My Girls

My roommate from college, Stephanie, took these pictures of the girls when we flew to Michigan last September. Time has gotten away from me and because of our busy lives I just got these pictures to share with you. These are Audrey's 1 year pictures and Olivia was 2 1/2 years. Thank you Steph for doing such a great job. Steph has her own photography business, you should check out her site at miraclesphotography.com Great, great work! I am so proud of her. And to brag about her a bit more she also has several other home-based businesses she has started, YouTopia Designs and Uppercase Living.
YouTopia Designs her cousin and her started and it's awesome. We did our Christmas cards with them this last year. Anyone can use them, just upload a photo and voila, it's done. Uppercase Living was not started by her but she is a consultant or demonstrator. My ex-roomie is a very talented chica and I love her to death. She also had this awesome video made of the girls, check it out!

Today is Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day! This is new this year. Actually Kerri over at Six Until Me came up with it about a month ago because there is an alert day for Type 2 Diabetes and she said, "Hey, Type 1 Diabetes needs an awareness day!", so here it is. She asked that we blog our stories or our child's story of their diagnosis or about day to day stuff or whatever it is we want to spread the word about Type 1 Diabetes.

Below is the email I sent to friends and family after Olivia was diagnosed on August 21, 2005 at 7 months old. The part in red I wrote on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 just 4 days after her diagnosis. Since then I have learned more and the part I wrote in black I added in today because I was wrong about some things back then. It's long so brace yourself.

Dear family and friends,

Many of you know what has been going on this past week but some of you don't so let me fill you in. Olivia was not feeling well last Friday and by Saturday morning we took her to the emergency room per the direction of her pediatrician. The Dr. there said she probably has a flu bug and sent us home directing us to give her Pedialyte- a drink for kids that has electrolytes so she would keep liquids down and not vomit anymore. We followed her directions but Olivia steadily got worse and by Sunday morning we knew that something was very wrong- she was listless, was moaning quietly, very weak, not able to even lift her own head, etc. We took her back to the emergency room and they immediately started trying to get an IV in her to give her liquids because she was extremely dehydrated. They took her blood and found that her blood sugars were around 850. Now normal blood sugar levels are between 80-120 so this was very high. She also had a high white blood count. The Dr. informed us that they weren't sure yet but these levels could mean that she either had leukemia or Type 1 diabetes. Steve and I were devastated and continued praying for our sweet little girl. They decided to airlift her to Children's Hospital here in Denver because the hospital we were at doesn't specialize in children like Children's does. We followed in our car and shortly after we arrived the Dr. came to tell us that Olivia does have Type 1 diabetes. In a way I was relieved that it was not leukemia, but still upset at her diagnosis. Then they needed to do a catscan to determine if she had water on her brain from all the liquid the other hospital had given her. The results came back that there was no water. Praise God again! We waited for her to wake from sedation and then the Dr.'s became very concerned because she wasn't waking up. They thought she may have pressure on her brain that the catscan couldn't read. This was a very risky and critical time for her and we turned to God for strength. Eventually she began to twitch and then started to slowly wake up. God is so awesome. The Dr.'s were calling her a miracle baby. Long story short, we were released from the hospital Tuesday morning and were sent directly to the Barbara Davis Center, which is a huge center for children with diabetes and research. We spent a day and a half learning a lot about Type 1 Diabetes and how to take care of our angel. We came home Tuesday night and every day since then Olivia has slowly started to come back to her own self. She is not quite there yet as she is still very sick but when I saw her smile come back yesterday my heart broke. She will require insulin for the rest of her life. Her Dr.'s have never treated a child so young before at 7 months, the majority of kids get diabetes between 5-18 yrs. old. Please be in prayer as her Dr.'s determine the best course of treatment for her and as we learn more and more about her illness that we would be able to manage it well. We thank God that the outcome of this last week was not worse. She has been our little fighter since birth and we don't want her to have to spend any more time in the hospital. They are not sure what brought on her diabetes so soon, maybe a viral infection, but we may never know. They are doing a lot of research on what triggers kid's diabetes to begin. We do know that she would of had this illness no matter what, it was just a matter of time, and for some reason she got it very young. (Oops, this wasn't true I found out. Olivia had a high risk gene for diabetes and something triggered it to begin and attack her own pancreas cells. If something hadn't triggered it she may have never got diabetes.) We don't have a history of it in our family that we are aware so this also perplexes the Dr.'s because it is usually hereditary. (Actually later I discovered that the Dr.'s aren't surprised when no one else in the family has it because it isn't always hereditary. The kids are born with a high risk gene and something in our environment they believe triggers the diabetes to begin. It could even be something that Steve and I together have that causes our kids to be high risk because Audrey has the high risk gene for juvenile diabetes as well. Again, that doesn't mean she will ever get it but if something triggers it she has a higher chance of getting it.) We think we have distant relatives that had Type 2 diabetes but these two diabetes are not even related to each other. We are not sure yet why God allowed her to have this illness, but we do know that we are ready for the challenge and we know that He is in complete control. Thank you all for your prayers during this difficult time. I am sorry for those of you I haven't called yet but I have been extremely tired and it is difficult for me to repeat what happened but I appreciate all your calls and will return them when I am able.

Love,

Heather

Soon I want to share what a day in the life of Olivia looks like but it's getting late and I must force myself to go to bed. I need to go check my little girl's blood sugar while she's sleeping to make sure her blood sugar isn't too high or too low. She hardly ever wakes up when I check her at night, isn't that amazing. Try pricking your finger to draw blood and see if you could stay asleep. Actually, diabetics get used to it so for us it would be hard but for them they can sleep through a blood test most of the time. Stay tuned.

Mi Familia

These pictures were taken of my family at Christmas but I couldn't share them with you because my camera battery ran out and I didn't bring the charger. I got these pics from my mom and I wanted to share them with you all. This is my mom, dad, both my brothers, my sister-in-law and my four nieces and nephews and then of course Steve, the girls, and I.

Randomness

Hi all! Just some random pictures from the highlights of my life to share.

Sisters- I love it when they play nicely, get along, and show love to each other. This is not always the case however so I just captured the good times in photo and my memory.

Audrey getting her blood drawn for the study she is in for diabetes, this happens every three months. They numb her arm ahead of time with a cream and she does really great and can't feel it.

I'm not smiling because my baby's blood is being drawn, Steve was making me laugh.

Steve took Livi on a date today to see Horton Hears a Who and this is a pic before the show.