July, Always A Busy Month

I have not written in a month now as July seems to be such an incredibly busy month for my family these past two years. Last year, me and Darein went on our month long vacation with my parents to South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Northern California, Utah and Colorado. What incredible memories we experienced and will remember forever. Me and Darein grew so incredibly close during this time and I learned to appreciate her strength in a whole new light. Up until this point, I always worried so much about her health issues that I had never really taken much time to get to know who she was as a person. I found out I had managed to rob myself of an incredible relationship with this child. She is so incredibly funny and actually understands way more than I have been giving her credit for and she has a really good head on her shoulders. I also managed along with the help of my parents to get her talking more. She still doesn't say much and mostly observes things but its really not from not knowing what to say or because she is shy but more from a spirit that some things should not be said, just observed and learned from. I realized she knows way more than she lets on and it was nice to actually be able to talk to her about these things and now be able to understand how her mind works a little better.
This month, we have been getting Damein ready to head off for college at MU. Darein also had a follow up MRI of her pituitary gland to check on the possible adenoma there. Her endocrinologist also ordered an incredible amount of lab work to check on some hormone issues. Darein is doing good but we have to monitor certain hormones for her congenital virilizing adrenal hyperplasia and now that she has a possible adenoma on her pituitary gland, we have to monitor all hormone levels affected by the pituitary gland to make sure that there is no problems that the adenoma is causing. This is the safest way to tell if the adenoma is benign or not, by monitoring that it doesn't get bigger on MRI and that it is not affecting other hormone levels.
Darein and I also just got back from Orlando, Florida Disney World!! We went on a 5 day Women In Missions Conference called BLUME where we learned all different kinds of missions and allowed us to speak with missionaries and the work they were doing as well as hear speakers talk about being Fearless for God and saw an incredible artist doing amazing art work as well as incredible music. It was a great week for learning about God and participating in a few theme parks as well such as Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. Darein starts back to school on August 11th and so we will start picking stuff up this week for registration and then Damein's move in day is on the 17th. We are hoping though that since he is moving into a fraternity house instead of a dorm, that we can move him in a day before or a day after so that we don't have to fight that incredible traffic going on move in day :) It will be an exciting new year for us as Darein will be a Sophomore this year and Damein is moving out and away for his first year in college. Damein's major will be in Chemistry Engineering as of now and for his first semester of studies he is taking: Philosophy, Pre-Calculus, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Introduction to Management. I think this totals 14 hours and he has 14 prior college hours so if he makes it through the 1st semester he will end up with 28 hrs by January and heading towards some sophomore classes from there.
In the meantime, Darein is doing great with her back brace and we go back in October for follow up to see if things have improved or not. Once they are done with an xray at that time and we get the all clear, then we will work towards putting some metal in her mouth and getting her braces towards the first of next year. She has to wear them for a year and a half prior to facial reconstructive surgery so we had to make sure she had tests such as her MRI and xray done before putting the metal in her mouth. We don't want to have to worry about not getting more important tests done for her overall health because she has metal in her mouth. This way, they will be able to get clear pictures and we get a clean bill of health for a year and half from MRI's or Xrays :)
Hope everyone has had a great summer and is getting ready to be back in study mode for the school year!!