Kelly's Blog

Kelly's blog is something that friends of our family set up for him.

The Kelly R. Leeper Foundation KRL Foundation) was founded in 2009 by friends of Kelly Leeper to provide funds for families that are going through Hodgkin’s Disease. Kelly Leeper was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease shortly after he was married in July of 2008. Kelly Leeper was also born with a heart defect leaving him with half a heart. Now facing chemo, which is harmful to the heart, he will need to take time off of work. Furthermore, he pays 30% of his medical bills. His friends realized the Hodgkin’s Disease patients and their families earning the Federal Median Income or less would not be able to afford the out-of-pocket costs of specialty procedures that are needed for this disease. Unable to find an organization that specialized in co-pay assistance for patients with Hodgkin’s disease, Kelly’s friends founded the Kelly R. Leeper Foundation to help patients obtain the medications and procedures they so desperately need.

I know that some friends are going to be biking from California to the east coast to raise money for this organization. I'll keep you updated or put his blog on your favorites or follow his blog.

Assaulting the eyes of my children

I have been thinking about this and mulling it over in my head for a few months now but just now sat down to write about it. I have been struck with the fact that no matter how much we shield our children from inappropriate things at home the world works hard to bring to the fore-front things that we try so hard to hide from our children's eyes. Shopping in the mall, a place I almost never go, and my boys have to be hit with scantily clad women in a store window. Yes, they are only little, but I wouldn't even want my husband to see those pictures. Of course, they blow them up and make them a center point. My boys are not allowed to see me in my bra and underwear, but hey, let's bring you to the mall and we can see some Victoria's Secrets models instead. It disgusts me to no end. And we wonder why men are being raised to objectify women as sexual objects? Why there is so much divorce? No woman can stand up to the picture perfect image of airbrushing, it is giving our children a convoluted idea of what women "should" look like, not to mention an image in their head that should be kept for marriage. I want my girls to know that beauty is not what the world would like them to think, it is getting harder every day. I can't imagine it, if we had a television.

We drove into LA one day and on the side of the freeway was a huge sign promoting a TV show, I am assuming, called "The L word". It had about 8 women in very suggestive poses together. It was grossly inappropriate to have on the side of a freeway where families with children drive by daily. Thus is the way of the world, I suppose, but not a world that I want my children to be exposed to. A few miles further was another billboard for a strip club. The woman had huge breasts poring from her "top". Why should I have to make a point to distract my 4 and 5 year old while driving by so that they won't turn and look? Where have our morals gone? Why is it OK to have blatantly sexual(and homosexual) things out in the open for children to see? I do know that the next time we drive through LA we will not be taking that same freeway and the next time I go to the mall I will be avoiding VS.

Kelly starts chemo

I thought I would keep all of you blog stalkers, and non-stalkers too, up to date on what is going on with my brother. Yesterday he went into surgery to have a port put in. This is where he will recieve his chemo treatments. He came out of surgery fine but is in a lot of pain this morning and didn't sleep much last night. As I type this he is having his chemo done for the first time. Kelly's wife and my mom and dad, and I think my Aunt Judy, all went with him but were told that they couldn't go back with him. Then a nurse that knew them from his bone test told them that they have a special room that they can all go in and sit with him in. The doctor filled them in as to what to expect in the future, etc. They are having a head shaving party on Sunday to shave Kelly's hair(and beard that he has been growing for a few months) along with family and friends that are doing it with him to show their support. I told Kelly that I would willingly shave my head if it would encourage him(and I would do it without thought) but he said that loosing his hair isn't a big thing for him and he'd rather have me knit him a beanie for his bald head. I started on it this morning and it should be too him by next week.

Of course he could use your prayers. His biggest wish is that he wouldn't experience the horrible side effects that they keep telling him he'll have. He wants to be able to go to work each day and live his life to the fullest with a little tiredness but none of the sickness. Jonah and I are praying that fervently for him. So, for now that is what's going on.

As for our house and things, we are dealing with a lot right now in terms of adoption stuff for Justus and just general moving stresses and starting to build a house. There is a lot on our plate right now. I am hoping to get back in the swing of blogging soon enough.

I found this post at Tuininga Increase and it really hit a cord with me. I agree with her 100%. Enjoy!




Yesterday, our home school co-op took our first field trip together as a group. We went to the Humane Society and took a tour. Twenty something kids, plus parents, equaled a whole lot of chaos, but a whole lot of fun. We got to see lots of cats (173!--and wouldn't you know, they were buy one, get one free! LOL!), lots of rabbits, quite a few noisy dogs, a gerbil, a hamster, and a guinea pig.

While we had a lot of fun, it brought forth the need to explain to my kids further, what it means to "ADOPT." You see, unlike most patrons at the Humane Society, I have two precious children who were adopted. They are more precious than cats, more precious than dogs, more precious than rabbits and for sure more precious than an ugly gerbil that the Humane society is "placing for adoption."

If Matthew hears the word "adopt" he immediately thinks of himself. It is a word that he uses to describe his history. Why should he have to face an onslaught of animals being described in the same fashion? Why does society feel the need to bring animals up to the level of precious children and place animals for adoption??

When we adopted them, their decree stated that they are now "one and the same, as if they had been born out of the bodies of the petitioners (Eric and me)" Cloud does not fit that definition. Neither does New Hampshire. They are animals--we did not adopt them, we own them. We do not own Matthew and Jimmy, we adopted them, they are our sons.

Underneath these varying uses of the word "adoption" lies a profound difference in world view. You might think that I am being nit-picky here in my attack on the Humane society's verbiage, but allow me to explain.

There are those who believe in evolution. To them, God is not real. He did not create. Instead man formed from animal. To many who hold this view, man is just a higher form of animal. I believe that the use of the word "adoption" to describe ownership of dogs and cats and the like, stems from this pagan world view. Because if man truly is a higher animal, then why not treat animals as if they were one and the same as our bio-children? After all, we are close relatives anyway--we are all children of Mother Earth.

God formed man and He made him in His likeness. We are created to be holy and righteous. Unbelievers do not want to be held accountable to this, so, to get around it, they turn us into animals--left with no responsibility and no acknowledgement of an eternal soul. Throwing around terms like "adoption" is only a small symptom of this deadly world view. And since they treat animals like man, then why not treat man like animals? We sterilize animals to prevent over population, so we sterilize people to prevent over population. We euthanize animals for convenience, so we euthanize people for convenience.

In our house, let it be known, that we have adopted and we love two eternal souls and we raise them with the weight of that responsibility on our shoulders. We own our dog and our hamster and we will treat them and love them as the animals that they are. Our children are holy in the sight of God, we choose not to use the same terms for our dog that we use for our children.

Introducing Sierra Ashley

I know they are small but they are all I have so far! I am SO bummed that I live so far away right now and am not going to get to see her until March...

I'm an Auntie!

I just got word that my brother and his wife are the proud parents of a sweet baby girl, Sierra Ashley. Pictures will come as soon as I get them. I am a little sad today that I am so far away and not able to see my new niece.

Also, my other sister, Cari, had her baby a week or so ago and I got to see her the day after she was born. She is SO sweet and beautiful and the "whitest" baby I have ever seen. She looks like what Sarah would have looked like when she was born. Cari's husband took pictures of me holding Savannah but has yet to send them to me!

And the dream begins...

What the children do all day while we are at the land working. Here they are pulling their big sister on the rope swing. It really does take all of the triplets to pull Sarah on it. See those small cedars behind them? There is a huge grove almost the width of our land that Jonah left just for the kids to play in. It is there own "kid forest' and they go in there and explore too!


You can't tell but they are struggling to hold the "pose" for the camera. Right after I took this picture they all fell to the ground.




Straight ahead you may be able to see the posts that will be our first phase, the carriage house. A 1212 sq ft. house over a 4 car garage. Eventually we will be adding on the the left of it to complete our dream house and the carriage house will be guest rooms and the kitchen/living room will be become either my homeschooling room or a game room. It depends on whether we end up putting in a basement.



Another view from a little further back.




This will be the view from the big house eventually. We will be thinning out the trees a bit to give us a view of the valley and other ridge. Can you see where the stakes are?


You can see the stake at the very right of the photo? That is the front corner of the carriage house looking toward where the future house will be.



The carriage house site is to the right. This is looking south and that clump of trees you can see with the wood pile beneath them are going to come out to make room for our future front yard, complete with a white picket fence. Yeah, I know it's cliche but I've always wanted one and I'm going to get it ;)



Jonah has been cutting trees and there is fire wood stacked up all over the property. I love the way it looks, don't you? This is all from a single cedar tree and it is 3 stacks back.



Once all the trees are down that we need down we will be scheduling the grading and thus it starts. We have already pulled the permit to build so we can start whenever we want to really. I will update as often as there is something to show you. I can't believe we are actually beginning the dream we have talked about for 3 years now. Amazing.

Pray for Kelly

Some of you may remember this post telling you all about my miracle little brother and his just being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Well, things have gotten much worse since I wrote that post. I am not sure if I have written a blog post about this but bear with me, my life has been frustrating and emotional lately and I am not really "with it". Turns out that the PT Scan they did (which we were told showed his body clear of any more cancer) was read wrong. He has 2 very large lymph nodes in his abdomen which cannot be taken out because of their positions (Praise God for the doc that wanted to do another CTScan of his chest to see if his heart would be strong enough for the radiation). They don't like them to be more than 3 mm and Kelly's are 10. This has changed the whole direction of his treatment. He is now diagnosed with stage 3A (5 being the worst) and A meaning it is not in his bones. The only type of chemo that will work is the strongest stuff they've got. He will have surgery some time next week (hopefully) to put a chest tube in which will be used to administer the meds because it is so powerful that the veins can't handle it and will "blow out". They told Kelly that he will feel like crap for 6 months, there will not be a down day where he will feel better. He will lose his hair, which is no big deal, but will be nauseous constantly and not want to eat. I am worried about him and his new wife Laura. I am worried most about how his heart is going to withstand this all. I am worried that I am now so far away, just when my family needs to stick together the most. I am worried that there is nothing I can do or say or pray or anything. I feel helpless. Completely.

My sweet Sarah

REMEMBER THAT TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY! IT ENDS AT 5 PM PST TONIGHT!




This is her "Daddy" face. She and Jonah can do the same thing with their lips like that and I have some cute pictures of them trying to mirror each other. I told her to do something silly... is this silly? Or maybe it's just Sarah. Yes, I think it's just Sarah.

Sarah is my oldest at 9 years old but has only been with me for 5 years. She had a rough life the first 4 years( and I would say even 2 years after she came to us) but God has been good to her and she has come SO far in the last 5 years. From a broken, scared, angry little girl to a beautiful, loving, caring young lady. I don't blog very often about Sarah because she is 9 and there really isn't that much going on in her life right now. She is schooling well and loves geography, her new found love of reading is making her Mommy very happy. She is still such a little girl in so many ways and I try to encourage that as much as I can as the world says that she should be listening to Hannah Montana and dressing like a miniature grown up. Sarah and Alana love to play with dolls together but at the same time Sarah loves to box with her brothers(Jonah bought the kids boxing gloves for Christmas, it has been a huge hit)while Alana, not so much.





I honestly don't know what I would do without Sarah. The few times she isn't with me and I have things to do with all the other kids, I realize just what a huge help she is. She adores her 2 baby brothers and loves to get them dressed each morning if I will let her(sometimes she suffers from a lack of matching capabilities). When there are chores to be done, she never complains and most always does them with a happy heart. I love to sit and talk with her during this time of change. Her ideas and thoughts are forming into more concrete beliefs and I want to be right there to make sure that she understands why Jonah and I believe the way we do. She has a strong desire to do what Jesus would want, even when she struggles with her flesh. It is amazing to hear a 9 year old tell me that she feels guilt over being angry with her brother(she and Isaiah are always fighting or trying to annoy each other; it's the fact that Isaiah was the oldest(in Liberia) but now it's Sarah(who was the youngest before she came). I NEVER felt guilty for being angry with my brother, much less beating him up when I could, although he definitely deserved it for the most part. ;)





I am very much enjoying watching my second/first born(Kai was "ours" before her but she was with us before him, make sense?) grow into a young woman that tries to follow after Christ's heart. And I pray every day that God will heal the brokenness from which she came and turn her into a vessel that will shine for His glory. It took a long time for Sarah and I to develop a mother/daughter relationship and for her to trust me (like 3 years for those of you who adopted older kids and wonder when it will get better) but I love this girl with all of my heart and can't imagine my life or family without her.

I know, I know

I am busy moving and dealing with life right now with no time to blog. I hope to be able to write something later this week. Bear with me and I could really use your prayers over some things right now. My brother Kelly just learned last night that they found 2 more very, very enlarged lymphnodes in his stomach/intesine region. They have no idea why this wasn't caught with the last CT scan but they will be holding off treatment for now while the doctors meet and try to guess what is going on.

Christmas pictures for your enjoyment

These are all backwards but I am being too lazy to cut and paste them in the right place right now.


All the kids in my Aunt's old MG. I have pictures taken in this when I was little too.







Malakai's look of wonder over one of the gifts. I love this picture.



One of the only times Justus was happy all day and it didn't stay this way for long.




This is normally what he looked like if he wasn't in my arms. And that's my Daddy trying to get Justus to be happy, like his normal self.



My dad and Alana, with my SIL in the background. I'll be an auntie in just about 3 weeks now!




Isaiah



Uncle Kelly helping Judah with his stocking




Alana



Opening stockings from Grandma

One sick little boy on Christmas Eve

When I took this picture I should have known something wasn't right but I thought it was cute that he just kept laying there. By that night he was beside himself in agony and wasn't a very happy camper at all. It continued through Christmas Day(in which Jonah discovered he had just pushed through 2 molars and an eye tooth) and all weekend while we were at my aunt's house(where I discovered his lower molars are very swollen and going to come through soon as well). Tuesday he finally started to seem a little bit better with only minimal meltdowns. I pray this is the end of it and that he will be better soon.