"Nothing you do for children is ever wasted!"
Garrison Keillor
I got an e-mail today, from my precious friend, Barb, and it is so good, I just HAVE to share it with you!
Here is something absolutely positive for a change. Having repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, it was nice to see for the first time, the rewards listed in this way. It's nice.... !
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth
to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about
price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.
But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice is: don't have children
if you want to be 'rich'.
Actually, it is just the opposite.
What do you get for your $160,140.00?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how
your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up.
You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars..
You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets
and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in
clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.
For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to
be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice
cream regardless.
You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.
You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree,
and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called
grandchildren and great- grandchildren.
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice,
communications, and human sexuality that no college can match..
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the
power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a
broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them
without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the
cost.
That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!
Love & enjoy your children, grandchildren, & great-grandchildren!!!!!!!It's the best investment you'll ever make!!!!!!!!!
Today is a very special day in our family. We are celebrating the birthday of our beautiful daughter, Bean. At 2:05 this afternoon, she will turn 23 years old. OMGosh!!! Is this possible? WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!?!?
Monday morning, Kiddo and I were up at 5:30, getting showered and ready to go to his cardiac appointment at UVA at 9:10. We live a good distance away, so we had to be ready to go be 7:00 am.
After we arrived at the office, they started doing tests immediately. The first one was an EKG, which they did right there in our room. This was his second one. The first was done in our doctor's office a few weeks ago.
Then it was off down the hall for an echocardiogram. Kiddo loved this part, because he got to walk down the hall without his shirt on! lol
The doctor told us that he didn't see anything on either test, and that everything looked great. However, he did want him to wear a holter monitor so he could see what his heart was doing while he was sleeping, but he said he didn't expect to find anything different on that either.
Please pray with me this morning for my son, Kiddo. We have a doctor's appointment at 9:30 with our family physician. In his normal check-up last week at the Brain Injury Clinic, they discovered that at each visit, his heart rate has slowly gotten lower. It has gone from in the 70's to 38. As of yet, they don't know why this is. It could just be that this is how he is just going to be, but to make sure, we are going to see our doctor this morning.
I am heading out in the morning for my Mother's Day gift; a mother-daughter overnight road trip with my baby, Goose to Colonial Williamsburg. Lots of shopping, one of the gardens (I'm hoping), and then dinner at a REALLY NICE restaurant, where the waiters wear TUXEDOS! (I know they won't l@@k half as good in theirs as My Skippy Man does in his!) :> ) 
I LOVE YOU, KIDDO!
My heart goes out to the families of the 12 that have lost loved their lives, and to the 31 who have been injured in this horrible tragedy. Please pray with with me for the families involved as well as those still on base.
May God bless these precious children of mine
