Tummy Woes with Summer’s Close!

As I sit and write this morning, in a quiet house (our youngest five are out grocery shopping with daddy), drinking a tea, waiting for Hurricane Fiona I thought it would be a good time to catch everyone up on our summer closing.

We were blessed with two more camping trips to end our summer. We stayed close to home and enjoyed Ellenwood park.

One of them was our annual homeschool camping trip. Several families book sites near each other and the children and adults enjoy a non-stop weekend of playing and chatting. I was able get around with my scooter to visit a bit and enjoy going to the beach but once again, my favorite was just soaking up the joy of being with friends and watching the children.

Our last camping trip was over Labour Day weekend. The blessing of our entire family being together and celebrating our miracle girl’s 11th birthday was beautiful.

Our biggest blessing of the summer was our two youngest boys choosing to enter the waters of baptism, choosing to publicly announce their love and devotion to a life of loving and following Jesus Christ. To have all six of our oldest children and their partners following Jesus makes my heart overflow with unspeakable joy.

one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
Ephesians 4:5 NIV

Four of our middle children. The ones that are home, not out working yet, that help the most at home each day, got a little blessing this summer. A day of watching horse show classes, bouncy castles, puppies, food and fun. A week at Caton’s Island for teen camp. A day adventure to Slashifax. Some much needed fun!

Today completes two weeks into our 23 year of homeschooling. To have this continued opportunity to school our children at home is something I never take lightly. We needed to rework our curriculum choices, with the blessed help of a dear friend, this year to better suit what family life is like for us right now and it is going so well, everyone is learning and enjoying it at the same time. We have one child that is finishing up high school this year, one just beginning primary and four in-between.

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
Proverbs 4:26 NIV

My health these past seven weeks has been focused on my blood counts and lots of stomach issues. My hemoglobin has been low despite two blood transfusions. My iron is also low so I’ve had three iron infusions. On September 20th I had an endoscopy which found lots of inflammation and several ulcers. The doctor took four biopsies so hopefully we’ll have more answers when those results come back. I have had lots of stomach pain and vomiting these past few weeks. Adjusting one med and adding another has helped some this week. Finding the ulcers and seeing signs of blood in both my stool and vomit contents explains why my blood counts have been dropping/ not holding with infusions. Now to figure out the cause of the ulcers and focus on healing them.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10 NIV

Eating has been hard for several months now. Swallowing is hard, I get full very fast and now bringing things back up several times a week has made keeping weight on very tricky. I’ve lost over 20lbs just since June. We’re going to try some Booste drinks to see if we can slow my weight loss. I’m not a fan of them so we’ll see how it goes.

My scleroderma has continued to cause the skin across my chest to tighten a bit more. This has affected the skin over my portacath. It’s not healing well especially with needing to be accessed so often these past few weeks. I also have two with possibly a third skin ulcer on my arms needing care again. More than a bit disappointing. I see my rheumatologist on October 3rd.

One of my very favorite things to do, to relax and unwind was to take a bath and listen to worship music. I have not been able to do this for several months because I can’t get in or out of the tub. My sweet brother and beautiful sister-in-law blessed me last week with an electronic bath seat to use. I never even knew there was such a thing! It felt so good to soak in the tub with a wonderful bath bomb. This is such an incredible gift! Not only great for my body and skin but for my heart and soul!

Thank you again to those continuing to pray for us! Please pray for my tummy, blood counts, my upcoming appointment, our school days, my scleroderma med to work, my skin to heal again and our children’s hearts (as they work on school along with all the extra work at home.)

God continues to pour out his blessings with dedicated prayer warriors, activities for our children to enjoy again, delicious meals delivered on a busy week and faithful friends and family always by our side on this journey.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 NIV