Never was good at math

It seems there is some things I have done wrong when factoring our money for the trip to Atlanta.
First we will not be staying 4 nights, I counted days we will leave Monday home Thursday that is 3 nights, with 2 now being free we only have one night to pay for!

Some of that money will need to be moved from hotel to food as the hotel has dopa but not free breakfast, believe me the free room is much much better! We will also have to pay for parking and that is 18 dollars a day just 2 days, so not bad at all.

Still with that we are going to save about 200 dollars! Of course we will use it for another trip, I am so thankful for this room.

Blessed

I have not always felt blessed in my life, but looking back I know I should have. Its hard though when your in the moment to think of somethings as a blessing for example having premature babies, or Jason being out of work for 2 years. I didn't see them as blessings, but now I am able to handle rough medical problems with out freaking out, and I am also able to understand doctor talk with all their big words.

So having 2 premature babies has given me the blessing of medical understanding. Jason not having a job, that was rough how could anything good come out of that, well I got to have my husband home a lot as we had a new baby I needed his help, he saw how much I needed him and started helping more with everything, we also learned to live off a lot less. So being unemployed brought the blessing of a more understanding husband and father. Those are some pretty great blessings!

Having Haleigh has been a blessing from the moment I found myself expecting, all my kids are blessings sent straight from heaven from God to me. We have been blessed to have our family, our church, and our friends.

We have been given so much help, God has provided for us diapers when we had one left and no money, formula when Haleigh needed the most expensive kind ever made. Gas money when we didn't know how we were going to get her to her 5 doctors appointments that week.

Today God blessed is providing a FREE hotel room in Atlanta, for our first trip for the first 2 nights! The hotel is donating the room to Haleigh. This is so so exciting for us, while we still need to raise money because we do not know about other trips and such, these two nights at this hotel comes to about 500 dollars!

This is not a hotel we would have stayed at because of price, it is a very upscale hotel and you better believe we will be taking pictures while swimming in the indoor pool! I am not sure how I will thank them, I have cards and such for everyone that is helping, and that really doesn't show how very thankful we are to everyone, but its what I can do. How do you thank someone or really a company for this? My thought is maybe writing them a thank you note, not sure where i would send it though.

This is just another blessing God has sent to us to help us through our travels with Haleigh. He will never lead down the wrong path, or open the door that you should not go through. God is opening all the doors and windows for us!

As long as it's healthy.

I bet you have heard almost every pregnant woman and maybe even some expectant fathers say that they do not care if they have a boy or a girl, as long as the baby is healthy that is all that matters to them.

So my question is what is the difference, in wanting a boy, a girl, and healthy? No one wants to say they want a girl because if then they have a boy people will say aw sorry you didn't get what you wanted. So goes for if you wanted a boy. But what if you say all you want is a healthy baby?

What if your baby is not healthy? What then all you wanted was healthy and you didn't get it, so do you love your baby less because they are not healthy? What do you say to a new parent who for 8 months have said all they want is a healthy baby? Then they have a baby who is not completely healthy?

We didn't care if Haleigh was a boy or girl and yes as every parent we prayed she would be healthy. But I never said all I wanted was for her to be healthy, because really being perfectly healthy is not all that important. I wanted nothing more than a child to bring into our home and love. That is all that mattered to me. I think a lot of parents would agree with me on that.

I think people that have children that never have a health problem, will never truly understand how much some other parents go through. Having had children that were and still are healthy from the moment of birth and then the other side too. I can say as different as parenting a sick child is your love for them is the same and your protection for them more!

Money Savings

Tomorrow morning at 9 am I will be in a coupon class at church! I am so excited, the coupon lady is hopefully going to teach me how to buy stuff for pennies on the dollar! Its going to be so helpful to be able to cut our grocery bill by more than half. With our trips to Atlanta getting closer any where we can cut back is wonderful, and before we cut out other things I think starting with coupons and food is the smart way to go.

We are also making sure everyone turns the lights off when they walk out of a room and water off while brushing teeth, and believe me the youngest kids do this the best, the older ones I feel like I am telling all day everyday.

One other thing is the heater, I wish I had one that locked, my kids get cold and do the put on a sweater, um... No they bump the heat up! I always set it for 68 and down to 65 when we leave the house. But now they know how to use it. I got up the other night sweating, the heater was on 78! Who needs it almost 80 to sleep? No one would say who did it either. So we are all learning something new, to save money. I hope its enough! Oh we got our paint and pals check today ready 360$ YAY!!!
On another note can everyone please pray Haleigh's great grand pop, we would be very grateful! He is sick and in the hospital. We are not sure what all is going on yet, thanks!

Through the Eyes of a Child

Have you ever thought of how a child sees the world? How everything is new, exciting, and sometimes scary. Think of how big everything must look and feel to them. It has to be scary sometimes, but I think most of the time its fun and exciting. I love to look at Haleigh while she is learning new things. Her eyes get bright, she stairs, tilts her head and starts talking random words about whatever she is looking at.

Today she was looking at fish and she has seen fish before looked at them talked to them, but today she was asking about them. She was looking at them eyes wide open, what's that she said? Fish I said. Fish? Yes Haleigh Fish! Oh mama look blue fish! I see orange fish Haleigh. Oh orange fish mama! Look swimming mama!

We talked and she learned about fish for an hour! And when we had to go she was not ready, she could have stayed there all day, just looking and talking about the fish.

So simple so pure. I wish I could look at things the way she does everyday all day. She has no worries, not a care in the world. I hope she looks at the world the way she does now for a long long time!

Change of Plans

I got an e mail from Dr.C's office last night, and we got a small set back, a small change of plans. They had to move her surgery date from Feb 22 to March 8th. This date is set though and everyone has agreed. I know in the end its only 2 weeks and everything is going just as it should be going, but being her first surgery I wanna scream WHAT DO MEAN 2 MORE WEEKS!! But I am just trying to be patient although I have never been good at that ever!

So our plan is to leave our home at 5 am on Monday morning, I am going to be taking lots of snacks so that we don't have to stop every time our drinks need to be refilled. We have a nice cooler that plugs into the car outlet we got from Jason's trucking days, we will use that for cold things.

We will stop for lunch, and have Haleigh's appointment with Dr.C around 1 Monday after noon, then we will head to the hotel or the Ronald McDonald house where ever we will be staying. We'll most likely nap then take Haleigh to a park or some kind of open play place so she can run around, we will eat dinner and head back to the hotel.

We will need to go to sleep early because surgery is at 7:15 am Tuesday morning! We will need to be at the hospital at 5:15 am! So up at 4!?! Going to bed early will be a must. I am not for sure but my thought is we will be back at the hotel after lunch but before dinner.

I am not sue how Haleigh is going to feel either buy my thought is she'll feel pretty rotten, so I will probably send Jason for food that night. The next day, Wed, Haleigh will go back to see Dr.C, we will stay one more night then come home on Thursday morning. Sounds like a lot but I think every thing will run smooth.

We will rest and relax at home until the next Sunday. Sunday we will drive back to Atlanta spend the night have an appointment with Dr.C on Monday and drive back that night. We will not have to go back after that until her next surgery 3 to 6 months later!

YARD SALE

Need motivation to for spring cleaning?

Why not donate items to help raise travel funds for Haleigh’s surgeries?

This March we will be having a yard sale!!!

Stay on the lookout for more information!!!