November is one of my favorite months as it is a month of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that me and my family truly cherish even above Christmas. Yes, at Christmas time we celebrate Christ's birth and yes that is an important holiday to recognize. However, Thanksgiving is the holiday where we get to give thanks to our Lord for all that he has done for us in our lives. Darein was born this month and therefore I feel as though it is an extra reminder from God that I need to remember to give thanks for all that he has done in our lives.
They say, what doesn't break you will make you stronger. They also say, God doesn't give you more than you can handle. I find myself thinking, I don't really care if I'm that strong and wondering why I have to be so strong when so many seem to have it so easy. Sometimes, I just want to have one thing good after another happen and then I will be happy.
However, no matter how bad or good the year has been I am reminded every November of why I am so thankful. The one constant thing in my life besides God is my children. No matter how difficult life is, no matter how many obstacles face me I can always count on my kids to make me smile. They may have their ups and downs and I may have my ups and downs with them but we always find a way to get through things together and nothing makes me smile bigger than sharing in their good fortune and the things that make them light up. They are the one bright spot in an otherwise very dark world.
Darein has overcome many obstacles with her chronic health issues but she grows stronger every day and it makes my heart smile. Damein may not have those same obstacles to overcome but he has his own set such as being the oldest and being a role model to his sister. He also meets high expectations from his parents who constantly push him to be all that he can be so that he can live an incredibly happy life with as few issues as possible. No matter what your circumstances in life are I hope that you have reflected on this month to truly and sincerely be happy for everything that you have. You may not have a perfect marriage or perfect children or the perfect job, etc but your life is the way it is on purpose and for a reason. It is up to you to trust God and live your life the best way that you can, the good along with the bad. Sometimes, it is important to take a day, a couple of days or a week to get some downtime, reassess your priorities and prepare to face the world head first. November is the perfect month for this kind of self reflection as the holidays can be very depressing for many for a number of reasons. I hope you will be able to find some time out for this to help get through those "winter blues".
An update on my kids this month: Darein is doing well and enjoying her volunteer time at the zoo. She is done with bowling now with her Champion Athletes of the Ozarks group but will be attending the Shepherd of the Hills show along with me and her bunch from Champion Athletes Saturday night as well as being in the Springfield Christmas Parade next Saturday with her Champion Athletes group. She will then be taking some downtime from this organization while she focuses on trying to get her 16 hours a month in at the zoo. She doesn't have the stamina to work a whole day so therefore it takes up more days for her to get her time in and with the cold it will make it more difficult as well. She is enjoying Art Club and Poi after school each week. She has taken some time off from some of her church activities as she is trying to adjust but is hoping to pick that up more now that she is taking a break from Champion Athletes.
Damein is doing well in college and enjoying it very much. He has brought his grades up this last week and so hopefully he will do well on his finals to pull out a strong first semester. He is proving true to his values as well as proving his dedication and hard work towards his grades. He has been responsible with his money and we are very proud of how well he is adjusting.
I most likely will not be writing again until after Christmas and so I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you don't make New Years Resolutions try to at least make one to be more positive next year and not to let the little things become such big things. These will be my New Years resolutions for next year anyways as I have struggled in this area this year. Take care and God Bless :)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
October 2011 Still Changing
October has been a month of many changes! We started the month off with an appointment to St. Louis for Darein. She went to see her orthopedic surgeon to check up on her scoliosis. She is doing well with no changes. If she continues having no changes then she will be able to get her back brace off in May, which pleases her very much to say the least :) Her surgeon will see her back in February. He gave us the go ahead to start braces on her teeth. We went to set up the appointment only to discover that there are no providers in the 3rd largest city of Missouri that will accept her Medicaid Disability. There are a few providers here in Springfield, however either they are not capable of taking care of her complicated case or they require you to only have Disability and no primary insurance. That means that our options are either to pay our $1400 copay and then travel 3 hours to Kansas City every 2 weeks - 1 month for services or travel 4 hours to St. Louis every 2 weeks - 1 month for services, or to stay and have it done in Springfield and only use our primary insurance and pay the $5,000 out of pocket. We have chosen to have it done here in Springfield and so have decided to wait until after the first of the year to get this taken care of.
On a brighter note, Darein has been blossoming as a teenager and is doing incredibly well. She has started participating in Champion Athletes of the Ozarks and is enjoying bowling. She gets to bowl every Sunday and has participated in one tournament so far. She came in 4th out of 4 people on her team but it has been a good experience for her. She also has been taking violin lessons from the Pastor's daughter at church and is enjoying this very much. She has been active with her Art Club at school which meets every Wednesday and she appears to be continuing to excel in this area.
She was recently accepted as a volunteer through the Venture Crew at the Dickerson Park Zoo. She applied last year and was denied so this was quite an accomplishment for her to be accepted this year. Even though it is a volunteer position, they treat it like a job. The applicants had to go through an application process where they told why they wanted to be a part of this program as well as had to get 3 recommendations and meet the deadlines. She will be attending orientation this Saturday and will go through a background process and learn what her duties and responsibilities will include as well as attend her first Venture Crew meeting and meet others in the program. She also took a test to see if she qualifies to be in the Ozarks Technical Community College Vo-Tech program next year. She did great on the test and should be able to attend the Vet Tech program they have there next year as long as she finds out that she will have the high school credit requirements needed to be in this program. By participating in the Vet Tech program she will receive high school credit as well as college credit if she chooses to attend that college after high school which is what her plans are at this point. I am so proud to see her working towards accomplishing her goals. She wants to be a Vet Tech and is making good decisions towards meeting that goal. So incredibly overwhelmed at the fact that this child is not only overcoming her health issues but is succeeding in spite of those obstacles!! A few years ago I would have just been happy for her to be completing high school in a few years and now we are talking about her furthering her education in spite of her disabilities and the challenges that they bring.
Damein has been doing incredibly well this first semester at school as well. I got to hear him speak for the first time at an event at his fraternity house at Homecoming. It wasn't much, just a basic introduction of himself as a pledge to the Alumni but was still good to see him in action as a member. He has quit his job this semester as the hours was not working for his schedule. He has many responsibilities in the house this semester as a pledge along with keeping up with his school work. He will get another job next semester when his house responsibilities decline. He had 12 hours of college credit out of the way as a Senior in high school and is taking 13 hours this semester. As of now, he has a 3.0 GPA. He is planning on increasing his credits next semester to about 15 and hoping for a higher GPA. He seems to be adjusting to college life rather well and is enjoying the experience.
We are getting ready to move into Winter and with the new season brings many obstacles for Darein. The season will be busy as she turns 16 towards the end of November as well as all of the hustle and bustle that comes along with the holidays. The cold also flares up her Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome which leaves her in pain, sometimes unable to walk and depressed. My hope is that she will stay active so that her body stays warm and will help keep her CRPS in remission. It's a fine line trying to figure this out. I need her to be active so her body doesn't have time to rest causing the CRPS to flare up but she also can't get too worn down either as she wears down easily as it is with her Antley-Bixler Syndrome. In the past I have given her lots of rest throughout Winter so that she can keep up with all the events of the season. However, while she is willing to be active in things this Winter I feel it is important to keep that enthusiasm and interest up in hopes of combatting the CRPS and problems that comes along with that.
I hope everyone enjoys the change in weather and I can't wait to be seeing pictures of everyone's first snow and all the fun that comes along with that :)
On a brighter note, Darein has been blossoming as a teenager and is doing incredibly well. She has started participating in Champion Athletes of the Ozarks and is enjoying bowling. She gets to bowl every Sunday and has participated in one tournament so far. She came in 4th out of 4 people on her team but it has been a good experience for her. She also has been taking violin lessons from the Pastor's daughter at church and is enjoying this very much. She has been active with her Art Club at school which meets every Wednesday and she appears to be continuing to excel in this area.
She was recently accepted as a volunteer through the Venture Crew at the Dickerson Park Zoo. She applied last year and was denied so this was quite an accomplishment for her to be accepted this year. Even though it is a volunteer position, they treat it like a job. The applicants had to go through an application process where they told why they wanted to be a part of this program as well as had to get 3 recommendations and meet the deadlines. She will be attending orientation this Saturday and will go through a background process and learn what her duties and responsibilities will include as well as attend her first Venture Crew meeting and meet others in the program. She also took a test to see if she qualifies to be in the Ozarks Technical Community College Vo-Tech program next year. She did great on the test and should be able to attend the Vet Tech program they have there next year as long as she finds out that she will have the high school credit requirements needed to be in this program. By participating in the Vet Tech program she will receive high school credit as well as college credit if she chooses to attend that college after high school which is what her plans are at this point. I am so proud to see her working towards accomplishing her goals. She wants to be a Vet Tech and is making good decisions towards meeting that goal. So incredibly overwhelmed at the fact that this child is not only overcoming her health issues but is succeeding in spite of those obstacles!! A few years ago I would have just been happy for her to be completing high school in a few years and now we are talking about her furthering her education in spite of her disabilities and the challenges that they bring.
Damein has been doing incredibly well this first semester at school as well. I got to hear him speak for the first time at an event at his fraternity house at Homecoming. It wasn't much, just a basic introduction of himself as a pledge to the Alumni but was still good to see him in action as a member. He has quit his job this semester as the hours was not working for his schedule. He has many responsibilities in the house this semester as a pledge along with keeping up with his school work. He will get another job next semester when his house responsibilities decline. He had 12 hours of college credit out of the way as a Senior in high school and is taking 13 hours this semester. As of now, he has a 3.0 GPA. He is planning on increasing his credits next semester to about 15 and hoping for a higher GPA. He seems to be adjusting to college life rather well and is enjoying the experience.
We are getting ready to move into Winter and with the new season brings many obstacles for Darein. The season will be busy as she turns 16 towards the end of November as well as all of the hustle and bustle that comes along with the holidays. The cold also flares up her Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome which leaves her in pain, sometimes unable to walk and depressed. My hope is that she will stay active so that her body stays warm and will help keep her CRPS in remission. It's a fine line trying to figure this out. I need her to be active so her body doesn't have time to rest causing the CRPS to flare up but she also can't get too worn down either as she wears down easily as it is with her Antley-Bixler Syndrome. In the past I have given her lots of rest throughout Winter so that she can keep up with all the events of the season. However, while she is willing to be active in things this Winter I feel it is important to keep that enthusiasm and interest up in hopes of combatting the CRPS and problems that comes along with that.
I hope everyone enjoys the change in weather and I can't wait to be seeing pictures of everyone's first snow and all the fun that comes along with that :)
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