My PaPa

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a message about my Grandpa. We drove down to St Louis to visit him this week. He seems to be doing as well as can be expected. He was moved to a nursing home on Wednesday and we came in to visit him on Friday morning. He will probably never fully recover, but with time and prayer, he should do well. I suppose my Dad had not told him we were coming, because when we walked in, he was overcome with emotion. We had a nice visit for about an hour. We finally had to leave because the boys were getting a little stir-crazy.

After we left we went into St Louis for some fun with the kids, while my parents stayed with Grandpa to visit and take care of some of his business. My mom said that during his afternoon physical therapy, Grandpa was very motivated. That was a great change over the past couple of weeks when he would talk about getting well, but he had not really been interested in putting forth much effort. Learning this, I was very convicted at how little time we have spent with him recently. Part of the reason is distance, but another part is that we just get so busy with life, we forget to take time for really important things. I plan to stay in touch with him better now. I take so many photos (duh) that there's really no reason that I can't send some to him more often than once a year.

Sometimes we forget how much the very young and the very old need each other. Kevin's Grandmother is one of Jadon's favorite people, and he is naturally so loving. He went right up to my Grandpa for a hug despite Micah's reluctance. Chloe also really enjoyed her visit with him. She seems to crave attention from her family, and she wanted to be included in every visit to her Great-Grandpa. We all enjoyed our visit and the rest of our St Louis trip. I'll be sure to post some pics from our St Louis adventures sometime in the next couple of days.

Welcome to the Midwest

In the Midwest thunderstorms and tornadoes tend to become a regular part of life. For those of us who have lived here most of our lives, we become a little callous to the realities of that. Sure, occasionally you here of a tornado that devastates a town, you might even go help with the cleanup, but then you move on. We find ourselves having little parties in the basement two or three times every summer, often Mommies and babies are down there listening to the radio while Daddy is out on the porch watching the storm go by. But then this happens.
This is where Kevin's brother, Todd lives. That mess in the middle was a great big machine shed. That cement slab across the front of the photo used to have another grain bin on it.

See the grain bin now? That's it in pieces, all across the field. That mess stretches for about a half mile.

That's the neighbor's machine shed. Oh, don't you see it? It's in pieces scattered amongst the overturned machines.

That's the neighbor's grain bins. The one smashed to the ground was in Todd and Michelle's front yard Saturday night. Right in front of the door.

Thankfully, the house is fine, except for a few broken windows in the attic and the front storm door. The trees on the other hand, did not make it. But we are all convinced that God had his hand on the house. All the trees on the north side of the house are snapped. The big maple in the back snapped at the ground and we've already seen the buildings that were demolished on the south side of the house.

The storm came on so fast that there was no warning at all. Shelly said she and the kids were on the landing to the basement when she heard a loud crash that was either the shed coming down or the grain bin landing in the yard. If the tornado had hit the house, they wouldn't have made it downstairs in time.

We are all so thankful for God's protection over them. The cleanup will be tough, but it'll get done. Todd had lots of brothers and friends cutting up trees yesterday. I'm sure there will be more days like that in the near future. Abby, my niece, is still a little shaken up by the whole thing. She told me yesterday that she's afraid to sleep at her house. I'm not certain how last night went for her, so please pray for her and her family to have a return to normal quickly.

My Grandpa

My Dad sent me an email this morning. My Grandpa fell twice yesterday and was found the second time by his neighbors who called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. My Dad lost his Mom at the beginning of the year so he seems to be pretty broken up.

The kids and I were just talking yesterday about how blessed they are to have 4 living Great-Grandparents. Hopefully, my Grandpa will recover soon, but he's got some pre-existing heart problems. Anyway, we'd appreciate all your prayers for my Grandpa and my Dad. Thanks.

Thanks

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Jadon. His surgery was this morning and it went very well. After having yucky, full-feeling ears myself for the last week, I really feel for the guy having both ears infected for months at a time. Not fun. Hopefully, this will help him feel a lot better, although right now he's feeling pretty crabby.

Another bout with ear infections

As most of you know, Jadon and Micah have both had tubes in their ears at one time or another. Jadon had his put in about 18 months ago. The idea is that some kids' Eustachian tubes are not long enough or have enough to drain properly. A surgeon puts tubes into their eardrums to allow fluid to drain and prevent pressure from building and perforating the eardrum as well as minimizing the ability of bacteria to grow in the ear canal. They typically fall out as the child grows sometime between one and two years after placement.

Some kids respond so well, they never have another ear infection. My boys have not done quite that well, but when they go from constant ear infections with no relief to occasional ear infections that respond well to antibiotics, who can complain? However, about two months ago, Jadon came down with a raging ear infection that was unresponsive to antibiotics. We saw his ENT physician on Monday, and she confirmed my fear. One tube is out completely and the other is only partially in the eardrum, rendering it completely ineffective. So Jadon is going to have 2 new tubes put in a couple weeks from now, as well as having his adenoids removed.

I'm so thankful for the doctors that we have right now. His ENT works closely with an audiologist who sees each child with ear infections before and after surgery. Jadon's hearing is poor right now, which is to be expected and hopefully will be rectified by the surgery. But the audiologist always does a baseline reading and explains it thoroughly. That way, if we have concerns about his hearing sometime in the future, we can have a better idea of the reason for any hearing difficulties as well as whether we should expect improvement.

As I write this, I'm reminded of how blessed we are to have a pediatrician who has taken our concerns so seriously. Jadon had his tubes put in after 4 infections, rather than 13 that Micah had. The last 6 weeks or so of not feeling well, Jadon has remained a pretty happy, loving little guy, despite the pain he has had to be in. He'll probably have the infection right up until surgery, when they'll clean everything out. I can't stop thinking of how God has protected his hearing by providing such excellent physicians. Many times, kids with repeated unresolved ear infections wind up with scar tissue in their ears and resulting in hearing loss. Thankfully, that has not been the case for my boys. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for surgery. It's not anything new to us, but that doesn't keep it from been a little unnerving.

We'll keep you posted.

Day 3 post-T&A

Micah was surprisingly active and upbeat after his surgery. But I really thought the next couple of days might prove to be a little more difficult once his throat started healing. Much to my pleasant surprise, he has continued to be active and happy, only telling me his throat hurts when he doesn't get his way. I'd say that's pretty typical 4 year old behavior with or without surgery. Thank you so much for all your prayers.

They're gone??

Last night, after dropping Chloe and JJ off at Grandma Ellen's for the night, Kevin and I took Micah to my Grandma's house before surgery today. We stopped for dinner at Micah's choice, Mickey D's (with a playplace). He of course got a happy meal with chocolate milk before spending more than half an hour playing in the playground.

This morning, we left GG's house at 6am. Short talk in the car about what will happen at the hospital. At the hospital by 7. Dressed and ready for surgery at 7:30. They even gave him a bear with its very own hospital gown.

Surgery went great, the nurses and doctors all thought he was adorable. He was incredibly cranky coming out of anesthesia, but no more than you might expect from a 4yo. Lots and lots of popsicles and ice cream.



On the way home, Kevin made a comment about Micah getting his tonsils out and Micah turned to me to say, "They're gone?"

He's doing great, didn't even want to take a nap. Hopefully he'll continue to feel well even as he starts to heal. Thanks to everyone for praying!

Micah Update

Micah finally saw the second ENT last week in Springfield. She actually said his tonsils are weird. They're not huge, very large, but not huge. But they are weird. They apparently are a strange shape, not round, and have extra folds on them that can catch food and cause him to gag. That also explains why their size varies from day to day. So she scheduled him for a T&A (take 'em out) in November. The other day we got a call from her office saying there was a cancelation for this Tuesday and Micah's surgery was moved up.

So Monday night, we're going to my Grandma's so we can be closer to the hospital. Micah has to be there at 7am for surgery at 8:30. Please pray for us and the doctors. I realize the T&A is pretty routine, but it's still surgery and still a little scary for this mama. I'll keep you all posted after the surgery.

Yes, I must be crazy

So many of you know this by now, but for those of you in internet land who don't, I have another baby in my tummy! At least that's what we tell the kids. Not exactly anatomically correct, but it'll do. Anyway, somehow, in the next almost nine months we're going to try to cram one more person into this teeny, tiny little house. Sounds like a great plan, huh?

So if any of you know of anyone, say, giving away houses with many, many bedrooms, just let them know we could be talked into taking it off their hands.

Seriously, we are very happy and we'll just continue to trust in God's sovereignty to provide for us whether that's here, or somewhere else.

On a different note, please pray for Micah and me tomorrow. He has an appointment with another ENT tomorrow. The drive is a little more than 2 hours one way, so it'll be a long day. The doctor comes very highly recomended so I'm very happy about that, but it's a long drive so we would appreciate all the prayers we can get.

Around and Around again

So we're back at it again. The sick parade, I mean. Jadon seems to be cured of his poopy problem. We're back to 3-4 a day instead of 7 nasty stinkies. You're probably all thinking "3 or 4?!" but that is life and we're happy to live it. Funny thing was, he needed more fat in his diet. I know, it doesn't make sense, but that's what it is. But anyway, now we've got more sickies runnin' 'round. JJ had a couple days of 103 degree fever. Then it was on to Micah, who we actually thought had strep, but it turns out is the same old virus as Jadon. Now Chloe seems to be feeling pretty off, headache and fever and such. They're surprisingly upbeat when you pump them full of Tylenol and Motrin. So we're hanging out at home for a few days anyway. At least it's a pretty calm week this week. Please pray for my kids.

Oh, and my van has no air conditioning, pray for me too. I don't think we're gonna pay $700 for new air, so until we can afford a new vehicle we're down to suffering through the heat if Kevin and I need a car on the same day. Not too bad this week, since we're not going anywhere anyway, but it may get pretty un-fun for the next couple of months.

(Hopefully we'll be all up and around soon and I can get to takin' some more pictures. You're probably all going through withdrawals right about now.)