Life as a Leach

Abby's got a great group of friends.  We just love them!! Oh Tori...dabbing...

Enjoy the recap of Abby's mermaid party! We had it at our church at the last minute in order to keep our house germ-free for Abby.  It ended up working really well because we could spread out and use multiple rooms. The food set-up Sand and Sea cupcakes with sugar shells and candy pearls Party favors:  sand buckets, glow stick tritons, goldfish, and sand castle suncatcher paint sets We had a separate room set up with the crafts!  The kids made mermaid shell necklaces and sand art dolphins.   Matt decided to take on the sand art by himself!  Crazy man!  :)  I joined him when we finished the mermaid shell necklaces.  After we ate some snacks, we went on a treasure hunt!  Caleb and Sara hid the clues ahead of time and the kids just loved going around the children's wing trying to find the next clue! Abby found the treasure! The treas...

My Sweet Abby Joy, This has been quite a year for you!  You finished pre-k, started kindergarten, and grew up so much!  I can't believe you are 6.  But then again, you're as sassy as a teenager!  As we've said, you are 6 going on 16!  You've certainly got the eye roll down. I love your personality--every single sassy ounce of it!  You say some of the funniest things!  But I love your character even more.  You are such a helpful girl.  You love to help me make dinner, clean the house, and put laundry away!  Just the other day, Caleb found you cleaning the bathroom with Lysol Wipes just to make your family happy!  When you do get yourself in trouble, you are so remorseful and sad that you made us upset.  You have such a sweet heart, which is evident in the way you love babies, animals, and your family! It has been another year of lots of medical stuff.  You've had 4 surgeries in the last year.  One major surge...

I really do! Yesterday, after I finished making Abby's seashell cupcakes for her birthday party, Caleb said, "Mom, you do the best parties.  I love how hard you work to make them nice!"  I told him that meant a lot that he appreciated that! Two days ago, Abby was taking a long time in the bathroom and Caleb went to check on her.  She was cleaning the bathroom with Lysol Wipes!  When Caleb asked her why she was doing that, she said, "To make my family happy!" I'm so thankful that my kids are striving for Godly character.  They do very well in school, but that will only take you so far in life.  Being a person of integrity and someone people can trust is so important!  I pray that they continue to show Godly character as they grow up!

Abby's hospitalization was fast and furious.  I couldn't blog during the hospitalization because my app on my phone doesn't like the new IOS update, so if you missed the Facebook updates I'll try to catch you up. Her incision started getting pretty red, so I took her to our pediatrician last Tuesday.  He put her on an antibiotic, but was pretty sure it was a superficial infection.  Neither of us were worried.  After PT that evening, Abby got a fever that just kept climbing even after Tylenol.  I called CHOP and the resident called our surgeon.  He confirmed that we should come in to be admitted so that he could go in and clean out the wound.  So we threw some things in a bag, dropped Caleb off at my parents' house, and left for CHOP at 10 p.m.  We got to the ER around 1 a.m., and by that point Abby could no longer walk because her legs were constantly asleep and she was in so much pain.  Her fever got up to 103.4 with another dose of Tyleno...

We live in the middle. Being the parents of a medically fragile child, we have certainly had our share of crisis moments. Abby was in the hospital for the first three months of her life and we faced each day not knowing if it would be her last.  In the two years that she lived ventilator-dependent, we had the constant fear of her catching a potentially deadly cold.  Several "harmless colds" landed her in the PICU, and a case of RSV left her fighting for her life.  Since Abby has been decannulated, she has had numerous major surgeries to reconstruct her chest wall, spine, and jaw.  Just shy of six years old, Abby recently had her 20th surgery.  Her 21st is already scheduled. But we also have many moments of normalcy.  Our family loves to visit museums, aquariums, zoos, and other cultural events.  We enjoy going to our local farmer's market on Friday nights and chatting with friends we see there.  We love singing along to musicals in the car, an...

This is something I have been thinking about recently.  My girl is so tough.  She has to work SO hard at things most people take for granted:  walking on the grass, standing on her own when I change her clothes, making it through a day of school, and even breathing easily when her ribs hurt or she is winded.  She has been through more than most of us will go through in our entire lives. Yet, she does it all with an eye roll and a sassy smile on her face.  I do love my tough girl.