Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Ear Tubes!

Well it finally happened. After watching Eli suffer since the beginning of August with the same ear infection, he was finally eligible to get tubes last Monday!

I would like to say that getting the tubes was the easiest thing we have ever done. After all, everyone told us it would be :). But, like all things Eli, it was a rough few days. He had a lot of bleeding post surgery due to the infection and several days where he seemed to be in pain but, was sleeping through the night almost every night!

This weekend, just as we thought things were starting to get better, Eli started crying and pulling at his ears again. I could have died. Neither Eric or I were ready for another round of ear infections. We thought surgery fixed all that! Of course Eli is a complicated kid and things never seem to come easy for him :(

Thankfully we still had some of the drops left that we were given after surgery so we started those back up again and he seems to be feeling better for the time being.

Here are a few pictures from the day:


Everyone is looking exhausted :)

Trying to calm the hungry Eli down with the cool bubble wall.

yeah Mommy, I know I am cute! But why am I in this white gown?!


Right on schedule!

Heading into surgery

In recovery and for the first time, didn't want anything to do with Mommy!

Still looking sweet as ever :)


Thursday, October 4, 2012

Random Acts of Kindness: Ambushed with Love

I have been trying to write this post for days now but for one of the very first time in my life, I was nearly speechless.

The last two months have been hard for our family. Really hard. Eli has been fighting the same ear infection since August. We have been at the pediatricians office so many times it's almost comical. With each antibiotic prescribed, Eli wasn't getting better. Even the series of shots that works on 99% of kids didn't work for our Eli.

Even though we left Eli's pediatricians office with a referral to an ENT I became (as usual) a worried, hot mess. How could my baby be so resistant to antibiotics? Especially since Eli had never had an antibiotic prior to August.

It seemed like everything had suddenly become so hard again. Eli's sleepless nights were wearing on us, the 2,3, & sometimes 4 doctors appointments a week were wearing me out, on top of both Eric and Isabel getting sick during the same time period, was enough to send me over the edge.

Even Puppy doesn't make me happy...


I remember when I could breathe...

Eric and I have been talking a lot recently about how we have been feeling really called as a family to live our life more openly. To live with transparency. To share our struggles with our friends. Not in a whiny, feel sorry for us kind of way, but as a way to go deeper with our friends. Get beyond the surface and really dig in deep with our community. So, the next day I sent out an email to my girls smallgroup asking for prayer.

Almost immediately my girls stepped up. My inbox filled with such amazing words of encouragement. The load was noticibly lighter. My friends were carrying part of our burden.

For instance, when I called to schedule Eli's appointment for the ENT the following day, we were "randomly" assigned to one of the best ENT's in the entire country, Dr. Myer III. He is actually the president of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology. Can you believe our luck?!

Actually, there was no luck about it. I have no doubt getting an appointment with Dr. Myer was a direct result of the prayers we received. One day, I am going to learn to trust that God has Eli under control :).

For a few days things looked like they were getting back to normal.  Eli had healed from his ear infection when we saw Dr. Myer.  And we were able to schedule surgery for tubes.

Unfortunately it wasn't to last.

Fast forward to Sunday. Eli had been sick all weekend. Throwing up more than Eric and I had ever seen. So sick that we canceled most of our plans for the weekend.  But since we already had a babysitter lined up (who also works at Children's Hospital so she isn't afraid of germs) we decided to head to our couples small group. 

To be honest, I think we were both feeling relieved to get out of the house for a little bit.

By the end of the night my phone was filling with text messages from my girls, asking how I was holding up, seeing what I was up to, etc. I even mentioned to Eric how weird I thought it was that they were all texting me within minutes of each other... They must really think I am really about to go over the edge! HA!

Little did I know, we were about to ambushed with the most awesome, over the top, act of love, that anyone has ever done for our family.

When Eric and I got home and walked into the house we were greeted by a kitchen full of my very closest friends. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture of all of them standing there! I blame being completely overwhelmed and a little confused.)

My girls had gotten together to cook and prepare meals & wine :) for our family for  the next ten days! Look at all this food!



They even made some of the food Eli might be able to eat lactose/dairy free so little man wouldn't get sick :) That's love :)


Eric and I are still blown away by what these girls did for us. Words will never be able to adequately describe the depth of our appreciation. 

But this is what it looks like to be part of God's Kingdom, and part of a community who loves you.  And it's why we try to lead our lives as openly as possible, and to invite other people into our story.  How can you not experience something like this and not be changed?

You can't.  And that's what God has been up to this whole time.

Ami, Andrea, Angel, Gina, & Jes, our lives are better for having you in it. You girls are truly a gift from God and I am so proud to be doing life with you guys! You guys are the living definition of what it means to be the hands of feet of God. Thank you for helping to carry our family and for loving us so much. XOXO