in every way to bring me closer to You. I can never understand the love You feel for me but I want to except it. Forgive me and just be with me today and everyday. Humble me to know I have all this because of You and no one else.
Amen

Courtney Griffin

It has been 3 years! Gees. Well today I actually woke up and the ache in my heart that I get every September 11th was not as bad. I was actually a little more happy about the fact that I got so many years with her. Remembering all the things we did actually made me laugh (and cry a little) but in a good way. Although she died too young, I know there was a reason. When I got pregnant with Brecken, one of my first things was to call her. It was a split second of not remembering she was gone. I still dream of her often. Of just hanging out. At the end of every dream though I either remind her that she is gone or she reminds me. Anyways....

Courtney! Here is to you today! I love the way you always found a joke in everything (even when we got mad at eachother). I love the fact that Taylor got to meet you and wish beyond all else that the rest of my kids would have been able to know what a wonderful and caring person you were. Although they will hear my many storeis of us getting into trouble and how you brought me and their daddy together. I know everybody says this about anybody they know who has passed on but you were the real deal. You always cracked me up and you were one of the reasons I have my family now! Thank you for locking Doug up until he told you he was going to ask me to prom...lol. I love you Courtney! I miss you more than you know. I love you I love you I love you!!!

Tyson Update

Here is the e-mail I got from Annie


We went in for some tests a week ago and it appears Tyson has some other major issues we need to deal with. As you know Tyson has a hole in his belly that bypasses the blockage in his urethra. This has made it so his bladder and urethra have not been used like normal, the size and muscle tone of both are significantly low.

The urologist is very concerned that if we don't get the bladder and urethra working properly that he may reject a new kidney because the bladder/urethra will not be able to process the urine and cause a backup...again.

So...the course of action is this...we go in for a day surgery on October 2nd to remove the blockage in the urethra and put in a catheter. Every two weeks we will put in a slightly larger catheter to get the urethra to grow. The hole he currently pees through will remain until the urethra is usable. The urologist will get on his transplant team so we can have the timing right for working on the bladder as well.

Please keep Tyson in your prayers...God has total control of this entire situation!
We love you all!
Love,
Pete, Annie & Tyson

Other news is that he has gained another couple pounds and is up to 20 pounds. Only 2 more to go! Great news on that!

Keep her family in your prayers.

Also I have a friend Jenna who is BFF Forever that went in for a biopsy. Pray for her that all is good and everything comes back clean. Also her husband is going to France for 6 weeks so pray for his wellbeing...and hers for when he is gone.

I go in for my thyroid test in the next 2 weeks. Just pray that it is gone. I just do not want to deal with medication. I cannot remember where I put my kids half the time much less having to take medication.

I will post Taylors first day of school later.

Peace

The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless his people with peace. Psalm 29:11

Wow....give some of that. I need me some peace. So a lot of people are wondering why my blogs lately have been....off. I was looking for a devotional for military wives on the internet and could not find one. It drove me a little crazy because I found other things but not what I was looking for. So frustrated I closed the laptop. Little voice? Yes little voice. "Do it yourself." LOL!! No problem! I am so very spiritual and know exactly what I am talking about!! HAHAHAHA!! NOT!! Besides nobody will listen. "Why do you have to have people listen? Isn't this for you? If they do, great!...if not so what?" Cool...so that is why. More for me because I need a reason to sit up and put things together in my head. I am going to just pick a verse and figure out what it means to me in a military wife and mommy sort of way and blog it:) If you wanna read, awesome!! I hope you get something. If not...cool beans:) I will still throw in my blogs about life and family so no worries all my fans who stalk me:)

Okay so back to the verse. Oh man. Definitely do not feel that peace all the time do we? Or the strength for that matter BUT if you really look at what we as military wives are doing day by day then we kind of do. We have to send our husbands away for huge amounts of time, sometimes to places that they could not come home from, and go on with life like no big deal. That is a lot of strength and for me takes a lot of peace. If you really sit and think about it how do we not scream our way into insanity? So many woman have told me that they would die if they were away from their husbands for a week much less a year. I know my strength is through Him. Trying to love my husband without putting that wall up is probably one of the most difficult things to do. At the beginning of our marriage I would keep Doug at a distance so that if anything happened to him it would not hurt as bad. I do that with most people. As we have gone through this "military" journey together, the wall has slowly started coming down which is scaring me but at the same time giving me peace to trust that God will bless me with the strength to deal with what I have too.

On a different note this is helping with other things. I have been feeling pretty inadequate lately. Not with my husband or my children but with friends and other family. When you hear over and over again that you are just not good enough...not said in so many words by people but you get the jist....you start to believe it. I know just this morning I started putting up my mental wall with someone just because I was so tired of hearing how I did not compare. I started thinking...maybe it is time for me to back off and let this one ride out without me. Then I realized I was doing what so many had done to me. If they did not like what I was going through then they ditched out. These were more or less my "christian" friends too. I don't wanna do that. I know that I just need to pray for that strength for them and that peace for me. Army life is hard. We all have our trials and tribulations. The peace and strength He has given me is awesome though. I have more then I deserve and I honestly think that everyday. I do not under any circumstances deserve anything more then God sending me to hell. Cold hard truth people. Although for some reason He sent His son to die on the cross and gave me another chance. Then on top of that handed me some of the best blessings ever. My husband. My kids. A home and secure job. He loves me a lot more then I deserve. I still pray for these 2 things everyday. Especially being a military wife and mommy. The best part is He always delivers:)

B is for Bee

But as for me, I will look to the Lord... Micah 7:7

Hmmm....funny that this verse popped out at me today. It kind of ties in with yesterday. Love that:) Situation after situation I sit and think how on earth am I going to solve this problem. First mistake....thinking the first place to go is somewhere on earth...haha. The other day we got paid our first check with Doug being home and having 2 kids. Obviously it was a little different since you are paid a lot more when deployed and we never had to take care of both our kids on a non deployed check. Hmmm...how to pay all the bills and still have enough for other things like groceries and fun? My first thought was we just will not put any money back. We can go the next couple months without saving money since we saved a chunk when he was deployed. I felt pretty okay with that. Still wish we had a little more....maybe we will take the next couple of months and not tithe. As I thought this I felt the knot in my stomach tighten and avoided the feeling I got with the thought of not tithing. After a while I actually felt okay about this....we will pay it back...right? Man did that just make me feel like I was stealing from someone and justifying it by saying we would pay it back. So as I am putting clothes away later that night, again that voice in my head (people are going to start thinking I hear voices) again being the Holy Spirit saying "You do not trust me to take care of you? I have promised you over and over again that I would take care of you and how much I love you and your family and I have even proven time after time without flaw that I will take care of you." Aw man!! Why does He always sneak up on me like that!!

Why is it so hard to look to the Lord even though we have time after time had Him prove to us that that is the perfect answer? We have this resource that is perfect and we fail to use it as often as we should which is all the time! I am so very guilty of this. Each thing that I have placed in His hands has turned out way better then the things I have tried to do on my own. You would think I would learn...haha. Well that is the beauty of growing in Him is realizing how hard it was before we took His advice. He really does want to take us so much further then we could imagine and if we just keep our focus on Him it will work out for the best.

Footprints

"....why would you leave me in a time that I needed you the most? Jesus turned to me and said "When you only see one set of footprints in the sand, that is when I picked you up and carried you."

That is my all time favorite. As a military wife and mom you start out pretty excited to do what you do. You get to be the wife of a soildier (although when you start out you do not realize that being a wife to a PFC is not all the bells and whistles you had hoped it would be) even so, how many of us started off with the whole fantasy of having a man in uniform? I remember when I was little wishing I could find my prince and pretty much run away. A lot of you know that I was not in the best circumstances when I was young so running away was what I wanted to do. Go somewhere nobody knew me and start completely over. As it would have it God thought that was a pretty good idea:) Found my prince junior year of high school and never looked back. We moved half way across the country and here I am. The wife of a soilder! Life is just as glorious as I excpected. Wrong!

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love my husband and my kids. I love the life that God has provided us. I truely believe we are ment to be a military family. There are days though that I want to throw my hands in the air and just give up. I want to throw myself on the floor and pound my fists and kick my feet and scream. I sometimes see kids do this and at times feel sad that the parents had let that happen but at the same time envy the kid. I wanna do that!

I believe God will not hand us anything we cannot deal with. I used to say that I knew I was strong enough to handle all of this. Then I had a long talk with a friend whom I always looked up too. She said something that stuck with me. That when we put willpower as our main focus of being able to overcome an addiction, it is just not going to work. It got me to thinking. She is right. Instead of sitting here thinking about how I can control myself on anything, why not run and put it on Jesus? There are so many things that I and many of my friends have tried to take control of and as soon as we give up and let Him have it we are at peace and whatever we were working for comes so much easier. Kind of like being a parent. There are things that my daughter does that I just sit and think, "If you would just listen to me you would not have hurt yourself! Don't you think I am looking out for your best interest?" Then that little voice (Holy Spirit) in the back of my head goes "Really? That is odd because I seem to remember us going through this EVERYDAY!!"

When my husband was deployed, and I know everybody can relate to this on some level, I had days that I just could not do it. I had days that I would curl up in my bed after putting the kids to sleep and just sob. I would beg Him to pick me up and carry me. I was too weak and too tired to do it anymore. I swear as soon as I let Him take control I could feel His arms around me. I could hear Him telling me that I was not alone and that He was not going to let me fall. Those were the nights I would fall asleep talking to Him. Makes me think....shouldn't we do this more often?

So for everybody that is going through something, seriously, just fall. Let Him catch you. Why not? You can't do it alone anyways. The more I roll this over in my mind the more I want to chase Him and let Him control my life. Just some thoughts to ponder:)