One Day at a Time

Shortly after Jacob was born, friends of ours gave us a copy of this poem.  It's been close to my heart ever since.  The life we life is surely one day at a time, at times moment by moment. 

One Day at a Time

One day at a time, with its failures and fears,
With its hurts and mistakes, with its weakness and tears,
With its portion of pain and its burden of care;
One day at a time we must meet and must bear.

 

One day at a time to be patient and strong,
To be calm under trial and sweet under wrong;
Then its toiling shall pass and its sorrow shall cease;
It shall darken and die, and the night shall bring peace.

 

One day at a time - but the day is so long,
And the heart is not brave, and the soul is not strong,
0 Thou pitiful Christ, be Thou near all the way;
Give courage and patience and strength for the day.

 

Swift cometh His answer, so clear and so sweet;
"Yea, I will be with thee, thy troubles to meet;
I will not forget thee, nor fail thee, nor grieve;
I will not forsake thee; I never will leave."

 

Not yesterday's load we are called on to bear,
Nor the morrow's uncertain and shadowy care;
Why should we look forward or back with dismay?
Our needs, as our mercies, are but for the day.

 

One day at a time, and the day is His day;
He hath numbered its hours, though they haste or delay.
His grace is sufficient; we walk not alone;
As the day, so the strength that He giveth His own.

                          —Annie Johnson Flint

Therapy

Over the course of the past couple years I've spent many hours with Jacob in therapy.  Different aspects of therapy have taken place.  Overall he responded with contentment and enjoyment.  Well, last week was a different aspect of therapy.  It was a week of therapy for Paul and me.  We joined Paul's whole family for the week at a resort.  What a week of mental release.  All the couped up stress made it's way out :) 
Paul and I were both physically exhausted when we came home (partly because of the busy week, but mostly because of the extreme heat,) but mentally we both felt so refreshed.  Many times during the week I wished Jacob could be with us as a family, but as we experienced such extreme heat/humid weather the whole week, it was much better for Jacob to be in London with air conditioning.  Paul picked Jacob up on Saturday, so we are together again as a family - thankfully.  

Beautiful sunsets! 

Paul teaching Caleb how to fish.

Caleb's first cast and... he caught a fish!

Adam and Martin teaching the rest of us how to tube :)  Adam tubing is great entertainment!! 

Breanne and Sheryl enjoying tubing!

Caleb perfecting his ability to ride with no training wheels.

The oldest girls with their 5 fish!  I'm not sure why anyone would want to get out of bed at 5:00am to go fishing, but these girls were ready.  By the sounds of it, the fish heard a lot of giggling! 

Jeff (brother-in-law) was either carrying a cup of coffee in his hand or a bucket of ice cold water to target one of the females.  At least when it's 45 degrees (Celsius) in the shade a good water fight feels refreshing.

Sheryl's keeper :) 

The second storm to come through.  Tents flattened (good thing we were sleeping in cottages!)   One thing we found out, the storms coming off the lake are powerful, but over quickly.  The first one lasted about 7 minutes then the sun came out again.  God's mighty power!

Content Days Again

Well, amazing at it may seem, Jacob is having content days.  Something I had ruled out as a possibility.  As the brain regresses, it makes total sense to have more irritability, so the thought of having contentedness again seemed unthinkable.  Jacob was started on a new med a couple weeks ago, and it seems like it is having somewhat of it's desired effect.  This is much to be thankful for!

Yesterday we had the luxury of working with a recreational therapist regarding Jacob swimming.  We have a backyard pool and we have thought it would be neat to be able to have Jacob is there too.  We tried him in an adaptive life jacket yesterday and it worked amazing!  He was in the water for 50 minutes - super calm,  content and relaxed.  What a joy.  Now we can borrow that life jacket and see if he likes it in our pool.  Breanne came along to be my helper and photographer, but instead she was my helper and a dolphin.  She was all over the pool.  I was not totally impressed at first, but the recreational therapist said it was a good thing she came along, because then it gives Jacob a more realistic feel of what it would be like in water with siblings (wavier water and splashing.)  I'm just not sure if she was trying to make me feel better, but it worked anyways!! :)

Yesterday was also a special day for us as we had our new Pastor and his wife visit us.  It was great to be able to talk about our history with Jacob, how the Lord has led us as a family, our fears and joys, etc.  They are an extremely understanding and compassionate couple.  It was a blessing and an encouragement to have them visit.  The Lord provides in ways I don't even think possible.  He is worthy of our praise!!

A Somewhat Long Weekend

In Canada, this is a long weekend - we are celebrating Canada Day :)  The weekend started off with extra excitement regarding Jacob.   Let's just say that after 3 emerg trips, 3 rounds of IV antibiotics, an ultrasound and plenty of emerg waiting, we've had a long weekend!  Jacob has cellulitis, caused from a bug bite.  Thankfully we can treat him at home through his GJ-tube now! That's so much easier! 

This weekend was a weekend of thinking, contemplating and studying.  After spending many hours in emerg and hearing so many sad stories, it makes me realize that so many people are suddenly on a sick bed, where but a few short hours before they were living their day as planned.  This reminds me of what our Pastor said 2 Sundays ago, 'things may happen to us that were not in our days plans, but they were in God's plan.'  That's so true, but sometimes so hard to focus on! 
    
Yesterday marks Jacob being 2 years and 3 months.  This marks an incredible milestone.  Considering Jacob's life expectancy was 5 - 15 months, he has surpassed that by one whole year.  365 days.  Amazing!  I stood humbled, thankful and amazed.  I remember hitting that 15 month mark last year and thinking, things could happen any time.  A whole year down the road, I stand in awe that we are still able to hold, cherish and love Jacob.  It is a blessing beyond words.  It's not that the days are easy, yet when we focus on the ability to still love Jacob, we have much to be thankful for!!

At the playgroup last week, loving the sitting position amongst the balls!  He looks like such a big boy!!

Marije placed Jacob in a laundry hamper - talk about thinking outside the box!!  The crazy part was, he enjoyed it!  I enjoyed Marije's creativity.  What a blessing to have her care for Jacob every week!!