Quiet week

Akila has been at Bible Camp this week with our church. It was quite the journey to get her there, especially the last two weeks, but the Lord was good and it was His plan for her to attend. I'm not going to lie, it has been quiet and peaceful while she has been away. It was a much needed respite for the rest of us including the kids, a real blessing for the 5 of us.

But I am very excited for her to return tomorrow night to see how the week went. The camp staff were quite nervous about her attending, kind of the fear of the unknown. She had a 1:1 aide who is a young woman who attends our church who will be a senior in high school this year and we just met her the week before camp, but I loved her instantly. This is the first time they have had a 1:1 aide at the camp. Our church does this all the time for Sunday School, but not for this program. My gut thinks that Akila could have made it without an aide, but I could be wrong. I will get their opinion after they return.

I am just hopeful that there were not any major incidents, or even any real minor ones. But even more so, I am hopeful that Akila was drawn closer in her walk with Christ, and that somehow the week was able to have an impact on her heart. I am also praying that she made some friendships and that we will be able to continue some relationships after camp.

Bullet points

I have been horrible at blogging lately. Just been swamped and trying to catch up, so I am going to do some bullet points. The bottom line, is God has been faithful and good through lots of ups and downs.

• I can't remember if I have posted much on Zeke and all of the Dr. appt's he has had since March. Started off with a routine allergy/asthma appt in March in which they thought he had a sinus infection. Put him on some antibiotics and steroids for breathing and infection issues. Had us return in two weeks. Basically, have been returning every 2-4 weeks ever since as he has not been able to shake the infection. On top of the sinus infection symptoms, he has had leg cramps/aches, which initially, we weren't sure if they were charlie horses or what. Went into the pediatric clinic once just to check things out and all looked OK. On top of all of this, he has been getting hives and angieodema, which is a big time swollen lip. We thought these were both allergic reactions. Last week, the allergist did a more intensive blood draw and we got the results today that he is fighting some type of auto-immune disorder. We are being referred to a rheumatologist. Not fun, but good to be in a direction of figuring out why the poor guy isn't feeling well.
• Ms. Kathy, my next door mom and grandma to my kids, has had her double mastectomy and also had her ovaries removed about two months ago. They then found cancer in her fallopian tubes so she had to go in last week for a full hysterectomy and we are waiting for pathology to find out if there was more cancer floating around in there. She will have to start chemo in a few weeks. Please pray for strength for her as she is in quite the battle and is fighting it with the passion of a 25 year old! I'm very proud of her.
• We had the dance recitals a week and a half ago and I am still recovering from them. I am not good at logistics and details so my job at organizing the details and logistics is a goofy match. Trying to recover from weeks of prep and planning and trying to tie all the loose ends together as well as get the summer classes ready, is not my idea of fun.
• Summer vacation started officially on Friday and I spent the whole day at an all day meeting at Children's, and today running from two different Dr. appt's and a meeting at Children's, and processing the info I found out at Zeke's Dr. appt. My brain is fried.
• Akila is suppose to be going to Bible Camp on Sunday for a week, but there is a possibility she may not be able to go if we are not able to find an aide to go with her. Lord willing, she will be able to attend. It is looking like she may be able to go. I am very hopeful. She is very excited to go.
• Imani is going to a different Bible Camp the week after Akila returns. She is going with her cousin and is also very excited.
• We live in North Mpls, and feel very fortunate to be a mere 3 blocks from the devastation of the recent tornado's. I am thankful that the kids and I were at the health club swimming when they hit even so we missed all the drama. Well, not all of it. When, we returned home, Akila went nuts. All I could do was think of the families who lived inside of the "zone" that had special needs kids. I was imagining how Akila would have reacted if our house had been hit. She was bouncing off the walls and our house was not hit. I almost lost my mind. We had to take a walk to calm her down, so she could see it, and understand what had happened to our neighborhood. She was so deregulated, it was not even funny. She always gets like that, when the power goes out. She goes through the house a thousand times and turns every light switch on and off and every appliance on and off and just goes berzerk. Of course, on our walk, we were fortunate enough (NOT!) to witness some looting of a gas station, which really peaked her curiosity. It was quite ironic how she was going on about how dumb it is for people to steal, given her history with stealing. Driving around in our neighborhood is quite eye opening still. Where there were once grand old trees and lots of cover, it is now light and open and very strange looking. Feels like I'm in the burbs or something. Very sad, to see all the houses damaged, and in an area where so many people can barely afford the houses if they own them. Please keep north Mpls in your prayers.

I think that is all I can think of for now.