Adventures of the Supersized 6

I don't remember it quite being like this when we lived in Chicago. Maybe it was because we were in a rented house and therefore our creative freedom was limited. Every January through April Aaron and I suffer from Winteritis. It is the neurotic need to start doing projects around the house. Last year was our first bout. Ironically it synchs up with income tax return season, maybe there is a connection? Anyhow, last year we felt the urge to completely upgrade the floor in the whole lower half of the house. Aaron and his dad spent a weekend laying parquet floors, and I spent a few days laying slate tiles in our kitchen. We painted every wall in every room, and added some touches here and there. By the time we lost our steam it was time for Annika's arrival and spring soccer to begin. Our focus moved from the inside of the house to the outside with mulching to do, and buying bulbs and plants. We even bought a peach tree. As Christmas passed me by I started to look around and make a mental list of what I would like to do with our coveted tax refund. Aaron was doing the same. Only as I was checking my list off at the websites of Home Depot and Lowes, he was on the Apple website making a list of computer's and iPods. I amazed to find out that this year we will both be happy. Our return will be enough to cover both our lists of needs and wants. I know it won't be like this every year, but it nice to know that for this year I can get some stuff done that won't come out of our "general operating budget".

TLM

We were out all day on Saturday shopping for some house stuff and Noah was unusually quiet. We got home and Aaron and his dad installed my new sink in the bathroom and Noah snuggled up with Mamaw on the couch. Very unusual indeed. By the time the grandparents were ready to head for home Noah was curled up on the floor with all his critters around him. I knew something was up. He was up all night with congestion and coughing. By the a.m. I was getting Aaron and the two older ones ready for church and Noah awoke with 104 temp and he kept grabbing his head saying it hurt. This kid has had 6 surgeries and never complained. Something was really up. I made some phone calls and found that the best place to go would be the children's outpatient facility in Anderson. They had an urgent care dept. The wait was only 2 hours and within 40 minutes of getting called back I learned that he had the mother of all ear infections. I got to look at both sides with the otoscope. The doctor was amazed that the ear drum hadn't tore with all the pressure from the infection. He got his own bottles of the yummy "pink stuff" to make the ickies go away. Our little adventure went well, I got a cup of Caribou while we waited at the pharmacy and we made some new friends while we waited at children's. All in all not to bad for our first urgent care trip since we moved here.

Now I am wondering if Madie will skip this round of cooties or if I will have her in any day now?

TLM

Annika was dealing with some nasal issues over the weekend. By Tuesday morning she was wheezing, out of breath and so congested I don't see how she wasn't blue when I woke her up. She made cracking sounds when she breathed. My first reaction was RSV. I had her in the nursery at church for the first time that previous weekend. I was obviously freaked out. I called our trusty ped. and got her worked in that afternoon. I was texting back and forth with my neighbor/new BFF/ room-mom buddy. Her son Harry and my oldest Jake are jedi knights in training together as well as class mates. She was called so Harry could come home to deal with his stomache virus in the privacy of his own home. She said that "many" students were also going home sick. Only a matter of time, I thought. I had a flash back of Jake telling me over his breakfast that it hurts to swallow. Oh no...maybe he can stick it out for the day? I was upstairs getting a few last minute things done and Aaron told me that I had to read an email from Shauna, the #1 teacher in Ohio/awesome friend who happens to be Jake's teacher. Jake was sick, but she wasn't sure if it was just depression from Harry bowing out for the day or if Jake could really be ill. The kid is like a machine he had only been on antibiotics twice before. Could it be? I don't trust the school nurse. Long story and just for the record a corpse could have a "low grade" fever with this forehead strips! Back to the story. I felt that I would have to investigate and go from there. I went to the school armed with a flash light for a closer inspection, and my trusty braun in ear thermometer that never fails me. Although he had no fever, his throat looked nasty. I got his work for Tuesday and Wednesday to be safe and checked him out. Off we went to the doctor's office. Diagnosis, Jake has strep, and he got the yummy pink stuff. Amoxil is to children what vicoden is for adults I think. Annika luckily did not have the dreaded RSV, she has pneumonia. Yipes! This is new...She got the pink stuff as well and big surprize, she loves it. I asked about albuterol helping her, I was told I could try if I wanted. I held off the first night, but thought it couldn't hurt and she might sleep better if she was able to breath a little better. We are now at day 4 of germapalooza and things seem to be improving for the kids. Although Aaron could be doing better. He may have broken a rib at work and has been sore today. I was offered a chance to go to a children's ministry conference in Atlanta this weekend. I really wanted to go, for a few reasons. The selfish reason to be able to have a weekend away from the norm. I have never been to Atlanta so it would be an adventure. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to know some of the others at our new church home. But more importantly I was excited to see more of the program that we are changing over to for children's ministries. But I looked at Aaron all sore and Annika all snotty and wheezy and I decided that this is probably not the best time for me to awol for 3 days. I wouldn't be happy if Aaron was gone for the 3 days while I was home with sick kids and a broken rib. There will be other conferences and opportuities to learn and experience.

I was wondering as I noticed that Noah was sniffling and wheezing (poor kid everything goes to his lungs) and coughing, and Madie was laying on the couch with her "I am a tired, sick and pathetic little girl" look, how can I avoid all the millions of germs that are waiting in my house for a nice new healthy host? And can I not break a rib while doing it? I guess I will never know if I don't try. Here is to health, break a leg...er rib!

TLM

I have seen first hand the effects of a transplant. The phyical/biological kind and the geographical kind. Both are painful and require care and time to recover. For both conditions the time frame can vary from one person to another depending on previous health and the level of care. When my dad was on the transplant waiting list in Los Angeles we found ourself in a support group with people at various stages of the process. Some were waiting like us, other had recieved new organs, some multiple organs at multiple times. There never was a clear answer to my dad's question of to how long it takes to feel "normal" again. Do you ever feel like yourself again? I guess the same question can be raised when you transplant from one place to another. Does your new community feel like home? Will you ever feel home again? If you are in a position where moving become a frequent event do you feel home at one place more than another, and do ever remember where your true home is?
I lived in the same 10 mile radius (give or take a mile) in southern California the first 20 years of my life. At one point I moved to the artsy coastal town of San Clemete. I was excited to be out and I felt all adult but soon I felt disconnected from what was familiar and I found that although I lived there, it wasn't home. Then at 21 I found myself on a even bigger journey. I found myself in Chicago. I found a phrase "bloom where you are planted" and put it into practice. Aaron and I put down roots, expanded our family and made ourselves a home. I felt that comfortable feeling of home. We found a church home, and we were put to good use there. We grew as a family and as individuals. But sometimes even though you are comfortable you are challenged with new journeys and new growth. It has been nearly 2 years since my last transplant to a quiet little village in Ohio. A huge contrast from my big cities around Los Angeles, my quiet beach town, or even my Chicago digs. This transplant seemed to be a challenge. There was more baggage, more children, and more stress than the previous transplants. I am a creature of familiarity and comfort, Ohio felt worlds away from my norm. And blooming was more difficult than I ever expected, it was like a new kind of soil in need of fertilizer! We tried for 18 months to find a church that we all felt like home in. That proved to be harder than we thought. We tried to make new connections and it seemed tougher than it did in Chicago. We found that while in Chicago there were few that were in fact born and bred Chicagoans. Most were transplant patients just like us. There was a safe haven in that among us all. We could all relate. When we moved to this little village we found that most here had rarely been outside the confines of this area. Nor did they have any desire to venture outside this tri-state area. I even heard comments that some could never imagine not living any further than around the corner, this is all they have known. And even more perplexing was that some didn't even care to nurture a friendship with newbies such as ourselves, why would they need new friends when they have all the friends they ever had or "needed" right here. Even more painful was feeling distant from our purpose, to serve God and His church. It is hard to be in a ministry outside your home when you can't really find a church home. But like all of God's promises, He took of the details and we have found what we were looking for. Why did it take so long? I don't know, I can only say that it was all God's design. Maybe we needed that time to grow, and we certainly had plenty of opportunity to see what we were and were not comfortable with. We had a chance to sit back and get fed, be a spectator. There was no pressure to be and do, only for our own personal growth, and the growth of our children. As that 2 year mark approaches we are finding ourselves being asked to consider various ministries and we delight in the opportunity to serve, and grow. To be tool used once again is a remarkable feeling. Thus the transplant of these patients has now become a success. Friendships have been forged, and they are being nurtured. Experience is once again being put to use, as are Aaron's guitar's. Does it feel normal? Do we feel like ourselves? I guess I can now understand with clarity when my dad answered that question for himself after his long recovery from his liver transplant. "I feel good, I feel healthy. I don't feel like my old self, but I feel like a better version of myself from what I was before." Me too Daddy. Me too.
My hope now is that while this quiet village is getting louder from the construction of new homes and businesses (like super walmart!!) more transplant patients will be in our midst. They may be trying to sort through it all like we did this past 2 years. I hope to use my experience to recognize and encourage them to find their own feeling of home like we have. May we all bloom where we are planted, regardless of the soil or fertilizer!

TLM