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Dear Kendra: A Letter From Louisiana In Tennessee To California by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Monday, November 8, 2004
Rated "G" by the Author.
Louisiana is tickled pink to hear from her friend in Soulsbysville, California, Kendra Mae Williams, mother to 12 girls with special needs. (There may be an addition to the Williams family soon.) This is her reply to that letter.
Monday, the 8th of November, 2004, 3:52 p.m., C.S.T.~
Dearest Kendra and Family~
Hello there from Nashville, Tennessee, the Country Music Capital of the World! Thank you for writing to me; got your email today, and it was spectacular to hear from you again! So glad you and the girls are well, and so happy that the ones who were sick are now over their colds! My kids have been fine, but Ronee' had a recent round of flares from her JRA acting up, and yesterday, she had a bad allergy attack. Her eyes were swollen to slits, and they were watering badly; but she is doing much better today. She didn't go to church yesterday because she felt embarrassed about her swollen, watery eyes, but she is at that age when appearances are starting to matter, and I couldn't convince her that she really didn't look THAT bad. She made it sound like she was a freak, and she said that she was ugly; there was NO way she was facing her friends at church looking like that! Now her friend, Nicole Aldape (she also has JRA; they are six months apart in age, and they have been the best of friends for four-and-a-half years; they met at arthritis camp), is sick with the flu, so she is bummed about that because Nicole wasn't at school, and she really missed her.
I will tell Ronee' that Anna Grace is looking forward to spending time with her and gettting to see her again. Ronee' loves Anna Grace, but she is turning moody, and she may snap at her for no reason, especially if she is having a bad day with her pain or if she doesn't feel good. Plus she is becoming a teenager; her hormones are raging, and she is going through a rough patch in her life now. I have tried to be supportive of her, and of her changing body, but she is still confused at times, and she still wants to be a child at times. She has found out that Santa Claus is but a myth, and she is really upset about that; she will get over it in time; all kids go through that. Ah, the age of innocence; too bad we can't keep our kids little forever...they do grow up so fast...
Johnny is doing well too; he has his bad days and his good days, when it comes to his MD. Today was a good day. He got another A+ on his schoolwork, and he is so proud of himself. Frankly, we are too; he has really come a long way in his learning, and he is just about caught up with his classmates. He still gets the after-school help several times a week at the Sylvan Learning Centers, and they have really performed a miracle in my son. He looks forward to school, and he can't wait to learn new things, which is quite unlike the little guy we knew just a few years ago. A few years ago, you couldn't even MENTION "School" without him bursting into tears; now, he is one of the first ones out the door on school mornings, and he can't WAIT to start learning new things! He hasn't had too many seizures lately; but I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. They can (and often do) hit without any warnings, whatsoever, and it is always a scary thing (especially if he stops breathing), but I know what to do in order to help my son, and I thank God for each and every day he is still with us. He is most definitely a Miracle, and I thank God each and every day for this beautiful little boy with the white-blonde hair and sparkly, bright-blue eyes!
That is so wonderful that you have gone ahead in the procedures in getting your newest Miracle from Japan! I hope and pray for all the success you deserve on this new adventure, and I pray that everything goes according to plan. You will have to tell me all about your little girl from Japan once you hear about her, and I do hope that you can get her before Christmas. Oh, what a terrific Christmas present THAT would be; I can't think of ANYTHING better! (Okay, maybe not nearly as monumental or special as the Birth of our Dear Saviour, Jesus Christ, but I bet that the impending adoption of your newest daughter ranks pretty well up there with that!) I pray that you get your Christmas Miracle in the adoption of your new Japanese Angel! Please by all means keep me posted on this matter; I am ALL ears!!
Bill is fine, he is still working hard at Wal*Mart, and I am continuing to pull in busy days at my job at Nashville Mem (Nashville Memorial Hospital); we have had some interesting cases come through our doors lately (a woman with tetanus; she just got out of the ICU today; she continues to recover; she is from Africa; and she developed tetanus when she stepped on a dirty nail, as well as a woman who broke her pelvis when she was struck by a car going to work; she just had surgery this morning, and she is pretty well out of it; she is hearing-impaired), cases that have kept me hopping! I will be off come Thanksgiving Day, but unfortunately, this year I work on Christmas Day. Oh, well...people get sick during the holidays too; look at my daughter several years back. She had a stroke, but now you wouldn't even know that by looking at her unless she (or I) told you! It's nearly been four years now, and she is doing terrific!
I am looking forward to getting to see you and the girls again for Turkey Day; this is going to be AWESOME!! The kids have talked about little else; they are really looking forward to seeing y'all again! They are also looking forward to seeing their cousins and older sisters again, and they are looking forward to seeing Jenna and Michael from Alaska again. They are also looking forward to seeing Sikik Grace Eegeesiak; she is coming too; so we have THREE people from Alaska coming for Turkey Day as well as people from Texas, Colorado, and Louisiana! This is going to be too fun! I am looking forward to your meeting my oldest daughters, my son-in-law, and my grandkids, and I am looking forward to your meeting Jenna and Michael; you would love them! But do pray for them; they are not saved (Jenna really doesn't believe in God, and Michael, her husband, is Wiccan); just don't let them know that you are praying for them because they both get rather touchy on the subject. Sikik lives in Barrow, which is the northernmost tip in Alaska, and she does speak English (not well, she writes it better than she speaks it), but she will try to work hard in improving her English. She is a very sweet person, and you would love her! You will also meet my Texas friends, the Pearsons, who live in Fort Worth (two of their adopted children, Hanh Ly and Linn Chan, sisters, were our foster kids for a while; they stayed with us while their family-to-be worked on completing their adoption paperwork); and they are really sweet too. So there will be a bunch of new people to get to meet and know!
Oh! One more thing about Jenna: she is hearing-impaired. She was born this way. She can read lips, and she can also sign; but she's more comfortable reading lips. She doesn't want to "look" disabled, but that is hard because she is in a wheelchair now most of the time due to a terrible accident that she was involved in just about a year ago, and she is partially paralyzed on the one side. She CAN walk for shorter trips with a walker, but she prefers the wheelchair most of the time. Do you know sign language? If not, I can teach you a crash course in it; it's not all that hard to learn!
I use it daily, thanks to my son Mario; it's the way we communicate to one another, and he is very smart! He has never let his deafness stop him, and he is such a handful at times! Such a delightful child is Mario! Our other hearing-impaired child, Benjamin--Benjy--is learning sign language now in school, and he is opening up. There is some talk that he may be autistic, but if he IS we will do all we can to help him.
Well, I must go...Enriquesa is crying again. She must have fallen again. I will have to see if she is okay. I will get back to you before Thanksgiving if need be; if not, I hope and pray y'all have a safe journey from California to Tennessee, and I can't wait to see y'all again! God bless you all, and thank you again for writing!
Lovely idea to introduce people trough a personal letter -it's a classic of older literature, unfortunately not used very much anymore. You're doing a good job of bringing the reader into a personal scene. All the best to you & your life & your writing career - those who stand up again will be the winners! Courage and persistence will get you to your goal! Love, Franz
Reviewed by Judy Lloyd
11/8/2004
I am also amazed at your talent you do it so well. I suppose if I had time I would start putting some of mine on here but all of it is in a floppy disc ready to be sent to the publishers.
i love these continuing letters from kendra to louisiana (and back again); i love the way you and michelle kidwell and you continue to inspire and challenge each other! BRAVA! excellent newsy write :)
Monday, the 8th of November, 2004, 3:52 p.m., C.S.T.~
