Listen to your mother!

So the knots on the back of Em’s ankles are NOT rheumatoid nodules (whew!), they are caused by damage to the Achilles tendon(?) from… drumroll please…wearing heels. There. I won’t gloat. But. I was right!  You girls are ruining your bone structure for the sake  of vanity and to look, shall I say? Nope I shall not say it. I think you know.

Some of you know that I have more to say on the subject ,but I must away to Jackson. Sorry to disappoint.

Appointment went great & Emily goes back for yearly monitoring now. Thank you Lord for your never ending mercy!

 

God is faithful-always

Busy day ahead. A very excited crop of small Riley’s are packed & ready. Audobon Society field guides-check, specimen collection kits-check, various bags,back packs, baskets and jars-check. We are off to Trace Lake later this morning.

 This morning I was thinking of/praying for a family with a sick baby. I was remembering the times I have been where this mom is now- even the many times at that same hospital. Emily- gastrointerologist/Rheumatologist, Trey-neurologist, Ellen-Nicu,Ben-cardiologist,Sarah-endocrinologist,Abby…,Annie-neonatologist,Mercy-Nicu/failure to thrive/feeding intolerant/sleep apnea, Josiah-cardiologist.

I have been there & remember the prayers of a mothers heart for a sick child. It was a sweet time to reflect on God’s faithfulness. We have stood beside a child (Ellen)when the only thing keeping her alive were the frighteningly noise machines that were in various ways connected to her-we have been told she would not live through the night. We have been told that a daughter(Emily) would not survive without a liver transplant. We have looked on helplessly, pleading with God in anguish for our daughter(Abby Grace) when the time of death was called. From where I am now I can truly say that God has been faithful. Why is that so easy to see looking back?

Emily has a Dr. appointment at 3:30 and it is my prayer that she will be released to our family physician. It was this month 19 years ago that we arrived at Leboneur Childrens Hospital at 4 am with our firstborn daughter and a bag full of presents from various friends and relatives. I was great with child and heavy of  heart.Two days before I had walked in the kitchen door after our weekly trip to Leboneur to find the phone ringing. It was Dr. Whittington- Dr. Whittington had never called before-he is famous for his terrible bedside manner. A nurse usually called with the results of Emily’s weekly liver panel. I was shocked and terrified to find Dr. Whittington on the other end of the phone. We were out of time. She was heading into full blown liver failure & we needed to report to the hospital in two days for a pre-transplant workup. If I told the whole story it would be a very long post so I’ll just say that that hospital stay was not happy and things looked very bad. But God. God had other plans for Emily and granted miraculous healing. It could never be explained and we were eventually told that she was in remission and we would now wait for it to come back as it surely would. But it didn’t. God granted complete healing. Wow. So we head out to see Dr. Asa this afternoon and we are trusting God for great things. Again.

 

It’s a blessed life

“Love at first sight is easy to understand; it’s when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.”

 

Babywearing 1 oh 3

It is a Ergo day at the Riley house. Y’all know I strongly believe in meeting my babies needs. O.K. so you might call it something else. You say tomato, I say tomatoe. No, really, I am trying to work on his royal spoiledness. Really. By executive order.

Josiah hung on mommies back while I straightened up the house this morning. It worked better than having him hang on my leg. When he finally decided he would live through the next moment if I put him down, Mercy came along. “Mommy, wear me.” Awww. Who could resist? I think I may have to wear her down the aisle when she gets married.

 

Public Service Announcement

Just a reminder that there are disgusting people on the internet. I put up a post a few weeks ago about Brown Mercy and made mention of the fact that I was not going to post a picture of her in her under clothing.
I am getting really dispicable searches that I won’t defile you with but please remember moms- ANYBODY CAN LOOK AT YOUR BLOG! Be careful what you put up about your children.

 

Song for Josiah

Yesterday Les & I were running errands when the subject of (extended) family gathering came up…then the silence when we remember and realize…and we again lay down our plans and count it all loss so that we may gain Christ. And there is JOY!

meeting Josiah

 

A Song for Josiah

Keith Green

Oh my son, you were born in a world that hates you,

And I swear I will never forsake you.

But there was a father centuries ago,

Who watched his beloved son die. Oh, die.

Oh my son, I am weak and I’m trembling,

For the Lord I am always remembering.

Oh what a strong shepherd holds you in His arms.

He’ll break you and make you His own.

And then take you home.

Well if I could I would protect you from what you will see.

This world will promise love and beauty, but it lied to me.

And I will show you, if you will listen.

And I will promise, to listen too.

Oh yes, there are some who love the lies, they will kill you if they can.

Though you speak the truth in love, they will hate you like the man,

Jesus, although he was God, he allowed himself broken for you.

Well if I could I would protect you from what you will see.

The world might seem so alive, but it’s dead to me.

And I will teach you, if you will hear me.

And I will promise, to hear you too. Yes I do.

Oh my son, I am only your brother.

For a sister, God gave me your mother.

But just like a mother, so long ago, had to watch her beloved son die,

Oh son, we will try, to let you go.
 

If

I become entangled in any

“inordinate affection”;

if things or places or people hold me

back from obedience to my

Lord,

then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Amy Carmichael

 

 

Riley meets Upchurch

We took the weekend off Personhood Mississippi to travel to Tennessee to meet new friends. We had a wonderful weekend of food, volleyball, fellowship, volleyball, worship, volleyball & a new game called Pit that was loud & rowdy enough to be right up the Riley’s alley. Emily was having a bit of a flare-up with her knee so she, I & Becky(Upchurch Mom) spent alot of Saturday evening holding down lawn chairs and soaking in Hannah Kate’s incredible sweetness. Saturday evening we had about seventeen pizzas, give or take a few (did I mention that we have 20 children between us). If you have never had smoked sausage on a pizza you really should try it.  Les took a little time to check out Tyler’s vast library (BTW-if I knew who rearranged certain books I wouldn’t tell). That night the Old School Hymnals came out. Yay! I love the Old School Hymnal. I love our little welsh hymnal too but I do like to mix it up some during family worship. It was a sweet time of fellowship in the Lord.

Sunday-worship at Grace Church. I was able to sit through prayer meeting (thank you Ellen!) but missed the sermon. My family told me a little about it & I’ll check out their site to see if I can download it. Josiah usually goes to sleep during the singing at Christ Church but Grace has a little different worship style and he was way to interested to go to sleep. Sooo mom walked the halls with alternately cranky & silly baby during the service. We did see Laura D. &  that was a blessing. We miss her and hope she’ll visit New Albany soon.

After Church we went back to the Upchurch’s for an incredible spread for Sunday Dinner. Thank You Bruce & Becky for your amazing hospitality! We had a GREAT time.

 

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.  Psalms 133:1

 

Somehow, in a family that obnoxiously (no, really) flashes a camera in everybody’s face, we didn’t even get the camera out of the car. Mercy became very distraught shorty after we pulled out of the driveway to head home & we had to go back to get her shoes. While in the drive Trey remembered that he left his shades in Tyler’s truck. You know Trey can’t live without those shades. I finally pulled out the camera just as Les returned with Trey’s shades. Enjoy the only picture we took all weekend.

Whew. How’s that for the grandparents version?

 

It is well

“As for myself, I am every way well, all glory to God. I was before at a plea with Christ (but it was brought by me, and unlawful), because His whole providence was not yet yea and nay to my yea and nay, and because I believed Christ’s outward look better than His faithful promise. Yet He hath in patience waited on, while I be come to myself, and hath not taken advantage of my weak apprehensions of His goodness. Great and holy is His name! He looketh to what I desire to be, and not to what I am.”

                                                                                                                                            The Letters of Samuel Rutherford

 

Brown Mercy

The girls had such a good time yesterday making gift bags that they weren’t quite watching Mercy like they should have. In the interest of modesty we decided not to post a picture of Mercy in her ********* so you’ll just have to take my word for it. She painted her whole stomach & thighs before moving onto her feet.

“Mercy, why did you paint yourself?” “So I could be the color of Si-si”

Oky-dok. Maybe if Siah could talk he would have told me last week that the reason he climbed all the way into the flour bucket was “so he could be the color of Mer-mer”

What will we do with two of them? As Les says, Mercy was a terrible twosome all by herself!

 

Awake. Hold me Jesus.

Been awake for a few hours now. Praying, thinking, remembering. “Carrying you to Jesus”. Sometimes there just aren’t words. We want words, we use alot of words at the Riley house, but sometimes there just aren’t words and that’s a good thing.

So many are struggling now. We must pray. We must.

“Satan is not cast out but by fasting and prayer, I entreat you to remember our estate to our Lord, and entreat all good Christians whom ye know, but especially your pastor, to do the same. It becomes us still to knock, and to lie at the Lords door, until we die knocking. If He will not open, it is more than He said in His word. But He is faithful. I look not to win away to my home without wounds and blood. Welcome, welcome cross of Christ, if Christ be with it.”

                                                                                                                             Samuel Rutherford- letter # 8 (Wrestling with God)

This week I beheld someone fearfully and wonderfully made. And he was beautiful.