Never One to Do Things Normally....

...SaraGrace, the child is always causing excitement.

Last week she kept running a 99.4 fever but we couldn't find a reason.  The doctor put her on an antibiotic because of her congenital heart defect.  We just can't take chances that an infection could make it's way to her heart.

On Sunday afternoon, she started crying about a toothache.  I knew it was bad enough that she was going to need to go to the dentist.  She had a huge filling that had fallen out and I had an appointment for her to get it fixed this week.

This morning she came downstairs with a swollen face.  I knew immediately that she had an abscessed tooth.  I got her to the dentist who told me we would need to go to ER because the infection was bad enough to need IV antibiotics.

But...a hurricane was starting.

I called her cardiologist because I was hoping I could take her to our local hospital.  Normally, they won't touch her because of her heart, but I thought that maybe our cardiologist could convince them to just treat her infection...because...a hurricane was descending upon us.  But no can do....she needed to be in Boston.

So I went home and packed...Jeff came home from work to take care of the other kids, and I set off.  We felt it was better for him to stay home than to take SaraGrace and I to Boston and then return to the other kids.  Jeff was worried he might get stranded in Boston and not be able to get back to the kids.  The winds were gusting pretty bad but I made it.  Poor SaraGrace was in so much pain and her face had swelled even more.

Thankfully, ER wasn't too busy.  The city shut down all the public transportation and many of the staff had gone home.  Still....SaraGrace suffered for another 90 minutes before they got an IV started and morphine into her.  And then....she became hilarious.

While she was in pain, she kept reaching for me and saying, "I'm so glad I have you.  I'm so glad you're my family."  So precious.

After the morphine kicked in, she was raising her arms in the air and saying, "My arms feel so light."  haha  The dental team wanted to see her, so she got into a wheelchair and started being silly.

Then, once in the dental exam chair....

Goofball!

The tears flowed shortly after, though, when she heard they were going to pull her tooth.  The infection was not going to get better with that tooth in there, so it had to come out.  Thankful that we came to Boston where we could get everything done in one place.

The tooth extraction was pretty brutal.  She was crying hard and saying, "OW! OW! OW!"  I was having flashbacks of my own horrible tooth abscess as a small child and worrying that she was feeling way too much. (I felt everything during mine and I didn't want her to repeat that horror.)  The dentist finally got the tooth out and it was HUGE.  I couldn't believe how long the roots were.  ugh.  

Within an hour or so, she had bounced back and was waving to every person who passed her room--which got pretty hilarious.  People would start to wave back, would get an odd look on their faces like, "Do I know you?" and then put their hand back down.  I was cracking up!  One of the janitors walked by and she waved happily to him.  He stopped in shock and struck up a conversation with her.  It was so cute.  I could tell it just made his day.

She's sleeping now--with a brand new pillow pet that the Child Life Specialist gave her after watching the Great Tooth Extraction.  Since they gave her Versed to help her forget the ordeal, she scored a pillow pet and won't remember anything.

I, on the other hand, won't soon forget because I didn't get any Versed.

On the home front, we still had power as of about 10PM. Yay!  SaraGrace and I are hoping to head home tomorrow.

For now, I am watching the storm on TV--and some idiot on CNN is standing in thigh deep water doing the newscast.  What's that about?  New York and New Jersey are definitely getting hit a lot harder than Boston.

.

Hurrican Sandy

Here we go...another hurricane.

Feel my excitement.

Because I love not having a working bathroom for 11 people.
Ha.

Jeff 'battened down the hatches' today,  AKA: secured the grill and table to the deck railing, brought in all deck and porch furniture and potted plants. 

It started raining this afternoon but the worst of the storm isn't supposed to hit until tomorrow afternoon (Monday).

The governor has already declared a state of emergency and schools are closed--much to the kids' delight. 

I'm always up for an adventure but memories of our lack-of-indoor-plumbing for 4 days are still a bit raw. 
Hence, my lack of excitement about this particular event.

Well, that and memories of how hideous my hair looked due to not having electricity to use my hair dryer.  Don't judge...a girl needs to look good!

But the worst thing?  Taylor, Jillian, Molly, Chloe and I were planning to go see Mitt Romney Tuesday night but alas....the event has been cancelled.  Gah.

The Harbinger

You may or may not have heard about the book, "The Harbinger," by Jonathan Cahn.  I read it recently and want to recommend it.

It is not a political book.  It's a book about how an ancient prophecy in Isaiah ties into the current affairs in the United States of America.  It will blow your mind at how precise God is.

The book centers on Isaiah 9:10, in the context that Israel is bragging about how they will rebuild their ruined city of Jerusalem all by themselves and don't need God.  "Our land lies in ruins now, but we will rebuild it better than before.  We will replace the broken bricks with cut stone, the fallen sycamore trees with cedars."

Did you know that the day after Sept. 11, 2001, the Senator Majority leader, speaking in our capitol city quoted that very same verse?

And three years later, on 9-11-04, another man, running for Vice President, not only quoted that same verse in our capitol city, but built his entire speech on Isa. 9:10

Who quotes Isaiah 9:10?  It's not like its a popular, well-known verse.

Neither men had any idea they were fulfilling an ancient prophecy of judgment and both eventually fell into disgrace.

There are specific stories about a sycamore at Ground Zero...certain events and dates that took place at the location of Wall Street, and our first commander in chief, George Washington, dedicated this nation to God in a very specific place which also became a significant location after 9-11.  There are stories about how broken bricks were replaced with a 'hewn stone,' and incredible dates that line up in ways that can bring no other conclusion than THERE IS A GOD.

And just yesterday, I heard an update from The Harbinger on Facebook that someone had noticed that the "Read through the Bible in a Year," version of the Bible, has Isaiah 9:10 in the daily reading for Sept. 11.  So for years before 2001, Americans were reading Isaiah 9:10 every year on Sept. 11--and continued to do so afterwards.

I came away from the book realizing two things:  1.  God is mind-blowingly detailed and He loves His people enough to warn them over and over that they need to turn back to Him, and 2., that America needs to return to God pronto!

You can probably get the book from your library--although a friend of mine tried yesterday and found out there were 72 people waiting ahead of her for 16 copies of the book.  You can get it directly from The Harbinger website, or Amazon.  The Harbinger website is a bit overwhelmed at the moment so I had better success with Amazon.

Driving the coast of Maine

First...a quick update.  Jeff, Jillian and Molly are home from Haiti and Molly has agreed to type up something for the blog, so I will have her do that as soon as possible.

While the Daddy's away, the mice will play...so we decided to spend our last day before our Haiti crew came home, driving up the coast of Maine.

We were able to see a few lighthouses and get to Portland.

First stop...Nubble Light house

At first I thought there was something wrong with my camera--but all those spots in the sky are birds.

Posing for the obligatory picture for mom

They love climbing around on the rocks

Beautiful Maine shoreline

"She's making us pose again."

More beautiful shoreline

It was a very brisk day and the wind was freezing our faces off so I convinced them to drive to the next place so we could get warm in the car for awhile.

Bye, Nubble!

This was the only moose we saw.  Rats!

Portland, Maine

Next stop, Head Light in Cape Elizabeth.

So pretty...and more birds in the sky.

There was a museum at this location that sounded good until we got there.  It just wasn't going to work for the ages of the kids.  

Previously, when we crossed the Maine state line, I stopped at the Visitors Center and picked up a booklet about Portland.  In it, there were several ferry rides mentioned.

I knew the kids would love to take a boat ride, so when the museum didn't pan out, I surprised them with the boat idea.

Of course, that was met with a very enthusiastic response.

It took a bit of effort to find it, but we finally got there.

One of the trips was a 20 minute ride to a small island.  Perfect!

And it was only $16 for all of us.

Woohoo!

We had to wait an hour for our ship to come in so we hung out on the docks, watching boats, fishermen, and lobstermen.

"Here it comes!  That's our boat!"

She's a beaut!

Jake...can you see anything?  I didn't think so.

Our ferry carried cars, which was very cool.  The kids watched the cars drive down the ramp and kept asking me why I wasn't going to bring our car on the boat.

"Whee!  This is super fun!"

As we got closer to the island, we saw two more lighthouses.

And on the other side of the boat, a different island.

It's like something out of a movie.

Pulling into the docking area

Yippee...we're here!

I love these boats

She made us pose again.

We decided to spend an hour on the island playing on the beach, and then catch the next ferry back.  The kids had a blast finding shells, snails (ewww), lobster claws, and empty crab shells.

Did I mention that I really like these boats?  :)

Something stunk to high heaven in my van today and guess what I found in the back?  Yep...this lovely lobster claw.  Because, you know...we had to bring it home.

All those little bumps that look like pebbles on this rock wall are actually occupied snail shells.

Unbeknownst to me, Jake stuffed his pockets with them.

He sadly brought them to me last night... still occupied, albeit with shriveled snails.

"Mommy, dere's still snails in da shells!"

GROSS!

He even grossed himself out when he realized the possible ramifications of having them in his pockets.

Ha.

Since we had so much fun making the covered bridge picture, we tried this pose again but it didn't work out too well.  Oh well...  

Our ferry pulling in....time to go home.

Sniff...sniff...

Goodbye, Peak Island!  We had fun!

We were FREEZING cold!

Pulling back into Portland

Bye, Portland...  We had a wonderful time visiting you.