Monday, April 13, 2009

SO GRATEFUL

What a great Easter we had. We went to my grandparents for lunch as we do every year. They live about an hour away and all our (my side) family goes. We are kind of all spaced out where we live so we get together about every couple of months for lunch at Grandma's & Papa's. It is always nice to get to see and visit with everyone. It always is, but I couldn't believe the love everyone poured out to us yesterday. Not only family and real life friends, but all of you as well. If you have been following our journey you will know that I did not talk about Bentley's heart for the first few months. I guess you could say I was in denial. See, Bentley does not look sick, she does not act sick, but she IS sick, very sick. So because she did not look it or act is.. I guess I wanted to convince myself it was not there. So we did not tell anyone except close family and only a couple friends. And we did not tell them, I had my mom tell people because I could not speak the words. I refused. We did not even tell Bryson and Brenna about Bentley's heart until right before we started this blog. Months went by like this and it was the hardest 5 months of my life. I just wanted it to all go away and not be true. I decided to start this blog to keep family and friends updated on Bentley's heart.. this way I would not have to "speak" it to people. I did not realize how close the blog community is. I didn't know at all.. day by day.. another visitor would stop by and leave very sweet comment letting us know they were thinking about Bentley, praying for Bentley and our family, past experiences that were similar and so on. All I can say is, WOW! I was so lifted up from all of your support. So day by day, I would open up a little more and begin talking about Bentley's heart a little more. The support has been so inspiring.. It has helped me open up a lot more.. thanks to all of YOU, I am okay with talking about Bentley's heart in person now. In fact, I love telling people how amazingly strong my little girl is. She is by far one of the strongest people I have ever seen and I am so blessed to be "mommy" to this miracle child. So if you ever leave a comment or email and don't hear back from me.. just know.. I read every comment, every email, ever letter, every card, everything! And every single one of them helps lift me up. I can honestly say, I would not be where I am right now if it wasn't for YOU, expressing your love and support. I cannot tell you enough how thankful I am for this. Little words but HUGE meaning.. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! Sorry for getting side tracked, I just had to let you all know that you have forever changed my life.. back to lunch at Grandma's.. now that I have opened up about Bentley, my family showed so much love and support today. I just couldn't believe it. We have always been close but I just wanted to cry every time someone asked how she was doing, asked about the surgery.. this time it wasn't a sad cry.. this time it was a happy cry. I felt the love and I am so thankful for that. My aunt Dana, gave me a letter from her church.. I was in AWE, I could not believe that these amazing people took time out of their busy lives to do that for Bentley and our family who live an hour and half away. The letter was perfect and everything more.. several members of the Church even signed the letter letting us know each and everyone of them are praying for Bentley. I just could not control myself when I read the letter, it also included a few verses in hopes to give us a little peace..

"The Lord is near to all who call on Him." Psalm 145:18

"What is impossible with men is possible with God." Luke 18:27

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of Him. 1 John 5:14-15


.. and it did give us more peace. I am so thankful for this letter, I hold it close to my heart. We are going to start a scrapbook or something to keep all these things together so we can look back. Aside from this we shared so many kind words with family today, this was very much needed. Also, everyone there bought Bentley Bracelets. My cousin Billy and his wife Sarah even bought 10 bracelets. This is the most we have sold to one person, thanks guys! And there is my amazing grandparents that did not buy bracelets but made a very helpful donation to Bentley's fund. Thanks to all my lovely family for supporting us and spending time with us this amazing Easter. We went to my in laws for dinner and had a blast there as always.

Thank you so much to all of you buying Bentley's Bracelets. We have been overwhelmed with the response we have had. I am so grateful for all of you. Going through something like this with your child is already emotionally draining, and to see so many of you showing your love and support during our time of need, it's just amazing. Absolutely amazing. I am thinking about something fun.. maybe those of you that buy bracelets to send us your pictures wearing them.. and maybe Mr. Linky will be used.. or maybe a post to share all of your pictures wearing Bentley's Bracelets and linked back to you.. not sure yet. But I do want to do something, something we can look back on and show Bentley just how special she is.

And if you have not bought a Bentley Bracelet yet, you can go here to do so. There are several colors to choose from and they are only 5.00 each, price break for 6 or more. And all the money being raised goes directly to Bentley's open heart surgery. We thank you so much for helping support Bentley! If you are new here you can read more about Bentley's heart by going to the bracelets.

HELP! I have recently changed my blog URL to be a domain name.. if you are familiar with this kind of thing, I need to know if I can point another domain name here? And have them both working? Any help would be very much appreciated!

9 comments:

  1. Hey Crystal. I need to email you back. Check your email and it will give you instructions on how to do domain forwarding. It's easy.

    Andrea

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  2. I was amazed at how many people I had never met were so supportive of us when Benjamin had his surgery last year. It's just overwhelming! :)

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  3. Hey sweetie!!!! I am so glad that you had a wonderful Easter! I pray for your sweet little girl every night!!!!! Love ya!

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  4. Happy Easter. There's so much to be grateful for. God bless Bentley and the rest of your family. My son is 2.5 years out from his ToF repair, and although we can never forget his broken heart it is a blessing it is no longer the number one thing on our mind. God willing, you will be there soon too.
    Our blog: khanfamilyoffive.blogspot.com

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  5. I somehow stumbled upon your blog tonight and my heart was touched. Your family and your precious Bentley will be in my prayers! God is good and through him all things are possible!!!
    Danielle Banks
    Cove City, NC

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  6. Can't wait to get my bracelets chicky!! Also...I will email you soon with a couple questions!! XOXO

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  7. I want 20 thanks!!

    Brittany Mahan

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  8. I have visited here before and don't remember if I've ever commented. I do keep your little Bentley in my prayers......her name caught my attention a couple of months ago b/c my daughter has the same name. My Bentley is four years old, we named all three of our babes using our families last names. We have Logan, Bentley and McQuinn.
    We have LOTS of nicknames for all of our kiddos, but Bentley seems to have the most....Benny, Bent, Bent Bent, Benner. Anyway, love the name!:)
    I'll continue my prayers for your Bentley.

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  9. You will continue to be in my prayers....we have a white eraser board in our house with all the names of people we are praying for and I am going to add Bentley's name!!

    Our friends baby Tatum had heart surgery last Friday (one week ago) and is home doing well now...

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