Keepin' It Real Christmas

I've been trying to conjure up the energy to tackle the "Christmas" post.

As I scrolled through all my iphone photos (kicking myself for never once taking out my "good" camera), I realized why I took down all our Christmas decorations on Dec. 26th.

This year's holiday season felt like being strapped on a non-stop roller-coaster.
And, truth be told, I'm glad it's over.

As a time saver, I thought about just dumping all the Christmas photos into this post and calling it a day.
But then I realized it would give the appearance of a happy little Christmas holiday where everything went perfectly wonderful.
And that was not the case for the majority of our holiday season.

Nothing truly "bad" happened, but it just seemed like a lot of the happy was followed by a downer.

Here are just a few examples:

Happy: Christmas Break!

Downer: Aubrey getting her very first ear infection the first day off.

Happy: Christmas cards!

Downer: Realizing I didn't order nearly enough 5 days before Christmas.

Happy: Visiting our cute, decorated downtown and getting to sit on Santa's lap!

Downer: Waiting for over 45 minutes next to the world's most annoying stranger in the freezing cold for the free carriage ride that lasted all of 7 minutes.

Happy: Impromptu tickets / date with Aubrey to a musical performance of Rudolph.

Downer: Aubrey crying buckets of tears because we didn't get a "Clarice" stuffed animal during intermission.

Happy: Drive-thru Christmas light displays!

Downer: Arriving an hour too early, having to go back home and come back later.

Happy: Deciding to put up Christmas lights outside!

Downer: These two coming home with this and (unrelated to that multi-light tree) our outdoor electrical unit shorting out -- again.

Happy: Fun treats for Aubrey's class Christmas party!

Downer: Making them the day before and noticing the next morning that the bananas had turned brown and the marshmallow tops were super soggy thus having to redo it all.

Happy: Traveling and spending Christmas Eve with family!

Downer: Coming down with a horrible cold that day.

Happy: Waking up on Christmas morning!

Downer: Waking up on Christmas morning. ;)

See what I mean?

Well, let's end on a few good notes, shall we?

I'll start it off with my absolute favorite part of this Christmas season...

Our Tree!

Aubrey came up with the idea to make a "Fruits of the Spirit" Christmas tree. 

So instead of pulling out all our ornaments -- we dried some fruit in the oven, made cinnamon ornaments and stamped out a fruit of the Spirit on each one, hot glued some cinnamon sticks together for stars, and strung popcorn and cranberry garlands.

And even this project didn't go smoothly! Our first batch of cinnamon ornaments had to be thrown out and remade because I somehow managed to botch the world's easiest 2-ingredient recipe!

But who cares...seeing her happiness in this photo made it all worth it. 

Some other positives over the holiday season...

These girls (despite having sibling quarrels at least once a day) loved getting to be home together. This is one of the few photos over the break of them NOT still in their jammies. 

Going to Patti's to see the lights and Santa again...

and Ms. Claus...

Two school Christmas programs with the cutest donkey and the prettiest dancing snowflake...

Christmas night...

 (Aubrey: telescope, accordion, craft kit, make-up kit, And Then story starters, and Clarice ;)) // (Mina: unicorn scooter, helmet, snow glow Elsa, Elsa/Anna Barbies, The Whale and the Snail, and Rudolph) Not Pictured: Cardboard Castle / Pirate Ship

And Christmas morning...

And our traditional scraggily family Christmas morning photo...

 And, of course, we cannot forget...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!

As I started to feel sad about how a lot of things didn't go exactly as I had hoped, I thought about the very first Christmas hundreds of years ago...

I'm guessing Mary didn't envision giving birth to the Messiah mere feet from donkey manure, so obviously I am not the first one to have a few crappy moments during the holidays.

Now can I get a CHEERS! for 2015?!

Less than a year away from the next imperfect Christmas! :)

Mina and Miracles.

Before I even attempt to write this post, if you are a mother -- go and wrap your arms around your child(ren). 
Hug them. 
Kiss them. 
Tell them how much you love them. 
Thank God for their life.

I do not want to over-dramatize the series of events that took place starting Thursday evening, but I want to have it accurately recorded. Because it needs to be preserved as a reminder of God's love, mercy, protection, and miraculous hand. 

______________________________

My sister and her sweet baby boy drove to our house Thursday morning to spend the day and night with us.
The day was perfect. We swam, celebrated Melanie's upcoming birthday with some cupcakes by the pool, and decided to just hang-out in our screened-in porch while we waited for Daniel to get home with a pizza for dinner.

In a split second, in the middle of talking and playing, Mina lost her balance and leaned up against the screen. It was loose and not able to support her. She fell 10 feet backwards onto the asphalt driveway below. 

The gut-wrenching irony of it all was that the porch was supposed to have been re-screened with railings added earlier the week before. The contractor got behind on another job, so it was pushed back to a later date. 

I cannot begin to describe the absolute horror of thinking your child has died.

I'm not sure I'll ever get over the trauma of that emotion.

This is where the nightmare begins and where God started pouring out miracles.

Daniel got home a minute after the accident -- Melanie was on the phone telling him what happened while I held Mina.

She said (through wailing and moaning) that her head hurt.

Minutes later she couldn't remember anything.

Not what hurt, not what happened, not even her name.

We rushed her to the hospital while my sister stayed home with Aubrey.

The ER was empty, which meant we were taken back immediately.

Mina was fighting off the nurses and doctors trying to assess her status, when all of a sudden she reached up to the side of her head saying, "Owwww!!" That's when I noticed blood coming out of her left ear.

The nurses and doctors went into high-gear. 

Neck brace, sedation medication, and immediate scans of her head and spine.

I was terrified before, now I was completely panic-stricken.

While she was being scanned, Daniel and I wrapped our arms around each other and prayed through sobs.

Once the scans were done, I went with Mina while Daniel stayed back to see the images.

It was so quiet in the room.
After praying over her, I started singing any song I could think of with the name "Jesus" in it. 

Daniel came back into the room. 

I wanted him to say everything was going to be okay.

But by the look on his face, I knew he couldn't do that.

As he started saying things like large skull fracture and contusion, I felt the room start spinning.

Another doctor walked in and asked us which Children's Hospital we preferred: Louisville or Nashville. 
The helicopter was going to be here 4 minutes.

In the meantime Mina started to come out of sedation.

The nurses tried to get an IV in her tiny veins 5 times before they were successful.

They gave her morphine (pain), zophran (prevent nausea/vomiting), and anti-seizure medication.

She fell asleep as the air med team came in, and I was informed that I wouldn't be allowed to go with her.
I tried everything I could think of to convince them to let me on that helicopter.

They let me ride the elevator all the way to the rooftop, and the last thing the air med lady said to me was, "I will be praying for her the entire flight."

The elevator doors closed, and I collapsed on the floor crying and begging God to protect her.

During all this time, Melanie had been packing all our bags and Daniel had driven home to pick up Aubrey and all our things. 

Someone (I think it was a nurse) walked me out of the hospital where I saw our car waiting. 

I looked in the back and saw Mina's carseat. 
Empty.

I lost it.

We prayed the entire way to Nashville.

Finally, after the longest drive of our lives, I had my sweet girl in my arms where she went from screaming to fast asleep within seconds.

They told us this night was going to be critical.

Words like bleeding on the brain, breathing tubes, seizures, facial paralysis were being said as possibilities I needed to be ready for. I kept her in my arms all night and prayed and whispered words of love and encouragement. 

This entire time, countless people were praying.

Angels and prayer warriors fighting for her while she rested.

Early the next morning, we were transferred to another room in PICU. Mina was already showing positive signs of improvement. She had to get neuro evaluations every hour for 24 hours. She was so tired, and kept getting woken up by doctors and nurses.

By early morning she was begging for her milk and saying she was hungry.
She hadn't been allowed anything to eat or drink since they weren't sure yet if they were going to have to rush her to surgery.

She was sitting up, talking, singing, and playing with her new toys.

All the doctors and nurses were blown away.
We were thanking God.

Instead of a second day in the PICU, all the teams: neuro surgery, ENT, trauma could not find a reason to keep her there. She passed a speech evaluation with flying colors, and we were told she would be moved to a step-down room that evening.

In the meantime, one of my dearest friends  from childhood (who now lives in Nashville) had just had a baby two days before. She delivered her precious baby boy at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Her sister (who saw my urgent post for prayer on Instagram) told her about Mina at the same time Mina was being helicoptered there. A short while later, my friend heard the helicopter -- she started praying for Mina that very minute. How amazing is that?! Our sweet girl had someone praying for her everywhere she was even when we could not be with her. Praise God!!!

The prayers kept coming, and Mina continued to recover...

The next morning she continued to improve.

She even walked down the hall with Daniel and Aubrey to get some ice cream -- singing the whole way!

It wasn't too much later, and we received her discharge papers!

AMAZING.

We were sent home with prescription ear drops, follow-up appointment dates, and things to be on the look-out for over the next couple of weeks. In true Mina fashion, she kept one balloon (out of the MANY she received) and had the nurse pass the rest out to all the other children on her hall. Seriously -- this girl's heart is made of pure gold.

We thank God for His amazing, miraculous work on Mina's behalf.

We are beyond grateful for all your prayers.

To my sister, my parents, and Daniel's mom who all dropped everything to be our rock during the darkest moments of our lives -- we could not have gotten through this without them. They made endless phone calls, texts, and updates to friends and family. Walked the hospital over a hundred times with Aubrey and took the best care of her while we tended to Mina.

We are all still healing from the trauma of it all.

Just the other day, I was cleaning out our hospital bags in the laundry room when I pulled out the dress Mina was wearing the day of the accident. I wasn't there at Vanderbilt when they cut it off her to avoid further injury once she arrived. 
It's the only dress she has with a ladybug on it.
I stared at the jagged scissor cuts, the blood stain on the strap from her ear. 
It was too much for me to take in...I bawled right there in the pile of dirty clothes.

Also, I feel the need to mention a few other things.

This is a picture of the porch to give you an idea of its height:

The day of the accident I wasn't sure I could ever go back to our house.

Then I decided if I did go back, I wanted to have that porch burned to the ground.

It wasn't too long after that thought I could feel God speaking to my heart. 

He was the Ruler of our home, not the horror of that accident.

If He can restore all of mankind, He can certainly restore our home and our hearts.

Daniel had our contractor send guys over IMMEDIATELY to re-screen and add safety railings to the porch. 

While this whole nightmare will forever be etched in our minds, we will focus on rejoicing and praising Him.

Fear no longer rules in this space, GOD does.

Please continue to keep our sweet Mina in your prayers.

We are unsure if her hearing is 100 percent in her left ear, and we are still keeping things very low key around here for awhile. We give thanks for her life. 
Her precious, miraculous life.

_________________________________________

This song has been in my head since we left Nashville...

"Let Everything That Has Breath"

Let everything that,

Everything that

Everything that

Has breath praise the Lord

Let everything that,

Everything that

Everything that

Has breath praise the Lord

Praise You in the morning

Praise You in the evening

Praise You when I'm young

And when I'm old

Praise You when I'm laughing

Praise You when I'm grieving

Praise You every

Season of the soul

If we could see

How much You're worth

Your power,

Your might,

Your endless love

Then surely we would

Never cease to praise

Praise You in the heavens

Join with the angels

Praising You forever and a day

Praise You on the earth now

Joining with creation

Calling all the nations to Your praise

If they could see

How much You're worth

Your power,

Your might,

Your endless love

Then surely they would

Never cease to praise

I will worship,

I will worship

I will worship

You with every breath

I will worship,

I will worship

I will worship

You with every breath

Flesh

Easter is just around the corner, and it always gets me.
I will cry this Sunday in church.
The overwhelming magnitude of its significance will flood my heart, which will then result in mascara cascading down my cheeks.
I'll look like a mess by the time it's all over.
And that's okay.
We're all a mess anyway.
I'd say Easter is the one day we might as well embrace it.
Amen?

I mean, have you ever really meditated on the fact that God came to down to us through the incarnation of a man?
Ever actually let that sink in?
Or at least imagined, "What if...?"
That He physically walked this Earth.
Breathed our air.
Burped after a meal.
Got splinters working as a carpenter in His dad's wood shop.
Hugged His friends.
Went to the bathroom.
Laughed.
Cried.
Loved.
Became one of US.
It's absolutely mind-blowing when you take the time to even attempt to process it.

A dear friend of mine shared on Facebook that this book was free for download one day on Amazon.
So, I figured I'd download it. (Why not, right?)
And it turned out that this book put into words some of the very things I had been wrestling with since reading the Bible in its entirety a few years ago.

One of the main takeaways from that year for me was the realization that Jesus and what He taught is scarcely seen in professed "Christians" today. More specifically, it is RARELY seen in ME.

I feel like God has been telling me to be more INTENTIONAL.
Intentional with my family, with my friends, and with people God puts into my life unexpectedly.
To not be in such a hurry, but to see people through His eyes.
Not with judgment, but with compassion.
Really get to know what's going on.
Know their struggles.
Strengths.
Situations.
Set-backs.
And then serve them right where they are.
However that looks.
Each person / relationship will be different.

I'll be honest, there are days / months / years when I do a super crappy job of being intentional.

We had a neighbor in Oklahoma who was a retired, never-been-married woman with not many (if any) friends or family around. She lived all alone, and I went and visited her one time.
We lived there for four years.
I was home every single day.
She was home every single day.
I never invited her over.
Not once.

In this book, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth, the author highlights the God incarnate life of Jesus on Earth. The God-Man literally walking our streets. How He interacted with people. He was SO intentional -- particularly with "big sinner" people. The way He treated them is so vastly different from how most "Christians" treat them today.

There were several quotes from this book that I feel like said exactly what I've been thinking...

Jesus was teaching that godliness is not about trying to hide our humanness and appear more like God. That always comes off smelling like inauthenticity and reeks of hypocrisy -- and neither God nor the observing world buys it. Worse, it doesn't work anyway.

People are not pagans to be converted, projects to be preached at, or demographics to be reprogrammed. Humans should never be generalized, categorized, dismissed, judged, or underestimated. Every person is a story, rich with history, experiences, creative potential, strengths and weaknesses, clarity and blindness.

You must learn to respect people's lostness; you must become a deep listener and learn to dignify people's spiritual journeys. And when you hear what has happened to them or not happened to them regarding spiritual matters, you must identity with them or put yourself in their shoes so that maybe someday you can help them see Jesus ans separate from those bad experiences. You've got to help them see the real face of God.

Jesus transcended all the dilemmas, arguments, trite judgments, and religious expectations simply by not picking a side. He neither condoned nor condemned, and yet people felt accepted by Him...and they felt conviction.

People of every sexual orientation miss God's design for marriage. In fact, they miss His design for just about everything. It's called sin -- missing God's mark. But for some reason, God looks past that and still shows up at our parties, our ceremonies, and our dinner tables. He wants to talk. He did way back then. I believe He still wants to talk today. Jesus shows us that there's never a change of mind unless there's a change of heart, and there will never be a change of heart without a conversation between trusted friends.

We have to remember that how we treat people influences what they may believe about God, and if you look like you've got an agenda other than loving, listening, or blessing, your God will look like a conquistador instead of a compassionate King.

If any of this resonated with you, I highly recommend you read this book.
It's written in a down-to-earth / conversational way.
It will encourage and demonstrate how to live more than just skin deep life.

From My Heart...

I've been waiting for this Christmas for years.

December 24th, 2011, Daniel gave me two gifts:

One was a 147 Million Orphans shirt. (Notice the daisies on there?! GODWINK!)
The other gift was a folder.
Inside the folder was adoption paperwork that Daniel had already started filling out.

Daniel said, "I just want you to know, I feel like God is saying now is the time."
I was so shocked.
I put my face on the ground, cried, and thanked God.
Daniel didn't know, but I had prayed every single day for over six months for God to work in his heart regarding adoption. I knew God had a child waiting for us, but I wanted it to come from God and not me.

That Christmas, I told Daniel before going to bed, "You realize that our child is probably alive already? They are somewhere in this world. I hope they had a Merry Christmas..."
I cried myself to sleep that night.
And across the globe, our little Shisi was turning 5 months old in a Chinese orphanage.

The next Christmas, we were literally aching to travel to bring her home.

She was living with a foster family in a rural part of China, which made it difficult to get information about our sweet girl. 

That December 24th, God nestled a little ladybug amidst the gifts under the tree. 

The hope and promise that our Shisi would be with us next Christmas.

I cried myself to sleep again that year. 

Well, this Christmas I cried too.
Tears of complete and total happiness.

Merry Christmas from all FOUR of the Riherds!

Daniel made this wonderful slideshow to a song that fits our past three Christmases perfectly...

Merry Christmas, by Third Day

There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for momma's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
Where the forgotten are

But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
Make angels in the snow

But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
And we celebrate his perfect gift of love
He came to earth to give his life
And prepare a place for us
So we could have a home with him above

It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas