The McSpadden's JOY filled life

The CLIMB!

2010-08-06T23:02:00.010-05:00

Our family is on vacation in Breckenridge, Colorado and I of course promised James at least on good hike while we were here. So, on Wednesday morning we rode the gondola up the mountain and we were going to hike to the top. I thought how hard could it be since we were starting somewhere about midway??? Well, it was a killer, but very well worth it! I was reminded several times on our journey up the mountain of a few very close friends that are climbing their own mountains right now. Whenever I look at mountains as problems or struggles in life I'm always encouraged that God can see the other side of the mountain. So, as we hiked up the hill I used that time to pray for friends and to look forward to getting to the top and seeing the other side of that peak!

Here are a few pics of the climb:

The peak...

It didn't look that steep, but it was...and this was only about 20 minutes into the hike

James was almost to the top! Good inspiration...

The view from the top...

We made it together! Now the going down the mountain fun. Lightening was striking nearby so we made it down in record time!

Hallelujah....Homecoming!

2010-05-21T10:54:00.002-05:00

Well, today is the day :) Thank you all for your kind words (and funny from many of James buddies), encouragement, and faithful prayers for our family!! James is getting his last dose of antibiotics, we just saw the doctor and we have discharge orders to go home this afternoon! This has been a challenging week for our family, but because of your prayers and our great God we have made it to the finish line for now. The next challenge will be transitioning to home and managing James' pain. He is still in a lot of pain and will have restrictions on his diet and lifting things for the next days to weeks. And, our joyful children may be a stress to him b/c he has enjoyed some peace and quiet here which doesn't really exist at home :)

Please pray specifically for him to be able to manage his pain and that healing will continue from the inside out. I thank you also for the many offers for food. As of now, we are holding off on setting up a meals calendar until next week. The doctor said he can eat "whatever he wants today", but we are going to start slow with some simple dinners a few days a week. For now, I see the greatest need may be getting my kids out of the house over the weekend while I try to focus on James and give my mom and James' parents the break they need as well. They have been such a blessing to us and our children this week!

We continue to be thankful for the appendicitis that revealed a problem that needed to be corrected. We look forward to healing for James and that he will be full of energy and back to his active lifestyle in no time! We are focusing now on the future and putting this week behind us. Thank you again for building us up in this time when it would have been be so easy to fall.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. "

2 Cor 4:16-18

Love,

Meredith

I know my blog is linked to James' facebook...SO, in case you missed the beginning of the story with James...here are the first two e-mails....

May 16, 2010

Hi Friends and Family,

I'm sorry that I have to send this out in a mass e-mail, but it has been a long day and I wanted to call you all together in prayer to help us get through this week.

I took James to the ER this morning. Originally the cat scan showed that he had appendicitis, but that the appendix had not ruptured. We knew that their was still the potential b/c we had been to the ER two times this year in January for similar pain episodes. The surgery was supposed to be a short 35 minutes by laproscopy, but they ended up opening him up the good ole fashion way. With out getting too detailed...they found that the appendix was 4X the size, very inflamed and had ruptured. So, they would need to be more aggressive in treatment. They also were concerned b/c there seemed to be a "mass" in the appendix protruding into the colon. So, they did a "colon cancer surgery" and removed part of his colon, small intestines and the lymph nodes in the area. They will send the lymph nodes off for pathology and we will hopefully know something by Tuesday or Wednesday. All that being said, he had APPENDICITIS and it is gone. And IF it was cancer it has ALL been removed too. So, we are praying for negative pathology and being "still and knowing that HE is God" (Psalm 46:10) and in complete control. We are at peace and have confidence in His hands (The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms..." Deut. 33:27)

We have our family and plenty of friends and neighbors that are helping us with the kids so the best thing you can do for us is pray for peace and complete healing for James.

Love,

Meredith

..................................................

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Dear Friends, Family and Faithful Prayer Warriors,

The doctor that did James' surgery finally came in this morning and gave us the news we had all been praying for over the last two days. The pathology is negative and James had APPENDICITIS! It seems that there was most likely a blockage back in January when we made our first visit to the ER and the infection had been brewing and caused a large mass and inflamed lymph nodes. We are thankful to God that the third visit gave the doctors the wisdom to see the problem and to completely take care of it!

Now, we ask that you pray for continued healing. He has had a significant surgery of his colon and it will take some time for his gut to "wake up" and to get used to eating food again. We are expecting that he will be here for two to three more days and that the antibiotics will cover any infection that might still be present post-operation. I can't thank you all enough for your prayers and encouragement during this time. James said this morning he had complete peace which we know only came by the grace of God.

I prayed this prayer this morning and today I'm rejoicing in God's mercy. Amen!

"But when I am afraid I put my trust in you. O God, I praise your word. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid....On the very day I call to you for help, my enemies (enemies = the "C" word) will retreat. This I know; GOD IS ON MY SIDE!!!" (Psalm 56:4,9)

Faithfully,

Meredith and James

5 years ago today...

2010-05-09T20:02:00.009-05:00

I was praying today and thanking God for the privilege He has given me to be a MOM to my precious three! When I was thinking back on my Mother's Day I couldn't help but think about where I was 5 years ago today. The Wednesday before Mother's Day I was told that I had squamous cell carcinoma in my ear canal and was

going to have to undergo major surgery to cut it all out so that I could beat the cancer. On that Sunday I was standing before God with James at our church dedicating our 5 month old son, Luke, to the Lord! Following that ceremony, our many friends (the hands and feet of Christ) surrounded me at the front of the church and prayed for healing and that the pathology results would come back that it had not spread. That was a moment that I will never forget. I felt the love, comfort and peace that only He can give. I knew that Jesus was standing

there at that moment on my behalf reminding me of 2 Chronicles 20:15 when the Lord says "Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's....so with that, I surrendered!

Many of you know the rest of the story, but to sum it up. Our God is faithful and helped me endure all of the treatment and He has brought me to a place of complete peace. We are living in Austin now with three beautiful healthy children and I'm proud to be a survivor that can point to the greatest Healer!

I hope all of you Mommas had a great day and can think back to where you were (physically and spiritually) when each of your children were placed in your arms. There are many days that I get frustrated with Motherhood, but I wouldn't trade it for any other job on Earth and I'm so thankful for the Great God that gets me through each day and helps me with whatever is next...(2 Cor 4:10 says " For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the joys to come will last forever")

Happy Mothers Day 2010!

May 2005....

May 2010...

Bluebonnets

2010-04-05T21:41:00.004-05:00

Our Newest addition!

2010-04-05T20:34:00.012-05:00

Many of you know that Ginger and Bogey are big part of our family....Well, we lost our sweet Ginger last year in September to a rattlesnake bite in our backyard (She was almost 14 years old).

So, we now welcome our new member of the family, our 7 week old golden retriever. It's like having a new baby around. Especially the first night when I think she cried more than any of our three babies did!

SNOW DAY

2010-03-01T14:50:00.011-06:00

Watch the video below....Oliver tries to "catch" snowflakes...

Luke gets ready to throw a snowball at Connor

Really LOVES his snowball!

Ellie and our neighbor Sophie with Jordan (and Jordette)

My beautiful snow bunny!

Tired of snow balls...wants to play BALL!

Saying AHHHH!!!

VAIL vacation

2010-02-23T22:08:00.005-06:00

We took our family on our annual ski trip this February, but Oliver stayed home for ONE more year. We learned with Luke that at one and two you are not too interested in playing in the snow and not old enough for “school”!

We had a blast sharing adjoining condos with our cousins. There were so many pictures I couldn’t begin to put them all, but here are a few of my favorites from my scrapbook pages.

What a difference a day makes...

2009-10-24T20:35:00.003-05:00

Ellie LOST her first upper tooth last night. It has been almost a year since she lost one of her lower teeth so she was very excited. Mommy is excited that we can already see the new tooth coming in! So she won’t be snaggle-toothed for very long!

BEFORE…

AFTER…

I love FALL!

2009-10-24T20:10:00.006-05:00

My little Pumpkins carving our PUMPKIN!

Today was a beautiful day to be outside so we used the time to carve our annual “Longhorn” pumpkin. We think that Daddy is especially gifted in this area! He is quite a pro at carving the perfect BEVO!

Happy Birthday Oliver

2009-10-18T19:19:00.002-05:00

The Invitation...

I actually made this after the “party” since it was just family and Oliver needed something for his baby book. Hopefully he will understand by the time he is old enough to read this blog!

The Birthday Boy…

The funniest video of blowing the candles out… (watch 'til the end)

Almost TWO!

2009-10-12T21:08:00.002-05:00

We took Oliver to the mall today to "Build a Bear" (actually he built a BEVO) and to have his 1st ice cream cone to celebrate his 2nd bday. He will actually be TWO on Sunday, but since we will be in Dallas for TX vs. OU and the kids were out of school today we decided to do it today. Needless to say, he LOVES the ice cream cone!!

My babies can SWIM!

2009-08-15T21:19:00.002-05:00

Before this week, Luke could not leave the side of the pool to swim and of course Oliver, who is 22 months, is not swimming! After 5 days of 20 minute lessons each day they are both swimming. Amazing!!! This is the video that we gave to thank ms. gwen, their swim teacher.

Breckenridge, Colorado

2009-07-31T08:09:00.009-05:00

We all escaped the heat for 10 days in Colorado. It was AWESOME! The kids loved being outside again and learning how to ride on a tandem bike with Daddy. Here are some favorite memories from our trip.

These are pictures of us going down the sledding trail (who knew this was buried under the snow in the winter)

The trail....and lift chairs that get you there....

Ellie and Luke loved this bungee jumping thing in Breckenridge. It was on top of Peak 8 where they had a great sledding trail too (see other pics). I hope everyone is enjoying their last couple of weeks before we get back to school!

Ellie is officially a Surfer Girl Now

2009-07-27T00:22:00.007-05:00

We visited "JJ" (Jennifer Judkins) in San Diego and Ellie found a new love. Too bad she has to be at the ocean to enjoy it. We will be back soon to enjoy the surf Jenn. Thanks for being a great host!

Ellie's Piano Recital

2009-05-31T14:43:00.006-05:00

This was Ellie's first piano recital. She was the youngest child to play in her group and she was also the only one to play without her music!!! We were very proud of her and hope she develops a love for playing the piano for many years to come. At the end of the clip you may here her teacher asking her how old she is....she reminds the audience that "though she looks like she is 10 she is only 6 years old".

Enjoy our twinkling little STAR!

An Ah Ha moment today...

2009-05-26T22:07:00.007-05:00

So, today I'm finally sending out this silly little blog I've been waiting to send to friends and family. I have wanted to have a place to capture my family's day to day stories for a while and since I'm not a face book person I decided this was a good place to start. I guess I was waiting until it was up to my standards and had all the kinks worked out before I hit "publish" and sent it to everyone. And then today, as I was having just another busy mommy day and heading off to a meeting at Ellie's school (then picking Ellie up, heading to a doctor's appointment, fixing dinner, bathing kids and then heading to our small group meeting) I heard a song on the radio. It caught me off guard as I listened to the words. As tears flowed down my cheeks I realized that I am one of the people they spoke of in the song... a person who is "busy with my own situation and in a hurried little world". As hard as I try to have balance in my life I'm not doing a good job right now and I thought to myself and prayed to God that he would use me and let me surrender to him and not my busy little world here on Earth! I wish I were up on how to download a song to my blog so you could hear it but for now, here are some of the lyrics from Sawyer Brown's song "they don't understand" and a video of my kids tubing yesterday with the music in the background. Enjoy watching the 4 minute video if you have the time. I hope that it helps you slow down today too! Enjoy the rest of my family's blog ;-)

A man driving on the interstate
Slowing down traffic making everybody late
Everybody's staring not knowing what he's going through
Somebody honked from the passing lane
Yellin' out the window, I ain't got all day
The old man looked around and he caught his eye
He said please forgive me
You know it's been a long life
My wife has passed away and my kids don't have the time
I've been left all alone
And its getting hard to drive
So please forgive my children

(they don't understand)

Everybody's busy with their own situation
Everybody's lost in their own little world
Bottled up, hurry it up trying to make a dream come true
(They don't understand)
Everybody's living like there ain't no tomorrow
Maybe we should stop and take a little time
Cause you never really know what your neighbor's going through
(They don't understand)

A man hanging on a wooden cross
Giving everything to save the lost
Everybody's starin' not knowin' what he's going through
Somebody said you don't have a prayer
If you were king, come down from there
The man just turned his head looked up and stared

He said please forgive them
For they have not seen the light
They'll come to know me when I come back to life
Go to heaven, to make everything all right
So please forgive your children

2009-04-05T22:00:00.003-05:00

Ellie's Baptism

April 5th 2009

Gateway Church, Austin, TX

Wall Gallery completed...

2009-03-27T15:44:00.002-05:00

Here's my final product after an hour of positioning pictures on graph paper, using templates and then hanging them STRAIGHT! I couldn't have done it without my new found favorite thing- the velcro hanging strips! Thanks Lindsay for taking ALL of our pictures over the last few years. We love them. As you will notice, I'm missing one in the collage. That is the one that I actually had to order on my own so of course that's not done yet, so you will have to come visit me to see it in person!

OLIVER WALKS....FINALLY!!!

2009-03-09T20:13:00.002-05:00

Just short of his 17 month birthday Oliver finally decided to walk. Up to this point he has been "scooting" around on his bottom. He never took to crawling. He would prefer to hold something in each hand and watch where he was going. Mommy is very thankful because I'm about to break my back carrying the 30lb plus toddler! Now I'm waiting for him to choose walking as his primary mode of transportation.

TWO months, TWO boys, TWO fat lips!

2009-02-08T20:40:00.004-06:00

I guess this is something I should look forward to in the future. I'm just thankful that my 16th month old didn't lose his front teeth at such a young age! Luke's fat lip happened running at the park in Dallas and Oliver's was with the help of his sister who said "he really wanted to get up on the chair". To bad he doesn't know how to get DOWN.

FIRST...Luke 12/28/2008

NEXT...Oliver 2/8/2009

A Special Stocking Stuffer!

2008-12-26T13:39:00.000-06:00

It's funny the things that amuse my kids. We didn't put a lot in their stockings this year. The video shows how excited they were to get new "UNDERWEAR". If only we could get excited about the bare necessities!

Ellie loses her first tooth!

2008-11-25T22:00:00.001-06:00

The video says it all...and then some. Ellie lost her first tooth today...4 days before her 6th birthday.

Cake, Cake and More Cake!

2008-10-19T22:00:00.006-05:00

Oliver's first birthday and he loved the cake! Actually this was the second cake...the day before our good friend Lauren Hammonds photographed him eating his first cake that she had custom made for the photo shoot. Grayson and Bauer Gale were there too. You can check out Oliver's cake pictures on her website under "chapters: at http://laurenlesleyphotography.com/index2.php?v=v1 (while it is still there)... for now here is a video of him enjoying his cake.