Sunday, June 29, 2014

Hero worship!

Teme has been able to attend two wrestling camps so far this summer. The second camp featured one of the best, Anthony Robles. If you are not into wrestling, Anthony is a NCAA wrestling champion that happens to have one leg.


Hopefully, like Anthony Robles, Teme will be "Unstoppable"!

Sabrina is 7!


June 24th our tiny Ethiopian turned 7! We took her and three of her friends to our local water park, Lost Island! It went as well as could be expected, especially since Sabrina decided to deposit her lunch on the concrete:(

We cannot imagine life without this crazy, crazy girl!

Jake's health scare!

Overnight June 12/13th I received a phone call from Jake. He had been taken by ambulance to the emergency room in Ames after passing out while studying. The person that called emergency services did not wait for the EMTs so we actually had little information. After a CT scan and some blood tests Jake was released and I took him back to his house to rest and then we brought him back to Waterloo.

Friday Jake had a good day. He just rested. And we attended Sabrina's dance recital that evening. Saturday morning about 5 a.m., I heard someone up and decided to investigate. Jake was up with a severe headache. Since he had passed out the night before, I took him to the E.R. again. They did another CT scan. Jake had begun to be very confused. Unable to answer simple questions, like his name. It was very scary. Apparently our local hospital does not have a neurologist on call on the weekends. So Jake was moved by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals. (The same hospital Noelle was taken to when she was having seizure like symptoms in November.)


As soon as we arrived they gave Jake another IV and starting treating him with heavy antibiotics in case it was Bacterial Meningitis. The ER doctors gave us three scenerios: Bacterial Menengitis, Viral Meningitis or a brain bleed. All very scary. Jake had his third CT scan in less than 48 hours. They did a spinal tap, on the third try:( Jake was still very confused. At last we received the news that Jake had Viral Meningitis, the least scary of our options.

Jake was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be four days. Part of the reason that he had to stay so long was due to one of the antibiotics he was given. It formed crystals in his kidneys and we had to wait for proper kidney function to be restored. They also did an EEG and MRI. The EEG showed that Jake had had a probable seizure Thursday night in Ames. Due to Iowa law, Jake is now unable to drive for six months. He was also put on anti-seizure medications for 6 weeks. The MRI showed that Jake had incurred no permanent brain damage. Obviously, a huge relief. He was very scared when he could not answer questions properly.

Jake spent his 22nd birthday in the hospital. The last time he was in the hospital he was not even a year old.


So thankful for the way God took care of Jake!

An American Story



June 13th was Sabrina's dance recital! This year she only took tap and ballet. So she was in two performances. The recital was amazing! And Sabrina did so well! We were so proud of her! This fall she intends to add back in jazz and hip-hop.