Here’s a very quick update on Charleigh. This is a copy of a quick email I just sent. It’s just brushing the surface, and not at all grammatically correct. If you want to know more give me a call.

Our trip to the doctor was quite exciting. It appears Charleigh is highly allergic to the milk and only slightly to the egg and wheat. He explained how the allergy was affecting her body and messing with her pancreas. After the two weeks off dairy her body is already healing significantly and our possible type 1 diabetes is a thing of the past. We were quite encouraged to see her progress and he told us that with in a few months he expects her body to heal enough that the diabetic diet will no longer be needed. He also expects the tests to show no allergy to wheat and eggs when we go back.

I feel very blessed that we had such a thorough dr. We could have quite easily focused on the hypoglycemia and spent all our efforts fighting a losing battle.

Note: When I get some time I will pull together some links and research on the correlation of food allergies and hypoglycemia and post them here. This is a very important subject I think could really change some lives.

It’s whats playing at our house this month. At last we break from High School Musical and Hannah Montana CD. We’ve discovered Pure NRG! The five year old and eight year old love them! The nine year old doesn’t mind them and the mom welcomes a fresh new Christian alternative.
Hey, this looks like the “Start of Something New” perhaps we’ve finally got “The Best of Both Worlds”.

pureNRG CD By Word Join Caroline, Jordan, and Carolyne, also known as PureNRG, for twelve tracks of upbeat dance POP, fun vibes, and positive, encouraging lyrics. Includes “360,” “Live My Life For You,” “Thy Word,” and more.

FYI-
Charleigh is allergic,
very allergic to milk.

We found this out yesterday.
I got to tell her.
A Dairy Drama ensued.

NO MILK!!!!!!!!!!!
I calmed her with the idea of soy milk.
NO CHEESE!
I calmed her with the lame idea of soy cheese.
NO SOUR CREAM!!!
NO HAPPINESS!!

Dairy Drama.

I’m off to Eat-Rite to find some suitable alternatives.

Oops, I never shared our Christmas photo. Perhaps because it’s not really our best. For past Christmas pics click on over.

Charleigh recently had a glucose/insulin tolerance test. Friday we received the results: Reactive Hypoglycemia with a decreased beta cell function.

In Charleigh’s world that is bitter sweet news. While she doesn’t have to get “shots” she also won’t get to eat sugar.

In my world that means I need to instruct and encourage her to eat a low glycemic diabetic diet so we can avoid a future diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

To Charleigh this new diet also means she won’t be having headaches or feeling “fuzzy” or “tired” anymore.

To me it means I won’t find her half conscious and unable to say her name or recognize her family members.

To daddy, who is also hypoglycemic it means he’ll be watching what he eats a lot closer. Now that he has an 8yr old watching him like a hawk it will be harder to buy those cookies.

To my jeans it means they may soon be fitting again. I told Charleigh we were in this together and I wouldn’t eat anything she couldn’t. I’ve done a pretty good job of sticking to her diet. Of course after she went to bed last night I broke out the Boy Scout chocolate covered caramel corn. She walked through the room for a drink of water and I shoved the bowl under a couch cushion. After she went back to bed I felt guilty for cheating and silly for hiding it so I dumped the bowl in the trash and packed up the remaining sweets to be given to some lucky friend.

Please keep Charleigh in your prayers. Not only for a smooth adjustment to her new healthy lifestyle but also for the results of the 15 other blood tests she just had this Friday.

Be Prepared: Charleigh took along lots of books, colors and fun things to do while she waited.

A bit nervous before the first blood draw

It wasn’t so bad. Now we wait an hour to drink the sweet stuff…

30 minutes after finishing the drink we get ready for another run

A waiting we will go. . .another 30 minutes

Here we go again for #3

Another hour another needle. What a brave girl!

It’s Christmas time in the waiting room. Lets dance one more hour away

#5

An hour later we did one last needle then said good bye to our new friends Charles and Charity.

Charleigh wants to write a bit about her glucose/ insulin tolerance test later. We’ll put her thoughts right here when she gets them ready.

Here’s a few shots of Charleigh’s baptism. (Notice her daddy is the one who did it) I really wish I’d have paid more attention to getting a good picture, I was too busy being wearing my “proud mommy” hat to put on my shutterbug one.

Here’s a pic of Joshua and his B-day Cake. (He decorated it) This is another example of a great day but no great pictures to show for it. . .


Joshua had an awesome birthday party! It was a “rock and roll” party. Some great friends of ours on the worship team at church came and rocked the place out for him. We got him a guitar and he was estatic to get to play with the band on stage with a huge audience. That night before he went to sleep he told me “In all my dreams I never dreamed a day could be as good as this”.

On October 5th Charleigh and her birthday buddy Kali turned 8. We had a mommy/daughter sleep over and the girls had a great time.

Every time Amy comes for a visit it’s a special ocassion. Here’s a picture of the two of us from this summer:


(I’m not really taller than her, I just tend to wear heels)

Here’s a link to a picture of Kaleb’s Baptism a few years ago.

Charleigh is loving this Beverly Lewis “Cul-De-Sac Kids” series.

Cul-De-Sac Kids, Volumes 1-6 By Beverly Lewis / Bethany When your 7- to 10-year-olds join the kids on the cul-de-sac at Blossom Hill Lane, they’ll encounter realistic (and funny!) predicaments that point to Jesus as the ultimate mystery-solver! This boxed set of six softcover chapter books includes: The Double Dabble Surprise, The Chicken Pox Panic, The Crazy Christmas Angel Mystery, No Grow-ups Allowed, Frog Power, and The Mystery of Case D. Luc.

She’s been checking them out at the school library and just can’t get enough of them! She says they are way more cool than the Junie B. Jones books! Charleigh can’t even hold still when she’s reading them, she has to jump up every two minutes to update me on the story.