NY Pics

Easter Eggs

We recently took a trip to NY. It was the first time any of us had been there! We had a great time as we roamed the streets, trying to figure out how to look like "locals". Each day we got up and I spent a couple of hours prepping everyone to go outside for the day. As they lined up, I went down the line checking off all the necessary items.... Thermals, first layer of clothing, second layer of clothing, boots, coats, hats, gloves, scarves...then, when I was finished with Blake I could move on to the girls! The scarf that I bought for Blake was a great scarf, but we discovered one problem. Because he sports the mountain-man look, his "beard" kept catching the scarf and it was "shedding" everywhere! Every time I turned around, he would be standing there with fuzz stuck all over his face! After we finally got outside and caught our breath, we began the walk down the street. By about the second day, I thought we were doing pretty good at blending in. We knew (for the most part) where we were headed, and how to get there. As we walked down the street, I heard Blake say behind me, "We look like a bunch of Easter eggs!" I glanced around at everyone scurrying past and I noticed that they all had on black coats, scarves, gloves, and shoes. Then I turned and looked at the girls briskly following me and I saw that he was right! They all had on brightly colored coats, hats, cloves and scarves! I laughed and said, "It's okay fuzz-face, I'm sure we look totally normal!"

We saw many amazing sights while we were there including, The statue of liberty, Empire State building, the bull by Wall Street, ground zero, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Christmas Show, Wicked, Carnegie Deli, Museum of Natural History, Central Park, and much more. It was so fun to see the girls' faces light up at each new adventure, and to experience it all myself as well! We learned how to use the Subway system (that Boo says is the one you ride not the one you eat.) We also learned to be quick when the trains arrived when Halli got on the train and the doors closed leaving the rest of us on the platform. (Yes, she is still with us!) I lost my credit card, and we panicked for a bit, we got to try new foods and learned that we love Pakistani food! We learned that we should stay out of some stores when we have four little girls with us. (Ask Blake about that one) But most of all, we got to spend time together every day, and that was the best part of the trip. We grew closer, and laughed, and even shed a few tears. But we did it together, and that is what we'll always remember! And the people of New York will always remember the Easter Egg people with that Fuzzy face guy.

Update on Halli

Two weeks ago on Wednesday, was supposed to be the last day that Halli needed to take her meds. We woke up and gave her her last pill, feeling very excited to be finished. We also tested her urine for protein. We were supposed to be testing her a couple of times a week, but because she had tested negative for a couple of weeks, we got lazy. We hadn't tested her for about three weeks. When we looked at the test, her protein count was really high again. My stomach dropped. I began to kick myself for getting lazy as I didn't know how long it had been high. I immediately called her doctor at Primary Childrens. Because we were to be going out of town to NY for the week, he wanted us to come in before we left. As we met with him, he told us that he was a little concerned that she was having a relapse so quickly after being "off" the meds. Although, we did expect that she would probably have a relapse, we didn't think it would come so soon. We left the office with heavy hearts, and a new prescription for a second round of the steroids. We began her second round the day before we left to NY. We have been testing her urine daily to check the protein levels. (We learned our lesson and are faithful now...) As of Monday, her count has become negative again. So we can begin to taper her down again beginning next week. It will take about six weeks to taper off. I hope and pray that this time, maybe her little kidneys will keep working on their own. She has taken this all so well, hardly skipping a beat. She always gets up and leaves her "sample" for me each morning and has her bowl of "mush" to take her pills with. She is so brave and strong. It just breaks my heart to think of what she has to go through, yet she just keeps living from day to day; smiling and whistling all the while. I can take a lesson from her that no matter what challenges are thrown our way, we can just take it and keep on loving and living. As for now, we'll just keep praying that she'll respond to the meds this time. In the meantime, I'll just get up each day and whistle along with my little munchkin as we carry on.