See Teachers Video

Good Morning!

I am back at work after a little snow-day hiatus, and I just wanted to quickly share this video while I was thinking about it.  As part of some promotional work at Western, we had series of videos made to highlight what our school is about and what it's like to be part of the Western family.  I love this place, and I love my job, and I most of all love the students and staff I get to work with every day.  God is at work here, and that's such a cool thing to be a part of.  Watch this video and I think you will see what I mean!

See Teachers from Dale Vande Griend on Vimeo.

Happy Weekend! Jason and I are heading to Prom later :) Should be fun.

Spring?

I had to post this for "history"...we woke up to a winter wonderland in April. As much as I want spring and not to add any days to the end of our school year, I'm still excited to get a random snow day at home with my girls. I just don't think we'll be playing outside :)

Harper at 2 1/3 Years Old

**I wrote this last Friday and forgot to post it!

After my stay in the hospital last summer, I intended to keep up the blog partly as a way to document my girls’ childhood.  I wasn't very faithful about it, but I want to change that.  Life is short!  I recently went back and read a lot of my posts from this summer, and I was encouraged by remembering.  God blessed me all over again.  So I want to keep it up.

 

Today is the 5^th—which means Harper is exactly 28 months old.  This post is an update all about her!

First things first:  Harper is potty trained!  I took the plunge while I had a few days off of school for state basketball in March.  We just put her in undies one morning and never looked back (well, I was maybe guilty of being like Lot’s wife a couple of times, looking longingly back at the land of diapers.  BTW, how many of you watched The Bible on the History Channel?  We have been enjoying it…) She had a lot of accidents the first few days, but came around pretty quickly.  I got scared and did the Pull-Up thing in public for a while, but she did a whole lot better if I just kept the undies on all the time.  She now tells us pretty much every time she has to go!
 

 

As a way to reward her for being such a big girl (and because we really didn’t buy her anything for Christmas), she got a new bicycle!  She loves to sit on it and ring the bells, but she doesn’t really have the pedaling thing down yet.  We’re working on it.  Jason picked it out, and the princess décor was actually his deal.  I am against anything “character”-y.  At the hospital, Harps needed a short sleeved shirt because of her IV, so I sent Jason to Target, and he came back with a Dora shirt (to my horror).  Of course Harper loved it.  Same with the bike—I wanted a plain one, but she loves “Cinderlella” and all her princess friends.  Guess I’m outnumbered.

 

Harper’s speech has also been fun to listen to the last few months as it progressed.  It’s like I have a little passenger to talk to now in the van when I drive J.  My favorite lately is that she’ll randomly tell me things she does and doesn’t like.  “Mommy, I don’t like the Beast (from the Disney movie).  I like Daddy, though.”    “I don’t like the nurses.  I like Dr. B, though.  He always talks to Harper.”  She also steals lines from TV, which is kind of scary!  Awhile ago she grabbed something of mine and said, “You’ll never find it now.  AH HA HA (evil laugh).”  I was shocked!  Then later we were watching Dora, and Swiper the Fox said the same thing.  It all made sense.

 

She is also recognizing things, naming things, and getting so smart.  She knows our town pretty well and can tell if we are going home after I pick her up from daycare or not.  We’ll pass things like Grandma’s house or the library and she will recognize them.  She can count to 10 (minus the number 4, which she refuses to say), say the whole alphabet, and recognize/name quite a few letters.  She also has a large repertoire of animal sounds!  My favorite is that she also knows quite a few Bible stories.  David & Goliath, Zacchaeus, Baby Jesus, & Noah are her favorites.  She is not a fan of the “sneaky snake” in the garden. 

 

The girl still loves to be outside, and we can’t wait for Spring to really show up around here.  Last year she was such a runner that we had to put a baby gate up to keep her on the deck, but now she is doing a better job of staying where I can see her.  She loves to climb and will go up & down even the highest slides at the park.  Daredevil.

 



She is the greatest big sister.  She asks for Reese as soon as she gets up and loves to be around her.  She can make Reesie laugh like no one else.  One thing that melted my heart in the hospital--after her very traumatic IV insert (her first one quit working, then they had to poke her twice to get a new one), she was sobbing hysterically, but she said through her tears, "I wanna go find Reesie!"  She just wanted to go home and find her sister.  Sweet girl.  I can't wait to watch these two grow up together!

 

Overall, she is a joy to be around.  She is definitely strong-willed, but oh so sweet when she wants to be.  I can’t wait to watch how God works in her life and uses her in His Kingdom!

Easter Sunday 2013 & Harper Update

It's my last day of spring break, and even though it hasn't felt like much of a vacation with the trip to the hospital, I am grateful that I didn't have to worry about school for a few days.  I thought I'd spend some time documenting our Easter.

We continue to be so thankful that we didn't have to spend it in the hospital. Every day since we've come home, either Jason or I have mentioned the families that we saw there who are not so blessed.  After being on the oncology floor with Harper and thinking we might have to go down that path, we naturally have those people on our hearts.  We are thinking we want to do something with our girls to help, but we are not sure what form that will take.  We'll see.

We celebrated Easter with my family on Palm Sunday since my sister had to work the h
oliday.  My mom made a great dinner, and the kids had fun finding the candy and eggs.

My mom and dad with all the grandkids--cute bunch!  

Harper finding an egg (and E congratulating her) 

 Reeses Pieces

 Harper wasn't really ready to share, but she did let Reese look at her stuff :)

Cousins!

On Easter Sunday, we had an awesome Easter service at our church, stopped at my grandparents' for coffee with my aunt Anita (who's home on spring break), and then headed to Orange City to celebrate with the DeGroots.  Jason's aunt Helen hosted this year, and the kids had a blast hunting for eggs and playing on their farm.  

 These are all the great-grands on the DeGroot side.  Harper is hiding (pink polka dot coat), and Reese is being held in the back by her second cousin Jacey.

I shot this close-up while we were waiting for some of the cousins to come...it's Harper and her second cousin (or 3rd...how does that work?) Autumn.  They are about 4 months apart and are big friends.  Loved this tender moment between them--Autumn is so sweet!

Here's another one of those two hunting eggs.  

Grandpa Larry helped her find some eggs.

 Lots of cute onlookers :)

And to top it all off--Uncle Gerv brought out the ponies!!  This is Ella leading Harper around on Thunder (or Lightning--there were two).  She thought she was pretty cool! 

In other news, Harper had to go back in to get her blood checked this morning.  Because of the kind of test they need to do, they have to take it out of her arm instead of her finger, which kind of stinks.  She recognized the tray with all the needles/tubes, and was crying before they ever looked at her arm.  Poor girl.  I hate holding her down, but it has to be done.  I told Jason I wished he was home during business hours--I would for sure pass the job off to him.  But oh well.  We go in to have her counts checked every week for 6 weeks, and then we go back to visit Dr. B.

The numbers from this morning were 57,000, so up about 6,000 from last Thursday.  The nurse called this "acceptable," but they would have liked a higher number.  Normal is 150,000-450,000, so we have a ways to go.  She also said that every kid with ITP is different, and there is no "normal" progression, so we will just have to watch her numbers and wait.

Hopefully she returns to normal soon, and in the mean time, isn't traumatized by all the needles :)

Happy Monday!
Abby

Good News

Hi All,

Good news this morning--Harper's counts are up to 51,000!  The doc told us yesterday that he wanted them to be above 50,000, so we are looking like we can go home later today.  We are still waiting for official orders and follow-up instructions from Dr. B, but we can't wait to return to "normal" life outside the hospital.

Harper had a rough afternoon yesterday after I posted--she had to get a new IV, and then they missed the first time they tried to put it in, so she was pretty traumatized after the whole ordeal.  She ended up crying so hard she threw up.  I couldn't blame her--I totally remember how bad those IV pokes hurt.  She slept hard after that, but she wasn't really herself last night.  Here is a pic of her new IV (and the spot they tried to put it in on her other hand).

 

I think I mentioned this yesterday, but I'm pretty sure this hospital stay ruined all future doctor visits for this girl.  When the nurse came in to tell us what her counts were a bit ago, she hid behind my chair.  I asked what she was doing, and she said, "I hiding from the nurse."  Not even the prizes they give after a finger poke impress her anymore. 

 

All things considered, however, we are so grateful to be this far and to be headed home later.  After the roller coaster we had with Reese in the NICU, we had prepared ourselves not to get our hopes up.  But God is good.

 

I will keep updating on Harper, and hopefully life in general more frequently :)  We are excited to get home, see that baby sister, and celebrate the Easter holiday.

 

Blessings!

Abby

Back at Sanford

Hi All,

I am happy to be writing on my blog again (which I have neglected for too many months), but I am not thrilled with the occasion.  I find myself back in a Sanford hospital room, eating the same food, watching the same movies on closed-circuit TV (seriously--change the selection every 7 months or so!), and sleeping in the same beds.

But we are incredibly thankful to God that our stay looks as if it will be short.  Harper gave us quite a scare this week, but we are hopefully on our way to heading home soon.

Both girls had horrible coughs/colds last week, and I ended up taking Reese in on Friday.  They diagnosed her with RSV and an ear infection, and we got steroids and antibiotics, which improved her symptoms.  She still wasn't 100% on Sunday, so I stayed home from church with the girls.  That's when I started to notice something was off with Harper.  She had fallen off the counter that morning--which sad to say is NOT out of the ordinary--but the marks on her body were unusual.  There were little spots of blood under her skin, and bruises were forming very quickly.  At one point she also fell on one of Reese's plastic toys, not very hard, and a horrible bruise appeared on her back within half an hour.  By this time she had that bad bruise on her back, three on her head, and a bunch on her legs.

We went to my mom's for dinner that day, and my sister the nurse also voiced concern over the bruises, especially the little blood spots in most of them (petichae).  That made me more nervous, especially when I started googling the term.  It usually means there is a problem in the blood, which of course puts up red flags.  Reese already had a follow-up appointment at our clinic on Monday afternoon, so I scheduled one for Harper as well.

Reese got a great report on her RSV, but then they turned their attention to Miss Harper.  I think the provider probably suspected that we had beat our child until they drew her blood.  Her platelet levels were 14,000, a low enough number that they thought it was a mistake.  Normal levels are between 150,000 and 450,000.  They redrew her blood, which was traumatic for her and for me, especially since I had a sinking feeling by then that something was very wrong.  The second draw confirmed the numbers, and they told us they would be referring us to a hematologist in Sioux Falls, but we couldn't schedule an appointment anymore since it was 4:30 by this time.  They sent us home.

Of course the first thing Jason and I both did was google "low platelet levels", and the barrage of conditions that pop up are a parent's worst nightmare.  My sister urged me to call the specialist's office first thing in the morning and push to get in that day (Tuesday) instead of being put off any longer.  Platelets are the clotting agents in the blood, and numbers that low mean that even a minor fall/cut/injury could be life-threatening.  If you know Harper, that wasn't good news :)  She's a monkey. So after a sleepless night, I called right in right away.  Jason and I both had gracious bosses who let us stay home from work, and I got an appointment for 10:30 Tuesday morning.

We loved the doctor we saw here, Dr. Barbour (Dr. B for short), and he calmed our fears pretty soon after we arrived in the clinic.  He diagnosed Harper with ITP, which means that her body had an abnormal immune response to the virus she had last week (the cold/RSV virus).  Basically, the antibodies that fight the infection also attacked her platelets, which signaled her spleen to destroy them all.  As Dr. B explained it to Jason, the ice cream factory (her bone marrow) was still producing all kinds of ice cream (platelets), but the consumers (the spleen) were eating it so fast that there was a shortage.  This was good news since this is a short-term problem instead of a long-term one (like a problem in the factory (bone marrow) would be).

They redrew her blood in the clinic, and her numbers had dropped to 8,000 by that time.  Dr. B recommended that she be admitted and treated to get her numbers back up, so yesterday they gave her a dose of IVIG fluids, which somehow tricks her body into no longer "eating" all her platelets.  There can be quite a few side effects of this treatment, but Harper didn't experience any, which we are thankful for.  They waited 12 hours after the treatment was over and rechecked her numbers this morning, but they were not yet where Dr. B would like them.  Her level had risen to 19,000, but he wants it over 50,000 before he releases her.  So that means another round of IVIG this afternoon/night, and another night in the Castle.

Harper has been handling this all pretty well, considering.  She used to love the doctor's office, but I'm afraid that might be a thing of the past :)  She has had some traumatic pokes, including an IV placement and several blood draws.  But she is entertaining her nurses, and I had to laugh this morning as I watched Jason try to keep up with her in the hallway pushing her IV pole.  She was playing "Ring around the Rosie" and he was following her in circles with the pole...funny stuff.  She even got a visit from the "zoo guy," who showed her whales and starfish, and gave her some cool animal cards to keep.  We have taken lots of wagon rides, colored some pictures, and read books.  None of us are excited by another night here, but we realize it could be much worse.

This little incident gave us a very very small glimpse into the nightmare that parents must face when their children are seriously ill.  I think of so many parents I know, including my cousin Neal and his wife Barb, whose son is battling leukemia right now.  I've prayed for them that much harder the last few days just because I got a small taste of what they must be feeling.

We are grateful that we serve a mighty God whose purposes we can trust even when we don't like our circumstances. On Sunday and Monday, when I suspected the worst, I kept repeating to myself, "She is His.  She is His."  And so are we all.

I will keep updating the blog with information as we get it, and we again want to thank so many people who have been praying and supporting us.

Jason, Abby, Harper, and Reese