This past Saturday - March 26th - our family was able to be a part of a wonderful event called "A Dai of Hope - Adaila Roach Benefit Concert". Adaila is the 5 1/2 year old daughter of a good friend of mine & faces a multitude of health struggles. Her mom, Megan, is who I have to thank for my relationship with Jesus Christ. She was the first person who invited me to church when I moved from Muncie to Indianapolis. It was her & her family who kept me involved in the church & were my mentors as I went through my teenage years.
I almost feel indebted to Megan & her family because I don't know where I would be in my life had they not taken the time to care about my salvation. Being a part of this concert that will help pay for Adaila's medical bills & give her family one less thing they have to worry about so they can focus fully on Adaila (& their family) is the least I can do.
The whole day was so emotional. There were lots of fun things to do, great bands, artists & groups performing, vendor booths, silent auctions, food - wherever you looked you could find things to do. There was always that "thing", though, that we all knew why we were there. The whole day was dedicated to a brave & strong 5 1/2 year old who has gone through more than most of us have gone through in our 20, 30, 40 years of life. That is what made it so emotional.
During the event they had a Father/Daughter dance where Adaila's dad, Dustin, held his beautiful Princess Adaila & danced to the song "The Climb". It was an emotional dance & "strong" me held back my tears - then I looked over at Megan's dad (Adaila's grandpa).....I lost it. Don doesn't hold back his tears, and really, who could when you know how much your grandchild goes through on a daily basis but still has a beautiful smile on her face. Goodness, I'm crying right now just thinking about it!
After many, many, MANY months of dadadada dada da da dadadada..dada? dada? dada? dada! DADA! FINALLY Declan has learned to say mama. We have been working with him a lot on his words since he doesn't talk much yet but 'mama' was the 1st priority, of course. The funny thing is how he says it. He is so proud of himself when he says it, mostly because I just beam with excitement every time I hear it come out of his mouth - it always takes me a minute to realize what he just said since I'm not used to hearing it. But he will say it, and its not just a plain old, "mama" - its Declan's own, unique way of saying my name. It mostly sounds like 'maw' or 'maaah' with an 'a' that sounds like how you say apple. Its hilarious & as often as he says it now, when I'm sitting next to him, when I walk out of the room, when I'm on the toilet, you get the point I sometimes wish he didn't know how to say it! haha - not really, but it is kind of funny to hear him say 'maah!!'
He's also added 'cheese' to his vocabulary. His words are coming along, although slow, but he's getting there. I think he is just making sure he knows what everything is before he really starts putting them into words.
Declan does this sound - its almost like his "yes" when we ask him a question & he wants to do it or wants a certain food we asked him about. It is the cutest thing ever because his face lights up, he makes the sound & the shape of his mouth when he says it just makes me smile. He is so darn cute - I love him to pieces!!!
It all started with a cough on Saturday, February 26th. That cough turned into sneezing, runny nose, more cough - by Tuesday Declan had a 103.5 fever. Averley had started with the cough, sneezing & runny nose as well but no fever.
We rotated Tylenol & Ibuprofen all day Tuesday, by the end of the day he was running around like he was fine. You could tell he wasn't though - he still had that puffy face & glossy eye look about him. He went to bed that night with a temp of 99.4.
Averley....she was having many issues with sleeping that night. Her cough was waking her up, she was choking on her saliva, snot was running down her nose, she was a mess. Her & I camped out on the couch all night since the only way she was able to fall asleep was laying on my chest. By midnight I ended up stripping us both down so we could do some skin to skin & give her easy access to the human pacifier. I was hoping that would soothe her at least a little. That night I got less sleep than I did in the first few weeks of having a newborn. I was exhausted & so was Averley.
By mid-day Wednesday, Averley was such a mess she just cried for an hour. She couldn't sleep, she was exhausted, coughing constantly, crying because it hurt to cough, on and on and on. At one point I cried with her - I felt terrible. I'm the mommy, I'm suppose to be able to heal everything, to make my children feel better, that is my job, my duty - I couldn't. I felt so helpless & hurt for my baby girl. Not to mention I was very sleep deprived.
Ryan finally called the doctor & set up an appointment for both kids Thursday morning. Thursday night went a little better, but Averley was still up more than she normally is. She actually puked from coughing so hard when Ryan was up with her. She slept from 7pm-10:30pm, went back to sleep around 11pm, back up at 1am from coughing but put herself back to sleep. Up again around 1:30am from coughing, put herself back to sleep. Woke up again at 3am to eat, diaper change, back asleep at 3:40am. Up at 5am - went back to sleep at some point (Ryan had her) then woke back up at 5:45am. I was able to catch up on a little bit of sleep until 7:15am but I am still exhausted.
The doctor visit went better than expected - Declan does not have the flu, but does have an ear infection & bad cold/cough. We are treating it with antibiotics, benadryl, Ibuprofen & honey. Averley has a bad cough/cold & is teething....can't really do much for her except try to soothe her as much as we can.
I do have a Baltic Amber teething necklace in the mail - really excited for that to come in & see if it works as well as everyone says they do. It can't get here soon enough!!!!!!!!!!
Pray for this house....we are all so tired & on edge.
