Our family's update...

Over the past couple of weeks we've been quite busy. I was caught up in getting William's First Birthday Extravaganza together, Sean has been steadily loosing weight for the upcoming weigh-in at his work, and William has been getting into EVERYTHING. I swear he's grown a whole inch since my last post. He can now reach the table tops as well as everything that I have stored up there. This new found fascination with destroying everything in sight would usually drive me crazy, but I am simply awe struck by how much he's grown. Give me a week and I'll probably be completely over this phase, but for now I am just completely amazed by him. He had his one year check-up today and I knew it would be hard (immunization time), but hard is a complete understatement of what we endured. Because we live in a high-risk zip code, William had to have a blood test done to check for high lead levels. They had me hold him on my lap while they put the tourniquet on his little arm and I could feel my stomach begin to churn. When that butterfly needle went in, and his little face melted, so did my heart. Oh, it physically hurt me to see him in pain. On top of that, they couldn't get any blood out because his vein kept rolling, so the poor nurse just kept having to wiggle and jab the needle around. As soon as she removed the tourniquet he stopped crying and cuddled against me. When the nurse went to put it on the other arm he fought it with all his might. The second jab was just as unproductive as the first. We then moved on to a finger prick. I thought this would be an easy alternative. Oh boy was I wrong! Apparently they had to get as much blood out of his tiny little finger as they would his arm. He had the blood "milked" out of his finger for about 10 minutes all while screaming and writhing his body around in my arms. After the agony of drawing blood we moved onto his immunizations. By the time my child left the doctor's office, he was wearing 4 Band-Aids and had a mother that was just as much a wreck as he was. Thank goodness for Ibuprofen and Tylenol! The good news is that my sweet baby can now have whole milk and can officially be in a forward facing car seat! Yay, William!

On another note, I wanted to update you all on our summer situation. I still haven't heard back from Color Me Mine, but I am still hopeful. Sean is set to take another certification test for work at the end of April. Provided he passes, he will receive a raise. This will greatly help us this summer and will prove to be even more beneficial in the fall with my normal income. Sean has been studying hard, daily, for a year now. I am confident that he will do well, but I ask for you to keep him in your prayers over the next month. I also ask for your continued prayers for this summer. Particularly for my ever growing problem with worry. As the end of the school year draws near, I feel the storm clouds blowing in. I pray for them to just blow over and for sunny skies to light my day. Thank you, friends, for always keeping us close to your heart and in your thoughts. I know that we will be ok and that our family will survive because God is so good. He ALWAYS provides for us even though we are unworthy. That is what gets me through the day without falling apart into a million pieces...knowing that my God loves me even more than I love my son, and that's an amount that I can't even fathom.