October 17, 2009 at 1:45 am (Family, Good Stuff, My Grandchildren)
Tags: birthdays, Family, grandbaby, growing up, Kailey, My Grandchildren, thankful
On Saturday, Ocotber 10th, we celebrated the 1 year birthday of my granddaughter Kailey. I tell ya…It is crazy that one year has already passed in her little life. She has such a huge personality and she is just beautiful. I wanted to share some pictures with you guys. You won’t believe how much she has grown!
Grandmama loves you Kailey!
July 20, 2009 at 1:20 am (Family, Growing, My Children)
Tags: birthdays, Brian, growing up, My Children, praises, thankful
On July 20th, 1985, I was given a most precious gift from God. He gave me my son, Brian.
I had been in labor for 12 hours with no pain medication and the doctor was telling me I had to push. I didn’t want to…I was too tired. I had been having labor pains all day on the 19th so they wouldn’t let me eat anything for fear that I may go into labor – I was weak from not eating anything. Needless to say everything came out alright – no pun intended. 
When we become parents, especially for the first time, we are so scared; scared that we will do something wrong, scared we’ll feed them too little or too much, scared they will get sick or hurt and we won’t know what to do. All I had to do was look at that beautiful little face and a lot of that fear went away. All I knew was that I loved him and he was mine. He was perfect.
I know I haven’t been a perfect mother. I’m sure he will agree with that. And I surely don’t deserve him. He has grown to be a wonderful man that I am so proud of. He has a wonderful wife and they have given me a beautiful granddaughter.
Brian, on this day, your 24th birthday, I want you to know that I love you more than you will ever know. I couldn’t imagine my life without you. I am sorry for all the times I wasn’t there for you. I hope you know that I am so very proud of the man, husband, and father that you have become. Have a wonderful birthday. You deserve every minute of it. I love you!
June 24, 2009 at 3:46 pm (Family, Good Stuff, Growing, My Children)
Tags: growing up, Miranda, praises
This is my beautiful, talented daughter, Miranda. This is the second song for which she has written the lyrics and the music. We are very proud of her. Share it with your family and friends. You can find this and other pieces of her work as they are created at www.myspace.com/mirandagriffinmusic
June 13, 2009 at 2:00 pm (Family, Good Stuff, Growing, Kailey, My Grandchildren)
Tags: grandbaby, growing up, Kailey, My Grandchildren, Videos
This is my granddaughter Kailey. Her mommy and daddy sent me this wonderful surprise today! She is only 7 months old.
October 10, 2008 at 4:10 pm (Family, Kailey, My Children, My Grandchildren)
Tags: grandbaby, growing up, Kailey
Today, John and I became grandparents. I know all you guys REALLY want to see are the pictures, so go ahead and scroll down then come back up and read the rest.
I had the distinct honor of being able to stay in the delivery room and watch the miracle of the birth of my granddaughter. Thank you for that, Heather. I don’t think I could have ever been more proud of Brian and Heather. Heather was such a trooper. She did everything they told her to do. She did not get angry or upset. She had this calmness about her that I have never seen before. It broke my heart to see her in pain, but we all knew it would be worth it and she would say it hurts, but she never complained.
I saw my son become a full-fledged man and father in front of my eyes. He was very nervous of course – all first-time fathers are. He was so worried about Heather and her being in pain. He was right there with her through the whole thing. He also cut the cord from the baby – he will tell you that it was disgusting and nasty, but I don’t think he will EVER say he regrets doing it. He cried tears of joy after the baby – I have to quit dong that – after Kailey was born and after he knew Heather was going to be alright.
So here are the numbers: She was born at 1:17pm. She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and she was 21 inches long. She is BEAUTIFUL as you can see and I am NOT biased – that is a fact. Thank you all for your calls, prayers, and texts throughout the day. It was just wonderful and one of the most exciting things I have ever lived through in my life. I am so happy to be able to share it with the world.
I am going to try to spend as much time with the three of them as I can. Since Nicholas will be gong in the hospital, we won’t get to see them for 3 WEEKS!!!! I’m sure you will be seeing more of Kailey as she grows. We have been truly blessed.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD KAILEY MARIE WALTERS!!!!!
I’ll try to post more pictures later. I have dial-up and it took me about 2 hours to get these up here!
October 7, 2008 at 10:00 pm (Family, Good Stuff, My Children)
Tags: growing up, Miranda
As of this evening at 6:30 pm, our daughter is one of the new Teen Clerks of Court. Teen Court was established to give kids a second chance when they make mistakes. They have to be a first time offender, they have to admit guilt, and they have to be referred by their school to be able to recieve the benefits of Teen Court.
Miranda was referred to the Teen Court by one of her teachers. She had to go into an interview with the Teen Court coordinator, she went through 8 hours of training and tonight she participated in a swearing-in ceremony. They have to commit to the Teen Court for a one year period and agree to serve at least four times. They can choose to serve at the Tarboro, Rocky Mount, or Nashville courthouse, or all three. They can choose to be a clerk of court, a baliff, a prosecuting attorney, a defending attorney, or a jury member. A real judge, a real attorney, and a real baliff are there to help make sure guidelines are followed. When cases come up that need to be heard, these Teen Court volunteers will recieve a summons to report to court just like your or I would. They can hear as many as 6 cases a night.
I am very proud that she has taken an interest in being available to help her peers make smarter choices and helping them to recover from unfortunate mistakes. This is a wonderful opportunity for her to “give back to the community” especially at such a young age.
June 30, 2008 at 11:21 am (cystic fibrosis, Family)
Tags: Amie, cystic fibrosis, Family, growing up, prayer requests
For those of you who visit What’s Up With Nick, this is going to be a duplicate post. I thought it was important to put it in both places.
Some of you may or may or know that my mama and were a foster parents when I was growing up. We had many foster children (about 21 I think) over the years they were able to do it. One of the children, our second to be exact, was a baby that was given up for adoption. It was a girl and we named her Amie. Mama got to name the newborns. I always thought that was cool. ANYWAY, babies usually stayed until their six week checkup and then they went on to their adoptive parents. In this case, that didn’t happen. Amie was sick. She was sick all the time. She cried all the time. We took her to the doctor and they couldn’t tell us what was wrong. Then they sent us to Duke. It was there that they told us Amie had cystic fibrosis. Back then they diagnosis was not good. They told us that Amie would not live to be a year old (unbelievers) and we began all the treatments to make her as comfortable as possible, we accepted the fact that she would not be adopted, and we resigned ourselves to the fact that she would proably die in our care.
We learned all about enzymes (back then it was a powder called viokase and you mixed it in baby food) that she had to take to digest her food, about chest pt where we had to beat on her to get all the mucous out, and all about breathing treatments. Back then it was called a mist machine. We, as a family, learned all about cystic fibrosis and how to treat it.
Amie was with us for almost 2 years when we got the call that there was a couple interested in adopting her. We were filled with a mix of emotions. Amie had become my sister. We loved her and were caring for her with everything we were. We didn’t want anyone taking her away. BUT at the same time, we were thrilled to know that there was someone out there who was willing to see past all that ugliness of her disease and love her for the sweet child she was. We got to meet the couple. They were so nice. They came to our house and talked to all of us. We told them the hard truth of her daily routine, but to be quite honest, I don’t hink any of that mattered once they saw her beautiful face. They did adopt her and we have kept in touch all these years. One of my favorite memories is spending time with them and there family during summers in Wilmington where they live. On April 28th, 2008, Amie celebrated her 29th birthday. Praise God!! What a wonderful example of God’s greatness and power.
Knowing this child, going through all of this with her, affected our whole family. We all became advocates for cystic fibrosis. We participated in all kinds of fundraisers over the years for cf. When I was grow up, I worked for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for about two years. It helped to know about the disease. Ultimately, knowing this child, growing up knowing her and her family, helped me to save Nicholas’ life. There aren’t many people that can look back over the years and see the path that God led them down to help them in their lives. I know that things happen for a reason, and knowing Amie helped prepare me for my adult life and what I was going to go through with my own children. I am so thankful for that. God is an awesome, wonderful God. He gave the precious gift of knowledge for the future. I am so blessed to be able to look back and see why I went through all those things.
Saturday night, I got a phone call from my mama saying that Amie had been airlifted to Duke. All I know at this moment, is that she is in ICU, in respiratory failure and she is on the respirator. I am waiting on a call from Carolyn, her mom, and we (my mama and I) are going up to Duke tomorrow. Amie’s dad, Phil, is not in good health and cannot make the trip, so Carolyn is there on her own. Pleae pray for this family. I don’t know if she is eligible for a lung transplant, if she is on the list, or what. All I know is that my sister is in the hospital and the outlook is not good. I cannot imagine what they are going through at this stage in Amie’s disease. I hope it will be a long time to come.
If this experience has taught me anything, it has taught me that God has a plan for all of us. That everything MOST DEFINITELY happens for a reason and we are blessed to be able to marvel in His greatness.
What’s Up With Nick
