The Blessing of a Kidney Stone

If you haven't heard, I was attacked by a kidney stone last week. Sounds pretty bad, I know, but God's hand was all over the situation. Funny how a little thing like a kidney stone can remind me how real my God is! Here are my list of blessings which came from my kidney stone.

1. The kidney stone waited until my last night of my week long beach trip to attack.
2. It hit me at 1:00am when the kids were asleep.
3. My brother Mike and sister-in-law Andrea were still at the condo so they could stay there with four sleeping kids (my three and nephew Holden).
4. I brought a container of formula and bottle for my parents or Mike or Andrea to feed Juliet in case Matthew and I went out to dinner while at the beach.
5. A wonderful brother and sister-in-law who will rummage through our room in the dark looking for said formula and bottle to feed Juliet at 4:00am since she was too sleepy to eat at 11:00pm.
6. The incredible tolerance for pain I have from the Lord. Yes, the drive to the Grand Strand ER was horrible. I felt as bad or worse as I did while Matthew drove me to our hospital when pregnant with Braewyn. When I got there, I was measuring 9cm!
7. My most loving husband who did not ask me, "Do we really need to go to the hospital?" at 1:00am but instead immediately began looking for directions to the hospital on his phone. I guess it's because he's seen me in similar pain as mentioned above.
8. No waiting at the ER! Other than having to fill in papers which only took about 15 minutes but those were excruciating 15 minutes.
9. Meeting very friendly nurses and a doctor at the ER and being told I was a very stoic young woman after they discovered I had a 9mm kidney stone and was actually quite calm by that point.
10. Again my high pain tolerance and stubbornness because I was able to turn down morphine because I knew I wouldn't be able to nurse Juliet the next day if I took it.
11. The 24-hour CVS where we filled my Vicodin prescription but also bought Extra Strength Tylenol.
12. God's blessing of moderate pain during the packing up and cleaning of the condo and during the 5-hour drive home the next day.
13. Matthew's ability to drive home those 5-hours after getting only a few hours of sleep the night before.
14. The ability to see a wonderful urologist Monday after being told that she didn't have an opening until August (she was on-call Monday and they squeezed me in).
15. Incredibly loving mother-in-law who took me to the doctor that Monday morning and ended up staying with me there for about 5 hours (and then watched my kids most of the next day too!).
16. Amazingly NO PAIN from 2:00pm on Monday until after the next day's procedure. (My urologist was agast when she saw my x-ray. "That's the kind of stone that has most people rolling on the floor in pain!")
17. The strength to survive not eating from midnight Tuesday morning until 3:00pm that afternoon.
18. My SUCCESSFUL 11:45am procedure on Tuesday to blast that 9mm kidney stone (which was blocking my uterer!) with 2400 shockwaves. My urologist said if the stone didn't break up with the shockwaves, she would put in a coil from my bladder up to my kidney to decrease the pressure it was causing. Yeah, no coil needed!
19. Incredibly loving mom who drove me to the surgery center on Tuesday morning so Matthew wouldn't have to drive all the way home from work to pick me up.
20. Blessing of a great friend who babysat me and Juliet that Tuesday evening while Matthew, Philip, and Braewyn were at VBS.
21. Juliet's ability to drink from a bottle as I had to pump and dump my breast milk for 24 hours after being under anesthesia.
22. That container of formula which I opened a month ahead of that week because I knew she's probably need some while I was helping with VBS, but in fact she drank a bunch of it during that 24 hours.
23. The fact that VBS was going on last week as Matthew, Philip and Braewyn had dinner provided for them each evening.
24. The fact that my VBS assignment was dispensible (I was a crafts helper and I heard they had plenty!).
25. The realization of how precious my health is and how my Lord has each day of my life in His control.
26. So many friends and family members praying for me throughout the week.
27. Peace which only comes from the Lord in knowing that I have two more kidney stones in my kidney but that if either one begins to travel toward my ureter on it's way to my bladder, the Lord will give me the strength to bear up under it and the friends and family to get my family through it.
29. Now the ability to say, "Yes, having a kidney stone does feel like having a baby!"
30. The knowledge that no, I'm not pregnant as they give all women of child-bearing age a pregnancy test before administering anesthesia!

Busy June, Part 2

The first weekend of June was action-packed! It actually started on Thursday night with the kids' StarMakers dance and tumbling rehearsal. Philip did really well going through his routine with his class on the big stage of a local college's auditorium. Driving there, Braewyn was saying she wasn't doing the recital. Should have heeded this as actual advice. I played the encouraging mom card and told her all the reasons it was going to be so much fun. I did get her in her recital outfit but then ended up sitting back stage with her trying my best to help her gain confidence. So that was Thursday.

Friday morning was the last day of Preschool Science Camp (remember I held a baby snake? If not, see below.), but that evening was Philip's Kindergarten graduation! I received an email about two months ago from our homeschool activity group asking if anyone was interested in participating in a kindergarten graduation. I quickly emailed back "Yes!" as I remember (or maybe just remember seeing pictures of) my kindergarten graduation and wanted the same for Philip. Philip is a tough guy with a kind heart, but it turned out the graduating class would be him and five girls! He's ok with that as it was the same way in his tumbling class! Any way here are the photos to recap the evening.

Proud parents and the happy graduate.

Silly group shot before the processional. Yes, we had "Pomp and Circumstance" playing!

Looking very studious on stage.

I presented Philip with the Milky Way award (each parent chose a candy bar award that suited their child) for his love of science and because he pretended to be Luke Skywalker often during school.

During the student moment, Philip describes a drawing he made of two boats, one from the Revolutionary War period and the other from World War I.

A shot of a composite photo of the graduates Matthew helped me work into a DVD slide show for the graduation. Each parent sent me photos of their child from birth to current day. It was set to music and very emotional. These kids are only 6 and we're already tearing up about how old they're getting!

I presented Philip with his diploma.

The LINK Homeschool Graduating Class of 2011!

So next came Saturday morning and Braewyn surprised us by acting excited to get into her dance recital outfit. She let me do her hair and put a little blush and lipstick on. She makes a beautiful little ballerina.

However those are the last pictures we have of Braewyn in her outfit. Matthew had the camera in the audience when it was show time but here's how it went down. We kept Braewyn in the audience with us until 10 acts before her group was to go on. At that time, I walked her to the "Ready Room" (aka holding room) and met up with another mom and some of the girls from her class. A few minutes later, her class was called and we waited in the line that wrapped around the back of the stage. Just as her class was to be waiting backstage just behind the curtain, I told her it was time for me to go back around the back of the stage so I could be waiting behind her teacher, Miss Jordan, and all she needed to do was walk across the stage and stand beside me behind the curtain. At this point, if she did that I would be happy. I turned and ran for the hills. Matthew said he could hear her crying even before seeing her on stage! I should have told the women ushering the kids on stage to let her go first but instead they planted her on an "x" on the stage. She was bawling! I tried to motion to Jordan who was getting the girls in a straight line. A moment later, she heard Braewyn, walked to her, picked her up, and carried her to me behind the curtain. Braewyn settled down but wouldn't dance one step. I really don't blame her as I'm not a fan of being on stage myself. Chalk that one up to experience. However, we'll probably let her take ballet/tap again next year as she LOVES Jordan and must do very well in class. Jordan actually chose Braewyn as Star Student from the class for which she received a medal! Yeah, Braewyn! If she says no to the recital, fine by me. It saves us $100!

Philip's tumbling group performed about 45 minutes later. He did great and didn't appear nervous one bit even though later he told us he was a little. Philip even directed a few of the younger ones in his group to their spot on stage when they got mixed up. Such a big helper!

Here he is rolling backwards over a huge cylinder.

Skipping off the stage!

Matthew and I decided together that we would spare Braewyn any more agony and leave after Philip's routine was over. Braewyn's class actually still had their ballet piece but we were placing our money on her crying again. It was an easy decision to make as the truck was loaded up and we were BEACH BOUND! Yes, driving 4 1/2 hours to North Myrtle Beach made for the last portion of our busy June weekend. And beach pictures are up next on the blog. Stay tuned...

Busy June, Part 1

We wrapped up Philip's Kindergarten year on May 25. It was just a few days and then our summer activities began. Philip attended our local science center's Preschool Summer Camp when he was 3 and 4. Braewyn and I toddled around the grass outside or wandered through the next door art museum. This summer, I thought it would be great for Braewyn to have her own Science Camp experience. Well, not only did she (the appropriately aged child) go to science camp but Philip basically got to go to Preschool camp for free too as Braewyn was a little too shy to stay by herself. Philip was bummed the first day as I had told him he and I would have a special hour by ourselves while Braewyn was in camp. However he quickly remembered how cool it is and was actually a great source of confidence for Braewyn to have at her side. On Friday, Mr. Green brought out the snakes. Braewyn pulled enough courage together to touch one and I asked to hold a baby king snake (while holding Juliet and taking a picture to prove it!). Juliet was again such a little trooper and slept wonderfully through most of each day. Have I thanked You today, Lord, for our newest little blessing? I do love watching Philip and Braewyn grow and learn about God's world and how their sweet personalities are taking shape more each day.

Big Three Month Old

Juliet is growing like a weed. Not much time to blog these days (a whole post coming soon about that!), but here's a peak at what my blue-eyed girl looks like these days. She's such a little blessing!