One Day...

I have not been very consistent with updating. I have so many fun things that happen on a daily basis and the kids say such cute things, but I find my time is going elsewhere. We have all been sick off and on with a weird eye infection or sore throats. And though we don't watch a ton of TV, sometimes I watch an hour or so before drifting off to sleep. But, when the stations switch to the digital conversion our family will be going TV free! I will try to use the evening hours to update this.... Hey it's a goal anyway!

Some fun quotes: 

Mason (who just got a new basketball hoop): "I'm just making some amazing hoops."

Cambria (actually this is from after being watched by Kara): "Dayoows not nutting to do!" (There's not nothing to do.)

Cambria (sitting at the kitchen table holding Mason's Darth Maul figure): "You a bad boy. You not obey God." (just for the record, I have never told her she's a bad girl :)

There are probably a few others but I can't remember them. 

Last weekend we had a big garage sale with Anne-Marie and my neighbor Sandy and a few other people put their stuff in. We made over $400 which was great cause that was about the bill we got this week for Kaiah being in the hospital. Anyway, my friend Leah found a basketball hoop at a garage sale and Sunday we went to buy it from the proceeds of our sale. They sold it to us for $65 and it was a nice one! Nicer than the one we had sold a couple of years ago at a garage sale for $80. 

Anyway, I was feeling quite happy with myself for getting a good deal when I was pulling into another garage sale and hit a parked car! Instantly humbling! I scraped the side of my van and made a pretty large, long dent in it on the sliding door passenger side. The other car had a small dent and scrape on the driver's side behind the light. They decided to send it to our insurance. Oh well. I have been more conscious of that side while driving. Maybe this accident will have saved me from a more serious error in the future. 

Monday Kaiah had her last Gymnastics class. She has worked so hard! She's a very determined little thing. Trying and trying when she falls. The teacher says she is very flexible, but weak. I wonder if we had her in the class much longer if her strenth would improve now that she's actually getting sugar into the cells in her body?  

On Wednesday, I woke up to find that an Opossum had crawled out from wherever he had been living to hang out on my front lawn. Only the closer I inspected, he wasn't looking so good. His back legs weren't working at all and there were flies all over him. Yuk! Why did he choose to die in my yard? So, I called my friend Anne-Marie (who was referred to me by Ashley) to see if I could borrow her cage. I brought it back and having determined this thing was so sick, he really couldn't move much, I put on some gloves and shoved him into the cage with one of the kids yard toys (which I later disinfected). My next plan was to put him out of his misery with my friend Katie's shot gun out in the country. So I loaded up all 4 kids and my vermin with flies on it, and drove out to Katie's house. 

On the way I started to remember a sad thing. I remembered when we moved to Klamath, I had thought I had a really good friend there and that we would be hanging out a lot. It wasn't the case. In fact, the only time this friend called was for me to watch her kids. My feeling were hurt. 

But now I was feeling guilty. My friend Katie has been living here for almost a year and I have never gone out to see her new property and visit them. I was beginning to feel like I was using her to get rid of my dying opossum. So I took a detour and dumped (gently) the little guy out of the trap in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. He didn't move at all anymore. (I think he died in our car). Yuk again. Then we went to Katie's house to have some delicious hot dogs and see their new property :) I confessed as well.

Then on Thursday we went with Kara and the kids to see the Navy Boats for the Rose Festival. We had a good time. Timing Kaiah's finger pokes with activities with friends can be a little bit challenging. She needs to have a pretty set schedule. But occasionally people are ready eat when it's not quite time for her. All of our friends and family have been great at waiting for her and Kaiah has not once complained that she has to wait sometimes. Like this day when her sugar was too low. She had to drink a juice and then wait another 15 minutes to eat so we could take a second CBG (capillary blood glucose). So I let her eat her cheese stick (no carbs) while we waited and everyone else ate. I'm trying to learn to test her 15 minutes before everyone is planning on eating in case she is low and has to wait. 

The boats were cool though. I think we got a really young guy for our tour guide because he was so quiet, it was like he was afraid to let the other officers hear his voice. I had Lochlan in the Baby Bjorn which is why he's not in any of these pics. Kara helped carry Bria down the stairs. Cavan's questions (for two years in a row now) were about guns and shooting them from the ship. I don't think he asked this year if they could please shoot the building across the river (just because they could). He's so cute! 

We saw an anchor woman from channel 2 News filming a story right before we climbed on. And the kids loved running up and down the waterfront playing with each other.

Then we came home. Later that evening we had a huge gust of wind. It blew all of the rose petals that had fallen off of the bushes all over our yard, it slammed doors shut, and it knocked our sweet little bird house nest filled with chickadees (that we painted and have been watching for months) off of the branch from which it had been swinging. Then we got huge rolls of thunder and lots of lightning as the coming cold front slammed into the heat that we have been having. It was awesome! Cliff said it was the best thunder he had ever heard because it would crack and boom and just keep rolling and rolling for like 20 or 30 seconds! 

We cancelled our last home Bible study picnic (supposed to be outside at our local park) and had the Carlsons over for games. 

Friday we had our first appointment with the Diabetes team at OHSU.  They couldn't believe how good her sugars have been. They have been very stable for the past few weeks and actually a little low. So low, in fact, that Kaiah is on hardly any insulin. She's completely off the Novolog (bolus for meals) and almost no NPH (it's being reduced every day) and just a whiff of Lantus which gets her through 24 hours. 

It really seems like she doesn't have diabetes. But the doctors assure us she does. She is just having a really fantastic honeymoon. This means that after she finally got some insulin, her pancreas was able to rest. Now the cells have started working again and are producing almost all of her own insulin. There is no indication of how long this will last. It could be next week or a year from now. 

So for now, we keep checking in with the doctors to see how they want to dose her. They  have given us some more decision-making power regarding how much we call. We know the kinds of trends they are looking for and generally when a change is needed. So it's nice to know they are always there, and nice to know we don't have to call every day (which is what we have been doing since she was discharged from the hospital)!  

I did so well until they told us how great we were doing and how fast we are learning. But when they said, "You have no idea how well." I started crying. I guess I just feel so bad for the other families who have sick kids of any kind. Because that is what they were implying. That some other families just don't have the technical skills or the medical knowledge or the support and encouragement that we have been blessed to have. 

And I think I was just happy to know we are doing the best that we can for Kaiah right now. 

And I think I'm sad that she has to have diabetes and get poked so much. 

And I'm sad that her cells are dying right now and there's nothing we can do.

And I'm nervous to find out what she does when she has her first really low CBG. 

I'm so thankful for where we are right now and for all of the support and fantastic family and friends who have helped us get into this new routine. But most of all I am thankful for a personal God who holds us up and gives us strength to face each new challenge with hope! Honestly how can people face life without Him?

And I'm looking forward to a place with no more needles, or dying opossums, or dents in cars, or need for warships with huge machine guns, or windstorms that kill new life. or bodies that get weak. That will be the day! 

One Day...

Listen to the song Glory in the playlist below while you read the lyrics to this song.

One day eyes that are blind will see you clearly
And one day all who deny will finally believe
One day hearts made of stone will break in pieces
And one day chains once unbroken will fall down at your feet
So we wait for that one day come quickly

Chorus
We want to see your Glory
Every knee falls down before thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory
To you and unto you only
We'll sing Glory to Your name

One day voices that lie will all be silent
One day all that's divided will be whole again
One day death will retreat and wave it's white flag
One day love will defeat the strongest enemy
So we wait for that one day come quickly


We know not the day or the hour
Or the moments in between
But we know the end of the story
When we'll see

Becky