Happy Birthday Jason

Today is my husband Jason's birthday!

He is celebrating by launching a new website where you can download or listen to lots of his music for free! You might even hear me on some of the tracks! If you have a free moment check it out! He will continue to upload new stuff, post and watch for a new album coming in the next few months.

The Jason McGibbon Project


Have a super weekend.

A Tough Day but All I See is Hope

Liam had a bit of a rough day today. His nausea is back and he was not able to keep any food down until this evening. His doctor is not worried as she feels that it is due to his body adjusting as they begin to wean him off the steroids. He was upset as he was having a bit of trouble getting both of his legs to go where he wanted them to go. He is extremely tired and not being able to keep down much food again could also affect his coordination. We explained to him that this is normal part of recovery and as the swelling in his brain goes down, he will get stronger. It is hard for a kid who loves to run and play. We will be meeting with physio tomorrow and they will help us work on this. His respiratory therapist came in today to give him a tool to help make sure that his lungs do not start to deflate at the bottoms because he has been in bed for so long. They have made the exercises for this a bit of a game so he did like doing this today. Yeah!

We did have a few smiles today. One when he saw that it was snowing outside. I think he even gave a bit of cheer! And the second was that he watched about five minutes of the Toronto Santa Claus parade before he fell asleep. He loves the bands and the floats! I told him that he and I will have a date to watch the Rose Bowl Parade over the holidays as it is my favourite! I think I inherited this from my mom as she loves it too!

Tonight, I am home with the kids. It is good to be home again even if it for a short time. It is funny how life is so different for us right now. I was reading my big study bible tonight. I love my bible with all it's marks and personal notes and dates. It is the history of my journey with the Lord. It is the story of me. My struggles, my joys, my pain and my delights. There are notes about them all here. Scriptures I have prayed for friends and children and our family. Prayers of thankfulness and praise that I have written in the margins. I know in my head that we have been walking through a valley and yet as I write in my bible this evening I am noting His beauty that I have seen along the way. And only one word comes to mind, "hope". As I close my bible for the night (mostly because I am so tired the words are starting to blur) I will leave you with Psalm 130 where I have made my last notation about Hope.

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.

Lord, hear my voice!

Let Your ears be attentive

To the voice of my supplications.

If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with You,

That You may be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.

My soul waits for the Lord

More than the watchmen for the morning;

Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the LORD;

For with the LORD there is loving kindness,

And with Him is abundant redemption.

And He will redeem Israel

From all his iniquities.

My Man, Our Life

Ten years ago today, I woke up to a delivery of beautiful roses from my sweetheart. It was a beautiful start to a wonderful journey of adventure and life. As our house began to bustle with the stirrings of a wedding day, I remember lying in my bed looking at my roses and musing about how Jason and I had arrived at this moment in our lives. It was the type of moment that I had today as I thought about our life over the past ten years.

Our wedding itself was beautiful, and surrounded by family and friends, I married my best friend making a commitment to grow with him in Christ's love. We sang together at our wedding, he wrote a song for our wedding, and an Irish piper piped us into the church. Mostly though I remember how handsome my husband looked in his tuxedo and the vows that we said to each other.

At that moment God brought together a family of two. We placed our marriage into His hands. Two years later God expanded our family and blessed us with Liam. He was so amazing and our world changed as we knew it. Liam was a constant source of wonder for us. Not long before Liam was two years old, God placed a burden on heart to add to our family. We spent a year with family and friends praying for two children that we did not know. We rested in the fact that God knew who they were and He would bring them to us. I wondered how we would find them, what they would be like and who was taking care of them in those times. Just after Liam turned three we found them. Daniel and Caroline came into our family through adoption and we have been forever changed by the experience and the blessings that God has given us through them. For a while we thought our family was complete until God made us parents again with the birth of second daughter Trinity Joy. She is truly a wonder and life a family has been quite a journey.

Through it all, the ups and downs, the twists and turns, Jason has been there to guide us in the path of God's calling for our lives. He has loved, supported and encouraged me in ways that only he can do. On this day our 10th anniversary, I can honestly say that he is still my best friend and the person I love to hang out with the most. The vows I said ten years ago are still the ones I say to you today.

I Kimberley, take thee Jason

To become one flesh under God

I vow to the Lord and I vow to you

To endeavor to be Christlike always

I will love you as Christ loved the church

I will forgive you as we have been forgiven

I will be faithful to you and to you alone

I will serve the Lord with you

I will weep with you in sorrow

Rejoice with you in blessings

For richer, for poorer

In sickness and in health

To love and to cherish

Until Christ calls us home

This is my solemn vow, before God.

Yep! He is still my man and after ten crazy years I still dig the way he plays guitar!

Happy 10th Anniversary honey. I love you.

How Are You?

Well, it has been over a week since I posted an update. All has been good at the McGibbon house. Liam has not had any migraines. Praise God. Your prayers have been pouring in and we as a family are so grateful. Liam has even been eating better over the past four to five days. This is partially because he is just eating more and also because I am trying to make every mouthful count. The worship team even got to try my new brownie recipe that included spinach and blueberries! Liam ate them up and so did they! I guess I am getting sneaky in my old age!

Since Liam was diagnosed I have been asked the same question almost everyday, "How are you?" It is the type of question that is easy to answer on the surface. It the polite thing to ask people when you see them. It has become part of our cultural greeting. "Hi! How are you?" You say it to your neighbour as you see them putting out their garbage in the morning. "How are you today?", you ask the cashier in the checkout line. Often it is asked so automatically that we do not really want an honest answer we are just being polite. So that being the case most of the time we as respondents only need a surface answer. "Oh fine. How are you?"

The problem for me is that when your son has a brain tumor, people actually want to know how you are. The "How are you?" question is followed with "Really... how are you?" And people wait for a response and they are actively listening.

Although, it is such a simple question I think it is the one question that we often don't really want to be honest about. It is the type of question that we should ask everyday in our quiet time with God and yet for myself it is the question that scares me the most. To answer it with honesty requires self examination. It requires being alone with ourselves long enough to let the noise die down in our head. Maybe it is just me but at first I was a bit afraid of what the answer might be. I didn't really want to wrestle with hard questions. How did this heartbreaking situation fit with my image of Jesus? Why would God allow this to happen to Liam? I had so many questions I thought I would never find answers to them all. Here is the part that I have been learning. When I have exhausted myself in asking all the questions that I may or may not ever find answers to I realize that they all lead me back to one central question. What is my greatest fear about God?

I had a good friend who said to me recently that people usually take one of two paths when they are faced with a tough trial. They either run to Jesus or they run from him. Do I trust the word of God? Do I trust who Jesus said He was? Do I believe in God's promises? I settled those questions in my heart long ago. This situation does not change any of my answers. Circumstances will continue to change. Some will be good and well I guess right now I am experiencing the not so good but God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And I will continue to need Jesus all of those days. So I have my answer.

So how are you?

Good and Perfect Gifts

Mornings are a bit crazier at our zoo than other parts of the day. Three of my kids head off to two different schools and my youngest waits for her best friend who comes about 8am for the day while her mom heads off to work. There are breakfasts to make, lunch bags to get ready with food for two different nutrition breaks, agendas to sign, back packs to pack with homework, indoor shoes and of course appropriate clothing for our crazy weather. Some days I feel like I have run a marathon up and down our stairs all before 8:30 am.

Well, a couple of days ago the morning was a bit crazier than usual as I promised a couple of friends that I would babysit their kids for part of the day as well. I was getting ready to host five children all under the age of three! As I rushed about trying to be as organized as possible, I kept saying to myself it is only about four hours. I can make it through four hours. No problem, I said as I tried to psych myself up. Four hours will go by fast. It is only four hours.

I am not sure when I noticed that my youngest son was singing. You see he sings all the time. In the bathroom, in the shower, at dinner, in his room, outside, while he is doing his homework, I truly mean he sings all the time. He makes up his own songs or his own words to songs he has heard. He is only six so you can imagine some of songs that he comes up with. So after a while in our house you sort of tune him out to reserve your sanity. People often comment when they come over about how much he sings but we who live with this little darling don't even notice anymore.

For some reason this particular morning I noticed. Maybe it was the look on his face, or the fact that he was singing with such passion, or maybe God was trying to get my attention but I noticed he was singing. Not just singing but worshipping as he made his breakfast. The song went like this:

"Thank-you God for cream cheese,

You are so good to me.

Thank-you God for my mom

who bought bagels.

You know just what I need."

Do you ever have those moments in your life when you realize that your kids are sometimes smarter than you? I had kind of been hoping that my son would be older than six before it happened but here it was plain as day. He was really getting "it" and I was not.

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." James 1:17

My son knew that everything is a gift from God and that he needs to thank Him and praise Him for all His gifts. Here he was thanking God for cream cheese and bagels and I had forgotten to thank God for the oportunity that was before me to love five of his precious children. All I could think about was "just making it through". Who would have thought that a child's song about his morning breakfast could provide such an attitude adjustment. Praise God for bagels and cream cheese!