“How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are toomany flowers.” ― Mother Teresa

When Matt and I got married we wanted 6 children.  We were young and full of hope and vigor.  After being married 3 years our first son was born.  Matt was 24, I turned 23 the day after Mattie was born and our whole lives were ahead of us.  Mattie was a wonderful, easy baby.
Less than 2 years after Mattie was born along came Dean AND Donovan.  Identical twin boys born when Mattie was 22 months old gave us 3 boys in less than two years.  Life was hectic to say the least.

I'm not gonna lie.  We had fun.  I loved being the mom of boys.  They earned the nickname
'The Boybarians'. The idea of six kids seemed less than ideal while they were little.  It was fun but hard.

Fast forward to the boys getting a little older and we think maybe we could handle one more.  God's plan for our family was to add a daughter born in China.
 
Serenity was 11 months old when she came to our family.  Matt was 38, I was 37, Mattie was 14, Dean and Donovan were 12, and we thought our family was complete.  3 Boybarians and our Girlzilla.  Maybe our plan is to be a family of 6 instead of having 6 kids.

Life goes on as life does.  There were first dates, first days of school, and drivers licenses, proms, birthday parties and graduations and then this happened.


Dean got married!  We were happy, we were thrilled.  His wife, Nikki, is a great gal and we feel so blessed to have her in our family.  But where did the time go?  When did we stop being a young family?  We weren't ready to start the empty nest.

So last summer we added Belle to our family.  She was 19 months old when we brought her home.  By now dad is 47, mom is 46, Mattie is 23, Dean and Donovan are 21 and Serenity is 10.  Our claim to fame is having one child in each of the last 4 decades(89,91,91,03,11).

We discovered something about ourselves, we like being parents alot.  More than we thought we did. We liked raising our boys.  Our best times involved our family.  

28 years ago our family plan was to have 6 kids.  Time to finish that plan.  

This fall we will add Betty June to our family.  3 Boys, 3 Girls.  3 bio, 3 from China.  3 adult, 3 still children.  All miracles, all blessings, all ours.

Serenity the Tree

My older daughter,Serenity, was in her first theatrical production Wednesday night. It was awesome!  She had three parts. 

Biglam the Troll

A Tree

Excuse me, a Talking Tree

And the Town Crier

It was her first year and she really enjoyed it. Can't wait to watch her on the stage again. 

It was a rare occasion to have the whole family together. So we took the opportunity to extend the evening with dinner.  

Dailey Men

As my mom would say the Whole Fam Damily

Good looking bunch. 

I am so blessed!

Thalassemia....ain't no big thang

From the CDC:

Thalassemia is an inherited (i.e., passed from parents to children through genes) blood disorder caused when the body doesn’t make enough of a protein called hemoglobin, an important part of red blood cells.  When there isn’t enough hemoglobin, the body's red blood cells don’t function properly and they last shorter periods of time, so there are fewer healthy red blood cells traveling in the bloodstream. 

Red blood cells carry oxygen to all the cells of the body.  Oxygen is a sort of food that cells use to function.  When there are not enough healthy red blood cells, there is also not enough oxygen delivered to all the other cells of the body, which may cause a person to feel tired, weak or short of breath.  This is a condition called anemia. People with thalassemia may have mild or severe anemia.  Severe anemia can damage organs and lead to death.

 Sounds like scary stuff,  doesn't it?And potentially it can be very scary. But here in the US it is so very treatable. 

Belle has the most severe type of thalassemia, beta thalassemia major. As a result she goes every 3 weeks to Children's Hospital for a blood transfusion. Because of so many transfusions there is an unavoidable build up of iron in her body. That sounds weird doesn't it?  Someone with chronic anemia has too much iron in their body.  No matter how odd that sounds it is true. So Belle takes a daily medication to get rid of the excess iron. It is called Exjade. 

Every morning we crush up the plain white tablet and mix it with juice. Some days she drinks it down better than others. Her dad does a great job as cheerleader to get her to drink it. She is turning in to a daddy's girl. 

Belle's prognosis, if we follow her treatment plan, is very good. She can have a normal lifespan, grow up, marry and have biological children.  There is very little she can't do.  

So if you donate blood, thanks a whole lot. If you donate to children's, thanks. Because of you Belle and kids like her can live a normal life span.  

We were scared at first. But we've been scared before. I still remember the look on Matt's face when he found out about the twins!  But it turned out to be something that,with the help of the thalassemia community's knowledge and support of friends near and far, we can do. 

And any bother or inconvenience gets forgotten pretty quickly when I look at this face

changing my name

I decided that our blog name was boring, so I changed it.
Going from Dailey Updates to Sing a Song of SixKids.  A little twist on:

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye,

Four and twenty blackbirds

Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened

The birds began to sing—

Wasn't that a dainty dish

To set before the king?

The king was in the counting-house

Counting out his money,

The queen was in the parlor

Eating bread and honey,

The maid was in the garden

Hanging out the clothes.

Along came a blackbird

And snipped off her nose.

And a clever play on the fact that by the end of the year we will have Six Kids!

Sweet Serenity

Serenity saw Santa last night. When she was telling him what she wanted this is what she said:

 She doesn't care if she gets an iPad or anything else for Christmas. She wants her family all together and happy. 

We are going to try to  give her what she wants. 

Psalm 34:18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

I've been spending a lot if time driving back and forth to Children's Hospital. Belle has had some issues with her port as well as her regular transfusion. 

She has an amazing strength. Daddy told her last night what a trooper she is. 

("Let's go back to Florida")

She really is. And Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has been such a blessing to us. 

But not just to us they take care if so many others with bigger health problems than Belle. It is a real eye opener. 

There is so much suffering just beyond our own little circles. 

During this blessed season I encourage each if you to reach beyond your circle to be a blessing to someone else either in word or deed. 

And hug your loved ones a little tighter. 

I know I will. 

Disney Daze in pictures