Questions Have Been Answered . . . Again!

Madelyn had been screaming literally all night and it was something like 3:00 A.M. I could see John's head nodding off as he walked Madelyn around our room. I had procrastinated offering to take her because my exhaustion had reached the point of reality confusion. I wasn't sure if the little thing was really my baby and somewhere in my brain I was lying in my college bed dreaming a bit of a nightmare. It was my turn to try and calm her down; I sat up and took her from John. He laid down and immediately fell asleep exhausted, even though Madelyn was screaming in truly high pitched decibels. I decided instead of trying to calm her down, I would just let her scream it out. So I sat and held her on my bed. I rocked her, gently patting her back, and began to softly sing "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus." Madelyn's scream somehow managed to get louder. I could barely make out the words from the song, "I wait for the day of gladness when Jesus will come again." I stopped singing and thought to myself, "Who is Jesus? Was he a real man? Is he really my Savior? "  Then, a  recent primary song I learned found its way through my voice, "A long time ago in a beautiful place, children were gathered ’round Jesus. He blessed and taught as they felt of His love. Each saw the tears on His face." At this point Madelyn was still screaming and I began to cry tears of frustration. The words of the song became broken in a crying-sing-song voice completely off tune, "The love that He felt for His little ones I know He feels for me. I did not touch Him or sit on His knee, yet, Jesus is real to me."

As soon as I finished singing the words "Jesus is real to me," I immediately felt an overwhelming comfort. My heart swelled and the tears of frustration turned to tears of faith and conviction. I held Madelyn tighter as she continued to wail and sang the second verse softly. By time I got to the chorus, Madelyn's scream became a whimper and my voice semi came back, "I know he lives, I will follow faithfully. My heart I give to Him, I know that my Savior loves me." The lyrics in the song rang true and even though the whimpering and bursts of crying continued, I felt like I was holding my precious girl in the comforting stillness of the Savior. I bowed my head and unconsciously continued to rock Madelyn, trying to transfer the comfort I had felt to her little body. She still cried and I wondered how long my night would last, how long her night would last. I kissed her. Never had I felt so at ease with an overwhelming feeling of love coming from my Father to me, to my beautiful, perfect baby.

Scream, Scream, Scream, I Love to Scream!!!

There is a song in primary that goes: "Scream, scream, scream, I love to scream! I love to scream a song, scream, scream, scream!" Or at least that's how I think it goes. You see, I haven't actually been to primary yet, but my mom tells me all about it. Anyways, I love this song because it describes my greatest talent beautifully: screaming. It all started when I was born. The nurse kept saying something like, "Come on baby scream! Scream for your mama. Let's hear those new lungs." So I thought to myself, "I'll show her!" and I let out a big wail. You know the kind that makes the ears split:

Pause! We need to admire how cute I am before we continue my blog post:

I could see how proud my parents looked after my literally breathtaking scream. They even started crying they were so moved! That's when I officially began to explore my talent. This next picture is me screaming in my car seat on our way out of the hospital:

 

This is me screaming for the camera and showing off my sweet skills:

This is me screaming with my cute cousins:

This is me screaming while my Aunt Anne is holding me:

And this my favorite screaming picture, it really captures my tongue technique.  I call this type of scream the "tear wiper" because it can bring tears to my mother's eyes again if I keep it up for a while:

When I had my blessing, I knew I had my opportunity to share my talent with all those attending. So I screamed the whole time. Yep, amazing huh? My dad even said in the blessing,  "...and Madelyn, Sweetheart, I guess I'll make this short..." I was deeply moved and did a reenactment for the camera:

Needless to say, I found out that my crying abilities come from a severe case of reflux. My mom always talks about looking at the blessings that come from trials and I realized that my amazing lungs are the blessing that comes from my reflux problems. Some days are really hard to handle but other days I find myself sleeping and smiling. This picture made my parents laugh and smile because I had a little "accident" before they took the picture. I guess I was nervous for my first bath at home:

The rest of these pictures are for your enjoyment:

Yep, I hope you enjoyed those adorable pictures. It looks like my mom isn't busy right now so I'm going to go practice some more of my talent to help occupy her time.

Wynette: The Irony of Her Departure

Tonight John and I are mourning. We are trying so hard to smile and be happy for Wynette but we miss her. John and I have been crying on and off tonight. We will turn around and see her rug without her there and start crying. John can't even take the kennel out to the garage yet. He's having a really tough time and he is sick, which doesn't help. The irony comes into play because this week my three-month nephew was diagnosed with Leber's disease, which ironically causes blindness. Right now all he can see is light and will most likely be blind his whole life. With broken hearts we said good-bye to Wynette and knew that she was born to lead and she has a purpose for someone as precious as my nephew. Perhaps God let us care for her so we could know about the Guide Dog program in years to come for my sweet nephew. .

Here are some of my favorite pictures of our puppy (she will always be a puppy to us) during her last few weeks with us. By the way, Wynette earned the name of Mary Puppins in our kennel club: she truly was practically perfect in every way.