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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

What's new and not so new...

I've been a pretty optimistic person for the majority of my life. I have been able to find "good" in some very "bad" circumstances. Because I know God's promise to his children, that He will never give us more than we can handle, it's hard not to be optimistic in difficult situations if I'm exercising my faith. But there times when I am challenged to remain faithful and believe that God will make everything right.

I have told several of you about Michael getting laid off early next month. Because of this, we will only have health insurance until the end of December. Without health insurance, it will be very difficult for me to be able to get the medications I desperately need in order to stay sane. I know I joke a lot about my health issues, but the truth of the matter is that these issues are very serious and it is critical that I continue to take medication in order to stay healthy in so many ways. I'm very scared that when Michael loses his job and we lose health insurance that my treatment plan will be severely impacted and I will end up back at the very beginning of my 12 year battle with my health issues.

Over the past 12 years, I've had many ups and downs during my treatment. My doctor continues to try different medications and "cocktails" to at least stabilize the current status of my issues. Some medications have worked great, but only for a short period of time. After I've exhausted all the dosage increases medically allowed, it's time to try a something new. Several "new" medications have sent me to the ER with a seizure, a neck muscle spasm so strong that my head was literally stuck twisted entirely to the right side of my body, and one where I experienced hallucinations and heard voices. My estimate is that over the past 12 years I have tried over 50 different medications to treat my disorders. I have made great improvement in some areas, but continue to struggle with anxiety, mood swings, attention deficit, hypothyroidism, depression and anemia. So, needless to say, I am very concerned that I will not be able to get the medical treatment I need without health insurance.

So, I'm calling all Prayer Warriors to please pray for me and my family. The financial struggles that we are currently enduring are tough enough to deal with, but without getting the medical attention I need, I don't know what may happen. I have faith in God and I keep reminding myself of His promise, but it's been difficult for me to cling to my faith, because of my fears. I need to stand strong in my faith and remain in complete communion with Him. I have turned these burdens over to God, because I know I can only do so much before I just have to let go of it and allow God to take control. We have done what we can on our end and will continue to do whatever we can to get through this turbulent time. We know we are in God's hands. Please pray that we are able to find some kind of peace while we are jumping the next hurdles on our Christian pathway.

On a much more positive note, Isaiah passed his karate test on Friday evening (October 19, 2012) and is a "2nd Red Gup." Since I don't really understand the whole "Gup" rating scale, I view his rank as a "2nd degree Red belt." Much easier, don't you think? LOL... Basically what this means is that he has two more tests in order to receive the highest rank red belt and then an additional test that he has to pass in order to be a candidate for black belt testing. Once he passes the third test, he will be classified as a "Cho Dong Bao." During this six month period, he will be training for his black belt test four to five evenings a week. The actual black belt testing is only offered twice a year; in September and March. If all goes as planned, and Isaiah is able to test every three months which is what is normally offered for colored belt testing, he will be eligible to take his black belt test in September of 2013! Very exciting for all of us who have watched him train for the past 2+ years in Tang Soo Do martial arts. Obtaining your black belt is the first goal of Tang Soo Do martial arts. After one receives their black belt, their next goal is to achieve black belt excellence. After Isaiah is a black belt, he plans to continue training and increase his rank as a black belt by training to obtain the next "degree" of black belt. I have not educated myself very much regarding what training actually occurs after obtaining black belt. I know after you reach a certain degree of black belt you can become a "Master" and even a "Grand Master," but these ranks take years of training to reach. Assuming Isaiah continues to maintain the drive he has to continue training in martial arts, obtaining these ranks will be achieved. He absolutely loves karate and in particular, loves to spar. He goes to class three evenings a week currently and is in the black belt club which allows him to train in weapons. We try to take him to at least three tournaments a year, but they are always very expensive and very far away, so with our current financial situation I don't know if he will be able to go to any other tournament besides the one held at his school. This tournament usually consists of students from approximately three schools competing while other tournaments usually have 15-20 schools competing. We will have to see what the future holds. I am very proud of Isaiah's dedication and determination to remain disciplined with his training. He would train every day if he could, meaning he would go to karate class every day. He does train at home every day by practicing his kicks and punches on the karate bag thingy we bought him for Christmas last year. He does push ups, jumping jacks, and crunches daily and seems to be fairly concerned with his physical health. I'm beginning to wonder if they gave me the wrong baby when he was born, LOL.. Physical health and body conditioning does not come from my side of the family, that's for sure... :)

As for Nickolas... oh Nickolas, Nickolas, Nickolas, LOL... I can say that he is doing much better in 8th grade than he did in his two years in 7th grade so far. I didn't get any bad progress reports for him which is a first for him since starting middle school in 6th grade. So, he deserves mega kudos for actually caring about his grades which again is a first for Nick. LOL... As any other 14 year old boy, I think Nick can be officially classified as being "girl crazy." After he comes home from school, he jumps right on his homework and flies through it, so he can spend the rest of the night in his room on his Ipod or cell phone. He uses his Ipod for the internet, so he has been spending a lot of time on "Face Time," I think it's called. I am not too happy about him being on there, but all of his friends are on there and that's how they communicate for the most part. Nick will talk to his "girlfriend" on the phone or through texts and then chat on Face Time with his buddies. Apparently, this week's "girlfriend" doesn't have an Ipod. I'm not too familiar with the whole Ipod thing, because I do not have one and quite honestly hate technology. I can't keep up with all the new electronic computer stuff out there and nor do I care to do so. My brain isn't capable of learning new things that I really don't care to know. I only have enough brain space to learn about things I actually care about, however, I suppose I should be a bit more educated with the Ipod since Nick spends so much time using it. Then again, Michael keeps himself very up to date with all that kind of stuff, so I think I'll pass the buck to him and allow him to oversee the whole internet, Ipod, cell phone stuff and all the drama that comes with it.

Something happens once boys reach teenage years. I've now witnessed it with my own child, so I know the warnings I've received from other mothers about boys turning 13 are true. The seem to grow vertically very fast! The go to bed one night 4'11 and wake up 5'6. I swear! LOL... Then the next night they go to bed with squeaky child voices that have been cracking for the past few weeks and wake up with the voice of man, much deeper than you ever imagined it could be. Of course I am exaggerating about everything happening over night, but ask any mother and she will agree that their children grew so fast that it all seemed to happen in what feels like "over night." Nick is now 14 and still acts like a child about a lot of things. However, I've noticed that he is getting much easier to talk with about life situations and he actually understands what I'm saying. He even initiates conversations with me about intellectual topics which almost scares me, LOL... He has finally started to express interest in what he thinks he might want to be "when he grows up." It's been really cool discussing different opportunities and options that will be available to him once he graduates high school. He has started to come to me for advice with "the girls." I'm very happy that he feels comfortable enough to come to me for advice in this area and he has even asked some very uncomfortable questions that I've had to answer to the best of my ability without wanting to resort to the way my mother explained everything to me. Nothing was sugar coated and no words were filtered. The answers I received from her about "becoming a woman" were so blunt and forth right, I still shake my head and wonder in amazement as to what in the world she was thinking by giving such responses. One thing is for sure, if I asked a question, I got a very direct answer all the time. Nothing was left to my imagination, although looking back, I wish some things were left to my imagination. LOL... I've tried very hard to answer his questions as direct as I can without having to just blurt out the uncensored answer. Nickolas can be hard headed and not capable of "reading between the lines" so I've had to answer some things more bluntly than I wanted to do, but so far I think I've done okay. I do however, after every conversation we have where I am answering "growing up" issues, demand he not tell Isaiah! I want Isaiah to be able to come to me with his own questions and not get the unfiltered answers from his hormone raging older brother, LOL. I just pray Isaiah is just as comfortable talking to me about his questions as Nick is. I want that relationship with my boys so that I know what's going on in their lives, not because I want to be overly nosey or demand they do what I say (mainly because you have to learn to fail in life) but so I know if they are emotionally hurting, offer advice, suggest options, etc. Now, if I learn they are doing something completely against what I've taught, I will have to stand my ground and be the "mean Mom." For the most part though, I feel Michael and I have done a decent job demonstrating and teaching our boys the way God wants them to live, the way we want them to live and the way they should want to live their lives. However, I am well aware that they will make their mistakes and disappoint me at some point. I know for sure I made my mistakes and continue to do so and have disappointed my parents several times. As long as they learn from their mistakes and do not make life altering detrimental mistakes (like getting a girl pregnant before marriage), I'll be happy!

Well, that's what's been going on here in the "Mayne household." Please keep us in your prayers and I'll try to keep my followers updated as new opportunities and options present themselves.
~In His Loving Name~
**Sherri**