Friday, May 21, 2010

Fondue Night


Sarah has been begging me to make that meal "where you cut up your food into little pieces, put it on a stick, and dip it in yummy stuff." So this week I did that for her, and it was fun, but I remembered why I don't do it very often - what a mess!!!
After dinner, Perry told the girls that he was going to be looking for a new job. Sarah asked a ton of questions: Why did you leave your old job? How will we get money? Will we be able to buy food? Where will we live? We assured her that we were going to be OK, we're in God's hands and He will take care of us, we have money in the bank so we can still buy food, etc. During all this, Abby sat silently. Finally Abby asked, "Can I have dessert now?" Ha!!! I love how different they are!

Monday, May 17, 2010

These Eyes


I've been praying about these eyes - Abby's eyes. Ever since she was a baby, people have noticed her eyes. They're big, and bright blue, with impossibly long eyelashes, and they're expressive and beautiful.
Lately, people have been noticing her eyes for the wrong reason. In late March, her teacher noticed that one eye seemed to be drifting out on occasion. Not all the time, and not severely, but it caught her attention. (By the way, her teacher is a super star!!). I took Abby to an ophthalmologist who diagnosed her with intermittent exotropia, strabismus, or occasional drifting, but classified it as a very mild case. He said it was possible that she had always had it but we'd never noticed, because it was so mild. He advised us to watch it and try a little patch therapy to see if that helped.
Less than three weeks later, the drifting had worsened considerably. Her pediatrician noticed it, her friends noticed it, and she even saw it in the mirror. Her vision is so far unaffected, but I was very fearful of what this would mean for her cosmetically. I took her back to get rechecked, and the ophthalmologist recommended eye surgery. My prayers became more fervent.
This morning we took her to another ophthalmologist, one who has come highly recommended from several sources. He was so caring, so calm, so completely reassuring. Yes, she will need surgery. Yes, of course that scares me. But I feel confident we're in the right hands, and headed down the right path. With clarity comes peace. We will probably have it done this summer, and I hope and pray that she won't ever have to think about it again.