Great News!!!

I just got a call from John - his boss just hired him back on permanently!!

I hung up and threw out a big PRAISE GOD and then burst into tears. These past few months have been challenging and at times I have felt pushed to my absolute limit. I will admit that in the stress, I have lost a bit of my relationship with God, but I have sent up many prayers about making this unemployment as short-lived as possible and right now, I feel so blessed to have an answer to prayer.

One of the things we have continued to discuss over the course of this unemployment is whether or not to re-start the house hunting process once John found a job. We have been able to keep a good hold on finances - actually a little better than when he was working before - and we think that is something we are supposed to do. Obviously, we will have a serious discussion about it before I call up our real estate agent again, but we believe we have both been being drawn towards keeping up with that process.

There's still lots to pray about, but we have a big praise on our hearts today! We made it through this!!!

Nathan Update #2

We haven't had any fever issues since Monday, so that's good news. The weird head lumps are seeming to really be lymph nodes, but I still want to get them checked out if they haven't gone away by the time our new insurance kicks in.

He woke up this morning with a stuffy nose again and has now developed a cough. He is in good spirits, although you can tell that he's exhausted. The poor kid has huge circles under his eyes. Despite that, he's standing here dancing to a theme song on TV. :^)

The lack of him having a fever has made sleeping a little better for both of us, but I know he's not getting as much rest as he really needs. Once he gets better, maybe we can start potty training him too. He just came up to me and told me that he needed to go poo-poo! Oh, how happy I would be to be done with diapers completely by the end of the year....

Nathan Update

First of all, thanks to everyone who has been putting prayers out for Nathan.
He has made some progress! His nose is finally beginning to clear up and the fever seems to have mostly gone away. We have had some trouble with it going away for 12-18 hours, but then coming back for 2-3 hours, but so far it has yet to come back since yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we're done with it. The lumps are still on the back of his head; however, I think they're a little less sensitive and Nathan let me rub the back of his head to feel them. They don't seem to be hard and stationary (which would have signaled one of the worst-case scenarios), but it's hard for me to tell if they are actually lymph nodes. They almost seem to be a little on the big side for lymph nodes, but I'm no doctor so I can't make any real diagnosis.

Some really good news since we asked for prayer is that we were able to find and apply for health insurance that we can actually afford, AND our current pediatrician is a preferred provider! Providing everything goes well with our application, we should be covered beginning on the 15th.
Right now, as long as Nathan continues to get well, I think I can put off getting his head lumps checked out until then. I am hopeful that they will just disappear on their own, but if they don't, at least I don't have to worry about a doctor visit for possible lymph nodes costing us $500.

Thank you again for the prayer and if I can request for just a little more for Nathan's continued recovery from this odd little illness... Also, keep John's work in prayer as well. I asked him last night how it was going (he has 4 1/2 weeks left on this project) and he said that things are picking up, but it's still a little early to tell, so of course they haven't made a decision on whether or not they will be keeping him on permanently. While I do like my new job, I have really been enjoying my extra time here at home with my boys and would love it if it could continue.

Sick little boy

I'd like to put a prayer request out there for Nathan....

All the boys in the house developed a cold about two weeks ago - Aiden and John recovered early last week, but Nathan has continued to get worse. He's had a fairly high fever off and on for the past few days and last night we noticed some odd bumps had developed around the base of his head. They seem to be sensitive, as he won't really let us touch or examine them closely.

He woke up this morning around 5am with a very high fever - he felt absolutely burning hot as I held him. Tylenol was given along with fluids and over the course of the morning, I was able to bring his fever down to an almost normal level. Needless to say, we didn't really sleep much.

I tried to do a little research on what the bumps could possibly be and right now I'm hoping that they are just swollen lymph nodes due to the cold, although that does point to him having yet another ear infection. There are some worst-case scenarios regarding the bumps, but I'm trying to not assume the worst.

Obviously, I will provide my child with medical care no matter what, but we are lacking health insurance at the moment so it makes the situation a little more stressful than I would prefer. We did spend some time this morning looking at health plans and we did find one that works for us, but it looks like we couldn't get covered until the 15th. I am hoping that if we call and speak to someone, maybe we could get it processed a little faster so I could take him in to the doctor this week, if needed.

Please keep Nathan in prayer as we deal with this situation.