Tomorrow is one of my favorite shopping days of the year. It’s the annual Shoes on Sale at QVC. FFANY (Fashion Footwear Association of New York) donates these fabulous shoes to QVC which then sells them for half-price. All of the proceeds go to breast cancer research. It’s shopping for a cause.
Be sure to tune in tomorrow night and buy a pair.
Filed under Uncategorized | Permalink | Comments (2)As a quick follow-up to yesterday’s post about Griff…
I really do believe that one of the reasons God put us here in Florida is to give us access to the kind of healthcare that Griff may need. The pediatric neurologist we’ll be seeing is in Tampa, which is about 45 minutes away from us. If we had still been in Louisiana, we would have most likely had to take him to New Orleans, which is four hours away.
I’ve always said that - even as I was deep into hating my job - I believed that God had specific reasons for putting us here, even if I didn’t know what they were. I think that part of faith is trusting that God will reveal His intentions in time if we will just keep plodding along the path He lays out for us.
And while I have no idea what His end purpose for us is, I do feel a sense of calm and reassurance thanks to this little signpost from Him that we’re on the right path. Even if it feels like a rocky and jagged path at times. As long as I believe that we’re on His path, I’d rather be here with it all jagged and difficult than on my own path, easier though it might have felt at the time.
Filed under Uncategorized | Permalink | Comment (1)There are times when I don’t post something here until we’re comfortable with it in our daily life. Sometimes I have to live with something in my head and heart before I talk about it here. Lately, we’ve had one big something going on like that, and now I think I finally feel comfortable enough with the possibilities to share here.
Mike and I have each told our brothers about what is going on and we’ve told some close friends, but we are waiting until we have more specific information to tell our extended families.
Several weeks ago, when Griff began his gifted classes, his teacher contacted me to tell me that she’d seen some things in him that made her think that he might have some physical problems going on which were contributing to his slow work pace and his bad handwriting (nearly illegible).
She pointed out several things that she had noticed in him that she felt like were symptoms of something greater. These were all things that we already knew about Griff but just assumed were quirks… just a characteristic of him. And they are. But it seems that they may add up to something else as well.
Initially, she suggested he might have dysgraphia, and as we read the descriptions of it, it did, indeed, sound as if they were describing Griff. Mike pointed out that it sounded like him as a child, as well.
As we began to work with his teachers to consider this, his gifted teacher suggested we meet with the county’s school occupational therapist as it was possible there was something greater. She suggested things like juvenile multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy.
All of these are frightening possibilities. Because Mike’s mom had MS and we know those symptoms, we feel reasonably sure it isn’t that. And most children with cerebral palsy are diagnosed much earlier than nine. But the muscular dsytrophy sounded like a possibility, unfortunately.
I met with his teachers and the occupational therapist, convinced she would tell me that Griff’s gifted teacher was overreacting and that he might have the dysgraphia but nothing else. When presented with Griff’s file, however, she saw a great gap between his IQ/intellectual potential and his actual work product. She recommended we take him to see his pediatrician.
So we went to see the pediatrician, completely convinced he would say they were both overreacting. But he didn’t. Instead, he recommended that we see a specialist. So we have an appointment to see a pediatric neurologist in Tampa who specializes in neuromuscular diseases. Our appointment is on the 22nd, so we don’t have to wait too long, which is nice. The doctor got his degree at Tulane and did his internship and residency in pediatrics at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, so we like him already.
Mike was doing some research online and found some information about a type of muscular dystrophy that really does sound very much like Griff (an, again, like Mike in a lot of ways). The doctor we will see is quoted in the article and appears to be very much an expert in this field. And that is comforting.
We have reached the point where we are comfortable with this possibility. If this is what God has in store for us, then He will also prepare us to deal with it. Our main concern right now is to find out what is going on with Griff’s body so that we can help him to do the best he can in school… and in other things.
And so for now, we wait. And we pray.
Filed under Uncategorized | Permalink | Comments (2)I have all of these things that I’d like to write about, but I’ve been busy fixing jewelry this week, and I had planned on making a new mother’s bracelet for a girl at work tonight. But it doesn’t seem as if I’ll do much of anything tonight other than homework.
We’ve got to study for a spelling test… read social studies… do vocabulary words… and complete a map of Florida, with all of the counties, airports and railroads drawn and labeled. I think that’s a bit excessive. I’m sure by the time we’re finished, I’ll think it’s even more so.
Filed under Uncategorized | Permalink | Comment (1)Happy Birthday, Eliza!!
For those of you new to our Eliza…
here’s her first birthday and my letter to her on the first anniversary of the day I met her… her second birthday … and her third birthday.
My dearest Eliza,
Some day, you’ll be able to read these letters to you, and I hope that they don’t tell you a single thing that you didn’t already know. I hope that your daddy and Griffin and I are able to surround you in such love that you are constantly aware of the feeling of being loved and of being safe and of being cherished.
I hope that we are able to instill in you the knowledge that your Heavenly Father loves each of us even more than we love one another in this precious little family of ours. I think that is going to be an important knowledge in your young life… knowing that God loves each of us as a parent.
Your daddy and I were talking the other night and he called me his little cynic because I was explaining to him that I no longer believe in hope. I believe in faith and trust and generosity and kindness and goodness and love and gentleness and commitment and contentment, but not in hope. Hope feels to me right now like wishing on a star… not so much grounded in reality.
But maybe that’s what hope is about, Eliza. Maybe hope, like faith, isn’t about reality at all. Maybe it’s about trust and belief instead. And if that’s the case, I’ll certainly take another stab at hope. For you… for all of us.
Our lives this last year or so haven’t been what any of us had expected. And God keeps throwing us more and more unexpectedness. But through it all, I am confident that He will provide for each of us what we need to endure, to be what He desires us to be.
You are beyond precious to me. I honestly have no words. Your little life - and mine to go along with it - are the embodiment of God at work. God bless my ob-gyn. If anything ever happens to me, make sure your daddy (or Mandy) still sends him a chocolate cake on your birthday with a thank-you card. He saved us both.
You are this little light in our lives that drives us batty and yet draws us closer all the time. We are yours, and you know it. Griff adores you, and you know it. But you clearly feel the same about him, which is a blessing unto itself.
You’re four now, and it’s a little amazing that you’re that old. You’re sassy and independent and tender-hearted. You ran to me this morning in tears because a character on “Veggie Tales” was sad. You’re stubborn and not easily swayed from your intent. You’re funny and girly. You insist on taking one of your many stuffed animals or babies with you whenever you leave the house, and you pile so many of them into the bed with you at night that sometimes you have trouble deciding where you will sleep.
You are what God knew our family needed. And we are grateful.
much love,
Mama
