Our 2012 Christmas

Due to our family situation, our Christmas is spread out over a few days. Typically, we'll allow the kids to start opening presents a couple days before Christmas so that they get to enjoy each present instead of being flooded with lots of them all at one time. It makes Christmas last longer.

Our typical schedule is to go to Tina's dad's house on Christmas Eve and spend time with him, his wife, and an assortment of kids, grandkids, friends, and friend's kids. You just never know who'll be there but it's a good time. On Christmas Day we'll open presents at home and then in the afternoon we'll go over to some friends of my family that are honorary grandparents to our children.

This year was a little different and our celebrations were spread out even more. On Sunday, two days before Christmas, we went over to Tina's dad's house and celebrated an early Christmas. There were six adults and about seven kids. We had a great time.

 

On Christmas Eve, we opened a couple presents and hung around the house not doing too much. That night we went to our church for the annual Christmas Eve celebration that we usually miss because we're usually with family. It was a great service and part of it is our pastor reading a Christmas story to the kids.

 

On Christmas was more presents and having a good time together as a family.

 

Since we were not able to go to Grandma and Grandpa Key's house on Christmas like usual, we headed over there the day after Christmas.

Aria in Christmas Program at IWG

Our kids go to Imagine West Gilbert and are doing great there. They have programs all the time but today Aria had a Christmas one and she is so cute that I just had to share.

Christmas at DSC 2012

We go to Desert Springs Church in Chandler. We love it!! I just wanted to share some of the events that our kids have been involved in this Christmas. I hope you can see why we love it.

The Children's Choir

(my daughter, Aria, has her hand over her mouth)

The Children's Christmas Production

My daughter, Suzanna, being a great angel with lots of enthusiasm.

And the snow brought in that leads to snow ball fights.

More Medication for Aria

For about a week, Aria has been complaining that her tummy doesn't feel well. She has not been sleeping through the night and has been getting up multiple times between 12am and 3am. She's also not been eating very much and that has bothered us also.

So, we scheduled some appointments for yesterday and today. She saw the pulmonologist yesterday afternoon and the doctor said her lung function is normal but he is NOT taking her off any medications.

This morning she went to visit the gastroenterologist doctor and he said that her intestines are completely blocked up. Basically, she's constipated, which is a side effect of some of the medications she is on. So, on top of all the meds she's currently taking, we now have to add two more, X-lax and Miralax. She's not had to deal with this in the past because she was on antibiotics a lot and that took care of the constipation but she's not been getting infections in the past couple months and so she has not needed antibiotics.

My wife said that this is not going to be a fun weekend. I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the medicines. We're going to need to post a schedule on the fridge because we have some she takes in the morning, some she takes at night, and some she alternates and this is going to be three times a week. We had reduced one of the meds to once a day but now it's twice a day again. It's mind-boggling.

I told my wife that if something happens to her, Aria is in a world of hurt for me trying to keep track of it all. Let's pray that doesn't happen.

Keep my daughter, Aria, in prayer. She's a tough little girl and just rolls with the punches but it always seems that if it's not one thing, it's another. Pray for Tina. It's very stressful for all of us but Tina bears the brunt of it with all the doctor appointments, pharmacy visits, insurance hassles, financial stress, etc.

We praise and thank God for our daughter's strength. The doctors that God has brought our way and the medicine that we have that can help our daughter live a somewhat normal life.

We also thank God for his provisions. He's always taken care of us and I know He'll continue to do so in the future.

"All is Vanity (Emptiness)"

I listened to Ecclesiastes yesterday morning and I listened to it again this morning on the way to work. Over and over again, "The Preacher," King Solomon, exclaims that everything is vanity. He did everything he wanted, and had wealth beyond measure, and he sought for wisdom and knowledge his entire life, and at the end of it all, he claims that "it's all vanity." Sounds hopeless but it's not. In this book, He's trying to impart wisdom to us, his listeners.

I'd like to share some of the things that I picked up while listening. It's things that I struggle with at times.

First, enjoy life. Several times Solomon tells us that whatever our lot in life, we need to enjoy it. In the end, it's all we really have. We could strive and strive for more and more and not be satisfied. We start with nothing and we don't take anything with us when we die. What do we have? We have the life that is given to us and Solomon says in Ecc.5: 18 "Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot."

The second thing that caught my attention was in Ecc.6:9a "Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite." For more than five chapters Solomon has been talking about the striving for more, the emptiness it brings, the lack of satisfaction, and still striving for more without enjoying what you have and then this verse. It tells me that it is better to see what I already have then to chasing after my wants. In another place he uses the analogy that it's just like chasing the wind.

The third, and probably most important, words of wisdom (and goes nicely with the first one) that I heard these past two days is found in...
                 Ecc. 9: 7-10 "Go, 
                          1. eat your bread with joy, and 
                          2. drink your wine with a merry heart, for 
                          3. God has already approved what you do.  
                          4. Let your garments be always white. 
                          5. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
                          6. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, 
                all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (the grave), to which you are going."
     
When I put all this together it reminded me that I should enjoy the life that God has given me and not be wishing for things that I don't have. I need to enjoy the time I have with my wife and kids and don't waste my time thinking about having bigger and better. Whatever I do, whether work or play, do it with everything I have. I have what I have because God's already approved it for me and it's all for nothing if I'm not satisfied with my lot in life.

Solomon sums it all up in Ecc.12: 13 "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." 

While we enjoy our portion in life that God has given us, our duty in life is to honor and obey Him. I can't think of anything better than having satisfaction in life while serving my God.

Changed or Convincing

We went and saw my dad at the Yuma State Prison yesterday. We had a good visit with him and had a good five hours spent with him. We all talked, played games, ate vending machine food, and hung out until it was our time to leave.

My dad is a much different person in prison than the one I grew up with. I know he had changed. I have seen a physical change in him. The hardness of his heart seemed to disappear years ago and the anger in his eyes left with it. I really believe he is a changed man and all because God answered my prayer when I asked Him to "put my dad in a place that the only thing he could do was to look to You." I saw the events unfold as God allowed certain things to happen and six weeks later my dad is sitting behind bars and even more angry at the world for all that had happened to him.

About three years later, when I went to visit him after not seeing him for about two years, He came into the waiting room and I could physically see that all the emotions, anger, and frustrations that I had seen in him all my life seemed to be gone. He really looked like a different man. One who was at peace with God.

But there is still a part of me that doesn't trust him. How much of it is an act and how much of it is real. He talks about the Bible studies he conducts, how much he reads and studies his Bible, and a synopsis of the Gospel that he's been working on for fifteen years and trying to get published. Maybe it's real for where he is because it's really all he can do. I actually had the impression this last visit that he thinks he's better than other prisoners because he's active with reading, studying, and praying while they just whittle their time away watching TV and sleeping. Maybe he's just saying it's better to be active than laying around.

I think the true test of his change would be if he kept this up if he was to get out. Would he be as devoted as he claims to studying God's Word if he was on the outside? I realize that it would not be possible since he'd have other distractions of life, such as: job, family, friends, etc. My questions are, would he go back to his old life? Would porn suck him in like it did before with it's even easier access and more anonymous methods than it was 18 years ago? Would he go back to his old tromping grounds of debauchery and visit the places he used to? Would he be able to stay strong and and say "no" to sin without the walls and the barbed fences keeping access to it away?

That would be the true test of my dad being "changed" or just "convincing." I pray that he's not the same man that I grew up with and that he's genuine. Otherwise, he's just living the same lie that I grew up with -- super-spiritual and godly on the outside but rotten, self-serving, lying, egomaniac, who could charm anyone to fit any occasion as long as it got him what he wanted.

Is he "changed" or "just convincing?" That my question and only God really knows that answer.