When this picture was taken recently, we had a suspicion that something might be wrong with you Benjamin. You are coming up on a year old and still not pulling yourself up, crawling or walking. With a recent appointment your doctor referred you to a Pediatric Neurologist at the Children’s Hospital in Spokane for an MRI so we can find out what’s going on… we have a suspicion of cerebral palsy the hypotonic type as you do not have stiff legs, rather they are soft and not doing what they need to be doing.  You kick happily as any boy would, you always pull your sweet legs up to cuddle in against me when I nurse you. I love your legs and love everything about you. That’s why it’s so hard. We had one of the hardest, saddest and most concerning weekends we’ve ever had over any of our children these past few days. I had literal waves of pain overtake me off and on throughout each day since finding out on Friday that there’s an urgency for you to be seen. But somehow you are going to be okay. And when we find out what is going on with you, I have a story to share about something the Lord put on my heart when I was pregnant with you early on.

[vimeo 173079389 w=640 h=360]
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/173079389″>102_0292</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user36589551″>Hadassah Geraci</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

Video from 2 weeks ago or so…

Daddy took these pictures this time so upon viewing them, I thought I was seeing a sad story unfold. I’ll share what I thought I was seeing and then share what was really going on.All looked well here. They had been picking spinach up at the garden with Dad.Still fine…Hannah starting to look sad.Hannah obviously hurt by Pup’s injustice in hoarding the bowl of spinach. This picture of Hannah hurt me. And look at Elisabeth… you have to know her. Sometimes she can well…  be this way.Hurt turned to inquisitiveness – “Why are you this way?”Pup all happy because she got her way.Oh, now she is going to be good and share… Pup’s terms of course.  ; )Best friends again. All is well.There can’t be any other explanation for what I saw in these pictures but there was. I brought them into the office the next morning to talk about the pictures and they shared that the sun was just in their eyes. There was no problem with Elisabeth hoarding the bowl of spinach. They were all happy and had a wonderful time other than having the sun glaring into their eyes.  If their confident, cheerful voices responding to my questions showed any wavering, I couldn’t have been sold on anything other than this story I saw. But, it was what it was…. just the sun. Cute story anyways, but I’m glad it didn’t happen. : )

I know what you all were thinking.  ; )  You were thinking that my adrenals were shot from having all these crazy kids… ha ha. Well, they are just fine! Good and fine. My ACTH Stimulation test showed that I have healthy adrenal glands.

However, my cortisol levels are still low so they are doing more blood work and looking at other possible causes. I’ll update later if it’s anything significant.

I am a couple of months behind with blogging but am venturing to catch up these next few days. These were taken in April/early May.Daddy drew this fish for Happy Hanni to color in. She loves it! 

I think they both did a very good job together.Poor Elisabeth. This was 2 days after she hurt her arm on the trampoline by doing flips. They put it in a cast the following week and since these pictures are so old, she’s been out of her cast already for several weeks. She was in it for a month. Thank God after 2 days of having her arm in the sling, she bounced back and started having fun again, but in a different way… coloring and reading books. She never once complained and seemed very happy and content! We were really surprised. Now she’s back to riding her scooter and having lots of fun. She still has to wait a couple more weeks before she goes on the trampoline. We will get rid of the trampoline if there is one more accident. They are abiding by the rules now so we’ll see….  : )Matthew the farmer. He loves gardening with Daddy and loves all kinds of plants whether they be bean plants, cactus or tomato plants. He’s been wanting a Venus Fly Trap plant but they didn’t have any so we picked him up a cactus. 

It almost looks native to his area. We have a few cactus up here in North Central Washington. The kids get  them stuck in their feet each summer.   : (Mr. Handsome – Daddy that is…   : )  Lots of little pictures of you here at 9 months old sitting with your Daddy.All curious.Mr. Blue Eyes. Things are a bit slow here where we live. We still have another appointment for him to go in (end of July) before his procedure for his eye ducts.Momma making some pretty curtains. I spied this fabric at Walmart many months ago while we were paying off our first part of the debt. After we paid off the first $5,000, we took a month off to restock and I bought this (God must have held it for me) to make some pretty curtains. I still have yet to buy a rod for it (after we pay off the rest of our debt in August) and I’ll take a picture of them then. …and more pictures of you little Benjamin! I couldn’t decide so I put them all up. You little cutie. Benjamin at 9 1/2 months old.

Bear with me while I take more time to post these days. Elisabeth fractured her arm a couple of months ago or so while on the trampoline doing flips (against our rules). She has had a cast put on and already had it removed after 4 weeks. She is doing well.

Benjamin will have to have a procedure done in Spokane to have his tear ducts opened. They will have to put him to sleep for this. We are awaiting an appointment for this. I’ll be taking him as he is still my little “nursling”.   : )  I think it’s going to be hard and I’m sure I’ll cry when they have to put him to sleep. He’ll be good as new with no more goopy eyes throughout the day and tears running down his face that continually need to be wiped up.

Hannah has had stomach discomfort for the past year after eating. We took her to many appointments and finally they recommended she have an upper GI done. She had this procedure done in Spokane at the Children’s Hospital that Benjamin will be going to. They saw a couple of tiny red spots and did a biopsy but all turned out fine. She hasn’t complained a bit since returning from having the procedure done a couple of months ago.

Back in 2002 I had bad heart palpitations… skipped beats (ectopic) and palpitations. They did an echo cardio gram and all was well with the structure and mechanics of my heart. They wanted to put me on beta blockers though because the irregularity was pretty bad… hours a day and for a couple of months. I didn’t want to be put on medication so I quit drinking coffee and started going for walks and it never has been a problem until a couple of months ago. This time it was worst so I made an appointment to go in to get some blood work done. I thought it would be good to at least have my thyroid, adrenal levels and such checked. Apparently my cortisol levels are pretty low. They rechecked them and they are still low so I am going in for an appointment where they will give me an injection of an adrenal gland concoction to see if my cortisol levels double. If they don’t, then I have adrenal fatigue and will have to be put on some medication – probably oral hydrocortisone. It’s been very hard to live here and it has cost me some of my health.

The good news is that from what I read, most people can start living pretty normal after starting the medication and they usually only have to be on it for a few months to give the adrenals some rest. I was wondering why I just couldn’t go on my walks anymore. Usually I lose my pregnancy weight over the Summer after the baby is born. I have had trouble walking just to the mailbox where two years ago I could very easily and quickly walk an hour a day…. remember my 48 pound loss in 4 months? I’ve only lost 10 pounds in 3 months because I have no energy to exercise. I really thought it was just the no energy thing because I’m still nursing a baby. Anyways, all should be well soon I suppose. I do have some pictures to post here pretty soon.

My good Nikon camera finally broke after 4 years so we are using a cheap one for now as we are only 2 months, maybe 3 months from paying off our debt and all be if I am going to want to hinder that!   : )  I’ve been sewing a bit more lately as I do have the energy to do that. I am wanting to change our clothing more to what has been on my heart for years and that is more of a farmy look. Dresses with aprons, ruffles, femininity, linen and a bit of pretty, classical flower patterns. Since I already sewed up the girl’s dresses for the Summer a few months ago, I guess we’ll have to wait a while before you start seeing some of our change. I’ll share the linen dress and linen apron I am almost finished with soon. I want to replace the girl’s bonnets with pretty, flowered triangle head coverings that have elastic so they stay in place. While we don’t have our dream farm here, it’s still our love and I want our dress to reflect our love for the good things and lovely things that the Lord provides in our daily lives such as gardening. I’ll share pictures of the garden too. It’s much bigger this year.  : )

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well! Sorry for the slow blog posts, I think the low cortisol levels affects my brain, literally.  : )  Talk to you all soon!