Angels among us

This is our first year with all of the kids in school full day. I've had several friends ask me what I do with all of my "free time." I keep wondering when this "free time" is going happen. I feel like I blinked and suddenly we made it through the first month of school.

Many of you know that recently Eric was diagnosed with several food allergies: corn, rice, yeast, chocolate and milk. We took him off all of those allergens for a month. In the meantime, he also had blood work that tested his delayed reactions to allergens. The test came back last week and we found out that he is highly allergic to wheat, gluten, gliadin, rye, and barley. This suggested celiac disease so he had more blood work and we should find out soon. 

Eric has been a trooper through all of the testing but it can be hard for a little boy. It is hard to find things that he can eat and he has to say "no" to a lot of yummy foods. When we were at the lab to get tested for celiac, Eric was curled up in a ball on the bench because he was so worried. A volunteer asked me if there was anything she could do to make him feel more comfortable. She got him a heated blanket and placed him in a wheel chair and he felt like he was a prince. The blood test went smoothly without any crying after that.

Ten days ago, David started with a new piano teacher. We are very excited for this opportunity. After piano, David went home and started to mow the lawn. As he passed by the garden, a tomato got stuck in between the motor and the rest of the mower. Without thinking, David reached down to remove the tomato and burned his hand severely. He has a second degree blister that is about two inches long located between his fore finger and thumb.

Brian was at work so I asked two of my neighbors to come help give David a blessing. One of the men knows a lot about first aid and he was able to help David treat the pain and wound. I am so grateful that they were able to help David feel calm and administer to him.

On Tuesday, we brought David into the doctor to see how it is healing. The doctor was impressed with David's ability to keep pressure off his hand. He said that at this point if the blister were to pop, he wouldn't be concerned about infection. However, he wanted to impress upon David how very lucky he was. Our pediatrician is a pianist and knows that David plays the piano. The blister formed on the outside of David's thumb joint. If the blister had been less than 1 cm closer to the thumb, he would have had scarring on the inside of the joint which would have resulted in shrinking his "reach" and he wouldn't be able to continue playing the piano. David immediately said a prayer of thanks that his hand was spared. We feel so grateful that he can have full function of his hand so he continue to do something that he loves and blesses the lives of others.

One thing that I promised myself that I would do once the kids were in school is to attend the temple once a week to do family history names. I've been able to keep that promise. My parents are in town this week and we've spent a lot of time organizing names and making plans for future work. We have been trying to do the work in families and I get really excited about the idea of these families being reunited. David and Rebekah were able to perform baptisms for some of my Irish/English ancestors. Rebekah loves the idea of "making friends in heaven with her ancestors." These were faithful and kind people and I feel like I've needed their strength to help me through the stress of the last few weeks.