Adding another chapter to the Schalow medical drama

Over the summer, Sebastian developed a spot on his neck which, over the last few months, has lost all pigment. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a few more small white spots on his neck. I decided to take him in to the pediatrician and he took one look and said "Vitiligo."
Now, for anyone not familiar with this, it is a condition in which the immune system attacks and damages/kills melanocytes, causing depigmentation of skin. Hmmm, a retarded immune system, I wonder where he got that?
The good news is that, unlike some cases of vitiligo, Sebastian's doesn't seem to be related to any other auto-immune diseases. He had all kinds of blood work done and everything came back normal. There are some treatments available for vitiligo, but there is no cure. We are waiting on an appointment with the dermatologist and, until then, counting spots.

Influences

We all have friends who influence us. Some are good influences, some are, well, hmmm.

I know that, for me, the more time I spend with someone, the more they influence me. With this thought in mind, have you prayed today? We all need to remember the importance of spending "quality time" with our Lord. The more time we spend with him, the more we allow him to influence our lives.

Here's another question for you - what do you talk about when you pray? We all have those friends who, at every opportunity, tell us everything that is wrong in their lives. Their world is always on the brink of disaster. They are rarely hopeful or joyful. Is that how we are talking to God? Are we always complaining, demanding, or sorrowful? Guess what - God wants to hear the good things, too! Obviously, we all have difficulties and we certainly need to share them with God (and our friends) but we also need to remember to find the joy in our lives and share that as well. What would happen to our spiritual life if prayer was only an opportunity to complain? Remember that having a good relationship with someone means sharing your sorrows AND your joys.

So, on this celebration of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, pray with joy in your heart. Spend some time with our Lord and let Him influence you today.

(Thanks to Abbot Damien for inspiring this post.)

I am still here

I am so embarrassed to realize it has been weeks since I last posted anything. Sorry! In my defense, it truly has been a crazy couple of weeks. I will give a quick synopsis.

First, Darian is running on the school cross country team. Since the end of August, this has involved practice after school twice a week and a race once a week. His last race will be this Thursday, so I am hoping for some of our craziness to die down a bit. He has LOVED doing this and, even though he is nowhere near the quickest boy on the team, he is hoping to continue running and be on the team again next year.

Another milestone for us has been my two youngest have both started preschool. Sebastian has been attending for over a year, but September 1st was the beginning of Vibiana's preschool career. She is loving it. They go two days a week, from 9:00 to 5:00. Vibiana adores her teacher and I can already see her maturing. She is speaking more clearly and in more complete sentences. Also, she is mostly potty trained. She has not had an accident at school, and at home she is improving. My biggest difficulty with the potty training is the amount of time we spend in the car - it is 1/2 hour to town and sometimes we get halfway there and she needs to go potty. Since there is nothing/nowhere to stop, I just put her in pull-ups when we are driving places.

Sophia is having some difficulties academically and we will be having her tested for dyslexia. She is having a hard time "flipping" numbers and letters and it has reached a point where her teacher is a little concerned. She is also having a hard time focusing. At this point, we need to find out exactly what is going on with her so that we can do what we need to do to help her. She is a great kid and I don't want her to either fall behind academically or start to feel like she is a failure. So, will see if extra work/help on our part is enough or if we need to contact an outside tutor.

On top of all the "kid" stuff, my RA has been giving me problems and Jason has been really busy and stressed at work. Diaconate formation is back in full swing and right now we are just trying to keep ahead of it all. Also, Jason was in a car accident and now our insurance has denied the claim. I won't go into all the horrid details, but we will be involved in fighting our insurance company.

Many days I think of this great quote from Mother Theresa : “I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much.”

Yep. I really wouldn't mind if you eased up a bit, Lord.