Glad that's over with

I just wanted to thank all of you who prayed for Karis today. Several of you texted me on the way to Yoakum, and I really appreciated that. I can't imagine how much worse it would have been had you not prayed.

Karis wanted to know why she was the only one going to "run errands" with Mommy, so I told her, and then I barely got her to the car.

At the doctor's office, the nurse and I decided that we better do a needle in the arm this time to get a good amount of blood so she wouldn't have to do this again.

Wrong child to do this with.

I laid across her, so she could hold me, I could hold her right arm down, and I could look in her eyes. She was crying, and so I prayed out loud for her. I heard the nurse say after one minute, "Hold on Karis, we are almost through." I said, "You've already got the needle in?" She said, "No, not yet."

Anyway, I knew when the needle went in.

So did the whole city block.

I prayed louder.

Her feet were kicking and she was thrashing her other arm around. I knew the nurses were saying something, but I couldn't hear over Karis. After a full minute of some mighty lungs working overtime, I looked back and saw the vial was empty. No blood.

Turns out, Karis is a little double-jointed in her elbow, and her thrashing and twisting didn't allow them to get any blood. I can imagine the needle rolling around during all that did cause quite a bit of pain, hence the screaming.

So...we went back to the finger-sticking. Which Karis used to be completely fine with, but after all of that, she didn't want to relinquish her finger to anyone.

We got one. Nurse did her thing. It was over.

Karis, through tears, said, "Come on, Mom. Let's get out of here," and she grabbed my hand and headed for the door.

I told her we had to wait for the blood. So we waited in the hall. Not that room.

Yep. I got to deliver the blood again. Karis and I drove it to the hospital across town and handed it to the lab so it wouldn't have time to clot.

Good times.

Glad that's over with.

The invitation still stands, but...

About twelve hours after getting cleared medically, we received another e-mail saying Karis needed to have some more blood work done. They found some irregularities in her blood, and they want to be sure she's okay. It's minor stuff that she would have gotten genetically from me, so don't worry.

This doesn't frustrate me because I want to make sure we are all healthy, but I surely do feel for my little four year old.



The first time she gave blood for her CBC (Complete Blood Count), they took blood from her finger so they wouldn't have to use a needle in her arm (thank you, Dr. Drost's office). Unfortunately, the blood clotted before they could get labs run at the hospital, so we returned a week later to repeat the action.

Part of the problem the first time was that Karis didn't cry. Praise God! But it caused her blood to run too slowly. The second time, she wasn't crying either, so I said, "Well, Karis, if we can't get the blood out any quicker, we are going to have to take it from your arm like we did Kylie." Well, that did it. The tears came and so did the blood. It sounds bad, but it was a blessing. Not only that, the doctor's office let me take the blood vial, turning it continuously up and down to keep it moving, to the hospital lab across town. Yoakum is a small town and the doctor's office trusts me.

The doctor's office even put a note on her blood vial to run the labs "Stat." I really appreciated that so that the blood didn't have time to clot.

Anyway, this will be trip number three for her. I scheduled an appointment for this next Monday, when hopefully I will be out of bed with stronger back to hold my precious princess. The kids are all in Yoakum this weekend with my parents to see the re-enactment of the battle at Goliad and to attend the play "Alice in Wonderland" at the Shiner Gaslight Theater. I was going to meet them half-way on Monday to do the kid-exchange, but now I will just drive all the way and take Karis back to Dr. Drost's office.



I only write this so you can pray for her. Don't you hate to see your children get poked and prodded? I have to be thankful though, because I know there are parents who see this everyday with their children who have cancer or some other heart-breaking illness. Lord, comfort all those parents who hurt even worse than their children because they have to watch the pain being inflicted on their angels.

Did I shave my legs for this?

Tuesday, I got up earlier than normal because I needed to get things packed and ready to go to the Houston Children's Museum. We were meeting a friend and her two girls at their house, so that she could drive and get us there by opening time (Spring Break tends to make places like that get a little crowded).

Anyway, Caleb woke up early as well because he had wet his bed. So I changed his sheets, knowing it would be late when we got in. Not from the museum, mind you, but because I was crazy enough to accept Rodeo tickets for us that night, as well. So after driving 45 minutes back from the museum, we would turn around, and drive 45 minutes back to that similar area for the rodeo after Doug got off work. Brilliant planning on my part, I must say. As a side note, the kids loved the rodeo, but two songs into Keith Urban's concert, they were ready to leave. We put pajamas on in the car, and got home around 11pm. Long day...


Back to Caleb waking up early. Because I was meeting a friend, a rather new friend I might add, I decided that I should probably shave my legs before going to her house that morning. That's big stuff for me! Anyway, I started shaving my legs in the sink, and Caleb started crying. It got louder and louder, and I said, "What is wrong?"

He screamed, "Put it back on! Put it back on!"

"Put what back on?"

"The hair! Don't let it go down the sink!"

I tried to explain that this is exactly what Daddy does when he shaves his face, but he would not be calmed. Doug, who had been awakened by the screaming, said, "Caleb, don't argue with your mother." And that was it. He marched off pouting, and we didn't finish our "talk."

If only I could have explained to him, it will all be back by tomorrow...

Happy Birthday, Caleb

I'm a little slow at getting pictures on. I don't know how people can post pictures every day! Anyway, Caleb turned three on January 27th, and as you can tell, we were still a little unorganized from the move. Instead of a cookie cake (which we always order for the kids), I improvised with three Oreos at the last minute. Caleb didn't seem to mind since he had candles to blow out, and Karis was thrilled because he let her eat the Oreos. He informed me that he does not like Oreos. I could have sworn I have seen him eat them, but oh well.