Yes, she is 4 now...

Aniah turned 4 on March 1st. We've had some friends ask "didn't one of your kids have a birthday this month?" lol! I'm sorry, I have neglected our blog since being back in Europe, hince this very late blog entry. Our other 3 kids remind us their birthdays are coming up like at least a week or 2 in advance, but Aniah didn't realize it until the day of, when we told her. We celebrated her birthday by going out for bowling and pizza that night. The morning of, I made her breakfast in bed, (waffles, eggs, and strawberries) per her request. Aniah has a real love for music and singing so besides a couple of barbies etc., she also got a keyboard, ( Daddy brought that home after practice...thanks a lot hun). Lol!

Alston is 9

Happy 9th birthday Alston!...We love you, we're very proud of you and we pray God blesses you with many more birthdays to come. Happy birthday!:-)
Love,
Mom, Dad, AJ, Ania and Aniah

Happy Valentine's Day!

As a hopeless romantic...Valentine's day is one of my favorite holidays and I'm definitely in the spirit. I've heard some say its a made up holiday, its a waste of time, its a waste of money, my spouse is always romantic, you should be romantic everyday, blah, blah, blah. Ok, maybe some of that is true, but to me that's even more of a reason to celebrate...love! No matter the excuse, no matter the reason, we should celebrate love and just take this one day out of the year to do something extra, extra, special in the name of love. Why not right? Holidays are meant to be special and fun so I definitely think that Valentine's day falls into those categories. In these days and times there just isn't enough love going around...."what the world needs now, is love sweet love, its the only thing that there's just too little of!" Remember that song? Lol! But isn't it true? Life is too short, so while we're here together on this earth we should love. Really love! For that reason I just want to wish everyone a very blessed, loving, sweet,  and happy Valentine's day!
...but the greatest of these is love.~1 Corinthians 13:13

We Are Black History!

( Written By AJ Mason )
Mahalia Jackson is our great, great, great, great, great Aunt on my Mom's side.We're glad to know that this wonderful, talented, and beautiful woman is in my family. She was known as "The Queen of Gospel". It's good to know that she was singing for the Lord and that she was a civil rights activist.  The person that reminds us the most of Mahalia is our youngest sister Aniah Mason. She has the same drive and talent for singing just like Mahalia did. All she has to do is pick up her toy microphone, make up a song off the spot, and sing away.She looks so much like my great Grandma (Dollie Ruth Jackson) who was also a gospel singer in our church. Just like Aunt Mahalia my Grandma past away from diabetes complications and cancer, however Aunt Mahalia didn't have cancer. Learning this inspired me to continue to persue my dreams in singing. My Mom always made sure that we celebrate Black History month. So when I heard that Mahalia Jackson was our blood and one of the most greatest singers, why not do a report on her? She starred in one of my parents favorite movies: "Imitation of Life" Here is more information about Mahalia Jackson:

October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel".Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world, and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist; entertainer Harry Belafonte called her "the single most powerful black woman in the United States" . She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records ) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.
Born as Mahalia Jackson and nicknamed "Halie", Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana  . The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog. This included Little Mahala (named after her aunt, Mahala Clark-Paul whom the family called Aunt Duke), her brother Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter, and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt Mahala was given the nickname "Duke" after proving herself the undisputed “boss” of the family. The extended family (the Clarks) consisted of her mother's siblings - Isabell, Mahala, Boston, Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie, their children, grandchildren and patriarch Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Mahalia's father, John A. Jackson, Sr. was a stevedore (dockworker) and a barber who later became a Baptist minister. He fathered four other children besides Mahalia - Wilmon (older) and then Yvonne, Pearl and Johnny, Jr. (by his marriage shortly after Halie's birth). Her father's sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett, and husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers.
When she was born Halie suffered from genu varum , or "bowed legs." The doctors wanted to perform surgery by breaking Halie's legs, but one of the resident aunts opposed it. So Halie's mother would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater. The condition never stopped young Halie from performing her dance steps for the white woman her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned house for.
Mahalia was five when her mother, Charity, died, leaving her family to decide who would raise Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this responsibility, and the children were forced to work from sunup to sundown. Aunt Duke would always inspect the house using the "white glove" method. If the house was not cleaned properly, Halie was beaten. If one of the other relatives was unable to do their chores, or clean at their job, Halie or one of her cousins was expected to perform that particular task. School was hardly an option. Halie loved to sing and church is where she loved to sing the most. Halie’s Aunt Bell told her that one day she would sing in front of royalty, a prediction that would eventually come true. Mahalia Jackson began her singing career at the local Mount Mariah Baptist Church. She was baptized in Mississippi by Mt. Moriah's pastor, the Rev. E. D. Lawrence, then went back to the church to "receive the right hand of fellowship."

I'm proud to say that we are black history thanks to my great, great, great, great, great aunt; Mahalia Jackson. May she rest in peace.

5 days, 4 nights...

 "God did not promise a life without pain, joy without sorrow, or sun without rain. But God did promise strength for the day, comfort for tears, a light for the way. And for all who believe in his kingdom above, God answers their faith with infinite love."
                        ~Anonymous

 Ania had her 2nd seizure on Monday, January 10th. She has been officially diagnosed with epilepsy. This episode lasted for hours and would not stop until she was given anti-seizure medication through her IV. Let me just tell you...it was extremely frightening for me to watch my 1st princess go through this again. I honestly thought I was going to lose her, but God is so good! He chases those he adores, I know this. As her Mother and with Daddy away, I immediately put on my armor, prayed and stood by my baby girls side. It wasn't easy, but eventually she stopped seizing and just slept. As she slept the nurses performed a blood draw to do immediate testing. Next the Doctor came in to say "we need to admit Ania for further testing, especially since she is so young and this is her second seizure." We were admitted and Ania woke up eventually, not remembering what just happened. I explained to her that she had another seizure and we were back in the hospital for more tests to see how we can make sure she doesn't have a seizure again.

The next day, (Tuesday) she had an EEG and the results showed that Ania's right side of her brain responds slower than the left. Due to this fact, the Doctors ordered an MRI, (under anesthesia to avoid movement and to help with proper testing). The MRI wasn't performed until Thursday due to so many emergencies.

Ania kind of had a free day Wednesday and we spent most of that time in the hospital playroom. Ania painted, colored, we played her favorite game, (Candyland) and she made her potato head version of her Daddy and herself. Thursday night, they finally wheeled us down for the MRI. I waited for Ania to finish her MRI, during this time I found my way to the hospital chapel. I had never been in one before, but it was so peaceful...I wished that's where Ania's hospital bed was.:) While there I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. I cried and I cried and I cried. I just really humbled myself to the Lord and thanked him for his many blessings. I then grabbed one of the bibles and my God led me to the scripture of Romans 10:14 ...the scripture to me sent a message of how I can take this alone time with Ania to speak to her about God, to show her the way, to tell her to be thankful, humble and to know that...yes, Jesus loves her. Then I turned the pages to Matthew 5:4 and I knew that God was telling me its ok to cry, I'm here, and to stay focused and believe in Him. He gave me strength! If you're a believer you know where I'm coming from and you know just how much this cleansed my soul. While in the chapel I kept watching the clock because they said it would be about 45 minutes to an hour before the MRI was finished...I had plenty of time it seemed.

Next to the bibles was a book called "The Great I AM" by Chawna R. Anderson...I picked it up and began to read it from front to back, (no longer watching the clock).

Apparently I lost my way in this amazing book because the Doctors came into the chapel to find me and told me Ania was finished. I was very apologetic to them for having to hunt me down and honestly the time went really fast, but the Doctors were very understandable and said it was very pleasant to find me in the chapel.

When I greeted Ania in recovery, she was her normal self...she was very happy and anxious to order dinner since she hadn't eaten all day due to the MRI.
We didn't get her MRI results until Friday afternoon and we were pleased to hear that it was normal. What this means was there were no brain abnormalities that would cause Ania to have surgery and most likely she will grow out of epilepsy and seizures all together. The Doctor has prescribed keppra for Ania. Alton and I weren't sure if we wanted Ania to be on any seizure meds because our research didn't show many positive results but in fact,  lots of negative side effects from it, however it turns out that one of my cousins also had the same diagnosis as Ania and used the same medication, in addition another parent in the hospital had nothing but great things to say about keppra. it also seems that at this stage of her illness, unless she's on meds, she will continue to have seizures that could become fatal. For that reason we are prayerful that this medication will help her as well... and if not, the Doctors said we can stop the medication and exercise a new option. At the end of the day, we know it will be the Lord's will and He will ultimately guide Ania's healing.
We have officially checked out of the hospital today (Friday) and Ania is doing well. We will continue to research epilepsy and seizures for our daughter's well being and also to help any other family that may experience the same illness. I have found 2 books that seem to be very educational and helpful and have listed them on my goodreads website for reference.
We really want to thank all of our family and friends who reached out to us in prayer, love,  concern and support. We feel truly blessed to have a huge team of prayer partners all around the world to enhance the power of prayer we believe in.
We will continue to keep you posted on Ania's progress.
Be blessed!

Happy New Year!

 2011...Happy New Year!



This NYE we were still home in AZ. We celebrated NYE with our old college friends, Amber and Daniel Brockett, who were back in town to visit for the holidays. The 4 of us hadn't seen each other for a couple years, so it was very nice to get together again. Us couples had a fabulous dinner party at Ocean Prime.

New Year's Day we celebrated with our kids, as always. We took them to one of their favorite family fun centers, out to dinner at Pappadeaux's, and later to the movies.

We pray that you and yours will have good health,  happiness and prosperity in 2011 and beyond. Be certain to surround yourself around positive people, places and things. Stay focused, prayerful and keep the faith. HE will see you through! God loves!

*Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.