2010 Christmas Letter

                                                                             December 2010

          As Christmas cards and letters slowly filter in, I realize how desperately far behind I am!   It is long past time for me to get busy writing my own annual missive.

          I remember being told that every year will speed by more rapidly than the last.  That is certainly proving to be true!   This past year has, in many ways, been uneventful but in others has seen much change.   

Matthew has grown from a boy to a man, complete with moustache and crackly voice!   He switched schools this year and has benefitted greatly from the change.  He quickly found his niche in his new environment and is doing well socially and academically.  He is enjoying the opportunity to be part of a band and has learned two new instruments.  In addition to continuing to play the piano, he also plays the tenor saxophone and timpani.  In January he will also be trying his hand at guitar. 

Matt played basketball last winter and baseball again in the spring.  He is also part of our church youth group and keeps very busy with their weekly activities.  We have found ourselves in that stage of life where a major part of our parenting job is taxi service!

Dawsyn has experienced a more stable year health-wise than some in our resent past.  She has averaged only 24 seizures a month this year which is a marked improvement on past years.  This decrease in seizure activity has meant that she is better able to learn and we’ve seen considerable improvement in her reading, math and verbal language skills.   However, this past November, we met a new neurologist who is confident that we can have much better seizure control than what we currently have.  He strongly feels that Dawsyn is overmedicated which is something we have been concerned about for years!  He has suggested a number of possible treatments and we have made some big decisions. We are very excited to be reducing her medications and seeing the accompanying alertness and eagerness to learn.  Dawsyn will also be receiving a Vagus Nerve Stimulator which is intended to interrupt seizure activity with electric charges (it is similar to a pacemaker for heart patients).  We look forward to continued improvement in Dawsyn’s overall health and abilities. 

For Ben and I, nothing much seems to change from year to year.   Ben continues to work for UFA and enjoys fishing and photography in his spare time.  We both try to golf a least once a week when the weather allows and are always sad to see the greens covered for the winter.  I continue to do a lousy job of keeping house but do enjoy cooking so manage to at least feed my family decently!  I am still leading a Ladies Bible Study once a week and thoroughly enjoy my preparation and teaching time.

We are at a loss to explain how we somehow went through the entire summer without a holiday or even a weekend camping trip!  We love to camp and were quite disappointed not to have taken the trailer out at all.  We hope to make up for it next summer!   Fortunately, we were able to take our annual trip to Mexico in March and thoroughly enjoyed our time relaxing by the pool, walking the sandy beaches and spending precious time with Paola and her little family.   Our tickets are already booked for our 2011 trip! 

We are looking forward to Christmas here at home and then spending a couple of days with my siblings and their families at Mom and Dad’s over New Years.   To you, we wish a Christmas and New Year filled with God’s peace and blessing!

                                                Love from,

                                                     Ben, Marvel,

Matthew & Dawsyn

P.S.  To see more of Ben's awesome photos, go to http://benandmarvel.wordpress.com.

A Mother's Story

I received this from a friend we met down at 4 Paws.  Her child has autism as a result of vaccinations just like Dawsyn has Dravet's Syndrome as a result of vaccinations.  This will just give you a little glimpse of of what people really and truly have the nerve to say to us!  It truly is inexcusable!!

Your child is more important than mine… 

I want you to read these words and have them reverberate through your body like they do mine. Open your mind and put yourself in our shoes (the ones that know their child was a causality of the vaccine wars). This is what I feel in my heart NOW AND FOREVER. I gave my child for the greater good? But yet I'm called names and made to look like I'm crazy or that my child doesn't count? Why, because he was sacrificed to save yours? My friend Julie Obradovic’s words…

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This is the argument that keeps me up at night. This is the mentality that fried my baby’s brain. This is the rationale behind a vaccine program that is out of control, completely corrupt, and responsible for damaging millions and millions of lives. As long as the belief is that those damaged millions are justification for the billions, it’s okay. As Angelina Jolie says in her summer movie Wanted, “Kill one. Save a thousand.” But what about when that “one” is yours? When that “one” could have and should have been saved? When that “one” turns out not to be “one” but an entire generation of children across the globe? Well, that’s when I get angry. I have yet to meet one parent of a vaccine injured child, or a vaccine injured person, who is okay with what happened because they take comfort in knowing their sacrifice was for the greater good. The only people who believe they should are those that have the luxury of not having made a sacrifice, and worse, believe that sacrifice somehow made them safer. Only they don’t even believe they have to say “thank you” to those of us that lost. They believe they were entitled to it. To any and all who may feel that way, let me make this clear: You were never entitled to my child’s life, and I never had any intention of giving it to you.

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 AND here's a quote for you.....

Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect and I don't live to be. But before you start pointing fingers...make sure your hands are clean.

                                                      -Bob Marley

You made the statement to me the other night “I know something happened to your son with vaccines but I’m pro vaccine and they save lives.”  Fine, be “pro vaccine” but what you said was cold and absolutely HEARTLESS. I would never have said something like this to you as I am a mother. Would you say the same thing to a mother that had a child with cancer? No, but it’s ok to say it to a mother that has a child damaged by the very thing she was told would make her child safe.

There is so many things about this you can’t possibly understand so I will give you the benefit of the doubt…you really didn’t mean to be rude, ignorant heartless, self-centered, uncaring for the welfare of another child.

Before you make blanket statements about vaccines consider this, my child lives everyday with bleeding eczema, gut pain so bad you could only have nightmares about it. He can not communicate his wants or needs because his vaccine brain damage as rendered him speechless. He is not potty trained at 6 yrs old. He is in a special needs class.

My child was born perfectly normal. His Apgar scores were fantastic. There was nothing wrong with him physically or mentally when I gave birth to him. My son could draw at 15 months. He could feed himself. He had a great vocabulary. Then the Pediatrician gave him MMR, Verivax (chicken pox) and Prevnar 7 on the same visit. 

You may seem to think this is excessive but it is now standard procedure to give this same combo to children as young as 12 months. That night my son had a seizure and never came back and when I take my son to doctor after a frantic evening in the ER, I’m told “No, he must be epileptic it wasn’t the immunizations.”

I want you to remember before you make these types of statements that there are REAL children behind the suffering. There are REAL parents that watched their baby never come back.

You may not believe that vaccines cause autism but you don’t know the whole story because you haven’t dug deep enough. You listen to what your doctor/the CDC/the media tell you to believe. Blanket statement about a subject that you have no real knowledge on is what Mr Lowry calls a fallacy. In all honesty, if you knew and read the peer reviewed studies that I have from our own government about vaccines and brain damage you would never stick another needle in your child. There is a whole world of special interests and back door deals when it comes to the multi-billion dollar industry of vaccines. The vaccine schedule has increase by over 600% in the last 25 yrs and a 6000% increase in autism. That’s not a typo, 6000% increase. If you caused a 6000% increase in a developmental disorder wouldn’t you try to hide it too?

I know you probably don’t have any interest in finding out any of this information but I can enlighten you with information that the government doesn’t want you to hear or know. AND NO, I’m not a conspiracy theory nut. This is in black and white and is there to find if you’re looking for it.

Take a good hard look at the picture I’ve given you. Remember that this is my beautiful child. This is the little boy that suffers everyday because *I* believed I was doing the right thing by vaccinating him I was a nurse, I believed in the system. I thought all vaccines were tested effectively and in combination with each other. I was wrong. One ingredient and one vaccine have been studied, MMR and Thimerasol/mercury. Too top it off, the mercury study is now facing some very harsh criticism and may not hold water. NOT all 16 vaccines on the schedule have been tested for cumulative effects on an infant’s brain.

I am a real mother that sacrificed my baby for the greater good and instead of thanking me…you told me that my child didn’t matter.

Your compassion is astounding.



Hope Rising

The funny thing about hope is, you don't always realize that you've run out of it.  That is, until someone give you a glimpse of what could be!  I think that over the past couple of years, without really realizing it, our hope tank had run very close to dry.  It makes sense now, actually.  I can see that my negative attitudes, darkening moods and my pulling away from relationships were just that … lack of hope.  Well, that and menopause!

How could I lose hope and not even realize it?  I can trace it back.  From Dawsyn’s first seizure in February of 2002 until early 2006, Dravet’s Syndrome had been a part of our life but we never let it consume us.  In ’06, it took over with a vengeance!  For over a year, we took weekly ambulance trips to Children’s Hospital because we couldn’t stop the seizures.  Our happy, bright, beautiful girl was rapidly disappearing and was being replaced by a drooling, non-verbal child with dull eyes.  We could barely recognize her anymore.  Our hope, however, was intact!

We kept fighting to bring her back.   For three years we tried everything, homeopathy, diet, meds, more meds, different meds.  We tried anything and everything to help us gain control over the seizures.  Nothing helped … but we continued to hope.  In 2007 we began to keep detailed records.  She had 1648 seizures that year totalling over 11 hours.  We hoped she’d get better.  In 2008, she had 1938 seizures totalling over 17 hours.  We started a new treatment in November 2008 and hoped it would help.  It did.

The monthly intravenous immunoglobulin infusions (IVIG) resulted in a decrease to 363 seizures (3.34 hours) in all of 2009 and only (can I really say ONLY?) 264 seizures (3.27 hours) in 2010 to date.  We’ve stabalized!

Dawsyn started to return to us.  The sparkle in her eyes, the mischief, the smile (although usually quite twitchy) and the laughter had returned to our lives.  She ever so slowly started to recover lost skills and learn new ones.

We were pleased but couldn’t help but feel that we could be doing more.  She could be better yet.   The meds had not worked before we started IVIG; they were not working now, so let’s lose them.  They cause behaviour problems and are definitely a deterrent to learning.

Every attempt we made to speak to our neurologist about this issue was met with a firm “NO”.  The attitude we constantly received was, “She has stabilized.  Don’t mess with success.  Leave well-enough alone.  This is as good as you’re going to get.”  Our last appointment with him was when we decided to try the IVIG in late 2008.  Other than a couple of brief (5 minutes or less) visits from him while Dawsyn received her infusion, we have not spoken to a neurologist for the past 24 months.  Hope began to wane.

Two years of little change in seizure activity, we began to believe that this was going to be the way it was going to stay … unless it got worse.  There was no hope of it getting better.  “This is as good as you are going to get it” began to seep into our bones as hope seeped out.

I had to walk away just now.  Sometimes the anger and the tears overwhelm me and I have to “take a breath”.   The Oilers lost to San Jose, 4-3.  Everyone is off to bed now and I WILL finish this.

Friday, November 12, during Dawsyn’s latest IVIG infusion, I received a call from the Neurology Clinic.  Our former neurologist has moved away and someone new has come.  He wants to see us … immediately!  We could have an appointment as early as Monday.  “Seriously, MONDAY?  We’ve not been able to get an appointment for two years and we can get in by Monday?”   Apparently, Dr. Rho is anxious to meet us and go over Dawsyn’s case. 

I couldn’t wrap my mind around it and booked an appointment for two weeks down the road so that Ben could be sure to get the day off work.

Dr. Rho cut right to the chase.   Epilepsy can be dealt with in a number of different ways.  There’s drug therapy, immuno-therapy, diet and surgery.  For Dravet’s patients, brain surgery is seldom an option because the seizures are not limited to only one spot on the brain.  They have no one focal point. 

One look at Dawsyn and he says, “She’s way over medicated!”   The meds obviously were not working before we started IVIG, IVIG was definitely helping, why is Dawsyn still on the meds?  Any of this sound familiar?   First order of business, remove meds!  Ben says, “Oh, I’m gonna like you!”  

Next order of business, Dawsyn obviously responds well to immuno-therapy.   We could bump up the IVIG schedule or add a week-long dose of prednisone between IVIG treatments.  Side-effects?  Relatively less that the drugs she is currently on. 

Another option is to try a modified version of the ketogenic diet again.  We tried the ketogenic diet for nine months back in 2006/07.  It reduced the number of seizures for the first couple of months but then lost its efficacy. 

He told us about a treatment they use often in the US but is not used much here in Canada.   Why?  We’re not sure.  It’s called a Vegus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) and involves surgery.  The Vegus Nerve is a major communication link between the body and the brain.  It delivers impulses to different parts of the brain.  The VNS consists of a pulse generator (a toonie size disc) that is fitted beneath the skin under your left collarbone or close to the left armpit where it is almost invisible.  Two fine wires are run just under the skin to the left vagus nerve in your neck.  These wires carry the impulses from the pulse generator to the vagus nerve.  The regular impulses of VNS Therapy help prevent the electrical irregularities that cause seizures. 

We were in just a little shock!  What is this you are telling us?  We have OPTIONS?  Half of my brain was screaming, “WE HAVE OPTIONS!”  while the other half was raging, “Why the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks are we just hearing about this now??”

We’ve been sent home with a plan!  Really, a plan?  I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.  First priority is to wean Dawsyn off the drugs.  We started today!  We know that this will probably involve break-through seizures as her poor med-addicted little body will rebel against us taking them away after all this time.  However, the end result will be a little girl who does not have to think through a cloud of medication.  We fully expect to see a new child with unlimited learning potential when all is said and done!

Our next job is to study the information we brought home with us and decide what to do next.  It was an easy decision for us.  We will call the Clinic on Monday and ask them to set up an appointment for us with the neuro-surgeon to have the VNS implanted.   We are anxious to see how Dawsyn responds to this therapy. 

If, after a number of months, we do not see as much of an improvement as we would like, we can try the prednisone between IVIG treatments and/or diet modification.  The point is we have OPTIONS!

On the way home, we couldn’t stop grinning.  I felt downright giddy!  At first I didn’t recognize the feeling welling up within me.  It came to me in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep for all the thoughts running through my head.  I almost missed it … it’s HOPE!

Encouragement

I just received a private message from a friend that was very encouraging.  I am sometimes reticent to post some of my writings for fear that my own rawness will offend others.  This friend commented that one of my darker posts had spoken to her.  Her brief comment make the writing and the risk worth while ...  "I hear your heart".  Now, those same words coming from someone else may not have meant as much to me.  However, from this friend, they have meaning.  Why, because she KNOWS.   Not one of us walks in the same shoes, even when our children share the same diagnosis, but some of us walk in similar shoes.  We share common concerns and common heartaches.  


To you my friend, thank you for your encouragement and thank you for walking ahead of me in many ways and showing me that we CAN walk this walk with grace and with beauty.  Even when our "shoes" pinch our toes and cause us pain, sometimes even changing our "gait" forever, they are beautiful.  Like magnificent pair of stilettos!  I wouldn't ever change them for a comfortable pair of sneakers.

Funding Appeal from the IDEA League

International Dravet Epilepsy Action League www.IDEA-League.org Dear Friend, Words cannot describe how agonizing one minute is, let alone 60 or 160 minutes, when you are helplessly watching your child suffer through a seizure. Tragically, this is what thousands of parents whose children have Dravet Syndrome, and similar forms of epilepsy, are forced to do.  Every day and night, Moms and Dads are thrown into a combat situation where they must fight to save their child's life - EVERY day and night.  Where does their strength and courage to deal with such constant trauma come from?  It comes from love...love for their child. The IDEA-League is dedicated to helping these loving parents and children.  Our volunteer board is made up of Moms and Dads who know first-hand the unrelenting stress and destruction this illness creates in their children's lives and families.  This dedicated board, along with staff and volunteers, have accomplished many valuable outcomes including: funded two research grants; soon to be published internal and collaborative research studies; co-sponsorship of a special supplemental Dravet syndrome issue of the medical journal Epilepsia; co-sponsorship with Vision 2020 of a report on The Public Health Dimensions of the Epilepsies by the National Institute of Medicine; hosted international family medical conferences; created 13 Comprehensive Coordinated Care Programs across the U.S.; reimbursed and obtained coverage of medications for patients; and continued an online exchange with phone support for parents. But as parents, we know that our foundation has much more work to do!  The IDEA League is one of action.  We need to fund more research, partner with more doctors and researchers, provide easier access to medical research and information, distribute more educational materials, answer more questions, and link together even more families around the world.  These are realistic goals we can accomplish together.  And together we can help to relieve the suffering of these loving parents and children, and ultimately, help to save their lives. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR HELP! We have never sent out a request for funding before and hope that you understand our need. We are asking for love of our children.  We are asking you to please make a generous donation so that we can create and deliver better lifesaving programs and services to help the thousands of Moms and Dads who are so desperately reaching out to us for help. If you, or someone you know, has ever been helped by our organization... If you have ever received comfort and support from us when you needed it... If you have ever gained valuable, perhaps lifesaving information from our team... Then you know how important our work is. It is only by working together that we can find a cure for these seizures.  On behalf of thousands of loving parents from around the world, thank you for your tax-deductible donation. Click Here to Donate Now! Sincerely, Laura Cossolotto President and Mother of Michaela, 13 year old daughter with Dravet Syndrome P.S.  Please send us your updated contact info to receive our newsletters!  The International Dravet Epilepsy Action League is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization recognized by Internal Revenue Service - we are not affiliated with any other foundation.  P.O. Box 797 Deale, Maryland 20751 443.607.8267 www.IDEA-League.org

Que Sera Sera

There is a grief too deep to share

A mourning for things not yet lost

There is no understanding for those who have not lived it

There are good intentions, good wishes, good prayers but no knowledge of the searing pain that rips a mother’s heart with thoughts of memories that will not be made

Reluctance to share your fear

        “be positive”

                “speak life
                        “you have no faith” 

Are the accusations your heart throws in your face while

        “this will never change”

                “how will I cope”

                        “WILL I cope?”

Rage through your over-tired mind

My heart aches from doubt and weariness

My eyes burn from tears

        Too many unshed

                Too many shed

Why me, why her, why us?  Why not?

My back aches from carrying a body almost as long as my own, from being kicked, from being hit, from carrying the hurt

My heart hurts from the constant flow of words

        “shut up”

                “go away”

                        “NO”

From a mouth and heart that know no better

I am oh so very weary

        Weary of worry

                Weary of pretending not to worry

                        Weary of smiling and laughing while my                           heart breaks

Weary of carrying the burdens of others when my own are already too heavy to bear

Weary of judging those who don’t understand, who don’t know and are happy not to

Weary of the life I’ve been handed

How can I be so weary of all that but still not wish to give it up?  Would I wish my girl away?  NEVER!  Only well and whole and complete and healed!

There is an aloneness, a difference that keeps you separate from those around you.  Even those who would like to think they are your support and comfort.  They are not.  They are those who get to live normal lives with normal children who have all manner of idiosyncrasies that THEY will grow out of.  They do not ever wonder,

        “will my child ever learn to read?”

                “will my child ever graduate high school?”

                        “will my child ever have a job?”

        “will my child ever marry and have a family?”

                “will my child mature past the age of four?”

                        “will my child live past their next birthday?”

Instead, they worry about them leaving home and starting their new adult lives.

        “will she ever be able to live on her own?”

They worry about them being afraid in the night.

        “will she ever be able to sleep without us worrying whether she will wake again?”

They worry about them having separation anxiety

        “does she even care that I’m leaving her”

To worry is senseless.  In the words of the old song …

Que sera sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

New Blog

I'm no longer the only blogger in the family.   Yesterday my mother suggested that Ben start his own blog to share his photos with the world.  Now, you've got to understand, Ben doesn't often listen to my mother!  However, this time he did and quickly.  By this morning he had his blog set up and posted his first photo, the beautiful sunrise as seen from our kitchen window.   I'll weigh in occasionally with my thoughts!

For now you can find us at www.benandmarvel.wordpress.com.  I'm certain I'll come up with some more creative eventually!

A Homegoing

This afternoon we will celebrate the life of a Servant of God that I wish I had known better.  He was a man from whom we could learn a lot.  Last night, as I thought about him and prayed for his family during this time of sorrow, I remembered my own who have already experienced their Homegoing.   People that I had ample opportunity to know but don't feel like I did as fully as I could have or should have.   These are just two of the remembrances I've written to honor them.

  Quiet and Gentle   

Quiet and gentle, this was her way
Far from the Father she ne’er did stray.
Her arms, for her grandchildren, were open wide.
How we loved to sit and talk by her side.

Quiet and gentle, she loved us well.
With appreciation our hearts do swell.
To our loving Savior thanks we ascribe
For the dearest Grandma He did provide.

To cause others to love Him, her lifelong mission.
Many praises went up as prayers came to fruition.
Her life an example to all whom would see
Through heartache and joy, always faithful she’d be.

Quiet and gentle still is her way.
Now by the Father she will stay.
His arms for His child open wide.
Home with her Savior she will ever abide.

To our Heavenly Father, thanks be given
For lending to us this servant of Heaven.

                          

          Grandpa’s Knees

When I think of Grandpa
I see him on his knees
With one of us, pail in hand
Picking blueberries.

I see him out there, chopping wood
To keep winter fires going
Or in the garden, on his knees
Vegetables to keep growing.

On his knees we used to sit
When we’d come to Grandpa’s place
I’ve noticed that, in recent years,
Our own kids claimed that space.

I see him kneeling by a bed
He prayed so faithfully,
For help and strength for every day
And us, his family.

His children will remember
And grandkids, we will too,
Down on his knees
Grandpa was praying for you.

Grandpa’s heart beat for the Lord
All his earthly days,
On his knees, he showed us
A humble attitude of praise.

Dog Decisions???

I am seriously wondering if I weighed the pros and cons of having this dog in our house if the pros would win.  We are getting NO WHERE with the seizure alerting.  Despite being offered yummy liver treats, he would not even lift his head for the three seizures this morning.  

So, do I REALLY want to spend the next 15 years trying to keep one step ahead of the dog hair (impossible!) and coughing up a lung because said hair is so hard on my asthma?

 I hear the wonderful dog stories from our friends with autistic kids but not so much for those kids with epilepsy.  What to do, what do do?  Either decision leaves me in tears!

Just doing what I'm told!

After Dawsyn's birthday party, it was time to snuggle up with Dad and wind down.  We still had company so, instead of heading up to bed, they curled up in Dad's recliner.  Dad called Milkyway over to lay down on the floor beside them.  However, he used the command we always give at bedtime, "Milky, lay with your girl."  This was the result.

Okay, I'm here to lay with my girl!

Hmm, how'm I gonna make this work?

Getting comfy ... just a little more wiggle room ...

Aaahhh, all is right in my world!  Nitey nite!

Why is it all about Dawsyn?

That is a question that our son Matthew seldom asks out loud but I am certain must run through his head more than just once in a while!

The truth is, we have two kids.  Two GREAT kids!!  Sadly, because Dawsyn faces the challenges she does, she gets the most face time, concern time and blog time.  Fortunately, she has been blessed with the best big brother EVER.  Let me tell you a little about him ...

Matt is an awesome kid, well he was.  Now he's an awesome teenager!  That is a concept this mother is having trouble wrapping her head around.  However, the calendar is not to be argued with, nor is the measuring tape, the scale, the shoe size, the fur on the lip or the grocery bill ... he definitely is a teenager!

Ice cream cake and friends to celebrate becoming a teen

In the past twelve months this boy has shot up to 5'6 1/4" and shows no interest in slowing down.  I have a feeling that one day his dad at 6'2" will be looking up to him!  His feet, oh my goodness, those feet grow a size every two months!   Last baseball season he went through two pairs of cleats.  He grew out of the first pair we bought him before the end of the season.  This would not be so bad if we lived somewhere with a proper ball season but here it only lasts TWO MONTHS!

Not only does he play baseball, but also plays the piano and now the saxophone.  This year he has the opportunity to be in a school band so we've dug out his father's old tenor sax, had it refurbished and it is getting a regular workout!  Milkyway is not so sure he likes this particular instrument ... actually, he's quite sure that he does not like this particular instrument ... but we have great faith that we will be enjoying more than just chromatic scales soon!  The big band sound will be new to Matt but, because he loves music of all styles, I'm sure that he will enjoy this experience.  I hoping that he also takes a liking to jazz and gets involved in the jazz ensembles available.

Music is a pretty big theme in this home and Matt has been able to see many of his favorite groups live during this past year.  He and his dad pulled our trailer up to Edmonton to attended YC at he end of May and, by all accounts, had a fabulous time.  They enjoyed groups like Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch, Manafest, Blue Tree and many more.  After listening to some of the CD's they brought home, I am quite happy that I opted to let that be an annual Father/Son experience.  I am sure there was some music there that I would have enjoyed, I'm afraid that there was more that I would not have!

Our trailer served as the gathering place for our

church youth group.  This is at breakfast one morning as 

huddled under the awning to stay out of the rain.

In a couple weeks the two of them will attend another big concert at Canada Olympic Park called Rock the River.  I'm sure they will have a very good time.

Fortunately, Matthew's musical tastes are very eclectic and he shares with me a love for Southern Gospel.  Ben is very happy to spend a weekend looking after Dawsyn so that Matt and I can enjoy our annual bonding weekend at the Great Canadian Southern Gospel Music Celebration in Red Deer.  

Michael Booth is one of Matt's very favorite people.
They have had their picture taken together every year for the past three.
Next year, Matt's gonna be taller than Michael!!

It's really hard to catch the Booth Brothers all together so we had to settle for individual shots. 

Matt with Ronnie Booth

Matt with Jim Brady

                                         

Another group we really love is Ernie Haase and Signature Sound.  Matt loves how these guys dress and I ended up spending big $$ updating his wardrobe!!

There is so much more I could say about Matt like how he has a tender heart, how he is a great help to his Dad and me, how he's growing into a young man of integrity.  I look forward to the coming days and years of watching him grow into the man God has designed him to be!  

So why IS it always about Dawsyn?  It's not!  Dawsyn's big brother is pretty great too!!

Dawsyn turns Nine

I'm having trouble believing that is beautiful girl of ours is nine-years old already!

Blowing out the candles

She received a pair of mittens (because she loves to wear them

regardless of weather) and refused to take them off ... it was fun 

watching her try to open the rest of her gifts with them on!

Looking far too grown up.

She received one of her favorite gifts a couple days early

when her cousins were here.  Auntie Shauna sent her a gardening

set.  What a winning gift ... a pair of gloves AND a watering can!!

She's been in seventh heaven since!

A Trip to the Zoo

My brother and his family visited us during the last week of July.  We chose a beautiful warm day to visit the Calgary Zoo.  Sadly, we were so busy keeping our eyes on the children, we forgot to take pictures!!  I could say that the memories will remain alive without photographic evidence but, quite frankly, my memory is just not that good!

I decided that this would be an exceptionally good opportunity to work on tethering (having Dawsyn and Milkyway attached to each other by a tether).  To my way of thinking, being tethered to Milkyway should give Dawsyn a greater sense of independence since she won't have to be holding the hand of an adult.  Unfortunately, Dawsyn did not see the logic!  She tugged and she pulled and she squealed and Milkyway, the good old boy that he is, stood there and took it like a trooper!!  I'm sad to say that, because we actually wanted to ENJOY the day at the zoo, Dawsyn won this battle ... but I still have hopes of winning the war.

It may have been for the best anyway because Milkyway got a little skittish when we got close to the animals.  I can only imagine the complete overload of scents in a place like that so I wasn't too hard on him.  I just made him remain in a heel and tried to get him to focus on me as much as possible.  It took him a good hour to calm down enough to behave as if there wasn't another animal in the world.  I don't think that's too bad for a one-year old puppy in a ZOO!

I'm so happy that our trusty helper Emily had come along.  There is no way I could handle Dawsyn AND the dog if they are not tethered together.  We will definitely have to keep working at it in a less stressful environment.  Fortunately, we had the foresight to take Dawsyn's stroller along.   I was very handy for lugging the lunch cooler and purses in and eventually Dawsyn crawled into it and let Emily push her from sight to sight!

All-in-all, it was a fun day and we managed to arrive at home weary but in possession of all the children we had left with!

Just outside the front gate of the zoo.

Matt's on his tail, McKenna under his chin and Hunter on his trunk!

You can't see this one as well but McKenna is about to be

pounced on by a mountain lion.

Princess Dawsyn

Princess Dawsyn LOVES to bathe in the jacuzzi tub!

The more bubbles the better!

Just treat me like the princess I am!!