Joys and Sorrows...

This summer is certainly flying by!!! It seems like every minute we are going somewhere or anticipating another exciting event. Here are some of our recent highlights...

SHE'S CRAWLING!!! Faith has finally become mobile. She doesn't go very far yet, but she IS crawling and we are sooooo excited!!!!

Our sweet Gracie became an actress last week. She appeared in

a small production of Beauty and the Beast. As the youngest in the cast she was assigned a minor role as a Rose. But she took the job very seriously and loved every minute she spent on stage!! For those of you close enough to attend, she will be performing again in July:)

RJ is just enjoying summer one day at a time. He frequently bothers all of us with his strange humor and loves to be silly! He has also started gymnastics much to his father's dismay!! I tried to ease the topic by assigning RJ to a class with a male coach. This didn't work very well because Daddy picked RJ up on the second day of class and noticed that the coach wasn't the "man's man" that he had hoped for. He is more of the eyeliner and outstanding wardrobe type;) At least RJ is happy!

Hope is her own little challenging self these days. This is how we prefer to see her-sleeping(silent):) On this day she literally fell asleep with her snack in her mouth! We all had a good laugh when she woke up and saw this pic.

We also have endured some sorrow. Our Grandpa Francis passed away last week. He was a wise old man who taught us many things. The kids only knew him in his frailness. Hope had been scared of him lately because of the O2 tank he needed to travel with. This was the first experience with death that any of the kids had. RJ and Grace understood everything and really handled it well. Hope was endlessly confused and is still asking "Where is that Bampa in that box?" every day. She did provide us with some humor when we found her standing next to this is our living room soon after Grandpa's viewing. We hope Wendy(of Bob the Builder fame) will rest in peace!

Hope your summer is as fun and silly as ours has been!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Jay is such a wonderful guy!!! He has spent the last 16 yrs being patient with me and all my special personality quirks. He has spent the last 9 1/2 yrs being the best dad I know to our four children. Not to mention working hard each day to support our family and still having time and (some) energy to spend doing all the things we constantly ask of him:)

It's hard to find just the right words to discribe how thankful I am for the blessing Jay is to my life! It seems like I've known him forever. Since we were just "kids" when we met, there has been a lot of growing up done together in the past 16 yrs. Becoming parents has been quite a journey and continues to be a challenge everyday. It's amazing that the past year since Faith was born has been both the most difficult and yet the happiest. Jay and I have grown closer and have also been able to gain a lot of perspective through this adversity.


So today I just want to say "Thank You" to Jay for being a great DAD! You are a blessing to us all:)

A Glimpse...

Just wanted to give you a quick glimpse of what our family is like, in case you are just visiting for the first time. My name is Tina. My husband, Jay, and I have been married for 11 1/2 yrs and have four children. RJ 9yrs, Grace 6yrs, Hope 3yrs and Faith 11 months. Jay is an auto mechanic at a Ford dealership and I moonlight as a Childbirth Educator at a local clinic and work on call as a birth doula(not to mention being a full time mom during the rest of the day).

This blog has turned out to be my mommy rantings about the frustrations of raising children with undiagnosed special health concerns. RJ is assumed to have, but never diagnosed with, mild autism spectrum disorder. He is currently doing very well with the help of anti-anxiety medication and lots of TLC from his family, friends and special education programs. Faith has had several medical issues since she was born and is developmentally delayed in all areas. She is currently a medical mystery with no know cause for her problems. She gets physical, occupational and speech therapy weekly while continuing to undergo testing.

All that aside, we are a very happy family! Everyone in our house has a huge sense of humor. Although we have limited time all together due to work, dr/therapy appts, etc.-we make the most of the time we do have. I love taking all the kids on picnics to the park or to play at the local mall children's area. We also lurk at our local Target for fun, even making friends with some of the employees:) The kiddos love to spend time vegging with Dad in front of the TV or going boating. They spend a lot of time outdoors playing with our neighbor, Isabella(12yrs). She has been my lifesaver this year, spending time with RJ, Grace and Hope while I tend to the needs of Faith.

I hope that this gives you a little glimpse into our lives. I hope to share more in the near future. Stay tuned!!!

FAITH=Belief in the Unseen

Today was an especially tough day for Faith. She had to have and MRI to rule out any abnormalities in her brain that could be causing her delays. Although she has already had general anesthesia twice, it was still hard to hand her over to the nurse. She was amazingly brave and came through the procedure with no ill effects. Just an hour of IV fluids and she was on her way home.

The day wasn't any easier on mommy! I was pretty calm during the procedure, wasting my time with an OK magazine and some Food channel shows. It was the small cries that I could hear coming from recovery that really started to pull at my heart strings. Faith really snuggled in when they handed her to me 20 min later and she hasn't left my arms yet. I am currently typing one handed:)

I just talked to Faith's pediatrician little while ago. She gave me the report that the MRI results were normal. My response was "Huh." Not what I expected?!? I don't want you to think that I was hoping something was wrong, but I WAS hoping for some answers. I KNOW some thing is not right. I see it every second I spend with Faith. It (delayed) is who she is, although it definitely doesn't define her personality. She is a marvelously sweet baby who just happened to get some extra "specialness". That's a much more positive way to think of "IT"-"SPECIAL".

So now we move on...with Faith. There was nothing to see today. Maybe there never will be any answers for my sweet girl. I will continue to work on living in the moment and not dwelling on my mommy guilt or the uncertain future. Wish me luck!!!