New Years Eve - JAMMIN' with the FAM!!

Tonight was great! Every year we usually go to a big party with all of our friends but this year we hung out with family. Tommy couldn't resist. He had to have a little "Rock Band" bash with his cousins!Leslie (Tommy's cousin from his mom's side) and Jim (her husband) had the party at their house. Alison and Troy (Tommy's sister and husband), Jeremy and Paige (Leslie's brother and wife), Tommy and I and another married couple that are Jim's friends came to the party.
The party started at 7:00 p.m. but we were late because our water quit running right in the middle of my shower.
Tyra had to run and get me a big jug of drinking water so I could wash off all of the suds. It was FREEZING!! Anyway, so when Tommy got home, he was trying to figure out what happened, so we got a late start. We didn't get there until about 8:30 p.m. Jeremy had gone out and bought "Rock Band" after Tommy had talked it up so much to him, so when we got there we added another guitar to the band. Everyone had so much fun playing it!Leslie was the AWESOME rock singer!
It was so fun to watch her. Actually, Jim did a pretty good job at singing too. I'd have to say, that I was probably the worst at singing. I just think it is so fun to be loud. Consequently, that makes me go off key really bad! :) I did pretty okay at drums though. Tommy, of course was good at ALL of the positions. All of us were having so much fun that finally someone asked what time it was and it was already 11:50 p.m. So, Alison and I got all of the "Sparkling Cider" poured and handed out to everyone.We played a few more songs and then turned it off to watch the ball drop. For some reason, that always sounds cooler then it actually is!! At the New Year we all toasted and kissed our partners and took pictures of course. Can't start the new year without a kiss, right?Soon after that, the party started to dwindle. Tommy and I, of course, were the last ones there. It gets a lot harder to stay late when you are paying for someone to babysit three kids. Some years my mom has watched the kids and we ended up staying out until 4 or 5 in the morning. We figure we might as well. It is one of the only times out of the whole year that we get to hang out with all of our friends. But this year we needed to go pick up the kids so we couldn't stay too late. Their cousin Erica, was watching them. We made all of them take naps today so they could stay up late. When we got there Braxton had already crashed but the other two were still awake. I couldn't believe it!

You know, some one was talking about how they were agreeing with a bunch of people about how they didn't like the year 2007. I thought to myself, "How sad! I had such a great year this year." So, I started to think about why my year was so great and I couldn't think of anything outstanding that has happened to me. Then I realized that my whole attitude about life in general has completely changed. Don't get me wrong. I have always loved living, it is just that for one, I discovered "The Secret" and that has changed a lot of things for me. Which by the way, I would recommend that book or movie to anyone! But there was one other thing that happened to me this year that has completely changed my life and my way of thinking.

Earlier this year we were asked to foster a two week old baby. He was two months premature. I have had a crib ready for a baby forever because after Braxton out grew it I kept thinking that maybe we would adopt soon, so I just left the crib up. Needless to say, almost two years later it is still standing, but I figured it would be good to have a little one around again. This little guy only weighed 4 lbs. 7 oz. when we picked him up from the hospital. I had to wake him up every three hours through the day AND night to feed him. He NEVER cried. Really truly, he never cried ONE time the whole time I had him. He was one of the sweetest little angels I have ever known.

In fact, I have always been okay with adopting our children. (Sorry, I am going off on a tangent for a moment.) After trying to get pregnant for 10 months, we actually did, but I miscarried at 7 weeks along. We have never been pregnant since then. It has now been about 12 years since we first started trying. Well, a few months after I had the miscarriage I was having a terrible time with it and was praying to Heavenly Father for some peace and comfort. I had an amazing spiritual experience that has sustained me through all of these years. Since then, I have never cried or been upset about not being able to give birth to our children. I know that this is part of Heavenly Father's plan for us and I accept it fully. But...........

For some reason, when we got this little guy, he was just so amazing to me and had such a beautiful spirit, that it just really made me long for the next little spirit that will become a part of our family. One night, in the middle of the night, while I was up for a feeding, all of the sudden I just burst out in tears and cried out loud, "Heavenly Father, where is OUR little baby?" Like I said, I NEVER cry about this stuff, so it caught me off guard that it just came out like that. Well, I had my cry and then I was okay for a while.

Well, we had this little guy for 3 1/2 days and then the social worker called and said that they had just realized that we were only licensed for one foster child at that time and we already had our youngest with us. They said they would have to put the little baby in a different home. I was okay with that, because I always try to figure, what ever is meant to happen will. So, I got him all cleaned up and ready to go. I packed all of his stuff together and of course he fell back to sleep. My kids were all over at the neighbor's house playing while I was getting ready to make them lunch. When all of the sudden, I just about jumped out of my chair, because this thought came so abruptly to me,.. "Oh, my gosh! I need to call the kids home so they can say good bye to the baby before he leaves." Looking back now, I know that this was the Holy Ghost prompting me. The kids didn't even know that the baby was going to go away and they thought he was "the bomb", so I knew they would be upset if they couldn't say good bye. So, I hurried and called them home and told them about it.

They were eating lunch and TJ asked if he could go back over to the neighbors when he was done eating. I told him yes, so he wolfed down his sandwich and started to run off. Then he remembered to say good bye to the baby and he got down by his car seat. After a few seconds, I thought, "Oh, that won't be any fun saying good bye to a sleeping baby," but the social worker was going to be there any minute. I decided that I could just hurry and put him back in when she got there. So, I got down with TJ and then TJ said, "Mom, he looks kind of funny." By this point, I had been gently wiggling his little arms to try and wake him up. Normally he woke up so easily. I couldn't get him to wake up and then I noticed that his bottom lip looked a little purple. So, I said, "Yes, he does." Then I got him out of the car seat. I set him on my fore arm and cradled his head in my hand and was gently bouncing him saying, "Baby, wake up."...... nothing. By now I was starting to get a little nervous. I kept trying to wake him up and I wasn't getting any response at all. TJ must have been able to see how anxious I was and asked, "Mom, is he going to die?"

At this point, I still had NO idea what was going on, so I told him that the baby WASN'T going to die. I thought about giving him mouth to mouth so I put my face close to his to see if I could feel if he was breathing, then I looked to see if his chest was moving up and down. I couldn't tell either way, so I just decided to give him a small puff in his mouth. When I did, I heard the air come up threw his nose and all of the sudden, that knocked me into gear and then I remembered all that I had ever learned about CPR. I then gave him mouth to mouth the right way with 3 small puffs and still....... nothing. I did it one more time and the little guys whole body quickly jerked and he made a squeaking sound and his eyes popped open. At first I thought, "Oh, thank goodness," but then there was still no response. I have never seen such an eery look in some one's eyes before. By now, I think I was really kind of freaking out. I have never ever ever in my whole life pleaded so sincerely to me Heavenly Father about something before. With out even thinking I just burst out, "Heavenly Father, PLEASE help this baby NOW!" I then gave him three more puffs and he started to make a little sound every few seconds, so I knew he must be getting a tiny bit of air. So, right then, I grabbed the phone to call 911. Just as they answered I got a knock at my door. I hung up and ran to the door. It was the social worker. I burst out the social worker's name and said, "Something is wrong with this baby. He quit breathing!" She grabbed him from me and started bouncing him over her shoulder. She was able to get him to start breathing again, so I asked if it would be okay if I ran and checked on my daughter. By now, Tyra had rand upstairs balling hysterically because she thought the baby was going to die in my arms. When I was up checking on her, the social worker yelled to me that he had quit breathing again, so I ran down and we called 911. The ambulance met us within minutes and she got out and rode with them to the hospital. I had held it together pretty good up until this point, but as soon as they drove off and I knew that he was in safe hands, I completely lost it. Unless I was talking to someone, I was crying the rest of the day until around 7:00 that night. This whole thing happened around 1:30 p.m.

Never in my life have I been so scared. I completely fell apart. I, of course, immediately dropped to my knees and told Heavenly Father over and over how grateful I was to him for helping that little baby live. There is tons more to the story but I have already written too much. But the little guy is still alive and doing well. He did have to be life flighted later to a different hospital though, so it still was scary there for a few days. They never did really find out what happened to him. The think it was mostly because he was so premature and that maybe he had caught some kind of virus or something. Either way, I was so glad that he lived.

Later, I was talking about it to my neighbor because we had dropped all of the kids off at her house, when we went rushing towards the ambulance and I told her about my prayer. TJ came and sat by my side and said, "Mom, I said a prayer too." That totally made me start crying all over again. How precious are these little spirits that have so much faith? I gave him a big hug and told him thank you and that it was probably because of his strong faith that that little guy lived.

Well, ever since that experience, I have never been more grateful for my own life. I absolutely love it! It is like, even if everything around me is going terribly wrong, I still love my life sooooo much. I would never want anyone else's. I absolutely love and adore my husband more than anyone in this entire world and my children are my everything. My family IS my life. I am not sure that I'd want to be here, if I didn't have them. I love all of our extended families and good friends so much. In fact, more than I ever have in my whole life, I love myself. I love my body, my mind and my soul. I am so grateful for ALL of the blessings I have in my life. If I was never given another blessing again, I still could not repay Heavenly Father or Jesus for an ounce of everything they have given me. I didn't mean to make this be, I don't know, preachy or something, but I just wanted everyone to know how much I did love the year 2007. It has been a complete changing moment in my life and I will always be grateful for, and never forget this year. I look forward to this next year and can't wait for it to be just as good, if not better then last year. For anyone who has made it through my NOVEL (sorry), then I hope you are blessed with everything you need and want during this next year. Have a great one!!!!!!!