Skip to main content

Poor sick Gracie!


(Multi-tasking is my middle name! Two snuggle bugs often need my attention at the same time, like at this bridal shower a few weeks ago!!)


Gracie is recovering well from the surgery after a miserable weekend. She is apparently allergic to codeine so she spent the entire weekend without adequate pain control at home and was so extremely itchy that she scratched herself bloody. (we can't give benadryl because it lowers the seizure threshold so she would be more likely to have a seizure.)

By Sunday night, I was really struggling with not being able to help my sweet miserable daughter who was arching and whining and fussing constantly. I realized, as I broke down and Josh sent me to bed, that I hadn't slept more than a few hours since Wednesday! I slept 12 hours, Gracie (mercifully) slept all night, and I went to work all day Monday. Monday night Gracie developed a fever above 103 that took hours to get down with tylenol, motrin, washcloths, and pacing our tiny living room with Gracie stripped to her diaper trying to cool her down (without waking up Josh and Ana with her fussing). By 5:00am, when Gracie finally fell asleep and I lay next to her waiting for a seizure from the fever (which she never had!! wow!!!), I realized that I was going to call in my first "sick day" to work so that I could take Gracie to the doctor's without bothering Josh who is completely swamped with his seminary courses this semester (Hebrew and Hermeneutics) on top of preaching, teaching, leading the music team, and discipling!

My worries about a post-operative complication were quickly dissolved when the doctor found a nasty ear infection! horray for ear infections! Just amoxicillin and we're on our way! (who's ever been happy to have an ear infection?!)

Today, I got to be "the doctor" for Gracie's preschool class as part of their "community helpers" series! It was so fun to go in dressed as the doctor that I am and talk to a class of 4 and 5 year olds! The best question I had, though, was from a kiddo who said, "If you're Gracie's mommy, why is your skin white and her skin brown?" I love it! :) All the adults loved it and were smiling as I got to explain adoption to the kids and when I said that Gracie was born in Africa, one of Gracie's friends said, "whoa!" Cute!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d...
6 comments
Read more

New Stage of Life

Gracie has entered a new developmental stage. She now is active and has been rolling all over the floor. We cleared out a little living room so that she would have room to roll around - she's rolling front to back, both directions. She also has been much easier to get up on all fours - it used to take 3-4 adults to cram her into the crawling position due to her resistance. She now even spontaneously gets into a semi-crawling position on her own. In the crawling position she's been weight bearing even on her right arm (but always in combination with her left arm). She also has been rocking a little in the crawling position as if she gets it that this is a way that you can move! It's been so exciting. But it also makes her much more eager to be down with other kids and moving around. She's in a very active active stage, always moving, and wanting to move. She's also taken, not just a huge interest in other kids, but also interest in toys a bit more. She's so fun!
4 comments
Read more

The Foolishness of God's Calling

A friend shared with me how "strange" (and scary) our decisions appear to those observing our lives. Most people are barely surviving residency and then for me to decide to adopt, to decide to adopt a child with special needs, to decide to adopt this child from the uncertainty of Liberia, to decide to start my Master's of Public Health during residency... it all seems crazy and overwhelming to the observer. But what my friend did not take into account is that God's calling on our lives will not always appear sane. Our choices are neither noble nor insane if they are what God has called us to. These choices are simply obedience to sovereign God! We are not living for life in this world, we are in fact aliens to this world and shouldn't settle down and get too comfortable because our joy is in heaven. God calls each of us to "not waste our lives" but live each day with an eternal focus. With an eternal focus, we should not only adopt a child with disabil...
4 comments
Read more