The Currant Bush of my Life

In Sunday school, we were taught about a talk given by Elder Hugh Brown. It was a story of a gardener and a currant bush. Here is the video from mormon messages.

This talk hit me hard! All the complaining, misshapen, trials, disappointments, tears, frustrations, that currant bush story has been my life for the last year!!! I have often said, "how could you do this me?' Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong, but Heavnly Father is the gardener. He knows what he wants my life to be. It is better then what I want my life to be. All the trials given to us are for a reason. One day I will find out all the reasons behind to all the crazy life stress from this last year.

I have been so focused on how I hate Utah. I have felt like suffocating from everything that has happened here in Utah. I have had choice words with my Heavenly Father. He knows my feelings, fears, and frustration with this place.  He is the one who is going to push me to become better. I have these trials to improve, become better, and make me more like Christ. I am grateful for the trials even though they are hard. I will thank God every day for them. Here is another video that hit me as I pondered on my trials and what I have learned from them. I know I have become stronger. I have more patience, more fight, and more determination to do the will of God.

Ryker is finally experiencing firsts!!!

Well this week has been an eventful one of first for Ryker. We went camping with the Allen fam and four wheeling. Surprisingly, it went really well. I couldn't believe it. I was preparing for the worse, but it turned out to be fun. Ryker even took good naps while we were in the hot sun. Pretty amazing! Parker and I also took a little trip to Park City. It was Ryker's first over night sleepover with out mommy and daddy. It was a little more nerve racking for me then for him. He did great! Lastly, we enjoyed a REAL Salt Lake soccer game last night. Ryker absolutely loved it! All the lights and the drums banging. It was pretty funny. He was looking around everywhere trying to figure stuff out. Once again my little man proved me wrong. I was afraid it would have been too noisy for him, but I guess he is just getting use to the soccer excitement noise so he can be on the team when he grows up. Ha jk.

I love this season! Fall is becoming so cool and full of colors. I sure love Utah Falls with all the trees and the colors in the mountains. We were driving through Spanish Fork Canyon to get to our camp site and all I could think about was all those camping trips with grandma and grandpa Julian. We had so many places we went camping and so many spots to go deer hunting. I was missing them as we were driving through those precious mountains. I sure do miss them. I wish they could have met my little miracle man. I know Grandpa would have gave him some snuggles and his amazing grandpa advice. Well I guess I will just have to wait for the remarkable reunion in heaven. That will be something to look forward to.

So the past couple of weeks Ryker has been excelling in all his therapy goals. He is eating solid foods two to three times a day. He is actually getting his Gtube out pretty soon. We have a swallow study coming up soon to give a the Okay to take the tube out. I am pretty confident it will happen. He is working on rolling still. He just isn't motivated enough to get over onto his tummy. We are also working on sitting. He almost has it. It's pretty frustrating for him because he has his tortacolis and we found out that he is starting to develop scoliosis.  So he isn't a very happy baby during physical therapy. Which is frustrating for me. We are also working on standing up. Ryker is struggling with putting weight in his legs. He is pretty stubborn like me. He cries and cries during therapy. Which sucks because I feel like I am torturing him all the time. Frustrating!

The other day at therapy I saw a boy who was hooked up to a vent and was trached. I was thinking how lucky we are to not have that going on with Ryker. Parents of kids like that are so amazing to me. I can barely handle all the crazy business that goes on with my son. They are going to be more blessed in Heaven. I just have a small struggle with my boy, but it could be so much worse. Those parents are the blessed ones. In their eyes, my son is normal. It really opened my eyes to how much more of a blessing Ryker is in our lives. Well here is a little treat for you all. Ryker is practicing his Zombie growling for Halloween!!!

Ryker's First Real Salt lake Game! He really liked the Lights.