Locusts and Photos

I am sure you are wondering why I am posting photos that are so old. Yes, these are of Carson the day he was born (his birthday is the 10th, but my camera had not been adjusted for daylight savings time, and since he was born at 12:13am the date is wrong in the last one) and he is now over 2 years old. Well, there is a long complicated story, but the short version is this: We took photos. We loaded photos onto the computer. We deleted the photos from the memory card. Computer crashes-over a year ago. I didn't realize until recently that all of the photos we had taken of Carson up until about 4 months were on that computer. We failed in the one task of digital media-we had not backed the photos up.

Joel really felt like we could rescue the contents of the hard drive. I am not a tech savvy person at all. Tech handicapped is more like it! I did not know how this could be done, but I was very sad that essentially all I had was about 10 photos I had printed and about 20 (that included the 10 I had printed) that I had saved on Costco's website. I had two that I had taken the day he was born. Neither had me in them, and there were none of Carson in the delivery room.

I love photos. I am not a good photographer, but usually somewhere along the line I can get a lot of quantity to equal a little bit of quality. Realizing that the sum total of photographic remembrances of Carson's first 8 weeks was a paltry 10 pictures was a tough blow. I know that there are much, much worse things that could have happened. But I was still very sad. We had not suffered a devastating fire, or a terrible flood, or even theft. I had lost those photos through my own negligence, and lack of forethought. I could have purchased a cheap thumb drive, or some CDs and saved them in about 20 minutes. I could have moved them to Shutterfly, or even Facebook, but I wasn't really into those things at the time, and so I didn't. I just left them chance, and unfortunately, it proved to be a poor choice.

I was very regretful of my poor choice. But it did not bring my photos back. To be totally honest, I did not even completely learn from my lesson. I saved photos in various places, Facebook, Shutterfly, etc. but I didn't back up every photo that I took. I tried not to think about the photos, because there was really nothing I could do about it.

Joel had asked people off and on about rescuing the photos but no one really seemed to know what to do. We would talk about taking it to a "professional", but it always seemed to get pushed to the back burner. Then about a week ago, I found him in the floor with laptop and a screwdriver. I have know him long enough that I did not ask any questions. Then he called me over. He had worked some type of magic and there were some of the photos on our current computer. I didn't realize until that point how many pictures had been missing. All my photos from Christmas 2007 through September of 2008 were on that computer. And not all of them were showing up. It seemed all of the ones of Carson's birth were missing.

I tried not to be too upset. I was thankful for all the photos we were able to redeem. No use crying over spilt milk, and some were infinitely better than none. I profusely thanked Joel for his hard work. And we backed up the photos, all of them!

I was working on a post the other day when I decided to add some photos, I was clicking around to find the ones I wanted when I opened a folder by mistake. I clicked on another folder inside the first one to try to get the ones I wanted. I had to squint to figure out the thumbnails when I thought, "That kind of looks like Carson's baby shower". I opened the photo and it was! I started scrolling through the pictures and then I started crying. They were all there. Every photo- the ones of him all wrinkled, red and crying when he came out, my sister holding him, my brother holding him. The ones of Joel, Carson and I in the delivery room. And his first bath. And his sweet first smile. And him curled up in his Boppy pillow. And on and on. It was an amazing gift.

And it made me think about redemption. About having the years the locusts have eaten returned. About how I serve an amazing God who cares about the little things.

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-

the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts

and the locust swarm-my great army that I sent

among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you

are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord

your God, who has worked wonders for you; never

again will my people shamed.

Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the

Lord your God, and that there is no other; never

again will my people be shamed.

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men

will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

-Joel 2:25-28 (NIV)

He promises the Israelite people that He will give them back all of their time of bereft wanderings if they will repent and turn back to Him. I know the joy I felt when I was able to see my photos again. I know how excited I was to see those precious images again. It doesn't even begin to compare with how glorious it is to have your life restored when you turn your eyes upon Jesus. I just love that I serve a God whose business is restoration. I love that He cared enough about me to overlook my carelessness and give me back my pictures. But better than that- He gave me life. Thank goodness He looks after fools and little children-I will let you decide which I am.

Labor Day Weekend

We went to Helen Hunt Falls on Saturday with friends for another "Nic-Lic"-two in one week!
The kids had a fabulous time playing by (and in) the creek. They both carried big sticks, but there wasn't much speaking softly!

This was our beautiful picnic spot-sun, shade, nice and flat with big rocks to sit on. With the gorgeous scenery it was absolutely perfect! The weather was wonderful-I would probably be able to be persuaded to picnic every single day if it would be just like this.

The kids weren't the only ones who enjoyed playing in the water. Joel may have spent some time in there, too. We had to cross the creek to get to our picnic spot, and let me tell you, that water was COLD! Completely clear, clean, mountain run-off. Just walking through it and I couldn't hard feel my toes!

Both Carson and Josie had a blast. The water was only about 4 inches and the bed wasn't too rocky. I tried to convince them to wear their Crocs but they were having none of it. However, it was a little too cold for sitting in, but definitely great for splashing and running around.

The little pool they were playing in ended in this tiny waterfall. Isn't it precious?

We ended the day by going to the Colorado Springs "Balloon Glo". If you have never been (this was our first time) I highly recommend it! I got zero decent photos of my family-my camera doesn't do so well after dark with just the flash. However, the whole point of the Glo is to inflate all the hot air balloons and then when the crowd counts down and says, "Glow!" all the pilots flare simultaneously and all the balloons light up. It was really neat. This was a fun pig shaped balloon. We also saw an enormous Energizer bunny, but my camera died, so no photos of that. It was a bad camera night!

This was the first balloon to light up. You can see it isn't quite dark yet. There was a million people there, but we still were really close to several balloons. This one was nearest.

The balloons once they were all inflated. We could see about 15 from where we were standing. Those things are huge! Carson loved the "balloons and fire!" . Typical boy.

We relaxed on Sunday and then Monday it was off for family photos. My friend Lindsay offered to take our pictures and I couldn't pass that up. We went to Fox Run Park. I had been there before, but I had never been to the lake side. It is an absolutely terrific place to take photos! Two lakes, and a cute little creek. All the photos here are mine, that is why they aren't the greatest. I will post some of her's when I get them from her.

The little creek. After Saturday Carson just kept begging to get in the water. It was really hard to get him to look at the camera. Photos near a creek might have been a bad idea, since his memories of the falls were still so fresh. We did let him wade a little at the end.

Finally! He stripped his shoes off as fast as he could! We tried to make it quick, there was a bunch of people. The weather was windy but I think she got some good shots. Carson and Joel are not very photo friendly so I didn't want to drag it out. After all the forced smiling I thought they deserved a little play time.

Cute, though, isn't he? He snagged this hat from his friend Kegan and I thought he looked pretty swell. I think he thought so, too.

A fun pic of the kids near the end. I played around with this in a photo editing program and changed it to black and white and made it look like an oil painting. It looks really cool, but since the photos on here are so small it didn't translate well. I can email you one, but since it also looked cute un-retouched, here it is.

So that was our Labor Day weekend. It was pretty great. I could do it again this weekend, but I would leave the boys at home for the photo part!

A Sewing Story

"Oh Lord, You have searched me and know me, You know when I sit and when I rise, You perceive my thoughts from afar. You hem me in behind and before, You have laid Your hand upon me." -from Psalm 139

The Lord has heard a lot from me lately. It all started with some photos. I was editing some pictures of the kids when I realized Carson's eye was looking odd. Instead of a black spot where his pupil was (or even a red one) that area was milky and cloudy looking. I probably would have just thought it was because I don't have a top-of-the-line camera. Probably, except I had just read an article about retinoblastoma. In the article the little girl's eye cancer had been diagnosed through a photo-her eye looked just like Carson's did. And she had to have it removed in order to save her life.

I am not a WebMD mom. Having a dad who is a doctor has taught me that the easiest answer is usually the best one. 99.9% of things we think are fatal, aren't. I did not want to be guilty of Munchausen's by proxy! However, when I showed the photos to Joel, he didn't just call me crazy. So, since Carson's 18 month check-up was already scheduled we decided to wait and ask the peditrician.

He didn't tell us we were crazy, either. He scheduled a referral with the opthamologist. Not what we wanted to hear. The opthamologist didn't think there was anything wrong-until he saw the photos. Then he worried us by setting up an immediate return appointment.

Let's just say I have driven myself crazy for the last week with all the possibilities. Could it be true that my delightful,busy little boy was deathly ill? I kept petitioning the Lord, "Give me strength, but most of all keep my baby safe." This verse kept coming back to me. He hems me in. He was there at the beginning and He, He alone, will be there to complete what He has begun. He is on the other side of everything.

I would love to say that I have been completely calm, peaceful and sane. Joel would be glad to tell you otherwise. However, every time my emotions threatened to gain the upper hand the Holy Spirit gently reminded me who was hemming me in.

So today, we went back to the opthamologist. The original doctor throughly examined him. A second doctor came in to look everything over. They dilated his eyes and glared ridiculously bright lights in them, much to Carson's dismay. And then, blessed relief. He is fine! Then the doctor told us that he didn't want to say, but after viewing the photos he had felt there was a very real possibility that Carson had a tumor. We hadn't been imagining the image-and it could have been very life-threatening. The doctor was very glad that had not been the case. How does he think we felt?!

Oh, Lord, You have searched me. I am glad that today was not the day when I was found in need of a serious trial. I am so thankful for my healthy family. I know that the Lord is perfect in all He does. He makes no mistakes. I can only praise Him for not choosing our family at this time. Let me be worthy. I can see the Father carefully examining all the seams in my life, checking them for durability, putting in stitches where some are broken or missing. He started the stitching and He isn't about to give up in the middle of the project. He keeps all the threads in place, and I am so grateful. But most of all I am thankful that He is always on the other side, hemming me in.