My Christina’s Birthday!!

June 7th 2020

Today my Chrissie turns 35.

35 years ago I was sitting on a hospital bed with my Mom sitting by me doing her embroidery. While I got a strong contraction and was being very quiet in prayer while I breathed sitting in a yoga position.  She was freaking, wondering why I am not screaming and crying. 

When I was first pregnant with my third child-Chrissie, we moved into a 4 plex on the upper floor. I remember lying in our big water bed in the dark bedroom as Dan was sitting in the living room watching tv. I was listening to the radio trying to fall asleep. When all of a sudden the room grew very dark right over me, the radio seemed a million miles away. I felt a growing pressure on my chest and a pulling feeling from my abdomen. I couldn’t breath. I knew whatever, or whoever it was, was trying to take my baby. It seems all at the same time, I sprung to my feet somehow all the way to the door and at the same time yelling “get away from me in the name of Jesus Christ!!”. In an instance the room cleared up and I was standing in the door way as Dan came running. We both said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the power of His name and went to bed.

 The doctor told me to stop pushing because the  umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and evidently had been for some time. It took a while, somehow I was able to keep from pushing. They finally removed it and let me push. In no time little Christina Marie(Maria) Fieseler let out the sweetest little cry you had ever heard, and they placed her in my arms.

The doctor said he felt the Lord guiding his hands in that very difficult task of removing the umbilical cord safely. 

She was perfect! She was cross-eyed. They found that that was an inherited genetic condition called Strabismus. It skips several generations. Her cousin Tori had the same thing. It was corrected with a couple of surgeries. This was scarier for me than her. I prayed and cried with worry and even wrote a lullaby that won a song contest.”My Little Angel”

When Chrissie turned 4 years old she contracted Bacterial Meningitis. We had no idea at first.

She came in from outside play with a fever and a rash. I thought maybe she had been bitten by something. I had her rushed to the hospital by ambulance. They thought since her fever started going down that the reaction to the bit was getting better and she would be alright. So they sent us home. Unfortunately her fever went as high as 106 and she couldn’t walk. But she stayed coherent so we just didn’t know what to do as we had no insurance and another trip to the hospital would be very expensive. Dan didn’t really hold the priesthood so we called the Elders from our church to come over and give her a blessing. As we all bowed our heads and prayed together with the Elders laying their hands on her tiny head, the growing feeling that she will be alright came into my heart. At the end of the prayer. At the end of the prayer, the senior Elder raised his head, we looked at each other and both said at the same time. We need to get her to the hospital right now.

When we got to the hospital they rushed her in and said they needed to give her a spinal tap and that I should stay out as it is hard to watch.  I had a strong feeling to stay with my little one at all times. She fought hard against the procedure

. It took several nurses to hold her down.

I watched in horror as she fought and screamed for me.  Then all of a sudden she wasn’t moving but she was shaking in a very weird way. As I watched, I realized she was seizing. The big nurse that was almost sitting on her didn’t even realize it. She seemed relieved that she wasn’t fighting anymore. I yelled “she is seizing! Get off of her!” I pulled the nurse off her. Then they all realized what was going on and took care of her.  I am certain that  if I hadn ‘t been there my baby would have died.

I am so very thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. The Lord has protected Christina throughout her life, as well protected all my family. I now realize why the advisory wanted to stop her…

Now she, (Amelia Rose) is blessing so many in this world with her angelic voice and her beautiful loving personality. I know she will continue to bless many more. I am thankful for my Christina. She has been such a blessing to my life. She is my Special Angel.

I Love You Christina …. Happy Birthday!

Halloween is Coming!

I used to enjoy dressing up for Halloween. I made costumes for my children as well as myself. It was fun to do trick or treating. However, the bloody gory movies, and the evil ugly costumes that have overtaken the commercial end of it all has sickened me to no end.

Halloween does come from Christian origins.  Halloween is the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day.  (also known as All Saints’ or Hallowmas) on 1 November and All souls’ Day. on 2 November, thus giving the holiday on 31 October the full name of All Hallows’ Eve (meaning the evening before All Hallows’ Day).

In Europe groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers’ friends and relatives. Soul cakes would also be offered for the souls themselves to eat, or the ‘soulers’ would act as their representatives. As with the  tradition of , Allhallowtide soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating that they were baked as alms. On the custom of wearing costumes, Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh wrote: “It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities”.

I do genealogy and Temple work to honor the dead. So I chose to reflect on those that have gone on to the next life and pray for them. Especially on Halloween. I try to avoid the evil celebrations.

I do still like the dressing up part though….