Back to normal? And 30 days of being thankful!

One of these days I'm going to stop saying, "When things calm down we are going to (fill in the blank)" because things never seem to calm down. I am beginning to think, I would not be able to function if life was calm and easy. But, on the bright side, I am fully capable of functioning, although not happily, when life is throwing us all kinds of drama. 

With that said, I'm not sure I should put into writing that, I think, maybe, possibly, hopefully, life may be somewhat slowing down for us. That doesn't mean that everything is super peachy and life is perfect. It does mean that, for the moment, we are slowly moving back into a more, dare I say, "normal" lifestyle. 

It seems as though some of the serious medical issues we have been struggling with for nearly two years are subsiding.  My daughter's health issues are finally improving greatly, and I am praying daily, that they continue to improve and not resurface. We are still working to improve these issues, but we are far from the incredibly scary place we were this time last year, or even 4 months ago. I'm not quite ready to share the details of our struggle just yet, but in time, I will be. At that time, I hope to be able to reach out to families dealing with similar issues and be a support for them, as we found it very difficult to locate others going through the same thing.  Talking about our family struggles with our daughter's health to others was helpful, yet, as they had not dealt with the same or even similar issue, it was very difficult for them to understand what we were going through and they just could not relate. Everyone was very unsure of what to do, and many we looked to for help and guidance were just as unsure as we were about what to do and how to help. Including the medical team we worked with. 

Yet, with the Lord's help and guidance, we have made it through this far and continue to move forward each day. 

Along with the improvement of our daughter's  health issues, we are equally as thankful that our 9 year old son is no longer dealing with the health issues he had to deal with last winter. He was found to have what can be a rare and very serious skin condition, that at times is known to affect the internal organs and other things. As it goes, our family never does anything "normal" so our son showing up with a very rare condition, sadly, was not too surprising. We weren't even too concerned until we talked to the doctor, and he mentioned he hadn't seen it (the skin condition) in 15 years, and that the other doctors in his office had never seen it. Then, we worried, and made the terrible mistake of researching it online. I will tell you, please don't research a medical condition online, without choosing your reference sites very carefully. 

After days of research, I was a complete wreck! Not only were we smack in the middle of dealing with my daughter's serious and incredibly stressful health issues, I was now convinced that my son's health problems were going to be life altering. Even though it really was a possibility that he could have some very serious problems, the doctor wasn't ready to be too worried, yet. Luckily, we had a great doctor who took this on and hit it as hard as he could with the meds he felt would make a difference. Thank goodness they did. After only 6 months, Wild Thing (9 year old son) was much better and now has no trouble at all, and will hopefully never deal with it again.  Though it can return, we are not looking too far ahead. Day by day is our plan! 

Which means, that other than Wild Thing having asthma, my kids are...healthy! 

Yay! It's such a blessing to be able to say that I have pretty healthy kids once again. 

I know many families, and read many blogs where so many parents are not able to say their children are healthy. So many of these families worry each day if there will be a tomorrow for their children, and so many have to sit by and do the little they can as they watch their child suffer through medical issues and pain. For these families, I pray for peace and healing. 

After the last year and a half, I no longer take for granted the health of my children. I am very thankful for the three little blessings I have, and for their health and happiness

I am counting this all as day 6,7,8,9,10 and 11, of my 30 days of being thankful!