For Daddy

My babies

having fun

in the sun

baring buns

splish splash

taking a bath

refusing to laugh.

One Hundred Thousand

While it may be a small number that pales in comparison to other blogs, I have to celebrate that at some point between last night and this morning, my blog received 100,000 hits! Wow! It's a party here for me, that people would find my site interesting enough to visit. I'm honored and humbled. For even one person to take the time to read what I write is a blessing, but 100,000?! I'm sending you all 100,000 kisses! (I love hugs, but I love kisses more!)

So my faithful followers, I am encouraged by your visits to my online-sharing-of-life. I will continue to post, and share, and upload. I know you are out there, checking in, following, thinking of me, praying for us, and maybe laughing from time to time at the craziness that surrounds the Chapel family. I hope that something you have read, viewed, or heard here has been a blessing..... touched you, encouraged you, in some small way.

If we've never met, email me! Tell me your name, send me your picture, share a bit of your life with me. I want to know you!

Happy 100.000 to us.

Love and blessings to you all,
April

Come and listen, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
Psalm 66:16

No More Turtle

It appears our turtle has flown the coop. Noah was keeping him in the back yard, inside the fence. He'd crawl around and end up at the perimeters, snuggled up to the edge of the fence, or hanging out at the wood pile. Until... Noah happily suggested "hey mom, let's decorate his shell!" and ran inside for the magic markers. Hmmm.....think the turtle got wind of the impending humiliation and decided he better ramp up the escape plan. I mean really....how would he explain the graffiti to his turtle friends? He'd be out the turtle club for sure.

New (temporary) Addition

Look what we found crawling across the yard! I saw him out the window while we were eating dinner. He's gonna hang with us tonight. He's in the swimming pool now. We'll send him back to his family tomorrow. He seems nice, but peed all over Caleb.

Bupdate

I'm still here! Isaac caught a cold and I've been busy nursing a grumpy and feverish child back to health. Better today.

Bo was admitted to the Veteran's hospital in Richmond. He's been there since Monday and will stay for two weeks. I spoke with Bo's case manager and it sounds like they have a really awesome program there. They are one of four hospitals in the country that treat "poly trauma". They diagnose and recommend treatment for head injuries, from mild injuries sustained in car crashes to severe trauma resulting in comas. They get most of the blast injuries from Iraq. Bo's doctor said they've seen his kind of injury and know what to do to help him. He's been undergoing more tests (MRIs, blood tests, some kind of weird machine that checks balance problems...) and he'll start treatment that will specifically help with his symptoms. There will be physical and occupational therapy, cognitive therapy, counseling, etc. We should know more about his assessment today or tomorrow after all his doctors and therapists have met to discuss his brain. At the end of the two weeks, he'll be discharged back to Ft. Lee with a treatment plan. It will be up to the military to decide what to do with him then. Medical discharge is back on the table, but won't be determined until he completes his stay at the VA.

Bo says the hospital is nice and laid-back. It's a closed unit, and he has a private room. There's also Internet access so he's been catching up with my blog posts and shedding tears when he sees pictures of his babies.

The boys and I hope to travel to Virginia to visit him, but Joshua's work schedule is not flexible and is posing a challenge to all of us going. I don't want to make that long of a journey without another driver.

I miss Bo and want to see him, but am thankful that he is finally getting the medical care he needs. The case manager says that he's receiving treatment while he's still in the healing phase, and that's a good thing.

Fun in the park on a Sunny Saturday

A yard full of boys on a sunny Friday afternoon.....

Sweet Easter Baby

Did I forget to display this adorable child in his fancy Easter Stasburg jon-jon that

I found at a garage sale?

Wardrobe Malfunction

Friday morning I volunteered to hide Easter eggs at Noah's school. I dressed quickly and didn't think too much about the fact that I am blessedly a pant size, almost two, smaller this spring than I was last. Here was my morning....


8:00 am: Wow, I love these low-riding pants. Roomy. Comfortable.

8:30 am, getting out of the car at the school: Hmmm, maybe I should have worn a belt.

9:00am, hiding eggs: You know, these pants are really sliding down my hips. Yikes.

9:30 am: Okay, maybe it's best that I stop bending over. I'll just chunk these eggs into the grass.

10:00 am: Oh my God, I'm flashing kindergartners!!!!!

Weight loss.....priceless.....but, embarrassing.

Happy Easter

"He is not here, He has risen." Matthew 28:5

Happy Easter everyone!

For Grandpa (for when you can't "walk so much")

"Bupdate" (Bo update)

Change continues to be in the air with Bo's status. He's having symptoms from his head injury that are preventing him from concentrating, and has been placed back on medical hold in Virginia. He's been withdrawn from AIT and sent to a brain specialist who did more testing. She said he has "post concussive syndrome" and agreed with the Ft. Sill specialist, that he needs therapy to help with healing. He was shipped out of Ft. Sill "too early" and someone there in Oklahoma is getting a major scolding. His medical profile paperwork did not arrive in Ft. Lee when he did, so instead of getting the months' worth of rest and therapy that he needed, he was processed with everyone else, assigned a bunk and fire watch, and enrolled in classes immediately. Atmosphere is very important to allowing the brain to heal, and Bo needs to be in a low-stress environment right now. Funny, he was given a low stress MOS with a high-stress AIT. But I'll just have to be forgiving about that, right? The army has done lots of crazy things with my husband that seem counter-productive to his treatment. I have a lot to forgive! It appears this transfer to Ft. Lee may have set him back healing-wise about one month. Post concussive syndrome can result when treatment from a brain injury is delayed. Hopefully no long-term damage will result and I'll just have to trust God with that.

So, the task at hand is to get Bo into a treatment facility. For the time being, he is an outpatient at a civilian hospital in Petersburg, Virginia. His doctor is trying to get him admitted to a VA hospital in Richmond, or Walter Reed in Washington. They both have therapy programs for brain injuries. (Seems like this might have been a good option to explore two months ago, but again, forgiveness.... ) He's been moved to a private room in the command barracks and relieved of all his training duties. Convalescent leave is one option, but the doctor thinks he might "relapse" when the time came to return to the post, and I don't know that Albany has the kind of program he'd need.

Will keep Bupdating when I have more news......thanks for your love and prayers.....

"Isaac honey, have you seen Mommy's cell phone????"

Time

I have two things to say about time.

First, it takes time to get to know someone. Like about six months. For people who are "hiders", more like a year. In a ministry setting, my tendency is to be naturally trusting because I was pastored for many years by a a very godly man. But, I learned the hard way, being patient, wise and cautious can be good protection for the heart. The Bible says to "get to know" our spiritual leaders (1 Thessalonians 5:12). The definition in Greek is "gaze at", "watch over time". If I had taken more time, gotten to know how the person who hurt my family operated, been more careful about setting boundaries, etc, perhaps I would not have ended up in the position where I had to forgive and heal. My advice to anyone who is trusting their spiritual welfare into some one's hands is to judge (as in observe) the person's ministry carefully. Look for character to sustain anointing or charisma. Is this person submitted to authority themselves? What does their marriage look like? Relationships? Money? Children? Sexual purity? Is this person "watching over your soul" (Heb 13:17)? That same verse begins, "Obey your spiritual leaders" but that word "obey" means "be persuaded by, have confidence in". Be wise. Be careful. Seek the Lord.

My other thought about time is that forgiving major hurts can take time. I think we should be quick to decide to forgive, but the actual process may not be quick and I'm okay with that. Sometimes the offense we have to forgive causes other pains to surface in our hearts, and all those feelings and emotions need to be processed. If you were literally stabbed in the back, you wouldn't stroll over to the emergency clinic, get patched up with a band-aid, then go home and get ready for a party. No, you'd be in the hospital, getting surgery, medication, rest. Forgiveness and healing need time. (Not too much time though! I have dear friends who spent ten years hurting from being abused in their church.) Just work on it with the Holy Spirit until He's done!

Letting Go

It seems like cruel irony to me, that when we've been victimized in some way, God still requires we maintain a pure heart. That means that in spite of the pain, anger, injustice, etc we still have the responsibility of dealing with our emotions properly. God is always near when we are wounded. He mends broken hearts, He does not cause them. I love that He "hears our cries" (Ps 69:13), "collects our tears in a bottle" (Ps 56:8), and welcomes us to "pour out our hearts" to Him (Ps 62:8). That divine comfort and strength is very helpful because the next step is, we have to release those who hurt us. My fleshly struggle with this is that it seems like forgiving would be saying what happened is okay, and as a lover of justice, that's hard for me to resolve in my mind. Reading what the bible has to say helps me.....

"Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. " Luke 6:37

Okay, God, when You put it that way.... I'd rather forgive than fall under judgement myself. If we want to enjoy God's forgiveness, we have to give it to others as well. Surrendering to God's judgement means that you are allowing Him to be the judge, while you stay safely under His grace. The offender goes from being on your hook, to being on God's hook. And since God is All-Seeing and All-Knowing, I think He'd do a better job dishing out the consequences. Yes?

My mom (the new mom God blessed me with) taught me a simple prayer when forgiving someone.... "(Person's name), I forgive you, I release you, I won't harbor this against you, I take the loss and I give it to Jesus". Every time unforgiveness would try to take hold (which can lead to bitterness, which really separates us from God), I'd pray this prayer. Five times a day, ten times a day, twenty times in one hour....as often as needed!

God did not design our hearts or bodies to carry the heavy stress of anger, rage, unforgiveness, or bitterness. Have you ever noticed how an angry, unforgiving person's appearance can change? How quickly someone ages? Do we forget that Jesus tells in Matthew 11:30, "My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”? Sometimes we end up carrying things that Jesus already secured for us on the cross. Let it go! I found these words in my journal, I don't remember if it was an excerpt from a book or my own writing.....

"Women who are stunningly beautiful have had their hearts enlarged by suffering, by paying the high price of loving truly and honestly without demanding that they be loved in return. The experiences of sorrow enhances the joy of living."

We become more beautiful by tending to our hearts with great care.