Sissy HIGHlights

Woweee Your Sister Circle Readers

 You are in for a treat today I tell ya!

It's Sissy HIGHlight Friday! 

First up is Stephanie!

"Hi Stephanie!!"
{and hello to those gorgeous blue eyes}

What is your full name?

It's kinda long. Stephanie Victoria Davis Romney

What is your Instagram user name?

@stuphfromsteph

Where do you live?

I call Mesa, Arizona my home town. I was born here. So were my parents and grandparents and all four of my children.

What is your favorite treat?

I am a chips and salsa girl {right on!!} through and through (always with a dirty diet coke!)

What is your favorite color?

Well --- that depends. I like red cars. I like pink nails. I like white kitchens.  People say I look good in blue/aqua.  Oh, and bling. Bling is another of my favorite colors...and cheetah, too.

{ha ha, it's so great that her favorite colors include Bling and Cheetah! HA!}

Tell us one of your unique talents?

I love music. Playing the organ and piano are my favorite callings.  I also sew. A lot.  Making quilts is relatively cheap therapy. I wish I knew how many different states and countries around the world are home to the baby items I make - burp cloths and swaddling blankets. {this is awesome!} 

What is your favorite quote?

Everything will be okay in the end. if it's not okay --- it's not the end!!

{Oh, sweet I have that quote in my office at work! - nice choice}

Tell us one person that inspires you and why?

That would be my sweet husband who has borne with patience a  health trial that has lasted (so far) nine and a half years. I often ask myself if I would be as faithful and nice as he has been if I were in his shoes. The answer is no --- I probably wouldn't.  He is earning his crown in heaven and I better work my tail off so I can be there with him someday!

Do you have any feedback or ideas for "Your Sister Circle"?

I think you guys are pretty awesome! thanks for all the fun, uplifting sharing you do.

Tell us anything you feel like sharing!

 

I also would like to mention my husband, Bill and I, have been married for 35 years and our greatest blessings are:

Our children: Amber, Amanda, Amelia, and Drew

their spouses: Chris, Brent, Tyler, and Jessalyn

and our darling grandkids: Addison, Halleigh, Tate, Tagg, Elliott, Cameron, Tallie, Colby and Hayden (#10 on the way June 10th)

What a beautiful family! That truly is a 
picture of  precious BLESSINGS!

Stephanie -- Thanks for sharing with us and blessing our lives with your goodness!
Don't ya just LOVE HER?!?!

And NEXT
IS

Diana from South Africa!!!

{do you go on safari's?  I've always wanted to go on a safari}

"Hi Beautiful Diana!!!"

What is your full name?

Diana Kingma

What is your Instagram user name?

@Dianaki5

 

Where do you live?

In Gauteng South Africa for about my whole life. Before that I’ve lived in Namibia for 10 years. 
{How cool is this??}

What is your favorite treat?

Lots and lots of anything with chocolate. Hi...my name is Diana and I am a chocolate addict. I also love some of our traditional foods like a “lekker Braai” (Barbeque) nice meat with normally a potato salad or warm potato bake and lots of other salads and garlic bread. I also love trifle. I am a food lover.

What is your favorite color?

Pink and purple, but not to wear, I just love those colours, my cutex, lipstics, shampoo etc. are all in those colours. (the colour of the bottle, not the contents)

Tell us one of your unique talents? 

I love to eat; does that count? He he!! All funniness aside, I think I am a kind soul. I am a good listener, I forgive easy, I tend to see the good in all people which makes me a softie, people see that and take advantage of my goodness. I am NOT a good homemaker but I am a clean freak. I am more of an arty person. Oh yes, I am good with make up (I think) I love to do my daughter’s make up when she has dance shows, I looovvveeee glitter, false eyelashes etc, but not on myself, I live it out on Chloe’ (@chloe_pie15). I am also a cat lady, love my cats. 

{oooo, sissy #5 is a cat lady too}

What is your favorite quote?

I have a few;

 “Stop seeking the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight”- Gordon B. Hinckley

‘Whatever you do do well. Be good at it. 
Stand a little taller. Be a little stronger. Be a little better.’ 
Gordon B. Hinckley.

And then I have some in my home language which is Afrikaans; {so COOL}

 “Waar daar n rokie trek is daar n vuurtjie” directly translated it means “where there is smoke there normally is a fire”, which means if stories goes around there most likely are truth to it.

Tell us one person that inspires you and why?

 My Savior Jesus Christ. I am humbled by his love, kindness and patience with me(us). He is such an inspiration and great example to me. He was willing to die for me so that I can live with my Heavenly Father again someday. 

 

My husband -   What a wonderful husband and father he is to me and my children. He is a hard worker with so much love for me and the children, he has patience and a kind heart. His whole life is for our happiness. He is my pillar of strength.

My children – to see their strength and faith, to see their goodness towards others and their love for their parents. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family, I sometimes think, I don’t deserve this, they are so good to me, Heavenly Father is so good to me, I love Him dearly.

 

Do you have any feedback or ideas for "Your Sister Circle"?

You are doing such a perfect job!! Thank you for inspiring me to be a better person. I am so happy to have met you on Instagram, I love you all.

Tell us anything you feel like sharing!

{hold on to your South African hats folks}

I testify that our heavenly Father cares for each and every one of his children, I also testify that Miracles still happen today.

My eldest son got Marfan syndrome. It is a syndrome that attacks the tissue that is holding all the muscles together. The biggest problem is his heart, especially the aorta root. Brent had an enlarged root of 5.5 cm and was in need of an aorta replacement as well as an aorta valve replacement. We opted for the saving of his own valve,  we didn’t want him to be on blood thinners for the rest of his life, he is still so young. We couldn’t do the operation in South Africa because it wasn’t done on a regular basis and with that specific operation we needed somebody with expertise, it was a very delicate operation. 

In December 2012 we went to America where they did open heart surgery on him. Everything went well according to the Doctors and we stayed another week just to make sure he was ok. Brent didn’t look too well and was very tired. On our flight back home he couldn’t eat and was very nauseous. Three days after we arrived back home we were swimming, it was extremely hot; we were in the middle of summer and pool was a pleasant almost warm temperature, but Brent didn’t want to swim, it was too cold for him. We didn’t think anything of it and thought it was because of the surgery. The next day he walked to our neighbor to visit his friend. We received a phone call from our very distressed friend and she said that Brent had collapsed and we have to come urgently.

 My husband ran over very worried and came back in shock. Luckily I had the car ready and we were all ready to go. We went over to my neighbor where my husband came out carrying my son in his arms, an image I will never forget in my entire life. Brent was a transparent white color, his eyes were almost black and it stared at me almost looking like he didn’t recognize us. Luckily for us it was still school holidays and there was almost no traffic to the hospital. All the robots changed to green and all the cars moved out of the way, my husband did some low flying driving there. 

When we got to the emergency care unit of the Hospital there was a heart surgeon on duty as well as heart specialist. (They were on skeleton staff as most of the people were away) After several testing and extreme pain from my son they saw that his aorta had ruptured where they did the stitches from the previous surgery and he was bleeding internally. The surgeon also noticed from the CT scan we brought with us that Brent was leaking blood while he was still in Hospital from previous surgery.  Because of his deep pectus excavatum his heart was not in the normal position and did he bleed to the other side. If he bled to the right side he would have died within 10 minutes. Brent received a blessing and they rushed him to theatre at 6pm in the afternoon. Most of our ward’s friends were there and they sat with us during the whole operation which went on till 4am the next morning. The Surgeon came back and told us that it was the most difficult operation he had ever done. They had to remove the whole root plus valve from previous surgery, there was no time to try to save it; Brent was losing too much blood.   

Two hours before Brent had to go in for surgery, a lady came in with a fatal gunshot to the head. Unfortunately she died of the wounds (I read Brent’ s file and spoke to the sisters on duty) . She was a donor of the aortic root and valve. It was a perfect match to Brent and they could use her root and valve to save Brent’s life.

I made a list of all the blessings we’ve received during that time. From the time we went to America till after his life savings surgery, I’ve counted 25 blessings (miracles) in total. We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for protecting Brent during this time. I am humbled and in awe for His kindness and compassion. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but it didn’t, and I know it was by the grace of God that he survived the surgery. Less than 3 percent of people survive a rapture of the aorta root.

{Holy South African Buffalo --- Anyone got a tissue? Sheesh......} 

What a beautiful beautiful story!
Diana, thank you for sharing yourself with us today.  I know you have touched a sister heart or two by your story of miracles.

 Isn't this just the best?
Hope you enjoyed Sissy Highlights today!

Who will be next? 
It's pretty exciting to think about the possibilities....
WE LOVE YOU SISTERS!!!