hi everyone! hope you had a blessed holiday! we had a wonderful holiday with our friends and family and the boys loved going on 3 easter egg hunts! first, we celebrated with our THRIVE group and it was SO much fun! we are blessed so have such dear friends and all the children really enjoyed playing with each other...and especially on the nintendo wii! then, we ventured over for the snavely celebration. we had a blast hunting for some more eggs and spending time together. finally, we celebrated with the smith family. we ate a delicious meal, the kids learned about the real easter story (thanks to aunt darby) through doing "resurrection eggs" and then another egg hunt followed. needless to say, we have a whole lot of candy in our house! it was wonderful and we have lots of picture to share! below are a few of our favs, but CLICK HERE to see them all!
these are the latest photos we've taken of the boys. we decided to forgo going to a "professional" photographer and andrew did these shots at home. we've yet to get a really good one of them together, but hopefully we'll get one soon.
we've been keeping very busy around here and we have TONS of pictures to share with you. it's been a long time since our last photo update so be sure to CLICK HERE and check out all the latest pics of our family.
hello everyone! just wanted to let you know that we received the results from hudson's EEG and everything came back completely normal. praise God! thank you so much for all the prayers, emails and phone calls. it really means a lot to us and gave us great comfort knowing that so many people were praying! God is awesome!
1 Chronicles 16:34
34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever
although the blinking continues, it has subsided a lot. it still happens daily, but not nearly as much as it was occurring before. it's amazing of all the stories people have shared with us about their kids who have gone through similar situations. it most cases and in researching about it, it seems as though sometimes kids get "tics" that last for a few/several months as a results of a stressful situation that causes anxiety. when he was sick, he received a large dose of medication injected into his legs and it was very traumatic for him and it was immediately after that when this all started. we're praying that this will be the case for hudson too. at the end of the day, we're just so thankful for hudson and know that it's all in God's hands. he brings joy to our hearts and has filled our lives with rich blessings! we'll keep you all posted on further updates!
as many of you know and have been faithfully praying for, we had to take hudson in to have another eeg done. he had one about a year ago after he had a seizure (and all the results came back clear...AMEN!). ever since hudson was sick a few weeks ago he's been blinking rapidly and sporadically daily so the doctor wanted to take the precaution to have another one done. he was, again, an AMAZING little trooper and did wonderfully. God made his presence known there today (as He always does), but even more so today as the events unfolded. so here's what happened.
throughout the past days we've had many dear friends and family members email us with encouraging notes and scripture references. they were awesome (truly God-breathed) and greatly appreciated!
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 138:8
8 The Lord will work out his plans for my life— for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.
so we arrive, everything's good and low and behold, the 3 nurses that work in hospital in the EEG/EKG unit go to RiverTree!!! they immediately recognized us and it was like a breath of fresh air. but wait, it gets better...
when we first got in the room, hudson was a little uneasy (and sleep-deprived like they're supposed to be for the test) and they asked if he liked music. ummm...if you know anything about hudson, you know that he absolutely LOVES music! they said they'd see what they could find. so a few minutes later they come back in the room with a stereo and none other than our dear friend julie's CD. if you don't know, julie has been the worship leader at RiverTree and andrew has been singing with her for nearly 10 years on the team. oh my goodness, we were dumbfounded. i mean, really, could God be any more great!?! hudson immediately calmed down and was perfect for the rest of the test (not to mention, the music was quite lovely too)! he played with toys, read books with us and listened to, in his words, "church music".
of course you know we can't go anywhere without the camera! :-)
at the end of it all, the sweet nurse-technician gave hudson $5.00 and told him to have a very happy birthday (his b-day is in a couple weeks). then finally we were all done and ready for a special treat!
we'll keep you all posted, but again, we can't thank you enough for all your love, prayers and support! here's one more verse to leave you with:
1 Corinthians 12:6
God works through different people in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves His purpose through them all.
today is greyson's first birthday and since the "big party" isn't for a few weeks, we celebrated at home with a special treat! here are a few snapshots.
he wasn't afraid to start digging in right away!
hudson loved the little celebration and the extra treat too!
lately, hudson's favorite activity is to create masterpieces. he has a craft box full of odds-and-ends and will sit there for hours (literally!) and create pictures "for mommy, daddy and greyson". it's so awesome to see his creative side coming out and to us, what he creates are priceless works of art.
here's what our dining room walls look like. he's SO proud of his work!
oh, and of course we had a spectator, too! :-)
it would only be appropriate to share with you one of our favorite verses. take a minute and let it sink in...
"For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." ~Ephesians 2:10
we are finally all back to good health after 6 weeks of sickness. yes, that's right - at least one (or more) of us had been sick for the past month and a half. crazy! needless to say, we've not really taken a whole lot of pictures over that time (believe me, you wouldn't have wanted to see that) which is highly unlike us. here are a few highlights though.
you know you live in ohio when you have weather like this, believe it or not, just several weeks ago...
we somehow began the routine of drinking hot chocolate after playing the the snow.
greyson is always happy and lovin' life. the smile gets you every time!
as soon as the temps get warmer, out we go and boys LOVE it! we love the sunshine!
meet nathaly. she is the beautiful little girl our family has been sponsoring through compassion international for the past year and a half. she lives in ecuador with her family. over the years, God has wrecked our hearts over children who are overlooked and live on the very edge of survivial in this world.
through our sponsorship of nathaly, it has allowed her to be included within the loving environment of a Christ-centered Compassion child development center, which provides supplemental food, heath services, educational support, love…and a hopeful future. it not only brings joy and hope to a child in need, it also brings so much joy to our family.
we faithfully pray for her and her family on a daily basis. we write to her (and she writes back and colors pictures), send her birthday and christmas gifts, and photographs. she knows that despite the miles between us, that we love and care for her in the same way that Christ loves her. it's so awesome to see that hudson knows her name and all about her. he prays for her and looks at her picture all the time on our refridgerator. it's our prayer that he'll grow up knowing that ALL people matter.
we've always realized (as much as we could comprehend, at least) what a priceless impact this could have on a child, but it wasn't until we met a man named richmond wandera that our eyes were truly opened to the fact that what seems so small to us is actually something that has the potential to change a life...maybe even eternally! he is a man that spoke at our church a couple weeks ago. you must hear his story. please take the time to check it out!
Matthew 25:39 – 41 (The Message) Then those sheep are going to say, “Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?” Then the King will say, “I’m telling the solemn truth: whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me – you did it to me.”
Matthew 19:14 (NIV) Jesus said,“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
so, why are we sharing all this with you? in hopes that you may consider sponsoring a child...it might just change a whole mulititude of lives. visit compassion international by clicking on the link on our blog to the right.
The purpose of our blog is to update our friends and family on our journey of being consumed by God's will for our lives with our two precious boys! We'd love to hear from you! Please contact us at arsnavely@gmail.com or leave us a comment. Blessings to you!
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