Rest for the Weary and Hurray for Summer

The last 6 weeks have been pretty exhausting.  Not the sleep deprived kind of exhausting, but the kind where you're experiencing too many stressful things, and eventually your body starts to feel the exhaustion spilling over from your mind.  I put most of this on Facebook, but just as a recap, here were the things that happened this last month:

• Joshua's kindergarten transition meeting 
• Several check up appts, including pulmonology and craniofacial team.
• A weight check (following a weight check 3 months ago where he had lost weight and re-inserting the feeding tube was discussed if we couldn't get him to gain some weight)
• Inguinal hernia surgery
• 20 week ultrasound / anatomy check for new baby

The great news is that every single thing went as well as it possibly could have.  The school district agreed to give us all the supportive services that we feel Joshua needs.  We made it through 6 check up appointments without needing a single new test, surgery, med, or therapy (especially when seeing the craniofacial team, this is rare, but hopefully will be the new norm!).  At his weight check, he gained 3 pounds in 3 months and got back on track with his growth chart, despite still eating a very limited range of food - the doctor was very pleased and a little dumbfounded to see this kind of gain (me too, honestly, but I think he had just taken a dip and now his growth will level back to normal).  Surgery is always a hard day, but an outpatient surgery with no complications or infections and a quick and fairly painless recovery is as good as it gets.  And the anatomy scan showed all good news with new baby, including when they took a close look at the heart, jaw, and palate.  Lots and lots to be grateful for this month.

Thank you all for your support through these things.  I'm sure you get as tired of "liking" my incessant Facebook posts as I do of writing them over and over, but the encouragement that people offer (through Facebook, emails, and texts) really goes a long way towards getting me through hard days and weeks.

This month has provided several good chances to apply the memory verse I'm learning with my small group -- "This is my command - be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  (Joshua 1:9)  But now I am in need of a different kind of verse - “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30)

Luckily, it's looking good that the next stretch of weeks will be restful.  We don't have any appointments (other than OT) on the calendar for the next few months.  The warm months are the preferred season of our whole family, and I'm looking forward to having more time to go to parks, wade in the Truckee River, spend beach mornings at Lake Tahoe, and take our hyper puppy for walks.  The kids and I will visit Nebraska for the first couple weeks of July and spend time with my family, which is always a fun and restorative time.  Reno has lots of fun festivals in the summer, so hopefully we'll be able to hit a few of those events.

The other really exciting thing is that Kenny's book is released on July 20th.  I will blog more about this sometime soon, but if you would like to pre-order a copy, here's the link.

Happy first day of summer!