Updates and New Things

I haven't written since June! Whoops! So much is going on at our home! Lots of activity and happy kids. Oliver had injections done in late June on his ankles and both his knees and ankles are doing great! The whole process went much more smooth than the first time! We are so pleased and thankful that God is continuing to show us His goodness, and of course to all of you who have prayed and are praying for Oliver THANK YOU! God uses you to heal, encourage and strengthen us!

We have been watching his weight closely as well. Oliver weighed 21 pounds at one point around Jan or February of this year and for the last 6 months he has slowly lost a couple pounds. He was stable at 19.6 for a few months but as of the last week he is starting to lose weight again. We met with his pediatrician about 3 weeks ago and he actually weighed 19.9 (yes every ounce is very important at this point) so he was pleased but cautious. He's had diarrhea on and off for about 4 months so the ped. did a few tests. One came back that he has reducing substances in his stool which lead him to believe he might be lactose intolerant-well, thats an easy fix! He's now dairy free and he gave us a referral to Children's Hospital Gastroenterology because lactose intolerance doesn't cause lack of weight gain/weight loss usually. We have an appointment there on September 1st. We weigh him on our scale at home and a few days ago noticed his weight went down so we made an appointment for yesterday. They weighed him and he's lost 6 ounces in 3.5 weeks, and that's concerning. The doctor decided to do some extra blood work to make sure everything was ready for the appointment with GI and look at any other issues that might be there and he will be sending us to Children's next week to get Ollie tested for Cystic Fibrosis (which he doubts he has but wants to cover all bases, we agree) which can start wth symptoms like his.

Overwhelming, huh? Very overwhelming when we just get his JIA under control. It's so hard as a mom to do this, but something Danny said as we drove away from the office yesterday struck me "this isn't about us, its about getting Oliver well, we feel bad for putting him through it, but it is not about us." He's so right, as much as it hurts us, he needs to be well and though he doesn't understand yet, this is all for his well being.

I understand a lot more these days why being in God's Word ALWAYS is so important. Soaking in His word when things are easy and quiet causes us to have a more firm foundation when trials come about. It's so sweet to know and have comfort that God truly is with us when we are in the midst of things that are hard. Our focus moves from the terror and worry that paralyzes us to God, who loves us more than we can imagine, and already knows what will happen, for our good and His glory. Our focus must be Him. When it is not we cannot look up and cannot breathe and we fall deeper away and deeper into darkness. To go through things like this with our eyes fixed on Him, by His strength alone, causes a peace during the hard stuff, that can only be from Him. We make better decisions and my kids can see that we are trusting God with hard things, the most important. I pray that you see I am not always like that, I struggle with a bad attitude and questions, but God is so good to answer and quiet my, sometimes very loud heart. His comfort is incredible.

Please pray for us as we are going through this, that each person we meet would see Him. And pray that He would heal Oliver as I am confident He can, but we want His will, not our own!
Thank you from both Danny and I for praying, it works and it really encourages us!