July Part Two

One of the kids in my Daycare, ETHAN, was in the hospital for an infection and Kira had a blast jumping on the bed with him and they put the bed in all sorts of positions. You can see Kira has lots of personality especially when she is feeling well.

Our good friends Chris and Emily gave birth to their second child in mid-July. Little Clara Emily Smith is a beautiful, peaceful baby who has shown God's goodness to ll of us. Their first baby was born at full-term but had passed away before Emily was able to birth him. Carter Christopher is missed more than any of us can imagine. They are forever changed. I hear of Clara's peacefulness and wish Kira had more of that when she was young!

Kira's weight was down again and we are following a gluten-free diet since late June and see her hair started to grow, her gums stopped bleeding when we brushed, and her constant diarrhea calmed. She has had bouts of rashes on her trunk and around her mouth as well. Try to imagine caring for 5 or 6 kids and changing Kira's bedding and clothing up to a couple times a day during bad spells. Poor kid, it will smell like she is rotting from the inside out. What strange times we have had with her since she was born. Our Dentist has been very concerned about Kira's teeth trying to figure out why they came in damaged (her first tooth was actually when she was about 13 months). The top four central teeth have awful enamel. He is anxious we find out if the adult teeth are going to do this as well. VERY DEPRESSING to think... he suspects she was critically ill as a tiny baby (which she was) or that we are dealing with a nutritional/mal-absorbtion issue... like Celiac Disease. We have a good friend Mark who deals with Celiac Disease and gave us lots tips and even groceries!
(I will repost with pictures of Clara soon- they are in our mess of recovered photos)

August memories

Bart is sound asleep otherwise I'd get some help figuring why where I place my cursor seems not to effect my picture placement. I KNOW I stink at computers but I just need a lesson again on blogging!: ) I will go back to the spring when I get up the nerve to sort through the wealth of photos from the "recovery" my friend did. The dates attached to the photos are all off... years of photos and copies of photos jumbled together... at least there aren't 30,000 anymore!

SOOO, back in August we celebrated the 100,000 Walker Mower coming off the line. Bart's family have such a neat company... they invited everyone who owns a Walker to come for a huge celebration/Reunion. They have done this years past around our wedding and so we were unable to attend. Thousands attended on the property and we felt so honored to be guests on stage with the rest of Bart's family. His family love the Lord and honor him with all they have been blessed with. They have no shame in sharing their hope and purpose in this world. Literally days before this event we attended the Homecoming service for a favorite cousin, Dan Walker. What a nightmare for his family, we had just had his graduation party from Olivet Nazarene University! He was serving on staff at a Nazarene camp in Colorado and was ready for to be serving Focus on the Family after the summer. He was found to have died in his sleep due to a sort of aortic valve rupturing... it was preventable if only they knew his healthy body actually had an abnormality waiting to give way. He honestly touched more lives than any of you could imagine. We ache for his parents and three brothers. I was emptying recyclables and saw his graduation thank you note staring right at me from June... we taped it and his photo back onto the front of our fidge and think of him daily. His last big conversation with his girlfriend was all about Heaven... his perspective on life at his age was so powerful. One of his brother's along with his wife (Ryan and Emily) left at the end of the Reunion for mission work in the depths of Alaska. I'll try to post more about their outreach soooooon... we can't imagine their level of sacrifice and trust in the Lord in the midst of their heartache!! They are all so special to me, especially after I got to clean their home for years.




During these weeks we also had Bart's brother, Matt and his family in for Reunion. I wish they were pastoring in Colorado already! Kira loves her cousins Kyron and Raylee so much! Right before Matt and family left, Laurel (Bart's sister) gave birth to Bethany Ruth Lalicker!! Laurel had adopted this embryo this past October... I believe it was 15 years old!! She is a healthy, sweet little thing and we are so happy they have the family they've always wanted. God is good.