Surgery is over! Yeah

Ok so Anne and Jeff have both come out of surgery and are doing great. I am so glad this is finally done and over. Mom is still here and Sara and I are about ready to throw her out the window! NO REALLY! These little guys are tough. Anne had one pulled, six teeth capped and three fillings. Jeff had eight teeth pulled, three capped and six fillings. No I do not know many adults who would enjoy having this done.

I have been around a lot of children when they come out of surgery and boy sometimes it can be a big ordeal because they are so shocked and afraid. Anne was a trouper even when they took the iv out. I on the hand did not take it very well. In fact, I got a little sick to my stomach just knowing they were doing it. Hey when it comes to needles and that stuff I'm a wimp to the core. Blood makes me pass out. Better yet just the thought of blood makes me get weak in the knees.

I am so proud of them and am excited when they get home and are able to experience what a normal mouth feels like.

Please keep them in your prayers.

The Game

Ok this one is for Justin Key! Thanks I just lost the game!

Many of you who read this know Justin Key and last summer at camp i had the honor of staying in the same cabin as him. He told me about this game that he or someone had came up with and honestly has to be the dumbest game I have ever heard of and here is how it goes.

The object of the entire game is to not think of the game. If you think of the game you lose and have 30 minutes before you can start to play again. When you lose you must let someone else know that you lost the game. They cannot lose when you tell them because they will immediatly think about the game and they are given a 15 minute grace period.

While setting in the hospital room I thought of the game and lost. I have to say that every now and then I lose the game because I think about camp and it reminds me of this really silly game. You are more than welcome to join the game but before warned you will lose!

Just a few more days

Ok can I just tell you how excited I am because in just a few more days we will be leaving for Portland, OR. While it may be a couple thousand miles away I really miss living there. I know that lifestyles can be very different there and life in general is really different there is just something about it that i love.

I want to eventually move back there, do not know when but at some point. I doubt when I do it will be to preach full time. I will probably work with my father-in-law at the congregation for which he preaches.

Not sure if Sara has already blogged about this but we are going to host a VBS for Sara's dad's congregation. I am looking forward to it and am praying for it to be a success. Please pray for us in our tavels and for the success of the VBS.

Loving Others - tougher than it seems!

Jesus was very clear that we are to love God first and second to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:37-39). In addition, Jesus also told us that we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). I have always been able to teach that this is the attitude we are to take toward our neighbors and enemies. However, living it has been much harder for me especially today. As Sara has already blogged about, we are in a hospital room waiting on Anne and Jeff to go into surgery. It would be all fine but their mother is here. Ok let me paint the picture for you. (I think Sara has already talked about some of this) She is only in her mid to late 40's but she looks like she is in her late 60's early 70's. She could be a poster child with the caption "This is what drugs can do to you." She treats this children like they are helpless and babies them as if they are infants.

It is hard for me to find it within me to love this woman. When I stop to think of what she has done to these children it lights a fire within my soul that I want to hate her so bad. I believe in forgiveness when it is asked for (go to http://oabs.org/Archives/Lectures/msop2008.htm and listen to the lesson by Dan Winkler on "The Heart that Shows Mercy"). She thinks she has done nothing wrong but DCS and the state have been on her case since 2004 and yet there is no fault on her side (in her eyes). I believe there will be a special place in hell for those who abuse their children (no matter what type of neglect). I know she will have her day when she stands before God.

I experienced the same feeling when we had Alyssa (4yrs old) and her parents had sexually abuse her (do not get me started on what should happen to those people). There is a part of me that wish bad things on her and then I have to remind myself that she has a soul that is precious to God. I have discovered that preaching is easy but the living part is so much harder. There is a part of me that does wish she would change, clean up her life and get right with God but reality tells me that there is a 99% chance she will never do it. I guess because I see her making no change that it makes me want to hate her.

If I have learned any greater lesson from being a foster parent is that it is easy to say we should love our enemies but it is something completely different to actually live in a world and love your enemies. May God help us all to live what we teach and preach.

Elementary Youth Day

Well Sara has already mentioned this and posted pictures on her blog about our Elementary Youth day for the 1st through 6th graders. This is the 4 or 5th one we have done and each time i really enjoy it. While our turnouts are never really large (40 to 60) it has always been about those that do show up. It is unfortunate that more congregations do not do more with this age group since they are the future of the church. It is a blessing to be able to work with them because they can be so much more fun than teenagers. These little guys soak up everything you can throw at them whereas teenagers seem to already know it all. I honestly believe that if we focused more on the younger we could strengthen the church for the future. If you have younger children make a stronger effort to get them more involved or start something where they can be more involved with other children at church. For pictures of our Elementary Youth day view Sara's blog (didn't think it was necessary to post them twice).

Summer is HERE (HELP!)

Ok as a youth minister summer is the craziest time of the year. So even though summer has not offical started it has for me. By the time I finish the summer I will have taught VBS (Walking In Son Light) four times at four different locations. We are taking a few youth down to Indian Creek Youth Camp (hope to see some of you guys there). One VBS we are doing is in Portland, Oregon for Sara's dad and the church for which he preaches. We will also travel to Milledgeville, TN and host a VBS for them. In between all these big activities we have a Timothy Class for th 6th grade and under ever Tuesday (that we are here). Summer is so busy that I usually have take off a week in August to recover. Of course summer is really about the only time I do any actual work. I have to say that I really do love it, I am just not sure how long my body will let me do this. The older I get the hard it is to keep up with the young people. Either I am getting slower or they are getting faster. In all honesty I could not do a great deal of it if it were not for Sara she is such a big help.

By the way, keeping looking back because I will eventually put another blog on here.

Thank You Baby!

Ok as you can see my wife takes really great care of me (even in the blog world). I just wanted to let her know how much I appreciate her updating my blog so people know I'm still alive.

Glasses

Again, this is Sara. I am copying my posts and putting them on Jason's blog site so you will know what is going on. Since he has not blogged, literally, since he first opened the account, I cannot guarantee when he will blog again. If you want to know what is going on in our lives and with the kids you can check my blog at http://mullenixfamily.blogspot.com/

Well, Anne will be getting glasses. She is SO excited. Jason and I were talking, when we were growing up the kids with glasses were made fun of, now kids WANT them. Well, she picked out really cute ones. I convinced her not to get the big chunky plastic ones (like the ones I had when I was a kid) but instead to get, what they call, wire rimmed. She wanted pink. She she found some that are pink-ish. She really likes them and looks good in them.From what the optometrist said, she actually has normal eyesight but she has an astigmatism which is causing her not to be able to see properly, so we were given eye "exercises" to do that "could" help the astigmatism to correct itself as she gets older. I can already fore see the fights. The optometrist said if she does the exercises she may not have to wear glasses as she gets older. Well, that would mean she might have to give up her precious glasses. When I say excited I mean EXCITED. She found the glasses she wanted and was ready to just walk out the door with the display set on her head. She did not care they had words printed on the glass, she had her glasses. When she heard a week, you would have thought her whole world was coming to an end. "A WEEK!" Well, she will survive and lets look at the positive, at least until the new wears off, I will not have to fight her to wear them! Everything else is going well on the home front! Everyone doing well. Kids are GREAT! Jeffrey is learning how to do things on his own. We are not trying to be mean but he expects people to automatically help him because of his disability. So we are trying to teach him to tackle things on his own. Even if he fails, at least he tried and that is what is important. Anne has become VERY attached to us. She has been calling me Moma. I have told her Moma Sara is okay. She wants to call me Moma SO badly. We were in the car the other day and she asked if she never goes back to her Mom will she be adopted. I told her when did not know what was going to happen and we will not know until it happens. But then I thought I better ask her how she feels about things. So I asked her, How do you feel about staying with us, going back to mom or being adopted? She IMMEDIATELY said she wanted to be adopted so she could call us Mom and Dad. It breaks my heart. She wants REAL parents who love her and care for her and take care of her. She knows that we do all that, but are not her REAL parents. She said the cutest thing the other day. She said that she knows that her Moma loves her but does not know what is best for her and cannot give her the things she needs to be healthy. She said, she is older and you are younger and wiser. It was the first time I had heard "younger and wiser" in the same sentence. I laughed. She is so cute and SO very observant to things. I have heard a "rumor" that the day Mom's lawyer goes to court to be released from representing her, is the day that the state will start closing the case. Which will make things permanent. So please keep us in your prayers. Fingers Crossed. Love to you all.

The Lawyer

Okay, as if things couldn't get any stranger..........Let me back track. Anne and Jeffrey's (the children in our custody) mother had this lawyer. She was aweful, for us - great for their mother. I personally do not know how people become defense lawyers to begin with. I do understand some are innocent but for the most part you cannot pick and choose and most are guilty. Well, this lawyer comes into court guns ablazing. Going to sue this person and that person to get these kids back. Dragging us through the mud, "The Mullenix's are trying to steal these kids, what kind of person would take strange kids into their house anyway". (Maybe I have blogged about this, I don't remember). But anyway, to make a long story short, this lawyer said everyone else is to blame, mom isn't doing what she needs to do to get her kids back BUT that is really not her fault. Like I said, bad for us GREAT for mom.Well, we get this letter from Memphis Area Lawyers (last time we got one of these it was a letter from mom sent through the lawyer). Well, this letter is THICK. We just look at it. What NOW!!! Hesitantly, we open it. It is another court petition. Hearing date June 18th. Well, now we are confused, we do not go back to court until August. But then we read it. A petition that mom's lawyer to RELEASED from having to represent her. WHAT!!!!! Upon reading it, the petition states that Clara (the mother) refuses to do anything "council advices and renders council usless". So mom has this GREAT lawyer, one that is willing to sue everyone for her client but STILL cannot do what is requested of her. So we make the call to our social worker, what does this mean? What happens now? The social worker calls the lawyer. The lawyer tells her to have mom take a mental evaluation because she thinks she will be deemed mentally unable to care for children. How amazing is this!!! The very lawyer who is threatening to sue, saying we are stealing children, is now HELPING us! If that is not the providence of God then I do not know what is.Then we have a surprise visit from the DCS social worker, gotta love those!! Fortuantly we were all clothed and the house was clean. This social worker, who is not the one we usually deal with basically tells me that she does not know how much longer mom is going to be in the picture. No explaination, just that statement. SO, read into it what you want. We really will not know until we go back to court. So please keep praying. Prayers are working. I recieved the initial paper work, the report of where the children were and how they we reacting we they were taking into protective custody, I cannot put that information on the web BUT let me say it brought tears to my eyes. It was worse than I thought. The social worker asked Anne where she wanted to live today. Anne said with us. With her new mom. My heart goes out to them!!! AND, to make things EVEN better, for those of you who do not know autistic children do not eat well. They select down their foods. So Jason and I have be FIGHTING (literally) Jeffrey to start eating foods (remember mom had him on a bottle). Well he likes cereal, so I had been packing him cereal for lunch and giving him milk money every day. We decided this summer we are going to work on him eating sandwiches so I can pack him a normal lunch next year. Well, we tried one today. I made sure it was chicken (he loves chicken). He looked at it and looked at me and said "a sandwich". I thought, "oh no, let the fight begin." I told him it was chicken and he likes chicken. He said. "okay" and scarfed it down. I sat there with my mouth gapping open. He said he liked it. I told him he is getting another one for lunch tomorrow. He said okay. HURRAY!!! I am so proud of him. He is such a trooper. Being autistic with all these changes and learning new foods. He is doing well. And little Annie is such a doll and wants to be such a good girl wants to call me mom and asks me to call her, her daughter. She is so sweet. They both are. Thanks again for all your prayers!!

Oral Surgery

Okay, hello all, this is Sara.......since Jason has not been updating his blog I thought I would put a couple things on here that will update you with what is going on with our children.......

After three months of mess, we have received our custody papers in the mail. Jeffrey and Anne are in our custody now. We received the papers Wednesday and made Oral Surgery Appointments on Thursday. FINALLY!! I cannot even express what a blessing this is. These poor kids are suffering every day because of their teeth. Their mother literally let their teeth rot. Jeffrey has 8 teeth (and spacers put in) that will be pulled due to the amount of rot, these teeth cannot be saved. Luckily they are baby teeth. He will also have 5 teeth capped. 8 fillings put in and three root canals done. Anne will have two teeth pulled (and spacers put in) and 8 teeth capped. You can physically see how much some foods hurt their teeth. We have been told they will be feeling great the next day and their teeth will feel like normal teeth. We have pre-op appointments on the 3rd and surgery on the 17th. They will go to the hospital and be put under anesthesia. I also found out that their mother knew that Anne has poor vision, she made her an eye appointment but never brought her. So Anne has an eye appointment on the 5th. Looking like she will need glasses. She will look so cute!!!Also Jeffrey has to have all his blood work and EEGs redone since their mother let his autism treatment lapse for 3 years. SO, FINALLY these kids will have everything medically taken care of them. I cannot wait. They deserve the very best and cannot wait until they do not have worry about eyes and teeth and can just be KIDS!!