My blogger friend asked how Grace is doing since having her peritoneal dialysis catheter placed and I'm happy to say that she's doing Great! Before we left her doctor told her that she wouldn't be able to swim at all at the beach (not even in a pool) and she laid her head down in my lap and cried silent, hot tears. Then, true to form, she announced that she was going to make the best of the week....and she has.
Her sisters have asked her to baby-sit the nieces when ever possible (which is near heaven for Grace) and her Dad has been helping her do some shell crafts. He also got up out of his chair at the beach and played games with her, which is UNHEARD of.
She's been a little uncomfortable with the tube hanging out of her bathing suit at times but we finally figured out a way to pin it up for her.
Her biological Mom named her Grace, which has been apparent in her life. I should have made her middle name, "Perseverance".
Every summer for many years we've rented a house at Nags Head, North Carolina on the beach. As the kids have grown up and gotten married, they've come down at the same time and rented a house close by. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year...sitting and talking and catching up on eveyone's thoughts and plans and watching the aunts and uncles and sisters and brothers and grandkids all playing together. Some family members couldn't make it this year and we REALLY miss them.
This vacation week started off well when I found my granddaughter taking a bath in my kitchen sink. Can't wait to see who I'll find next!
My husband James is finishing his last week of work forever. He's retiring after a long career in the Air Force and a short but sweet career as a High School teacher. He can't wait to throw out all his uniforms and grow his beard. We've been talking about having him home all day and when he told me that he would take over cooking, I knew we could work everything else out.
He plans on holding lots of grandbabies.
David is one of those kids who has enormous amounts of energy. Not only does his body go non-stop but his brain activity rivals a 4th of July display. A few hours ago he had "nothing to do" so he decided to put a new sound system in his car. Most people would purchase a system and install it. But David, being short on cash and long on inventive came up with something that we can at best label, ghetto. He brought his huge stereo down from his bedroom, complete with sub woofers, folded down his back seat and plugged it into some kind of adapter, connected it to his Zune and spliced wires fro
m one place to another. He could only turn the volume up to 19 before he exceeded the car battery out-put and shorted it out. Amongst peels of laughter from his siblings, he did his best to maintain that this was a great idea. When it was pointed out that having this very large, very obvious stereo connected to a very expensive Zune in the back of his car would be an invitation for "Steal Me, Steal Me!" not to mention the high ridicule potential, he sort of agreed. But for now he's sitting in the driveway listening to Nichole Mullen on volume 19 and not bored at all.
Troy has had a few "lasts" this week. It was finally his last day of 4th grade and he celebrated by having ice cream with sprinkles on top for breakfast. ( Although I'd guess it was no more unhealthy than a Pop-Tart...it just seems so wrong.)
He also had his last day with our family. Everything has been resolved and he has moved with his wonderful Auntie in Florida. We are thrilled for him but his empty bedroom still aches a little.
Thanks so much for all the prayers for Grace's surgery on Monday (which was also her 14th birthday). All went well and she now has a lovely tube coming out of her abdomen...ready for dialysis. The catheter has to heal for at least two weeks and we're really hoping that we can wait till after our trip
to France to begin the dialysis.
For her first meal she enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which has been on her list of forbidden foods for a while now.
Her recovery has been made much nicer with all the cards and calls and some beautiful homemade dresses from her youth leaders, Miss Julie and Miss Carmen.
A lot of the kids who come to live with us don't know how to swim. I rarely have to teach them, they just learn by being in the pool every day. Last year Troy was a little timid, but this year he really really wanted to play with the sisters in the deep end. He did it! Go Troy!
I was driving my son Steven to work yesterday and he asked about how he could earn back a privilege that he had lost. It was just the kind of question a mom loves to answer while she has her son captive in the car for 15 minutes. I started out discussing the original transgression that had caused the suspension of the privilege which led to another area in his life that needed some fix ups and then transitioned perfectly into reminding him of two or three other of his faults that he may have forgotten about. I informed him of all of this in a nice gentle voice but at one point when I looked over at him, this boy, twice my size, had his head down and was staring at the discouragement puddled under his feet.
I said, "Now of course, we could start on me. I would love to be so patient and kind with people like you are."
His first look up was to check and see if I was being sarcastic (our family's favorite past-time) and when he saw I was sincere, he said, "I love you Mom, I know I need to work on things."
Me too.
My blogger friend asked how Grace is doing since having her peritoneal dialysis catheter placed and I'm happy to say that she's doing Great! Before we left her doctor told her that she wouldn't be able to swim at all at the beach (not even in a pool) and she laid her head down in my lap and cried silent, hot tears. Then, true to form, she announced that she was going to make the best of the week....and she has.
