Emily's Party

When our kids turn 13 we have a special party for them. We bring in friends and special mentors to speak into their lives and encourage them and then we take a trip. Emily LOVES horses so I found a farm in Florida that raises Freisian horses and off we went. The owner of the farm was so very gracious and we had a blast. I think that Emily could have stayed for days! Then off to the beach for a few days. We had an awesome 3 days away...lots of laughing and talking and playing! We drank enough tea to drown a person! We made lots of memories.

OH BOY!!

Yep that is my girl....she LOVES those horses!

Emily's Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Emily's 12th birthday......I know every parent says this but where in the world does the time go? What a sweet, sweet girl she is!!!! Her passion in life is to help handicapped children through horse therapy....she loves horses!! It is so neat to watch her with these horses...really just about any animal...but her heart is in the barn! It will be neat to see how the Lord uses her talent. She has had many wonderful blessings that are undoubtedly from the Lord.

She had a blast at her party with her cousins as you can see from the facials!

One of her gifts was a makeup bag with mascara and sparkly eyeshadow.....she was thrilled. At 12 it will be lite but she was happy.....of course I think she is beautiful with no makeup!

Her brothers visited the dollar store and chose these gifts for her...she was very gracious and made them feel very special!

Back in the saddle!

Believe it or not she was asking to go back to the barn when she was still using a walker!!!! Yes I am serious! Her dream is to work with kids doing horse therapy so nothing as little as a horse falling on top of you and spending 5 HOURS strapped to a board is going to stop you! She works so hard to pay for her own lessons...she scoops poop...feeds and waters her trainers horses and loves EVERY second of it! I have my eye on 86 acres here in Woodstock...can I just claim it like the Children of Israel???? Does it work that way??? I would let my baby girl have her barn and her dream and I would ask a few other families to build on the property with us. One can dream! Right! She does love those horses!

Recovering!

My baby girl is recovering from her accident. We are very thankful that her pelvis is not shattered! She is really really stiff, but she is now up and walking with a walker. Lindsey set her up with our laptop so she could watch a movie and she received many phone calls! Our family dog is not really the family dog.....he likes all of us but he LOVES Emily. He has been especially attached to her while she is recovering. It is odd...like he senses that all is not normal. You can see him draped across her legs. Thanks for praying for her! Some of you have emailed and asked if she will ride again........do fish swim??? This was a freak accident...she loves horses. She is really good with horses and she is counting down the days until she can get back...which will be a while!

Horses??

OK I lied...I will not be writing about Beauty and the Beast tonight...actually it is technically Tuesday morning now????? :( I took my daughter to her horse riding lesson...she cleans stalls in exchange for weekly lessons.....and I got a call that no mother wants to get! I usually drop her off and I do CVS shopping for myself and her riding instructor. The phone rings and it is Betsy, her instructor...a call right in the middle of her lesson is NEVER a good thing..."Michele, where are you?..Emily has had a little spill and we are calling 911" Thank God.... a ride in the ambulance, 6 hours in the ER...27 xray slides, lots of pain meds, throwing up.....she is fine. She is cramping up really bad....she is in great pain and will need a trip to the chiropractor but she is going to be fine. The horse rared back and then lost it's balance and fell on top of her!!! They all said it was awful! I am feeling VERY blessed. I am going to make a pallet and sleep next to her tonight after I edit Lindsey's final paper due in her lit class tomorrow.

My next obstacle....since we are in full time ministry our insurance is ridiculous and to get a premium we could afford...our deductible is $5000....yep you saw that correct and I didn't forget to put the decimal in!!! The Lord is faithful.....I know that it is terrible but I kept thinking...how are we going to come up with this money...the whole time I was in the ER. I fought it hard...but I kept coming back to HIS sovereignty and my thankfulness that she we going to be OK. Thanks for your prayers!