Grow, grow, grow

There are days that I miss her something fierce, but then again there were days like that when she was here on Earth because she was usually a continent away. Yet, the idea that a Facetime or phone call was always an option put my heart at ease. Yet, I continue to thank God for the lessons Kyra taught me that resound in my current memory.
When she heard the term "clean diet" this summer, she asked me to explain the fad to her. After a brief blundering definition, she said, "Katie, that's just how everyone eats in Italy." She loved her Italian home because God gave her a heart for it, but also because it was easy to live simply and purely. While she commented on the filth of the Roman city quite often, she also loved walking everywhere and learned to love the long-established rituals of olden days, including hanging her linens to dry, kneading dough, and buying fresh ingredients for each day's consumption.  I remember her telling me that having three girls had taught her the importance of how we portray ourselves to our children. Kyra told me that besides an additional walk for health purposes, "exercise" typically stemmed from our own vanity. Wow.... that had me pondering a bit.

I'm continuing to see my own sin in preoccupation for the temporal. Why is it that we feel the need to control every aspect of our lives? Why do we wait for a shin splint or sprained ankle to get out of our exercise routine? Why do we wait for a stomach bug to change our eating habits or fast? Why do we wait for New Years to make resolutions? Why do we wait for a tragedy to reach out to people we love? Why do we eat whenever we are hungry and diet whenever we feel overweight? Why do we wait for children to rob us of sleep instead of waking up early just to spend time with God or staying up really late just to eat french toast with our spouse? Why do we continually wait for our external circumstances to change our routines?

I am not saying that routine is wrong. In fact, God is a God of order; He designed the earth to have days and nights, and simple structure brings simple peace. Yet, I think it's wrong to move about our lives never questioning why we do what we do. I think it's wrong to wait for life to force change on us, instead of looking to change a few things ourselves. When we look to change and grow on a continual basis, we begin to lose our lives, and "whoever loses his life for me, finds it." There's so much freedom in seeking to be continually "Spirit-led." In other words, when we let God's Spirit direct and drive every aspect of our lives, we look a whole lot more like Christ.

In honor of my sweet, simple friend, I attempted some homemade bread, which was delicious (and so much fun for Silas to punch!)

I am continually grateful that Levi has changed our lives in so many good ways. He continues to give us all a better perspective on life, and we love watching him grow in his own unique ways.

Some of our "homework" for feeding therapy includes tiny drops of milk or water in his mouth. He can swallow them, but it's an enormous amount of work. It exhausts him just to take down a few drops! Imagine letting your saliva build up just so you don't have to swallow it all the time because it's so hard!

The "suck, swallow, breathe" lesson is a bit more challenging.

It is great to see Levi lifting his weak arm, but time will tell whether we need a full surgery on his hand. Honestly, from all I've taken in these past 6 months, it's not the end of the world if he has a weak hand and a g-tube, but we continue with our "homework" for therapy on his hand too!

As Silas got his first seasonal cold this weekend, (and we hope Levi doesn't) I found a great pinterest idea for cleaning his toys! And he actually loved taking them all out and putting them away! 

Let the cleaning lessons continue!

Someone got a little too comfy during hide and seek.

As you can see, Levi doesn't love going to see the orthopaedic doctor. He now HATES when someone tries to hold his legs down, but you can also see that his left leg has been corrected simply by three sets of casts, the right leg (which is the weak side of his whole body) continues to stay turned in. We will most likely be looking at the standard heel clip surgery and braces on his legs in the coming months. All seems to be quite normal for clubbed feet, and hopefully it will continue to make our little Levi grow stronger!

Growing Smiths,

~Growing Buster