I will update soon!!

Just to let everyone know that I have not forgotten about my family blog. So much has been going on with the other blog that I have lost the time to catch up with this one. I will post a new blog later this week with updated pictures of the kids and our VBS. Thanks for checking in!!

Family Update

After taking the kids to the McDonald's playland last Tuesday, Macey ended up getting sick on Wednesday night after church. I think that she must have picked up something at the playland because we were not around anyone else who had been sick and we had not been to Wal-Mart.:) Poor little thing was losing it out of both ends and by Friday was very lethargic. We were pumping the Pedialite in her but she would lose it as quick as it went in. We decided to see how she did through the week-end and she seemed to perk up a little by Saturday but then it hit her again on Sunday afternoon. She was still kind of laying around by Monday but was holding down the Pedialite. By Tuesday morning, she was still kind of grumpy but she played all morning long and took her usual 2 hour nap instead of sleeping for hours. She is now back to her "I-want-to-eat-everything" old self and I believe she is finally well. It was a long bug though. Isaiah, didn't feel well on Tuesday and I thought he was getting it, but he was fine again by yesterday. Then, last night at church, I was in the nursery and Caleb came down and said that he thought he was going to be sick so I brought him on home but he is fine today and never did get sick. So, who know - maybe they just wanted a lot of Pedialite like Macey!!:)
Some of the ladies of our church planned a shopping trip to a big thrift store yesterday and begged me to go. I have not been shopping in a long while because it is completely pointless. I LOVE the thrift store that they were going to, and this thrift store has 50% off of everything the last Wednesday of the month, and Briley needed some spring shirts, and I wanted to go have fun with everyone, and this thrift store stores lots of new furniture so there were plenty of couches to go sit on, so I decided to go. I took a book with me and was glad that I went. I probably only shopped about 30 minutes total and we were there for about 3 hours. So, I read and visited with the others as they would come by and take turns sitting for a few minutes and chatting. We all found good deals and were excited showing off our "treasures" to one another. It was a good day and thankfully, because I rested most of the day, I am alive today!!:) Because I am alive, I was able to take the kids to the library this morning which they love so much. It only takes about an hour out of our day but they look forward to it every week! I wasn't able to go last week so I am glad they got to go today. They always make the cutest crafts and I tell myself to remember them for VBS, but I always forget to write them down!
Jamin and Joy are coming over in a little while and we are all going to have an Andy Griffith marathon this evening. Joy and I are ready for the junk food!!

Briley's first piano lesson!


Jackson and Macey finding themselves a snack.


Macey getting the schoolwork out.


Macey's reaction to me telling her to put it up.


My little sleeping beauty!

A New Blog About My Journey With MS

This is just a quick post to let you know that I have started another blog that will just deal with what I have been learning from my Lord through this journey with Multiple Sclerosis. I so appreciate everyone's prayers and encouragements and I like to be able to update you when you are asking how things are going. This blog has been a wonderful way to write it once and say it to everyone asking. I hope that doesn't seem too impersonal but it has been an encouragement to me just to be able to put my thoughts on "paper". However, I wanted my Reagan Family blog to kind of just focus on family events and activities. It seems like MS can invade enough of family life that I did not want it to take over here on my blog. So, that is one reason that I wanted to start a blog that will just deal with MS. The other reason, is that I am praying that the Lord can use it in some way to be a testimony to so many who are in despair in their lives. Not because I am any kind of role model - because I most certainly am not! But because of my Saviour Who has become so much more precious to me this year than ever and I know He has the answers for despair. He has taught me so much and I just wanted to be able to share it.
Having said all that, the address is www.comfortsfromgod.blogspot.com
I love you all and thank God for you in my life!

A Trial By Fire

This week has been physically tough for me. Yesterday was the best I had felt in many days so the kids and I took a drive to Maysville with Jimmy. We ate supper at McDonald's and sat there for about an hour letting the kids play. Then we made a trip to Lowe's. I had not been there in ages and I was craving it!:) I only lasted about 20 minutes but it was fun while it lasted. Jimmy went into Wal-Mart and bought the kids some Valentine's candy that was on clearance. The kids said "We thought we were just taking a drive with Daddy but we have been spoiled!!" I thought that was so cute. Didn't take much to make them happy - a playland, dollar hamburgers, and cheap valentine candy. There was a little girl in the playland who was an absolute brat. For some reason, she had it out for Isaiah (who of course can handle his own). When we left, the kids said "We sure are glad that you don't let us be like her!" I said, "You mean you are glad that you get spankin's and we make you mind?" And they all screamed in one voice "YES!!" I just looked at Jimmy and laughed.:)

Today the kids are all about finished with their schoolwork. Chores are finished, their rooms are cleaned (well, the boys you know how their version of clean is), the floors have been swept and vacuumed, Jimmy (bless his heart) has got all of the laundry caught up and I only have one more basket of clothes up here to fold for him. So, we actually have a little head start on this week - yeah!

Jimmy always preaches wonderful sermons and the Lord always uses them to speak to my heart, but this Sunday was especially helpful to me. Maybe because I was barely able to drag myself to church that I so desperately wanted something while I was there to make it worth all the effort. There is a lesson in that isn't there? Anyway, he preached Sunday morning about the "Wrath To Come" and it really was a sermon on hell. But, the last point he made applications to Christians and the fire in our lives and how our works will be judged by fire and that the fire in our lives can be a positive thing. Wow, that really got ahold of my heart. Then Sunday night, he preached on the Shunamite woman, and when her son died and she went and got Elisha. He preached on her day of service when she prepared the chamber for the prophet, her day of blessing when Elisha promised her a son and she had her baby, and then her day of disaster when her son died. He preached how that it was her day of service that led to her day of blessing and it was these two things that sustained her in her day of disaster. This was such a challenge to me because I think that the Shunamite woman is one of the greatest woman of faith in the Bible. How could you lay your child, who had just died in your arms, on the bed, calmly go get the prophet and say that "All is well" if you did not have great faith in the God she served. I want to be like her and I was so challenged to stay faithful because it is that faithfulness that will sustain us in our days of disaster. I wrote this poem after Sunday's sermons.

A Trial By Fire

I must go through a trial by fire?
At the thought I cower in fear.
I know I cannot take this heat,
Please get me out of here!

The flames are getting closer,
I feel I will be consumed.
I hide my eyes in terror,
I waited for my doom.

But then I noticed something,
The fire had not o'erwhelmed me.
The chill of fear in my heart,
Was thawing out intensely.

The dross that I had gathered,
Scattered and cluttered lay.
My life with its tarnished vision,
The fire had melted it away.

As the fire continued burning,
New growth was coming at last.
Where ice and dross had once dwelt,
Life did now compass.

So what is this trial by fire?
To me, what does it mean?
That when in Heav'n my works will be judged,
I'll be prepared for my King!
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1Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

An Answer

I got a phone call this morning from the MS Center from the nurse and she told me that the MRI's did not show any damage yet on my spine or brain. Since they are the MS Center, there job is to try to diagnose you, get you on medication, have you come back every 6 months or so and do more MRI's to even see if the medication is working or if they should try you on something else, tell you how they think you are doing and repeat the same procedure for the rest of your life. She said that they feel that I have MS because every thing fits and all of the criteria have been met except for finding the scars, but since they can't diagnose me 100%, then at this point, there job is done until something else happens. I obviously have mixed emotions about this. On one hand, I am thankful there is nothing "permanent" happening in my brain or spine yet. I feel that buys me extra time somehow. On the other hand, it is so frustrating not to be able to say something 100%. The truth is, if they had called and been able to diagnose me 100%, then nothing would be different then it is right now. You can't take any medications while you are pregnant or nursing (which I am and will be doing) and after researching the different kinds of medications and all the risks involved of damage that it can do to the rest of your body, I had decided that I was not going to go that route. At least not at this point in my life. So, nothing would be different then now, except maybe a definite answer. But that is not meant to be. The Lord must know I need this in my life to enable me to be a better Christian. I pray that I don't fail Him.
I thought I would be terribly upset if they told me that they could not give me a definite answer but once again the Lord has proved Himself a "very present help in time of need". I am reminded of a song Joy sings called "Under His Wings". How that we can run under His wings. I am so thankful for this in my life. I am just going to live day by day enjoying the most out of it that I can and I will let the Lord take care of MS in my life whenever and however He wants to. I know that He can heal me of this if He chooses and and I know that if He chooses not to, then He will (and already has many times) give me the grace to live each day just like He did the Apostle Paul.
I so appreciate all of your notes, prayers, calls and concerns. Please keep them up as each day has different challenges. Mostly pray that I will allow the Lord to use this in my life so that I can be a testimony of His calming presence in times of trial and suffering so that others will be able to see Him through me.

My Neurologist Appointment Yesterday

I posted this on Facebook to update those of you who are asking. I will put it here for those of you who are not on Facebook!:)
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I saw the neurologist yesterday because of some new symptoms that had been happening. They wanted to do a complete neurological examination. I was there for about an hour and a half and was only alone for about 5 minutes. I definitely received a lot of attention! I was offically pronounced as "abnormal" - are any of you suprised?:) I flunked the "sobriety" test (you know walk with one foot in front of the other heel to toe). So, now I am hoping that I don't ever get pulled over for swaying. I am quite sure I would be arrested on a DUI. Hopefully, I don't drive like I walk.:)
Seriously, they told me they are quite confident that I have MS. That I have classic symptoms and have met all the criteria except for one. They have to find some area of permanent damage on the central nervous system (brain, spine and optic nerves to the eyes). Until they find that, they said that they can be confident and I can be confident but that they can not medically tell me 100%. To do this, I have to have 3 more MRI's done tomorrow. I asked what would happen if it all comes back without those signs of damage. They said, "Then we are frustrated, and you are frustrated and we just have to wait until it damages enough to show on the MRI's". I said "That is very comforting" and they gave me that "I am so sorry" look.
Yesterday was a new milestone for me emotionally. The MS Center was extremely busy yesterday and EVERYONE that was in there was either in a wheelchair, on a walker or on a cane. I was never so tempted in all of my life to bolt out of a place. I felt like I was looking into a crystal ball and seeing the future. I thought " I DO NOT belong here!!!" It kind of put me in a foul mood for the evening. My poor hubby. Thanks to friends and family encouraging me, I am back in full swing today. My perspective is different today. It is amazing what a good night's sleep and the book of Philippians will do for you. I am thankful that I am still able to feel that I did not belong to those poor people. I am sure they were looking at me and wishing for the day when they felt like I do. So, I am thankful for the health that I have and want to make the most of it each day.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The kids have enjoyed all of this snow we have had. We are supposed to have temperatures in the 50's all of this week so I am going to get spring fever!:)The kids just came in from playing outside and washing their daily dishes. It is so cute. Isaiah is putting dishes up out of the drainer, and Caleb is washing half and then Briley washes half. Audrey is putting up groceries under the cabinets and Macey is playing on Briley's bed. They also got their rooms cleaned which was very needed and I got Jimmy's hair cut (as he says, what's left of his hair). The evening sun is streaming in through our windows filling the house with sunlight. It is a very cheery atmosphere. We are all excited about popcorn and movie night getting started as soon as their work is done.
I guess this catches our family up for awhile!

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