The Tooth Hero!

Saturday night was a very exciting night at the Messick house. I was taking Victoria to the restroom before putting her to bed and Elyssa and Natalie were in their room playing. Moments later, I heard Elyssa screaming ... "Momma ... Momma!" She came running in the bathroom and blood was streaming from her mouth. I quickly got Victoria dressed and then had Elyssa lean her face over the sink so the blood could flow into the sink. I turned the faucet on and was trying to gently splash water on her mouth. I asked Elyssa what happened. She said that Natalie had kicked her in the mouth and that her tooth fell out. Her tooth had been very loose for some time now. Her tooth was barely hanging onto the gum and I told her to go ahead and grab the tooth and pull it out. It came out very easily and Elyssa placed the bloody tooth on the countertop in the bathroom. I was yelling for Mark to come to the bathroom so he could see what was going on, but he didn't come initially. He was on his phone and then was helping Natalie get some paper towels for Elyssa's mouth. I imagine, too, that he wasn't too eager to see all of the bloody goo coming from Elyssa's mouth anyway.

After Natalie brought me some paper towels, I grabbed them and told Elyssa to hold it over her gum where it was bleeding. Elyssa was pretty freaked out at seeing so much blood. She's never seen anything quite like that before. Mark eventually entered the bathroom and asked to see the tooth. We looked on the countertop and it was nowhere to be found! I knew it was there at one point because I saw Elyssa place it there. I had no idea what had happened to it. So, now that Elyssa wasn't bleeding all over the place, our attention focused on trying to find the lost tooth. I was so upset that this was Elyssa's first tooth to lose and now it was lost.

We asked Natalie if she had seen it and come to find out, Natalie picked up the tooth and placed it in the paper towels that I had grabbed to put on Elyssa's mouth. Natalie started crying when she realized that she may have lost the tooth. So, here was Natalie crying ... us searching the bathroom like crazy ... Elyssa looking in her bloody paper towel for the tooth ... Elyssa was crying because she thought she wouldn't get anything from the Tooth Fairy without her having her tooth! It was a frantic atmosphere. But, we couldn't find the tooth anywhere!

I told Mark that maybe we just needed to get over the fact that we will not be able to have a tooth to put in Elyssa's Tooth Fairy pillow. I know it sounds silly, but Mark and I were so sad that Elyssa's first ever tooth to fall out was lost forever!

I had Elyssa write the Tooth Fairy a letter. She told the Tooth Fairy that she had lost her first tooth, but she was still asking for money!

I decided to try and get the girls all in the bed and give up the search. Natalie eventually fell asleep and I had Elyssa in the bed. She had not yet fallen asleep. I was in Victoria's room patting her on the back ... trying to get her to sleep, when I heard a noise in the bathroom. It sounded like Mark was sawing the drain pipes in the bathroom off to find the tooth. I went into the bathroom, followed by Elyssa and Victoria and there was Mark with our Dyson vacuum cleaner. He had made some sort of tube contraption on the end of the vacuum cleaner and had sucked Elyssa's tooth out of the drain! He was standing there as proud as could be holding her tooth. I felt like I was looking at a hero! I couldn't believe he was able to recover the tooth. I just knew it was gone forever!

We were so excited that Elyssa was going to be able to put her tooth in her special tooth pillow that night after all! Mark is our "Tooth Hero!"

Here is a copy of Elyssa's new letter to the Tooth Fairy, after we found the tooth!

Just A Swingin'!

This video of Victoria was taken recently at my parent's house. She loves playing on the swing set they have in their yard! This is just proof, once again, that special needs children can do just as much as a "normal" child in many cases.

Always place value on each little life! Even the life that isn't labeled as "normal" can be the biggest blessing to you!

Thankful Hearts

Happy Thanksgiving to all! The Messick family had a wonderful holiday week last week and I wanted to share a few of the photos we took.

I am so thankful for my husband and girls! They are such a blessing to my life. God has been so good to our family and we praise Him for always being so faithful to us.

I pray you all had a great holiday and took a few moments out of your schedule to thank the Lord for all of His blessings!

School Is Here!

I can't believe summer has already ended and school is back in full swing! Here are some updates on how the kiddos are doing!

My oldest, Elyssa, is in 1st grade and we are finding that homework for Elyssa has definitely increased from last year. I think Elyssa is better at times at getting her homework done, but then on other occasions she has little breakdowns. She'll cry and say, "I don't want to do any more work!" She asks me why she is the only one having to do homework. She wants to know why Natalie doesn't have homework. I'll remind her that when she was 4-years-old that she didn't have homework either. It is amazing how a 2-minute reading assignment can drag out into a 30-minute ordeal! Ah, the drama that comes with this girl!

My middle daughter, Natalie, is in 4K and loving it. Natalie comes home, makes pallets all over her bedroom floor and puts babies on all of them. She will turn out the lights and turn on lullaby music. She will tell all of her babies to go to sleep and she even takes names of the babies that talk out of turn! Attention, Mrs. March! Natalie must mimic everything you do when she gets home! Ha! We have already seen in Natalie a natural-born teacher!

Our special little girl, Victoria, is in an inclusive Pre-K class in the public elementary school. Victoria is the only child in the class with Downs so far. The other children either have autism or learning disabilities. There may be a child or two in the classroom that are considered "typical" children. Victoria has already stolen the hearts of her teachers, principal, cafeteria workers ... pretty much everyone at the school! Victoria is still so tiny, so it is funny to see her walking down the school hallway to her class with a backpack on her back. She has quickly gotten into the routine of her class. She unpacks her backpack when she enters the classroom and quickly goes to her seat. She sees an Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist at school and is progressing, but at a slower rate.

Mark and I have had the privilege of going into Victoria's classroom on Fridays and leading the kids in a fun music time. We have really enjoyed being able to be a small part of what goes on in the classroom and hope to leave the kids with some fun memories from this year.

To conclude this update, we want to give a big "thank you" to all of the wonderful teachers helping our kids along in their learning journey! You are all a blessing to us!!

"Momma!"

When Victoria was born with Down syndrome, I was told that many things about her (speech, mental and physical abilities) would be delayed. For a new mother of a special needs child, this was devastating. I wondered how I would cope with seeing Victoria pass the "normal" milestones that typical children master so easily without a hint of her being close to performing those same activities anytime soon.

One thing that continually grieved me was that Victoria had not ever been able to say my name. She had turned 3-years-old in March and had never uttered "Momma." I know Mark felt such joy and pride that Victoria had been able to say "Da Da" shortly after she turned 2-years-old and I was proud for him. But, boy! I longed to hear my little girl call to me when she needed me to meet her needs. I began to wonder how long it would take her to finally say my name. As time passed, I wondered ... "Will she ever be able to say Momma?" I held out hope that her tiny mouth would be able to eventually process the sounds.

I am happy to report that soon after Victoria's 3rd birthday I began hearing what I thought to be her saying "Baah Baah." I wasn't sure if she was really attempting to call to me with that verbalization or not. But, with time I could see that she grew in confidence as she spoke directly to me using those "words." I told Mark, "I think that is her way of saying 'Momma!'"

As every day passes, I know for a fact that Victoria is saying my name. Like when she climbs up on top of the tall stainless garbage can in the pantry and forcefully yells, "Baah Baah" over and over until I come grab whatever snack she is reaching for. Or, when I get out of the car to pump gas into the gas tank and I see her waving heartily at me through the window, yelling, "Baah Baah" to get my attention.

What a joy it is to see Victoria realizing that speech is a powerful way to communicate things she needs or wants! I wondered if I would ever see this day come! I was praying and holding out hope that it would. The God who formed precious Victoria has given her a voice and He is helping her slowly put sounds into a few words that we can now understand. What an awesome process it is to witness!

God has been very gracious to me. He has helped me through every phase of Victoria's life so far, accepting that she'll eventually get where she needs to be. And, when Victoria does meet each milestone, it isn't without hard work on her part and a big celebration on the part of her family!

PS - I've attached a video of Victoria saying "Momma." Enjoy and celebrate with us!

Where Is My Shoe?

Things in the Messick household frequently go missing these days. Right now I cannot find my left tennis shoe (which is a nice tennis shoe, mind you!) or my toothbrush. Most every day we find items in the trash can that somehow were deposited there. Or, we find items misplaced in other drawers in the kitchen.

What is the reason for this phenomenon? Who is the little guilty party of all of these strange disappearances and happenings in our home? Well, we have a special little gal named Victoria Jayne who is the culprit!

Victoria has a thing for our cabinets, drawers, garbage cans and pantry these days. The only thing I can figure is that maybe Victoria is feeling "big-time" now that she is tall enough to reach drawers and shelves in the house. She is constantly opening drawers, raiding the pantry and pulling items out of place. It is a big job to keep the house in any type of order ... which doesn't happen very often!

To date, I cannot tell you how many pieces of silverware or utensils that I "may have" thrown away by mistake! And, I can only assume that maybe my good tennis shoe found its way into our big kitchen garbage can and I may have thrown it out without realizing it was in there.

Oh well! I guess one day my house will find order again and in the meantime these little mishaps give me good reason to go shopping!

9 Years Already?

I want to say a simple "Happy Anniversary" to my wonderful husband of 9 years! On May 4, 2002, Mark and I said our "I do's" and it has been a full journey of life together ever since!

In our 9 years together, we have served at the same church in Saraland, AL (First Baptist North Mobile), which is a big part of our life. We have loved being a part of that ministry!

We were blessed to have 3 little girls (in 33 months) that we adore.

Our first sweet girl came in 2005 and we named her Elyssa.

Our second little girl came in 2007 and we named her Natalie.

We entered the world of the "special needs community" when we had our third little girl in 2008. We named her Victoria.

In 2008, our youngest girl, Victoria, had open-heart surgery and you better believe that draws a couple closer because of the emotional nature of such a surgery.

Along the way, God has blessed Mark with many speaking engagements. He is a wonderful communicator!

God has also opened up lots of opportunities for me in the way of speaking and singing engagements at women's events.

It has been so wonderful to share in some of these engagements together as a couple. We experience so much joy through encouraging others and reminding them that God loves them and wants to walk with them in a personal way on their journey of life. We would've never have imagined how wonderfully God could take everything we have experienced as a couple and as parents and use it to minister to others.

We have had our ups and downs as any other couple does in marriage, but we know that God had a plan in placing us together. We have laughed together, cried together, been overweight together! You name it and we have probably experienced it! But, through the past 9 years we have just been thankful to be able to experience life together!

Happy Anniversary, Mark Douglas Messick! I love you!

A First Time For Everything

This week I had the opportunity to minister to a sweet group of ladies in Camden, AL. Their annual event called "A Day In Spring" took place on Thursday and I was asked to come as the guest singer/speaker for the event. I shared my testimony of being a mother of a child with special needs and how faithful God has been to our family. To conclude my speaking session with the ladies, I sang my video song about Victoria ("She Is God's Child"). For a while now I've really wanted Elyssa (Victoria's older sister) to sing the first verse and chorus of the song with me. When I wrote the song, it was always my intention for Victoria's sisters to eventually sing the song with me in that way. Well, Thursday was the very first time that Elyssa sang the song with me in a public setting and it was absolutely precious. As a matter of fact, most of the women were already crying by the time Elyssa finished the first chorus of the song. It was so special for me to share this experience with Elyssa. I look forward to her doing this more with me in the future! And, Natalie (my middle daughter) is already asking when she'll be able to sing with us! So, she'll probably be up there with Elyssa soon singing right along!

I feel so privileged to share the gift of music with ALL of my daughters! And, not only am I able to share the gift of music with them ... I'm sharing the truth of God's love and faithfulness with them at the same time!

PS - I'm including a video of Elyssa singing her portion of "She Is God's Child" from the sound check we had on Thursday morning so you can hear how great she did!

It's A Small World

On our recent visit to Disney's Magic Kingdom we, of course, had to visit the It's A Small World ride! We had two of our three little girls with us, so we actually had to ride it twice! The first time we rode the ride, the girls were enamored with it. It was one of their favorite rides and it was one of the first rides they actually rode upon us entering the Magic Kingdom for the day.

Mark and I will never forget the couple of comments our oldest little girl (5 1/2 years) made while on that ride. Here are her comments:

Elyssa's First Comment:

"The people are singing and so happy because they are celebrating Jesus' birth!"

Elyssa's Second Comment:

(The girls saw all of the coins people had tossed into the water on the ride and wanted to toss in a penny each and make a wish.)

"My wish was that Jesus would be my Lord and Savior forever and ever!"

Elyssa's Third Comment:

"Natalie's wish was that she would be a mermaid."

Elyssa's Fourth Comment:

"Natalie's wish won't come true, but my wish WILL come true!"

We had a good laugh over the mermaid comment! But, you know ... we are amazed sometimes at the spiritual things our children say. It is in those moments that we realize ... they really do glean things from church and hopefully, from Mark and me.

Ministering With Family

This past weekend Mark and I had the priviledge of ministering at my brother's church (First Baptist Church of Mount Dora) in Florida. Mark was the guest speaker at their Disciple Now and I helped my brother, Alan, with the worship music for the event. We had a great time being with their church family.

Alan also asked me to share my testimony and several songs with the church family in the worship service on Sunday morning. The people there were such a blessing to us.

We left a few days before the weekend events we had planned at the church so we could enjoy some time with Elyssa and Natalie at a few of the Disney parks. It was their first time to visit the parks and we all had a wonderful time! My parents were gracious enough to keep Victoria for us while we were out of town. We knew it would be such a busy week and weekend. It would've really tired Victoria out.

God moved in a powerful way this weekend and we felt so blessed to be able to minister with my brother and his family!