Last week Kinsley swam in her first high school swim meet. She swam the 50y freestyle and was a member of the 200y freestyle relay. What fun it was to watch her swim! She originally wanted to swim in order to stay in shape for track this spring (she finished cross country just before she started swim practice the beginning of November). However, we are beginning to think she has found a new love!
What a beautiful smile!
Kinsley has swum competitively before. She, Madison, and Mollie were on our neighborhood swim team for several years before our summers became too busy to make it to most of the meets. I just have to share a one of my all-time favorite pictures. It hangs over our sink in our kitchen.
With all that is going on with Dad, I have a new understanding for those for whom the Christmas season is a painful reminder of all they yearn for, of all they have lost, or for all they mourn. One of my struggles over the past 2 1/2 weeks is to how to reconcile "the most wonderful time of the year" with the agony that is very real in this world. While I know that our family Christmas traditions are very important for our girls, my heart has had a hard time embracing the joy and anticipation of the season.
God spoke to me this week when He reminded me, "This is what I came for, Brooke...to save a fallen world, to offer forgiveness for sins, to redeem the brokenhearted, and to bring my followers into eternal life where sadness and sickness are no more." While I have always known that Christmas means more than Christmas trees, gifts, and yummy treats, that understanding is more real to me this year than ever before. Just a few hours after the Lord whispered this sweet reminder to me, Kinsley shared this song with me. Coincidence? I think not. My family has been surrounded by prayers over the past 2 1/2 weeks, and one of God's sweet answers to prayers was this truth revealed to me in my sadness.
We will celebrate Christmas this year. I feel quite sure it will be a different celebration than in years past, but I am also confident there will be a renewed joy and anticipation in my heart and, hopefully, the hearts of those I hold dear.
I had all good intentions of updating this blog regularly, and then real life took over. In mid-November, the doctors confirmed that my dad has a tumor inside his aorta that needs to come out. They scheduled the surgery for November 26, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Early Thanksgiving Day, my dad suffered a spinal hemorrhage that was likely a complication from the tumor. Within a matter of minutes, he lost all feeling and movement below the waist. He had surgery late Thanksgiving evening to drain the hemorrhage. The doctors were hoping that once the hemorrhage was drained, feeling and movement would return to his legs.
Unfortunately, he has had complication after complication since then. In the days after the surgery he developed critically low blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, and a subdural hemotoma near his brain stem. The complications have left him extremely ill and weak. Rehab to regain his mobility has been put on hold as the doctors work to save his life. Just yesterday, Dad seems to have turned a corner and was alert, talkative, and hungry for the first time in over a week. We are praying for him to continue to improve and to regain the strength needed to work in rehab. He is a fighter, and his strong character and determination will serve him well in the days, weeks, and months ahead.
Madison sang her first full solo in church today! She has sung duets and a solo line or two before, but this morning she sang the anthem entirely by herself. Of course, Lee and I were both complete bundles of nerves so proud of her! She sang a beautiful arrangement of "Though I May Speak." It is my hope that she will use her love of music in worship to God for years to come.
I love reading blogs, but for some reason I have never written one. I adore scrapbooking, but I am perpetually behind in my albums. This blog is an attempt to capture the little moments that make life meaningful so that when I get around to pulling the albums out, I can remember what it is I want to include. Here's to a new journey along the way!
