Christmas Week in Bullet Points

• First off, sometimes I really dislike blogger ...the formatting is CRAZY for this post, despite doing it in pages first...and I don't have time to fix it.  So here it is anyway, the not pretty version.
• Now we say, "Check your blood sugars!"  Everything is plural now.  We cling to truth.  Actually, we don't cling, we hold onto it confidently...most of the time.  We have had our moments, but they have been fleeting and at times of tiredness.  Christian, like Ethan, has been given the gift of his Heavenly Father's strength and grace flowing like a river.   This morning, after a day of rigorously tracking BGs and carbs and fielding highs and lows, God's Word refreshed me, a most refreshing, sweet, pure time that infused me with life and promise.   William and I prayed together, receiving the strength of Jesus and renewal of our minds, rooted in the deep love of God.  We do not receive this unwelcome visitor called Type 1 diabetes! 

So...tracking everything our boys eat and drink is a good thing.  I am determined to have accurate information for Christian's appt. for the endo tomorrow.  We learned this morning that my chocolate chip pancakes are actually not 15 carbs/pancake.  More like 25.  Oops and oh, well.

•  My wonderful sisters-in-law stepped up to host Christmas Eve, for which we were very thankful. Wm's brother and family were in from New Jersey.  So good to be together.  Our nieces and nephews have grown up before our very eyes...wow, where did the time go?  The girls give us a serious pose and the siblings pose with Grandpa and Grandpa:

• Me and my daughter on Christmas morn.  My daughter.  Wow.

• Christian was delighted when Ethan opened up his very teeny tiny gift...in a very large box!

• She's walking!  The boys gave her Kleenex and pacifiers...her favorite things!

• Our very dead tree was returned a couple days before Christmas, and the boys brought home the best tree we've ever had.   We do not like dead things in our house, whether it be trees or pancreases.

• The blessing in the dead tree was this:  As I took off the ornaments one by one, I saw how richly blessed we have been as a family.  The ornaments are markers of God's faithfulness, markers of change, love, children and joy.  This year we also added a stocking to the mantle!

Father, you know this has been a week filled with the promise of your birth, a joyous time, yet it has been laced with sad things, with some homesickness on my part.  Thank you for showing me your unfailing, crazy love.  Thank you for my husband, who lifted me up when I was drowning.  Thank you for my boys and their optimism, strength and courage.  Thank you for my life.   In Jesus' powerful, powerful name, Amen!!!