Farm Fun

For the first time in 4 weeks Victor and I are in the same town on a weekend.  Yay!  The weather is beautiful, so we took the kids to a "Fall Farm" event.  There's a large corn maze, slides, tractor rides, etc. 

I asked someone to take a photo of all 5 of us because the last time all 5 of us are in a picture together was 6 months ago and Lainey was in her pj's and had wet hair.  Ha!  (That's the photo I had to turn into their schools when a family photo was requested.)

This is the best shot we got today.  Typical I think!

We'll have to work on getting a better family shot this fall! :)  We all had a great time at the farm.  Amazing how much bigger the kids are this year! Carson just runs around like he's one of the big kids.  That's not possible already is it??

Anger and Doubt

The last few weeks have been long ones for me.  As I mentioned in a previous post a number of people I know have been dealing with loss.  In addition to that I think my heart has just decided that 10 months (almost) after Daron was diagnosed with Leukemia is apparently a good time to be sad about it.  Odd the way our emotions work.  Too bad we can't be completely in control of the process.

Anyway, these less than ideal situations have left me feeling angry at times.  Wondering why God didn't stop these things from happening?  And at times doubting God's goodness.  Not very pleasant feelings!  I haven't really known what to do with these feeling and doubts.  I bought the book "If God is Good" by Randy Alcorn.  I've read a little bit and it seems okay but nothing that majorly stuck with me.    I also met with a Christian counselor to see if she had helpful insight.  Sometimes I think it's just helpful to talk about the way you are feeling.  She had a couple of helpful ideas, we'll see.

Well, I've been following a blog since last November called God's Got This.  I don't know how I stumbled upon it but it is a blog written by the family member of pastor Dave Stoecklein.  He was diagnosed with ALL in November 2011, just about 2 weeks before Daron's diagnosis.  He also went through intense chemo and a bone marrow transplant.  He is about a month ahead of Daron in the bone marrow recovery process and has just started preaching again. The series he just finished was called "Lessons From Leukemia."  I listened to all 5 sermons in 24 hours! Haha!  Only 3 sermons were actually led Pastor Dave Stoecklein, 2 sermons were led by his son.  (All 5 were good.)

Anyway, I find his insight/perspective extremely helpful.  He's a really amazing speaker and I found his sermons very encouraging.  I strongly strongly suggest that if you happen to be struggling with doubt or anger take 40 minutes and listen to at least one of his sermons.

Doubt?! -- My favorite Sermon

Lessons From Leukemia, Part 1

Lessons From Leukemia, Part 2

If anyone reading, listens to all or part of a sermon, let me know what you think.  I'm hooked and planning to listen to his sermons on a regular basis!

There is a little girl at Erik's school that has Leukemia, she's been fighting a battle for 12 months.

The school held a fundraiser for local families affected by pediatric cancer.  They asked all the students to wear Orange one day this week and asked if able that every student bring $1 to honor her fight against Leukemia and also in support of Pediatric Cancer month.  Seeing all the orange gear was something!  

Speech Eval

Well, Carson and I met with a speech pathologist and the birth to three team today.   It was pretty interesting.  He was very cooperative.

I know this little boy is smart and he seemed to prove that by testing at 27-28 months for receptive language skills.  His expressive language skills placed him at 14-15 months.  He needed to be at 13 months in order to qualify for speech. Ha!

So, the speech path agreed that there is a delay.  I think if I had pushed hard for him to qualify for services they would have figured a way to make an exception but again he didn't automatically qualify.

So, what they decided to do was wait another 6-8 weeks.  They said they'd call me back and see how he is doing once he's had tubes in place for a month or so.  If he hasn't made a huge improvement they will reevaluate him and likely enroll him in speech then.  They also sent me home with a "teaching your child to talk" book.

I am pretty sure the fluid in his ears is making it difficult for him to hear and therefore talk.  The chart sent to me by my cousin Julie seems to confirm that!  (I couldn't upload her chart, but a similar one is below.)

Similar Audiogram Chart

My interpretation of that chart is that anything below 40 decibels Carson can not hear at all or at least very well.  (Correct me if I'm wrong Julie, Melanie?) No wonder none of those sounds have been uttered by him yet.

My poor little thing.  He is still feeling miserable with lots of fluid in his ears, low grade temps, cough, and snotty nose.  It's been a long 3.5 weeks for him and his mommy! ( I have a call out to his pediatrician to see if we can't try a round of antibiotics since we will be undergoing general anesthesia soon and can't seem to shake the cough, snotty nose, and low grade fever.  We'll see what she says.)