"This is a story that is often untold, and overlooked. A raw adventure of fighting the elements of illness, as a young wife and mother by seeking Jesus first. Start from the beginning, and see how the Lord can take a very broken and ill individual and bring about a truly unique LIFE and LOVE story." - BRYNN (& Jeremey and Tatum).
Before Tatum was born, Jeremey and I decided that we wanted to capture her first year of life on film. As often as we could, we shot clips of our little girl growing up and doing what we thought were the cutest and funniest little things (all parents think their kids do the funniest things right?) Soon our Cannon T21 became like a 4th member to our family. Even Tatum loves it, so much so that I caught her just this afternoon kissing the lense, haha. Though there is a full year of beautiful moments depicted in this video, you must know that its the behind the scenes, where lifes truest moments weren't recorded. The not so beautiful moments of being new parents, the moments of exhaustion, diaper explosions, and learning to the trust the Lord when we rather not spend time to wait on Him. The moments of growing and dying to ourselves, the moments of an inconsolable crying baby, the sleepless nights, the anxiousness, the stress and the tears. For me personally, the moments of being chronically ill, and having no idea how I would take care of my baby with each passing day were some of the hardest. All of these are moments that most of us would rather not remember, but they were vital to our character and relationship to the Lord who gave us this precious life in our daughter. Aside from that We are thrilled to have captured many and most of her first milestones during her first year. We hope this is something we can cherish and hold onto in remembrance of all the Lord has brought Jeremey, myself and Tatum through in such a short span of her life!
Wow ... there are moments in our lifes, that make everything else seem SO unimportant. So menial, so trivial. The moment my husband called me last Friday and told me the news that his sister had made it through surgery in 6 hours LESS than estimated, with little to NO complications, was one of those moments. There was a chance we might lose stephanie, but now we not only celebrate the fact that her life was prolonged, but we celebrate the birth of her little miracle baby, London Grace Dorsey! Born 5 pounds 13 ounces, and 6 weeks early. Praise the Lord, he hears our prayers. No matter what the outcome might have been, he hears our prayers!
What most of you might not have known, is that after a phenomenal miracle surgery, several days later stephanie started to have terrible pain again, and proceeded to go back into the surgery room. There was a major blockage and her kidney started filling up with fluid. She is stablaized now, but in a lot of pain, and overly tired. She has a long recovery ahead of her, but we pray that the hard part is over, and that soon the pain will subside, allowing her to enjoy her new baby.
In this difficult time, for my sister, for many of my sick friends, and for even myself (as I have still been feeling very ill) I wanted to post this video ... many of my CCBC facebook friends have seen it. But for my friends and family who aren't a part of this little community. This is a song written and sung by a Calvary Chapel worship leaders daughter and was sung at a conference here a couple weeks ago. She is 15 years old. Let me repeat that, 15 YEARS OLD. Check out the voice and maturity of this girl and her younger sister. An encouraging song for everyone!
There are a few topics that I wanted to post about ....
The most important one being that TOMORROW is the BIG DAY. I have been writing posts about Jeremey's sister Stephanie for a few months now, and finally tomorrow we will welcome little London Dorsey into this world, while we spend the rest of the day on our knees praying for the meticulous and vital surgery that Stephanie will be going through immideiatly after the baby is born. The surgery is estimated to be around 10 hours long, and from what we have heard, none of the doctors who will be working with her have performed this type of surgery on a mother with 7 previous c-sections before. The most is 4. Stephanie will be breaking some sort of Arizona medical record I'm sure. We know that the LORD is in control. He has been the whole way through. We are just asking for prayer tonight as she gets prepped, and for tomorrow morning at 9, when the surgery will begin. Her husband Nick, and 5 kids, will be spending the night in the hospital room with Stephanie tonight. Pray that the family would soak up all the time they have with their mom, and that the Lord would give them all peace in this situation!
I also wanted to throw out a quick prayer request for my health. Sounds so selfish after what I just wrote about, but I haven't written very recently about how I have been feeling. Though I had a pretty wonderful holiday break, health wise. Since I have been home, I have been very very sick. For the last 11 days, I have gotten no more than 4 hours of sleep a night, and some nights I haven't gotten any at all. This begins a vicious cycle. When I don't sleep my vertigo gets really bad, when my vertigo gets really bad, I don't sleep. It becomes a very difficult cycle to break. This also hinders my ability to take care of Tatum, which is the hardest part of the whole situation. I would just love prayer if you think about it.
Finally ... Tatum is walking ... I know I posted a video about this on facebook on new years eve, but since then, she has really taken off. I am so proud of my girl, but also a bit scared for the new stage of choas that soon awaits me. Here is a video of her last night ...
(Crazy how it worked out, this is my 100th blog post ever written, and it is all about my babies first birthday.)
So it really happened. My baby turned ONE! it wasn't your typical all out, organized, pre-planned, over the top type birthday. It was much more simple. We wanted Tatums Aunt Stephanie to be a part of the big day, because she has been such a special part of Tatum's life since she was born. So like Christmas, we had the party in the hospital. It was unconventional, but perfect. Jeremey and I didn't really know what we were doing with the whole party planning thing, do we ever know what we are doing? We are new to this, but Tatum had all her family members that she Loves surrounding her on the big day, even grandma and grandpa from Oregon through facetime chat. We sang happy birthday, opened gifts, ate cake, had a dance party on the wii, and really just Loved on our little girl as much as we possibly could. She went home with more gifts than she could ever need, ate way to much sugar (yes I let her eat sugar, its her birthday, come on) and overall made her way into her second year of life like a champ. The Lord has blessed our family beyond belief. If I had to write down how many times in the last year that I thought I couldn't make it another day, being chronically ill with a new baby, I would run out of ink. But the Lord saw us through, and we made it. I really do have the most amazing daughter in the world, who has made my world a thousand times brighter. Happy birthday to the sweetest and funniest girl I know.
I use my blog as a sort of journal, something to look back on in the future to remember the crazy stories or beautiful times in life that I may have otherwise forgotten. The night before Tatums birthday I wrote her a letter. Thought I would post it here ... to document. If you manage to get to the bottom of this post with the amount of pictures I posted, go ahead and check it out.
Birthday morning breakfast
Getting ready to party!
The only shot we got of the 3 of us. I guess it works, haha.
Cousin Micha was Tatum's present opener, he did a great job.
Wii dance party!
100 dollars from grandma and grandpa Pruitt. Thank you guys!
She is really excited about her new clothes!
All the cousins!
Converse!
Awaiting her cake!
Chowing down.
Texting and driving already.
"Tatum
Your mom is a sap. I always have been, I've just closeted it well. I Love you. I Love everything about you. A year ago you were put into my arms for the first time and right then and there you changed my world. I was very very sick before you were born … LONG before you were born. In fact, I didn't even know how it was going to be possible to take care of you because I was so sick. But the LORD saw fit for me to be a mom, and I Love it, and He has helped me learn to take care of you the very best way I can with my sickness. It is hard, don't get me wrong, but you are so worth it. You know what the cool part is Tatum … since you were about 5 months old, I started to feel not as sick anymore. I was able to play with you more often, take you on more walks, adventure out more, and overall just enjoy you as you grew up. I know the Lord has used you to help heal my physical body. Thank you baby girl. I look forward to the day where I can explain to you the sheer miracle of it all. Now a whole year later I can look back and see how faithful the Lord has been to you and I and your daddy. He has provided all yours needs, and all your parents needs. He is a wonderful Loving father, much like your earthly daddy, but WAY better. I can't wait for you to learn more about Him. Tatum, this year you have exceeded all my expectations. You were born with little to no complications AT ALL. You rolled over for the first time when you were just ity bitty and you crawled super early. Your first word was daddy, which didn't surprise me at all, and you continue to say it over and over over again everyday. You wave hello and goodbye like a pro and give the most wonderful kisses and hugs in the world. You dance, boy do you dance, and you have the best moves. I know all babies like music, but I see a future for you in this area. As of today, your first birthday, you have 3 1/4 teeth, and have taken numerous steps, but just can't quite get the hang of the whole full on walking thing. But thats ok, you are just giving your mom a break before things get even crazier when you walk for good. You really like sunglasses, riding on your car, and your favorite toy is moms computer. You love to smash the keys. You are funny like your dad, but an observer like me. You have his eyes, but my smile, you are a true split between the two of us. You are beautiful, really truly beautiful. Overall you are just such a fun girl, such a crack up, such a blessing, such a joy. Yes, you force me to get up early, and exhaust me to no end with your endless energy, yes I have to change those ever so wonderful diapers everyday, and yes as you are getting more of a personality you are becoming a bit more stubborn. But you have pushed your mom to trust the Lord in ways that I never have before. You have changed who I am, and who I want to be and I will never be the same again. Because of the joy you bring your dad and I, we are excited to someday have a little brother or sister to add to our family, and we can already tell that you will be a great big sister. When I put you down for bed last night, I got tears in my eyes thinking that the next time I saw you, you would be turning ONE year old. We have made it a whole year. 12 months of paranoid, scatterbrained, sleep deprived, momness, and 12 months of growing, learning, overly cute Tatumness. Thank you for being my daughter. I have told you that every night since you were born, and I have meant it every single time. I Love you with my whole heart Tatum Joy. You are my gift from the Lord. Happy first Birthday! Love mom."
