Termeer Fam

check 'im out...

2008-06-14T16:41:00.001-07:00

so, my husband has a blog. he's a little more thoughtful about posting than i am....

joshtermeer.blogspot.com

christmas pictures

2007-12-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

november

2007-12-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

well, ellis got the cast off and life is somewhat normal again. he goes to another appointment on tues to see if he needs physical therapy. brynn became very vocal in her ninth month of life. she's been saying "mem-mem" (mom), "da-da" (dad) for awhile now, but has added "cheese" (for when the camera is out), and "where r u, atye", for when she is calling atley.
the knotts were in town for a few days, which was good times. and the stopyras were in town earlier in the month, so all the catching up with friends was much enjoyed.
now on to christmas...

amusing cast-boy

2007-11-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

cast removal and bath day tomorrow!!! we are all thrilled of course, though it has been better than i expected. the worst part right now is the smell. el's surgery had initially bled a little right after surgery and the dried blood has been sitting under the cast for the last 6 weeks. it's the kind of smell that is invasive and lingers and i think that i will remember it forever. not pleasant. can't complain though. about 3 weeks ago el learned how to walk in his cast and that has made the whole process go much quicker for everyone. thank you to all who made meals, gave el presents to occcupy him, prayed for us and basically expressed love for our family. happy thanksgiving!

edit- the video won't load. i'll try it again later.

fall fun

2007-11-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

New City

2007-10-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Finally my blood is rushing through my veins, A foreign sensation where flowing and pounding have made peace, My senses are electric and my surroundings are vibrant as the knowledge of who I am moving towards threatens to overwhelm my heart, I have stepped out of a rainy dreary black and white day and into a brilliant morning just outside of a city where even from far off the architecture stuns me, reminding me of every beautiful thing I've seen and many I have not. I follow the road to this greatest city with my friends and companions as celebration begins to break out joyfully, for we are almost at the beginning of a greater and more glorious journey than our last one. Shouts of heartfelt exuberance, tears that just won't stop because the beautiful emotions are just too much, songs of thanks and praise erupt.

This is no dusty road, this is one with a deep rich soft and firm soil. So rich that fruit and flowers abound. So rich it must be alive. So rich it's a pleasure to dig my feet in, step by step.

The river flows nearby, gently rushing in the opposite direction that we are walking, coming from the great city with the strong and beautiful pearlescent walls. I look into the river as it moves swiftly along and see how it is clear as crystal and how the light shimmers off it's surface and pierces to the bottom reflecting off the shiny stones at the bottom.

The gates are open wide in expectation for our party and as I enter the city it takes my breath away and my heart aches with the fullness of beauty realized. This city is both clean and roomy and is buzzing with pure life. Art, architecture, history, and an amazing array of colors and plant life provide a rich backdrop in what can only be called a garden city.

Oh, but the music steals my heart! Even as friends greet one another and some feast at outdoor tables and as others work away at their new creations, I hear amazing melodies that, if I let them, sweep me away! Harmony on top of harmony, old and new songs mix without confusion, all with words of meaning and substance that feed my soul and send my spirit soaring. Such instruments that I have longed to hear without knowing it. I give myself over to the music and dance in the streets singing with all my heart. I realize that I am not dancing in circles but am dancing toward the center of the city and using the flowing river as my guide, for I know that at it's source lies the wellspring of all life.

My heart thumps wildly as I draw closer to the center square and see the King on His throne with a full spectrum of lights all around. My heart explodes with emotion. To use words like joy, fear and worship are too weak. I feel as though a Lion were nipping at my heels. I feel as though I have seen not just one awe inspiring sight in creation but the act of creation itself. I feel as though I have finally met my Father after years of searching. Music fades as I fall first to my knees then on my face, too overwhelmed to stand, too grateful at being created for this intense pleasure to speak. And all at once everything within me is calm and I am able to perceive my surroundings again and I begin to notice a few very key things. This King of Glory has come to greet me and His tears have landed upon my head as He stoops down and warmly embraces me. And all that matters is His approval and my soul thrills to Him as I understand and am in awe that He takes great pleasure in me, His child.

I walked with my King that day, actually walked, step by step. He showed me an amazing palace that He had built for me and my loved ones. It seemed to be a reflection of everything that I am and everything that He is. My favorite thing was when He took me to a table on my new land and ate and drank wine together. It was a reunion like no other as our hearts connected and all the grief from the past world was put away.

The end of cynicism

2007-10-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

To see a bit more of God's glory and experience His presence... To have a soul baring conversation with someone else who understands the battle within... To hear an encouraging word from a friend, who knows you, but loves you anyway... To feed mentally upon a new aspect of a beautiful truth... To be infused with power through prayer to live an improbable life.

This is the patchwork quilt that makes for New Testement vitality for today. The vitality that says I've been in God's presence. This vitality is for today, when we are living between a ressurection that takes the sting out of death and a reappearing that will give ultimate pleasure forevermore. The world is a cold place and followers of Jesus need a place where they can come to be warmed by the fire of His presence, where their wounds can be healed and where they can feel the intimacy and security of that quilt.

The stark realities of so much church stuff turns my stomach. Events where the gifting of only a select few is used, leaving the multitudes in a catatonic state of disengagement. The subtle legalism of methodology. The pride of comparing our best with their worst. The enourmous vacuum of no place given to seek the presence of GOD.

I have had enough of my own cynicism and disillusionment. I've resolved to fight hard for joy, to give my heart over to love and to fulfill my callings and giftings.

surgery

2007-10-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

pre-surgery, watching curious george. this is where they give the kids "giggle juice." it helps them relax as they are wheeled in to the O.R. and put under. it was actually really funny watching ellis get all loopy and goofy.

post-surgery. the astute will notice the notice the elephant present in the picture is the same as the elephant in the posted surgery picture from three years ago. yes, it's the same, yes, it gets frequent washings. he also has added a stuffed dog to the collection.

he's got a catheter; an epidural block; i.v./ medicine drip (anti-nausea, morphine, antibiotics); moniter for heartbeat, respirations, and blood pressure.

sympathy begets presents

atley was quite concerned with all the different things taking place. mommy, daddy, ellis gone for a long time, ellis in the hospital, etc. he wasn't sure he liked all the changes. but the boys got to visit for a little while in the hospital and now that we are home, atley has become ellis' little helper, fetching toys and food, bringing his pillows for propping him up. it's very encouraging to see him just naturally pick up on what is needed in the situation and just doing it without anyone prompting him on it. quite remarkable for a three year old.

home again, home again. ellis was more than ready to come home and is doing well, in spite of his frustration at not being able to move. he was prescribed oxy-contin for the pain, but it's torturous for him to take it since he hates the taste, so he's just been taking regular tylenol. he's figuring out how to do the things he enjoys, with obvious limitations. notice the bar between his cast. notice the pull-up on ellis. there is no other solution for keeping him clothed decently, which was a problem for the modest little guy. i thought he would resent the "baby diaper" thing, but he seems resigned to it. he goes to the bathroom into bedpan right now as he's still too sore to be moving around enough to go over the toilet. TMI? sorry, it's something i would wonder about...

fall outing

2007-10-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

ellis being a goof-ball, standing next to an entry in the scarecrow competition at peddler's village. (he'd just had his last soccer game before surgery and actually refused to play the entire game. oh well, there's always next year)

atley and brynn at peddler's village

quick update

2007-10-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

ellis is recovery fairly well. really out of it, but mostly comfortable, considering the high degree of pain his procedure causes. he has an epidural block for his lower half and is on morphine. he has eaten some cheerios and an slushie, which promply came back up. we will probably be in the hospital at least another day or two. the little guy is breaking our hearts with how brave he is in the face of all this. will update when we are home

the beach

2007-10-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

we decided to take advantage of the off season rates and warm water temps and spend a week at the beach. this is a picture of ellis after being told to get ready to go and play baseball on the beach. he owns a beach hat and a baseball hat. both applied to the situation.

will post more pictures after i figure out how to get them off my new phone.

for anyone interested

2007-09-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

found a not too-medical page describing el's upcoming surgery. his precedure is called the pemberton osteotomy. spent the day down at the children's hospital doing pre-op stuff today, hearing the risks of surgery, level of pain he will have, pain management options, etc. ellis did great and is now covered in Lightening McQueen tatoos. we, however, did not enjoy the day. something about knowingly sumbitting your child to a great deal of pain instead of protecting them from it, is a little disturbing. an interesting fact is that he might have a cadaver bone piece inserted into hip if they can't get a big enough piece of bone out of his pelvis. kinda weird, huh?

(i tried too many times to add a cool link to the page i found. but i'm lame and couldn't figure it out. here's the old-fashioned copy and paste method. my father is brilliant with computers, me, not so much.)

http://www.pediatric-orthopedics.com/Treatments/Hips/Innominate/innominate.html

what would Jesus drive?

2007-09-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

*disclaimer* i know that to a parent their own kids are the cutest/funniest/smartest/most adorable kids there are- but i write this more to document than to entertain.

the other day we were doing our little family devotion and we were asking the kids what they wanted to pray for. one of us suggested that we pray for Jesus to help us follow Him for that day. atley chimes in, "yeah. we can go really fast in our red car."

not looking forward to fall

2007-08-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

we scheduled el's surgery for oct 10th. i was already mourning the end of summer, warmth, long days, etc, but now i am definitely not ready autumn to be here. won't bore with the details of why this will be hard on ellis, but prayers are appreciated. and sometime i may just post something not about my kids. don't hold your breath though, my world is kids now, and i don't think i am capable of adult thought anymore....

post- surgery, 3 years ago

2007-08-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

he's going to have basically the same cast again...you can see the top of the cast through the gown, it ends right above his arm in the picture, covers one full leg and half the other leg

little boys are the best...

2007-08-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

i know that i will be so sad when the day comes when there are no longer stones in pockets, matchbox cars in the washing machine, and trains in my shoes. helps keep the whining in perspective...

here we go again....

2007-08-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

so it looks like we are in for another surgery. el's hip bone has not grown enough to compensate for how shallow his hip socket is. this next surgery involves going into the prior surgery site, making a cut into the hip bone and putting a separator into the hip so that it will come down enough to cup the top of his femur bone. it's really easy to see and explain when the xray of his hip is in front of me. and i haven't yet found any link to describe the surgery any better. if he doesn't have this next surgery he would most likely need a hip replacement in his 30's. so, we are looking at another surgery, a one or two day stay in the hospital for pain management and six weeks in a full body (spica) cast. not as long in the cast as last time, but similar pain level for him, which is so hard to see. we are trying to figure out the best time to schedule the surgery, wanting it in winter when it is not so hot and uncomfortable in a cast, but also needing to make sure insurance stuff is worked out. this is not the news we were hoping for, but we could be dealing with worse stuff. hopefully, he is somewhat at an age where he can understand things and just maybe he can start to learn how to trust the Lord in his little life. pray for him though, the last surgery took his personality for a little spin, he became really quiet and withdrawn for a long, long time. he's such a sweet, serious little soul and it'll be hard on him.

ellis

2007-08-13T19:19:00.001-07:00

tomorrow ellis has a very critical doctors appointment. the hip he had surgery on at 15 months old will be x-rayed to determine if it has had enough significant growth over the last year. if it has not, he will need another surgery. we are really praying the he doesn't. his odds are about 50/50 of needing it, so i guess it could go either way. it was so hard to watch him go through his last surgery and he had full body cast on for about three months. don't know what the next surgery would be like, but i hope we don't have to find out.....

genetics...

2007-08-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

i think if i had had at least one interesting science teacher in school, i would have a better appreciation for the subject. as it is now, i really do like figuring things out and knowing how things work and are made up. maybe i just simply wasn't interested then...

in seventh grade we studied genetics. the class was very much at a seventh grade level and that is the extent of my knowledge of subject. i think i remember from that class that brown eyes are a dominant trait. meaning, if a dominant brown eye gene is passed along to a child from one parent along with a recessive recessive blue/green eyed from the other parent, the child will be brown-eyed. a child would need two recessive genes, one from each parent, to have blue or green eyes. a brown-eyed person could carry two dominant genes or one recessive and one dominant. a blue/green eyed person would carry two recessive genes. at least this is the way i remember it from science class, i could be wrong though. anyway, statistically, josh (green eyes) and i (brown eyes) should have at least one brown eyed child. we have two with blue eyes and one with hazel eyes. doesn't sound very scientific to me. did we beat the odds or do i have my science mixed up?

2007-07-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

5 months and crawling...

2007-07-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

5 months old. crawling. Lord, help me, i don't have the energy for this. they tell me the third child breaks the mold. my sister was 7 and a half months when she started walking and she was the third child. she also escaped out the locked house at 4 in the morning, took off her clothes and decided to play on the swing set in the back yard. she was 2. i plan on a security system before brynn is 2.