Long time, No Blog!

It's been a while since I have blogged! My last post was in MARCH! A lot has happened since then!

Micah completed 5th grade and I still can't believe he will be entering Middle School in 2 short weeks! Last year he played on a select soccer team and it was a huge commitment. Micah realized soccer took a huge chunk of his time (and ours), therefor he/we (rather mutual) will take this year off. He enjoys soccer, but is not sure it's what he wants to do exclusively. This year he wants to do flag football and golf, and though that sounds like a lot, it still will not take as much time than select soccer did. It will be A LOT CHEAPER, TOO! :)

Also, with the start of Middle School and Micah being placed in 4 accelerated classes (Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Sciences), that the best thing is to slow down on those extra curricular activities because his school work load is going to increase greatly.

Another change for Micah is that he will be attending the local public school for 6th grade, instead of going to private school. Micah was tired of living a double, sometimes triple life when it came to his circle of friends. When we lived in Dallas our church was 9 miles North of our home, while his private school was 11 miles Southeast of our home. We now attend a church that is less than a mile away and the Middle School is even closer. Micah has made close friendships with neighborhood kids as well as at church (the two intermix greatly)and asked if he could go to the local school for 6th grade instead of the private school. When Micah asked us this, he did not know that Soowan and I were already discussing moving him to public for the exact same reason. Through prayer, interviewing the school and talking with neighbors and fellow church members, we have complete confidence this is where Micah should be for 6th grade!

Amanda is still my girlie girl, but at the same time she will have no hesitation in challenging you to a game of Ninja! She's joyful, spunky, inquisitive and stubborn! Amanda must always wear a dress or skirt and loves to accessorize her outfits with bracelets and necklaces. If I put shorts or pants on her she tells me, "Mommy, I'm not a Princess today." LOL! She cracks us up!

Amanda will be going to preschool this Fall, 3 days a week. Her speech is progressing well but is not up to par with her peers. I will be taking her to be reviewed through the county in September, but we have a feeling she will not get in, once again. She talks your ear off but half of the time we have no idea what she is saying. :) She has a large vocabulary, but when she puts all those words together in sentences, it all falls apart and it sounds like she's talking gibberish. We work with her on slowing down constantly! If you have/had a three year old, you know they don't slow down very easily! Amanda has come a long way considering that March of last year she only said 3 words! If she does not get accepted into our county's speech program, we will do private speech therapy.

Soowan is doing great! Works is good. We love the family/work life his company allows. He does travel more than he did with his former employer, but when he's not traveling he has the option to work from home and on the days he's in the office he's home by 5 o'clock. :)

As for me I'm doing well. In March, I started having some eye issues. It all began when my left eye started to water profusely, to having pain and pressure and eventually my left eye began to protrude. At first the doctors thought I had a growth behind my eye and I had several MRI's and ultra sounds done on my orbital to see what was going on. The only thing they could determine was that the tissues behind my left eye were very swollen. The next thing to test me for was Thyroid Eye Disease, through blood work. My blood work for two months showed my thyroid levels as normal, but my antibodies were very high, my iron was very low and platelet levels were low as well. Then the doctors tested me for all sorts of blood diseases/cancers and the tests came back inconclusive each time. I saw more doctors and had more blood work done in two months than I think I've had in my entire life! Oh... I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on several occasions that I'm deathly afraid of needles and each time I had a MRI I had to have an IV inserted. But on a good note, I never passed out like I have in the past! ;-)

Finally in late May, I saw an endocrinologist and he diagnosed me with Thyroid Eye Disease as well has having chronic thyroiditis. He believes I have had chronic thyroiditis for a couple of years now (this is what caused my antibodies to be high), but my symptoms were mild over the years and apparently it's hard to diagnose this disease, due to my thyroid levels constantly going up and down.

As for my eye, it will stay like this for 3-5 years. It is the high antibody levels in my system that is causing the tissue behind my eye to swell and it will take several years for my body to absorb these antibodies. There are no meds to take to decrease the antibodies either. My eye could get worse, it could not. It all depends if the antibodies decide to attack my eye tissue again. It's all autoimmune related.

On top of all of this, I also have many character traits of having Lupus, and I'm currently being tested for this autoimmune disorder as well. This may take longer for diagnosis/rule out because there is not a Lupus test, per say. It's more an elimination process of other disorders/diseases that Lupus mirrors/mimics. My sister has Lupus and autoimmune disorders run in my family therefor my Doctor says that I have an 80% of either currently having the disorder or developing it later in life. FUN! FUN! FUN!

So I now go in every 4-6 weeks (depending on how I'm feeling) and get blood work done. The doctor then adjusts my medicine according to my TSH level. The goal is to get it to a normal range, but the tricky part is everyone's normal is different. The side affects in tiredness, muscle fatigue (some days I feel like I've ran a marathon the day prior, but in reality I did NOTHING!). Oh... and my hair is falling out, too! :)

Other than all of the above, I'm doing good! My focus is and has been centered on Christ and I'm thankful that this is not something serious! Soowan has been a wonderful helpmate through all of this! I thank God for a husband who is prayerful, patient, gentle and compassionate. He's an amazing man! I've also been blessed with amazing neighbors, friends (both near and far) and an amazing church body who have been wonderful, compassionate, gracious and comforting. Not a day has gone by that someone has not stopped by or called to pray with me or who has been willing to help with the kids when I have a doctor's appointment or when I'm having a physically rough day. I live in a TRUE community, and I'm extremely grateful for God's provision of this community of believers.

On a lighter note, we took a three week vacation to Arizona and California! It was a wonderful reprieve for our family and we had a fabulous time! Soowan and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary while we were in California. My good friend, Belinda watched the kids so Soowan and I could have some alone time. We took a stroll down memory lane and stopped by the church we were married at, our first and second home, as well as the hospital where Micah was born. It was the BEST anniversary/family vacation EVER!

So that's the update and now here are some pictures from our vacation!