Life as a Leach

...isn't it just like God to give you a day filled with encouragement and good news after having a rotten day? Yesterday was pretty rough.  We'll just leave it at that, because that's not what this post is about.  This is about today being a pretty fabulous day. *  Abby was awake for most of my visit and interacted with me quite a bit.  While her test results aren't back yet, she's feeling much better and they don't think that she has the virus they tested.  (Yes, we're still on contact precautions--but I'm determined to go in with street clothes on Christmas!!) *  Caleb was well-behaved and really enjoyed his medical play time with Megan.  She gave him an entire bag full of medical supplies to keep! *  Old friends of ours from high school, Keba and Aaron, came to visit us today while they're here from Seattle.  It was great catching up with them! *  I was able to find a baby doll for Caleb and gave her a trach and g-tube just ...

I have heard this story several times over the last two months.  It is an interesting--and accurate--description of my feelings! "Welcome to Holland" by Emily Pearl Kingsley "I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability. To try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this: When you are going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, Michelangelo, David, gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The flight attendant comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "HOLLAND?!" you ask. "What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm ...

I keep forgetting to blog about the church service last Sunday. I must remedy that immediately! The worship team at our church performed "Our God" as a special music selection. You may remember that we have adopted that as our family theme song and our worship leader knew it! He shared a bit of our story with the congregation, then let Caleb introduce the song in his own way. We had a video of Caleb singing "Our God" that my sister took, so they played that on the screen before the worship team started singing. Watching Caleb sing was enough to make me cry (in all honesty, I cried wayyyyy before that even started...), but the whole thing was just a really sweet gesture of love and support to our family. Looking around at the faces of people in the congregation and the choir, I think it meant a lot to everyone else as well. After all, so many of them have been traveling this journey with us! If you want to listen to "Our God," check this out!  It's ...