Sprinting...

We had fun being silly taking pics of ourselves.
Our little celebration for daddy's bday!
Happy Birthday DADDY!

I love this picture!  Caleb has a little smirk too.  Maybe because of the frosting on his lips.

I'll post more pictures in a separate blog.  It's going to take me too long to do it right now.  Stay tuned! :)

There is much to be celebrated about here!  Thank you for all your prayers...Caleb's nursing hours were decreased as we expected.  We currently have 56 hours/week (which are never fully filled until now) and the insurance company decided to lower it down to 42 hours/week.  Thank you, God!  They had originally told us that we were going to have a 70% cut in nursing hours. But after a long reassessment by a second party, they came to this wonderful decision!  They also decided that ALL of his therapies will remain the same.  He will get PT and OT once a week and ST twice a week @ Kapiolani.  What a blessing that is!  So Patrick will remain stuck with us as well as a couple of our other wonderful nurses.  It does change things slightly though.  We will not have night nurses unless I choose to not have a daytime nurse and will never have hours for weekends unless we forfeit a weekday.  But we are still beyond grateful that his nursing hours weren't drastically decreased.  

When we had the meeting with managed care and the dr. that works for the company, they watched Caleb in therapy, spoke with all of his therapists, and I brought pictures of Caleb from when he was initially in the hospital and more recent ones.  I also gave her a copy of the news story that was done shortly after Caleb came home.  His hours change are in effect starting in October and his therapy will resume this wednesday.  Thank you for your prayers.  God knows what Caleb needs and what we need and he has provided for us all along.

Caleb got sick last week but bounced back after about 36 hours.  He didn't need oxygen or anything...  I've noticed that the past few times he has gotten sick it has only lasted a day and he's back and running again.  It's amazing...and I am so grateful for that.  

Caleb has also been having PT,OT, and ST @ our house too from the DOE.  All of his therapists are great.  He will also be getting a tutor to come into the home too which I am very excited about.  Since we moved I had to register him at the school in our district.  I visited the school and also met the special ed teacher.  Everyone there seems really great and helpful.  They ALL read this blog before I came to meet them so they could get to know Caleb and our family.  (So sweet!)  I really really like it there and am thinking about possibly looking into him being able to go there maybe once or twice a week...(with me there).  

My little boy is growing too fast.  He'll be 6 in three weeks!  He just lost another tooth.  I think that makes 4 missing teeth now.  I told him he needs to smile so we can see all the pookas but he doesn't like it when I tease him like that.   

It's been a little over a month since we've been out on our own.  Brandon has been working a lot of overtime.  Thank God for his job and all the work they've been getting!  I've been exhausted waking up every night with Caleb but with Micaiah in school it makes it a lot easier since I can sleep during the day if I really need to.  Most of the time I just shoot myself up with extra strong coffee to get me going throughout the day.  That's probably not the greatest thing to do but it keeps me going...at least until it catches up to me and I crash for almost an entire day.  I'm going to look into finding a natural sleep aid for Caleb, I know there has to be something completely natural out there and I'm determined to find it.  He needs to sleep.  Not for me, but for himself mostly.  

Going to church has been difficult lately...spiritually and physically.  This past week was an awesome message for us and later Brandon pointed out to me that it's harder when we go to church and that it is going to be like that.  We fight before, we fight after until we realize what's happening.  It's just what the enemy wants and we're giving it to him!  But we realize that and for me, I think that's a huge thing.  We so need to be there and I so want to be there!  God has placed us in an awesome faith filled church.  I know that the future holds more than we can imagine right now but we've got to keep running!

I've been reading this book called "Crazy Love."  Here's something that I read from it last week that struck me and encouraged me:  "...we are on a never-ending downward escalator.  In order to grow, we have to turn around and sprint up the escalator, putting up with perturbed looks from everyone else who is gradually moving downward."  

We're sprinting up that escalator again...I don't ever want to slow down.  No more running or walking for me no matter how tired I am!