Hey Y'all

I hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas! We just returned from an after Christmas trip to Savannah, Georgia. (That’s where I picked up this southern accent from.). It seems to be a little tradition we have going. Last year we went to Asheville, North Carolina to see the Biltmore Mansion (highly recommended!). This year we took the train down to Savannah and ate at Paula Deen’s restaurant, “The Lady & Sons”. Amazing! The chicken pot pie was out of this world and I’m pretty sure if I ate like that every night I’d gain 10 pounds a week! I just love Paula Deen and how she says, “Hey Y’all!”. I’m gonna hug that lady one day. It’s on my bucket list, I guess.

At The Lady & Sons in Savannah, GA 

So it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m going to be ringing in 2012 with my sweet girl and The Husband. But there is one thing you can celebrate tomorrow other than New Year’s Day: Andrew’s Birthday! If you don’t know who Andrew is, you should definitely read about him here.

When I started my last post, I asked my BFF Sarah to write about Andrew and share his favorite bible verse. And she did! So, I’d like to share what she wrote:

I haven't written much at all about Andrew since he was killed. I know I should, but I just don't. One time I brought myself to write about 4 pages in a journal of quick memories I had that I didn't want to forget. That's it.

So...Here's all I can say about Andrew's bible verse.... He had a tattoo on his arm that read 'centurion'. He loved explaining to people what it meant if they asked...and probably even if they didn't ask. ;) The story that influenced the centurion tattoo was from the book of Matthew, chapter 8. The story of the centurion starts in verse 5. Here it is:

The Faith of the Centurion

⁵ When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶ “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

⁸ The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹ I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³ Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

The thing that I think Andrew appreciated about this story was that it was about a soldier, who was a leader of men, yet he had humility and he definitely had faith! Andrew could and wanted to relate to this centurion and so he also liked to share this story to get to talk about Jesus and the Bible to anyone he could.

One of the things that amazed me most about Andrew and that I learned a lot from him was his faith. He had that child-like faith that is mentioned in the Bible. He would rest his hand on me and without me even knowing be praying for some pain I was complaining about earlier that day. A couple minutes later he would ask, "Hey, how is that pain now?"..."Actually", I said, "It’s gone...like it just left." He said, "I know." "You know?" "Yeah, I prayed about." His faith and relationship with God was just so matter of fact.

While he was deployed we learned about Tenny being born and right away I asked him to pray for her and Amy and her husband. I kept him up on every detail that would get passed to me and sometimes multiple times a day I got to talk to him to tell him how she was doing. I asked him to pray for her non-stop while he was out there working.

 Later that week I had my ultrasound on a Friday morning. Andrew called me the minute it was over so that I could tell him the news of a healthy baby with 10 fingers and 10 toes. We wanted to be surprised with the gender so I just shared with him that the baby had calf muscles like his and that it was "bootylicious" just like us! :) He cried .He was proud and excited. He also had to hang up because he would be on a small mission for a couple days and call me after the weekend.

 Monday morning is when the "green men" came and rang my doorbell, waking me from a lazy pregnant slumber. The rest of this story isn't really fitting for this blog, so I will stop here.

Sarah is a wonderful example of a faithful woman. I admire her faith and she is a huge source of inspiration for me. Thank you so much, Sarah! I really appreciate that you wrote that, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one! Happy Birthday, Andrew!!!

2011 was a roller coaster year, full of new information, and plans that changed unexpectedly – not uncommon in the Army I suppose. Here’s a quick wrap-up (in terms of Tennyson):

April :    We found out Tennyson had a Type 2 Laryngeal Cleft (more on this later)during an airway study. She also had her tongue “clipped” –aka- a Frenulectomy

May:      Tennyson had surgery to repair the laryngeal cleft

June:     Trip home to Washington for many friends and my sister’s wedding! Great trip!

July:       A couple days after we returned home, Tennyson began having seizures and was hospitalized and then diagnosed with epilepsy.

September:  Three trips to the ER and a slew of minor infections

October: Tennyson had a Gastrostomy Tube (G-Tube) placed.

November: Hospitalized again due to weight loss. (Nobody mentioned the volcano-erupting vomit that could come from placing a g-tube) Sheesh!

December: Seizures have continued on a daily basis despite medicine doses increasing, but we have something in the works with our Neurology team that we are hopeful about.(more on that later too!)

I’ve been making my own resolutions. One of my big ones is to develop this blog and really educate people who want to know about Tenn. I would love to be a support for other parents of special needs children, like others are and have been for me. We are going to jump right in this week starting with Tennyson’s birth story.

I also hope to advance my sewing and embroidery skills with the help of my new fancy shmancy Husqvarna Viking H Class embroidery and sewing machine. A Christmas present from The Husband (I love him!!!). Maybe a little shop on the internet? I’m still developing that one. Sewing is kind of like my own little therapy sessions. I was so excited I read the manual on the train ride to Savannah! Don't make fun of me, haha.

Do you have any resolutions?

Feel free to let me know if you have anything you are particularly interested in hearing about. I’ve seen some blogs do question and answer posts and they can be pretty funny/informative. So don’t be shy! E-mail me at tennsense@gmail.com or leave a comment! I really do read it all and I reply to it all.

Happy New Year! Hello 2012! Happy Birthday, Andrew!