2009 Here we come! 12/27/08

Christmas morning
Kensley at the dance recital

Kaydee and Rachel in their Leroy the Redneck Reindeer outfits

Cooper with Santa

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas celebrations and managed to get some Christ worship in as well. It was a hectic and joyful time for the Free family. Kensley has done well. She is no longer on TPN. She is still on IV fluids, but there are no vitamins or protein going through her central line. Her IV fluids run for 10 hours each night and that is all. So far so good, and tomorrow is her 8th month birthday! I haven't blogged since before school was out for the kids. That is when the schedule went out the window. I am sure many of you understand the whole school parties, dance recitals, shopping, Christmas Card writing, Christmas parties, Church pageants, etc. etc. thing. All those activities can really mess with the peaceful meaning of Christmas. AND, we actually didn't do everything that we were invited to do this year! I thought we had pared the schedule down quite a bit, but it was still hard to do everything and get everything done. I was quite overwhelmed. It is just so difficult to maintain Kensley's constant care and do the other things like shopping and going to school parties. We try so hard to keep her at home whenever possible, which means that either J. or I miss out on being with Kaydee or Cooper. This time J. had had enough. He wanted both of us to go to Cooper's Christmas party, so we did. Then we all went to Kaydee's Christmas dance recital. AND we all survived those events fine, BUT the Christmas Eve service at church was another story. Cooper started throwing up at 4am on the 26th and continued until 10pm that night. He has not thrown up or ran fever since last night so we are hoping that he is over it. So far no one else has gotten sick. We Lysol-ed everything at least three times and kept Kensley in her room all day, Cooper in his. PRAY for us. If we can make it through tomorrow, I think we will have escaped without Kensley or Kaydee or J. or I getting sick. Wow! I know that God doesn't give us more than we can handle, but right now I wish He didn't trust me with quite so much. We have come so far, and we could be getting her line out soon. She is such a miracle and she teaches us to be better people every day. She weighed 16 pounds and 14 ozs. today, but her stools are so watery. I change her outfit at least 4 times a day. It can be very draining, but the alternative would be not to have her at all. Praise God for poopy diapers. It is the same way with all of our kids. Everytime your teenagers rolls their eyes at you, remember that you are blessed to have them even when it is hard. Hugs from Heaven, Tana