Rare Disease Day

This is my second post of the day and I don't think I have ever done this before, but I wanted to acknowledge that today is Rare Disease Day. Bethany has cystic fibrosis and it is considered a rare disease. There are only about 70,000 people in the world living with cystic fibrosis and about 30,000 of them live in the United States. Cystic Fibrosis can be a very time consuming disease - especially the time Bethany spends doing her nebulizers and vest treatments. But, it has paid off for her and Bethany is doing very well. We are very thankful for her health and know we are blessed. 

A Baby Shower

I gave my daughter, Katie, a baby shower last Saturday - she is 37 weeks. It was really nice and now I think she pretty much has all she needs. Katie has really breezed through this pregnancy and almost made me forget she is pregnant, sometimes. She makes being pregnant look like a piece of cake - I don't think I have heard her complain once. Just a few more weeks and a new little baby girl!

My oldest daughter, Meredith, enjoyed the shower almost as much as Katie because she is due in June - also a baby girl - and she plans on taking all of the things that Katie's baby has outgrown. 

CF Day

Monday was CF day for Bethany. It was her day to go to clinic and get her check-up, blood work done and do her PFTs. She has been feeling pretty good lately with the exception of some stomach problems that her doctor thinks might be her gallbladder. She looked good, her weight and height were good and her PFT was unbelievable - she blew the highest she has ever blown.  Even her doctor was amazed. He kept repeating her numbers over and over. It kind of took all of us by surprise - but it was a wonderful surprise. We are so blessed. 

Sisters

Whenever we have adopted, I have always hoped our children would be good friends and love being together. When Abigail and I traveled to China in 2016 to adopt two little girls - Piper and Tess - I was so hoping that Bethany would feel close to them and they to her, and would eventually have a wonderful sisterly bond. Since there were two of them and they were both the same age I thought it might be a little harder for Bethany to win them over as quickly as I knew she would want to. But, I should not have worried at all. These girls are so close and play together so much. It is like they have always been together and I love seeing them running around playing and swinging and climbing trees together. Sisters - so close and so happy together. We are blessed. 

Moments To Remember

When you walk out on the front porch in the early evening and see your youngest daughter sitting on the column at the end of the sidewalk just swinging her legs and enjoying the evening you know it is a moment you want to remember. Then the memories of 7 years ago came flooding back. She arrived here from Bulgaria -  a tiny little thing and was so scared and would eat nothing for several days but a few cheese puffs. I was so worried and concerned, but it didn't take her long and she was eating and running around playing. She has literally been a dream child. She is so sweet. She is easy and calm and basically almost never causes a moments trouble. Sweet Bella. How blessed we are to have you here with us. 

What We Are Reading

We have enjoyed reading several books this past month. We finished The Long Winter and everyone enjoyed it. It was a nice winter read though not really cold here. We then read Amos Fortune Free Man by Elizabeth Yates. I had never read this to any of the kids and I found that I looked forward to reading it every day. It was a really good book and we also learned a lot about Amos Fortune that we did not know. We also read Kit Learns a Lesson by Valerie Tripp. This is an American Girl book and I'm sure most people have heard of it. We enjoyed it as we were talking about the Great Depression and this book takes place during that time period. The kids learned a lot from reading this and doing a little research. We then started Kit's Surprise - A Christmas Story to continue with our reading about the depression. The kids love these books and I promised them they could watch the movie next week. We are now finishing Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We have read almost every book in the series now. I think there are like two left for us to read. The kids are enjoying this book just like all the others in the series. The nice thing about these books is that it seems like all the kids like them no matter what their age. 

We did a lot of drawing and paintings from the books we read this month and the kids always enjoy that. It seems to make the book and the day more interesting. They love to go through their notebooks and look at all the art work they have done and talk about the book as they remember it. I'm glad we started doing this more this year. 

Bethany sitting and waiting for her blood sugar to go up some so she can go outside and play. Her Dexcom had alarmed that she was dropping fast so she got some honey on a spoon and then we waited to see if that would take care of it. It did and she and Tess were outside riding bikes and fixing up their clubhouse in no time. 

Depression Era Soup

We have been studying the Great Depression so yesterday we made Depression Era Soup. It was a  really simple recipe we found in one of our books on the depression and it was pretty quick and easy to make. I figured the kids would not care for it much as it seemed rather bland, but they loved it - or loved it because they made it. There were very few ingredients in it - carrots, celery, an onion, and a turnip with some beef broth and water and parsley. That was pretty much it. Oh, and we cooked the veggies in a skillet with a little butter before adding the broth. They ate every bit of it and wanted seconds. 

After we made soup and finished up our literature and history the kids spent the rest of the day outside as the weather was unbelievably beautiful. I sat out and watched them run and play while I took some pictures. It was so nice to be outside. It was a really good day. 

This Weekend

We had a beautiful weekend and the kids played outside almost all day yesterday and today. They built things and made messes and Bethany and Tess even flew the kites they had made with left over material from a sewing project. And they actually flew very well - calico kites flying in the sky with red Christmas yard for string. I sure hope we continue to have such nice weather.