THE BETTER TO HEAR YOU WITH . . .

So Grandpa has his new ear now . . . O.K. well, technically it's not really new but it is rebuilt. Lol. He's had three run-ins now with the scalpel and this time the surgeon took a huge chunk out--a pie shaped wedge. He did such a great job sewing it back together though that you wouldn't even know. Mom told me that it just looked like he had a smaller ear on one side but when I went downstairs to check it out I had to look closely to tell. And the doc did such a good job that the only sign of trauma to it is a red line where he's done some sewing and it's still healing. Now, if he could only do something about fixing the inside of those ears . . . Lol.

The kids have been off school for the last couple of days for MLK day and maybe a personal day for teachers. We haven't gotten much done because Jono has been pretty sick since last week. He's had a virus and breathing problems so we've been sticking pretty close to home. For a few nights I was up with him every 2 hours doing albuterol treatments. I keep hoping for his sake that he will grow out of this. It does seem like we have a little less of it the past couple of years than we used to have but I wish he didn't have to go through it at all.

I showed the kids a video of Martin Luther King speaking -- just a few clips and then of some of the things that happened in the 50's and 60's. I showed them the pictures of segregation, of the different water fountains for colored and white people. Carly had been told a little about it at school. In fact, she came home and told me I wouldn't have been allowed to be her mom. It's so hard to explain to my kids why there was a time when I would not have been allowed to openly love them and be their mom. Though, I have to say that I was pretty frustrated that my first grader was given a lesson like that without some notice to parents. And yes, I know, with Common Core they don't want parents to know what they are teaching them now. Ugh.

The one thing I loved though was being able to share a quote from his "I have a dream" speech with Carly and Jonathon that has come to pass in a big way and right in our own family--and maybe in a way he didn't even dare to dream.

"I have a dream that one day . . .  little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." MLK

Katie, Megan, Sara, Julie, Carson, Carly, Jonathon ~ White and Black, brothers and sisters, daughters and sons of Heavenly and earthly parents

We are so blessed and grateful for every single one of our children. I am so thankful I live in the time I do when these precious souls can be mine. I can't imagine our lives or our family without them.