Our weekend in review and a birthday post coming

We have a birthday girl in the house! We have decorating to do and a cake to bake. Moira will have the honor of baking and decorating the birthday cake. Tonight's cake will be a box cake, and then on the weekend Isabella plans on making a cake she found in a recipe book. The birthday girl, who is Saoirse by the way, turns five today. FIVE! I was telling Jeremiah the other day that she may be the last little girl we have. We are most certainly hoping for more children, but whether God chooses to bless us with more, and more precisely if they happen to be girls is unknown at this time :-) So she may be our last little girl....and that just about brings tears to my eyes. But today is not the day to be thinking those kinds of thoughts. Today is a happy thought day :-) I will make sure to post a birthday post, with pictures either later tonight or tomorrow.

Our weekend was full. Saturday was the Walk for Life. It was an opportunity to raise money for the Pregnancy Support Services center. They offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, plus counseling on pregnancy options and post abortion counseling. A cause we whole heartily support. The walk this year seemed shorter, and it wasn't as hot. They had food and games afterwards which was a lot of fun. They were giving out this little short book called, The Treasure Principle. I started reading it that same afternoon during quiet time. I couldn't put it down. It was on the joy of giving. The wonderful part was that it brought me back to the days where Jeremiah and I had such a joy about serving others. We have lost that. Not because we don't like to serve, but it has more to do with our lack of faith. I really want that joy back, that first love for our Savior. That little book has put such a spark in my heart, that I hope it catches fire and spreads :-) I will have to write more about it later.

I should have been on the lookout for a downswing after such an inspiring Saturday. And I didn't have to wait long. Come Sunday I found myself in a funk. I really couldn't put my finger on anything. My whole week had been great, and here I was feeling depressed. By lunch time I was ready to go home, even though I love fellowshipping at church. I had Jedidiah in my arms and he started up his new sensitivity. Seems like we get rid of one and another pops up. This past week Jedidiah has been grabbing his feet and complaining and complaining. It lasts for only a minute or so. It seems like his feet are falling asleep. Most of the time though he is freaking out that someone touched his legs. So we are standing in line for lunch at church and there is a point where it kind of bottlenecks. Saoirse was standing in front of me, and her hair would touch Jed's legs. That sent Jed crawling up me trying to get away from her hair!! He was freaking out the whole time. At that moment I really thought I couldn't possibly take on more second of Jedidiah's sensory issues. Please note I was NOT mad at him, I was just so worn out having to see him go through this. I was upset for him. After lunch we headed outside. We went for a walk to the pond. A bunch of people were going swimming. I let the girls take their shoes off and wade in. I was surprised that Jed wanted to wade in as well. I was feeling really down as I had been told he couldn't go swimming by his GI doctor. I figured that I would look up online for ideas that might help him to be able to go swimming. We plan on cutting out the AC for as long as we can and I thought that being able to go swimming would make it bearable. Something to look forward to. I didn't get around to looking up the information until yesterday, and would you believe that Jedidiah CAN go swimming??? The no swimming ban was only for the first week he had his g-tube put in.....which will be two years this August!!!!!! The doctor failed to mention that part of it, and I didn't think to ask as it sounded like swimming, or baths were off limits period. Oh well.....live and learn. I still have a wee bit concern over him swimming in pond water. We will try to get him a wet suit shirt to help keep out the water. Jedidiah's tube will bleed now and then and I would hate for his site to get an infection. Really that is the very last thing we need right now! Until this past month or two Jedidiah has had no interest in submersing himself in water, so it hasn't been an issue. But for some reason he is quite fond of it in the bath tub and I don't want to have to keep him out while everyone else gets to jump in the water. So we'll see what we can come up with.

I came across the name of the 'condition' that Jedidiah's coordinator told me about. She told me not to look it up. And I didn't go out on the net to do so. However we were looking at the preview videos on the Signing Time website and they have a page of videos sent in by parents of their children signing. Each comes with a little bit about the child. One happened to be about a boy that had Apraxia of Speech....the name of the condition that Jed might have. I am sure the word condition is not the right one, but the only one that comes to mind right now. The mother wrote how much the signing videos have helped her son. So I did it....I looked it up :-) And I'm not sure what part was supposed to be scary, but I didn't find it scary. I only looked at one website though. Anyways, for the past few months they have just assumed that Jedidiah had a speech delay. The program that Jed is in tries to bill our insurance first and then the rest is funded by tax dollars. Our insurance doesn't cover speech delays. However after reading over the sight, Jeremiah called our insurance to talk to them about it. If this is indeed what Jedidiah has (this is only a speech issue, not something that will help us explain his lack of growth) then it is considered a "condition" or what ever that word is on the tip of my tongue, and insurance will pay for so many visits to a speech therapist. From what we read normal speech therapy does not work for children with Apraxia of speech. I will link to the site as it explains it better than I, and in much fewer words than I could :-) A delay in speech is characterized by the child moving along in the correct sequence of speech growth, just at a slower rate. Apraxia however is when there is a disparity between the understanding of speech and it's usage. For Jedidiah that gap has been getting larger and larger each month. The last he was tested at he had the understanding level for a child his age (which was about 26 or 27 months old) but only the speech level of a 12 month old. Besides the fact that he can now say the word 'up' correctly nothing else has changed. He will be 34 months this week. For Jedidiah's birthday we had planned on trying to get him some more Signing Time videos. They are expensive, but he LOVES them and they truly have been a help to all of us. But after what we read, signing and books, seem to be very important in helping a child with Apraxia. So instead of it being something we would like to do, it will be more of something we need to do (or get!). It may seem like a silly prayer request, but please join us in prayer for this new avenue we are headed down. He will need speech therapy outside the home after the summer as he has to switch programs due to his age. We are a bit concerned with how that will all work out. Also we would like to get the videos, as Jedidiah really learns a lot from them. We can get a couple a month, but Jedidiah's health care already takes a lot out of our budget and that might mean something else is put to the side. We are of course MORE than willing to do that, but do pray that it works out smoothly. Like I said they seem like silly prayer requests, but all of these things are just hitting me in a funny way. I'm feeling a bit emotional over it all, but at the same time am chastising myself for doing so because it seems so trifle.

We are going to do our rounds here in the house in chores. It is getting close to lunch so maybe after lunch we will hit the park :-) I'll write again later......we are a little birthday crazy around here :-) It is a wonderful joy to be celebrating LIFE!