Summa Summa Summatime!

This summer has been very expected and very unexpected in lots of ways.

We have had some lazy days, some super fun days and way too many super busy days.

We kicked off the summer with having our nurse of almost two years just up and quit on us.

Talk a about a shocker!

We love her and she had become much like family to us.  I (Erica) really thought that we were on cruise control and all was just sailing along.  Until, I got the call from the nursing company that she would not be coming back to work for us.

WHAT?? Are you sure you have the right lady??  I was speechless.  Totally blindsided.

I am currently in school to become a midwife and was working with a midwife and had a very busy schedule.  All of the plates were spinning, and I wondered which would fall first.

We tried to contact the nurse and apologize for anything we may have done, but we got no response.

Completely cut off from her life.  It hurts my heart.  Having people leave your life with no explanation is hard.

However, I am sure there is a bigger picture that we can’t see.

Just as God does, we had a new nurse that came to work the very next day.  She has been wonderful.

She is genuinely concerned about Kennady and her overall wellness and happiness.  They do therapy, read, listen to music and nap (well, not the nurse, but kenna).

I decided to step down from my apprenticeship for the summer.  That plate spinning was getting to be a bit much and I figured it was time to put something down to make our family function better.

It was a hard decision, but I feel good about it.  I am continuing with school, just taking a break from the hands on part for the summer.

We have been swimming, going to the library and doing all the fun summer stuff we can squeeze in.

The boys may drive me a little crazy, but I love them being home.

We are planning a trip out east (in a RV) and we are all very excited.  I am pretty sure we will never want to travel any other way with our girl.  I am just daydreaming about not having to have her wedged in her chair for hours on end only to have to unpack the whole back of the van to get her out and stretch her at a gas station.  WHOO HOOO!

Just stop and stretch right there!  WHAT!!

I am getting a tattoo.

Just kidding.  I thought I would throw that in to wake any of you up that know me and are thouroughly bored with this post already.

Another invigorating experience this month was having a caseworker come out from the government to audit our case through the Medically Dependent Children’s Program.  This program has us covered from head to toe with Kennady.  All of her medical expenses, nursing care and respite care.  It is pretty much the bomb.

I was panicked in lots of ways.  I thought for sure they would cut off our funding and we would be back to the no nurse, no house help scenario of the past.  AAAAGGGGHHHHH.

I am not a organized person by nature.  Having people here to keep me afloat is essential to the health of our family and our marriage.

We have a wonderful lady named Juanita who comes and helps us during the week to take care of house stuff.   Basically, she does it all.  Then, we have our nurse who helps with Kennady.

We are super blessed to have this help.  It is the only way I can go to school, work and be a sane mama and wife, and even then, I am not so sane some times.

I have had friends that say “man, I wish I had a Juanita”.  I just tell them, “go get yourself a disabled child and you too can have help around the house”.   Was that too harsh?  Oops.  It is really all in good fun.

So, the long story made a little bit longer is that the auditor came out and gave us the amazingling sweet, good, joyous news that we were not going to lose any funding!

I wanted to ask her to be my third grandma!  She was just sweet.

You know, the no non-sense, “son, I am gonna give you something to cry about”, but sweet “do you need some cookies and milk to make it better” kind of grandma.  I just wanted to hug her, but that would have actually been creepy and she may have revoked our funding, so, I resisted and instead piled on an excessive amount of thanks.

Robin and I have also been slowly been working our way through a bible study by Timothy Keller, titled Gospel in Life.  Wow, it has been deep.  Not one you can just breeze through and say, yeah, check check.  It’s more like…

Ugghh, ooff, ouch.  Then, re-read.  But, amazingly good stuff.  Life changing stuff.  Wouldn’t want it any other way stuff.  I am sure there will be thoughts on this one at some point down the road.

So, this summer has been full of fun and emotions and lots of stuff in the middle.

If I come up with other randomness, I will post it for your entertainment.

Blessings to you and yours!

+Erica