Monday, May 14, 2012

Tommy's Story Pt. 2

Tommy has always been a happy kid! Ask anyone who has EVER known him!

The kid will make you SMILE! Even if you're trying not to, he brings out the best in everyone. When he started Kindergarten he kind of held back some just to see how everyone would react. It did not take him long to make friends. He has always been like that. He often reminds me of another man in my life who seems to always love adventure and makes friends easily and loves new places. Our son is a LOT like this person! And I love that about him! It brings great joy to mine and my hubby's heart that he is so much like this one we love! 

Tommy is also somewhat of joker. OK I am lying! He IS a joker!! The kid will pull pranks, try things that you just don't think you could dare try. He gets in the middle of everything!


 He also tends to be the class clown. Which can benefit him and a few times got him into some trouble and mischief.

Another thing about Tommy is he LOVES to sleep!!! I have SO many pictures of this kid sleeping its unbelievable!

So put the class clown and the sleep thing together and you have  the makings for a prank. So that you know Tommy, I am going to share a prank that got pulled on HIM because of all his silliness. His Freshman year of H.S. he was in this one class and one day he fell asleep in class. The kids knowing how much fun Tommy is decided to pull a prank on him. Oh did I mention Tommy loves to eat too?!

Tommy fell asleep with his head on his desk and his mouth open and during his sleep one of the guys in class decided to put cheez-its in his mouth. Tommy just chewed and chewed away not waking up once! This kid is a riot! A few days later in another class he fell asleep again and this time the teacher got in on the prank. The story goes, apparently Tommy was snoring in class. So as quiet as they could the whole class, teacher included got up out of their seats and left the room. Tommy woke up a bit later trying to figure out what was going on. He went to the office asked where his class was, wandered to the library but no one knew where they were. He headed back to class and their they all were sitting as quiet as can be back in the classroom. When Tommy came back in they all busted out laughing!! Normally he is the one instigating these pranks but this time, he got it pulled on him! He just laughed and HAD to come home and share it with us. Twice in a week was pretty funny!! However it did not teach him a lesson, he still occasionally falls asleep in class!
Another thing about our Tommy is he loves deep!! He loves his family and he will do whatever he can to protect them. If you ever get the privilege of this kiddo loving you, it will be for life!!
He just has this way about him. People who know him know that about him. He reels you in and then once your hooked, your hooked for life. He just steals your heart!
I do not know ANYONE who really knows him ever doubt his heart. And oh how he LOVES Jesus!! I SO love that about him, it's my favorite thing!! When he was about 6 years old in Sunday school, our dear Children's Minister Mrs. Shirley (who BTW loves him to pieces too!...still....to this day!) was teaching the books of the bible to the 1st graders. Tommy was so on the ball he just soaked it all in. Every week when asked who could recite the books up until where Mrs. Shirley taught them, the kids would raise their hand. As she added more books and it got a little harder you would see less and less hands raised, but there was Tommy's always raised and anxious to share what he knew about his Jesus. Funny thing was sometimes his excitement would over take him and he would just blurt it out. At one point Mrs. Shirley asked Tommy ever so politely, to see if they could give the other kids a chance to recite them. Tommy shouted out "Sure Mrs. Shirley!" She loved his enthusiasm. He still has that passion for Jesus only not so much in memorizing bible books but sharing Jesus love for others. There are times this kid has me on my knees constantly praying for him about whatever he is going through. So much prayer for this one, because he is a little dramatic and he tends to be in and out of trials so much. Always till the last minute then somehow God just pulls him right out of it and Tommy (&me) thank Him for it!!


I can say one of my very favorite things about Tommy is his genuineness, his love, and his hugs!!! He gives the best hugs!! And he makes you feel SO much better when you are sad! Come on friends out there who know him, y'all know this is true!! When I would cry and he was little he would take his little hands all the way up to my eyes and wipe, and wipe and wipe and wipe the tears away, completely away, till not one drop was left and I was smiling! He still does that now and then. And when he had his surgeries and I had mine right after this past year, he was never very far away asking me if I was OK. He was in no shape to help me but I knew in his heart if he could have jumped up and got me something he would have. This is one of my kids that when he hurts (which is not often at all) I hurt deeply inside of my soul! We just have this bond, unbreakable! Dare I say he is a sweet, strong, tough, man, but he is a Mama's boy to the core! He will admit that in a heart beat! He loves his Mama!! He can never be mad at me even if he tries!
Don't get me wrong my other kids love me deeply too, but it is something that Tommy is never afraid to admit! He was one when he was little if someone said something bad about his Mama he would go on the defense in an instant! He just has this pure heart!!
In a few weeks my little boy with the pure heart and the funny laugh and his silly impersonations of others, lately he has been walking around talking with a British accent that just cracks me up!!

But our sweet little boy that God saved all those sweet years ago (oh what a blessing he is to his family every SINGLE day!!

will graduate from High School!! This has been a tough thing for him. He is not the type of kid to sit in a class room, unless he is sleeping ha ha!! He would rather be out playing and learning things.
He is a hands on kind of kid. He learns in an instant that way. So any class he took hands on he did awesome in. He struggled with the the required classed, but by God's grace, Our boy will graduate!! He has 4 days of school left and next Tuesday at Senior breakfast will get his cap and gown and then Memorial weekend he will walk across that stage (and I am sure do something funny!) and get his diploma and make it official!!

This is a little insight into our boy! This boy who has become a man will one day soon go out and defend our country for our freedom.



Love this boy!

This little boy that God saved will go put his life in harms way to protect others. Oh that is so much like our Jesus. After all he is made in HIS image!!! Thank you Father for loaning us this precious child to be our son for us to raise to love you, and in turn loves us so dearly. Words cannot express how much we adore this sweet young man!!

Leave a word of "hope" for our graduate if you would like, or a few words about him to share his heart!! Oh how we love our Tommy Tunes!! Thomas Patrick you make your family proud!!! Always love you son!!




One blessed Mama! 
Thank you Lord for the blessing of this son!!



Blessings my friends!! and ladybugs :)







Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Graduate...Tommy's Story

Ok I know I have not updated in awhile what the family has been up to so I thought I would start with our soon to be graduate!! Wait didn't I do this last year..oh yes we did! :) So in order to catch you up I must share a little bit of back ground about our youngest child...(so far ;) )

Tommy was born July 4th 1994 a beautiful healthy baby boy 9lbs 12 oz! Or so we thought. Delivery went well the day following went well, then the doctor came in with bad news. Tommy had not had his first movement. (Sorry not trying to be graphic but this is a huge part of his story, there is more of this to follow so bear with me please?) Being a mom for the 3rd time I was not to awful concerned until the Dr explained that this was not normal and that they needed to rush him to our nearest children's hospital 45 minutes away. I panicked! My hubby had went home to pick up our other 2 kiddo's so we could take pictures and then take Tommy home. That was not in the plan. As soon as he arrived with the kids and two other family members. I had to tell them they had sent Tommy by ambulance to the children's hospital (Thank You Lord for one being so close!) We were heartbroken.

When we arrived at C*H they quickly took us up to the NICU to see our son. He was all hooked up with wires and we had to scrub up to see him. This would not be the last time that happened. We spoke with the Dr's to see what the plan would be. They said they would do a procedure and he should be fine, nothing to bad but it would cause him to be able to get the meconium out and he would be great! We were so relieved! So everything was going good after that. We took him home and he did fine for a few days then it all happened again. We went back and forth to the dr but they couldn't figure it out. So we took him back to C*H to see what they thought. They ran some tests. One for CF the other for Hirschsprungs Disease. We waited for days to get results back but no one knew anything. Meanwhile my baby boy was suffering tremendously.

After Dr regiments for moving his bowels that didn't really seem to work we were just worried. Finally through a friend and we know by God's hand we found a pediatric surgeon. We went in to the office distraught and tired and confused and explained to him the situation. He immediately got on the phone and got the test results which were inconclusive. So he scheduled the 1st surgery for Tommy. A simple same day surgery to do a more invasive test. Keep in mind he is about 6 weeks old by this time. You don't really wanna hear the word invasive when it comes to a 1 1/2 month old. It took a week to get those results back. The Dr called in the middle of the day in the middle of the week and said words I will never forget, "You need to bring him in right now for surgery! If we wait any longer he may not make it."  Not to be graphic but by this time Tommy could not have a movement at all and when he did eat he would regurgitate it from his upper intestines. That day we found out Tommy indeed has Hirschsprungs Disease. It is a hereditary disorder of the intestines. I called my hubby who was at work 1 1/2 hrs away and he met us at the hospital. The surgery lasted 4 hours. Numbers I remember 4 hr surgery 7 week old, 3rd child. I did not understand why we were all going through this. IT was heart breaking sitting there waiting. They took out 8 inches of his Large Intestines and made a colostomy on the left side of his tummy, so tiny but so lifesaving! God was in the details let me tell you!!

 He would require an additional surgery that lasted 5 hours to reconnect his intestines  later on when he got bigger! That happened when he was 7 months old. God truly saved our sons life. There have been side effects to all this. Potty training was very hard and he has some other issues that can sometimes be funny or embarrassing. But if you know Tommy at all you know he makes those "issues" funny and just lets them roll off of him like they don't matter!


Next Post: Growing up with our Boy...now the graduate