CINCI TRIP

Wow - alot has happened since I last updated this blog! Didn't realize it had been so long ...

But now, here we are ... October 9, 2013 and our sweet Carsyn Grace is 3 yrs old and we are currently in Cincinatti for 10 days at the spina bifida clinic up here. We have been totally blown away by the love and support we have received as we prepared to come up for this trip by friends and family ... i mean really - totally blown away. We both feel so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people that love our family and our carsyn grace so well.

Its been difficult to respond to texts or return calls the past couple days, and we know that most people don't even really know why we are here or what we are doing here, so we thought the most efficient way to update is to tell people to check the blog ... so here it is :)

There are so many different things that are affected by spina bifida. The most obvious to people is the orthopedic side of things, as they see the braces or the wheelchair or walker or whatever. And that is definitely a big part of it, but there are other areas that we have to tackle on this journey as well. Other less obvious things that you wouldn't know we had to deal with unless you knew about spina bifida or you knew our situation. And one of those is the area of bladder/bowel management. And thats the reason for this trip now.

The goal is to get her out of diapers and doing all things bladder/bowel on her own ... and we want to to get her doing that without surgical intervention. We heard about this bladder/bowel clinic here in cinci close to a year ago from a great friend of ours whose daughter is a hero of ours and is on a similar journey as Carsyn.  Up until we heard about this clinic in Cinci, we assumed she would be having a couple major surgeries in the coming year to get her our of diapers. But, we found out that the goal here at this clinic is to get them independent WITHOUT surgery!!!! So we started doing the necessary paperwork and things to get her in. After alot of back and forths, and several months, we got into this bladder/bowel program and now, here we are!

Carsyn is getting every test possible performed on her while here, and they are thoroughly checking out all of her insides .... clearly i am lacking on the terminology here ... also, my mind is mush and very discombobulated at the moment. But, they are getting her checked completely and in every way possible, and we are hoping to get her started on a management program that is going to ultimately get her being independent without any sort of surgical intervention. This is basically the start of this journey. There isn't a 'cure' for this, and we aren't going to go home in 10 days with some magic potion thats going to get everything working ... its a process ... its a trial and error type thing. Frustratins and breakthroughs ... ebbs and flows ... a process getting this thing going right, but thats what life is - its all a process. A series of ups and downs, figuring out what works and what doesn't ... and here we are, ready to do the work, ready to dig in, ready to do absolutely anything for this beautiful girl of ours.

Today was day 1 ... it was long, but she was absolutely amazing. She had the most wonderful attitude through everything. Jer and I could not possibly be more proud of this kid ... she is without a doubt, the strongest, most resilient person i have ever known.

So, we have been asked for specifics with prayer requests .... pray for peace ... peace for carsyn and peace for Jer and I. There is nothing in the world more difficult than seeing your child go through stuff that just sucks to have to go through ... the whole doctor/hospital world is just not a fun one to be in with your kid ...pray for peace for all of us as we walk this thing out. Peace and patience.

This is one of those blog entries that is in no way eloquent or thought out in any way. And I know i misspelled a hundred words, which normally would drive me crazy, but tonight, i am so fine with writing misspelled words and not making total sense :)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the texts, messages, love, support and prayers ... it has touched our hearts in the biggest way. I am planning to update this blog a couple more times while we are here, but will post it on the good ole FB when i do in case you want to follow along :)

'And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and mnds in Christ Jesus.' Phil 4:7