The Common Cold

 

Unfortunately the common cold has been far too common in my life the last 6 years.  Working in clinics, hospitals, schools, moving, travel, having a child and not being scared of public places and transportation – our exposure has been great as well.   Seems like if we go a few months well we celebrate!  This has given me lots of opportunity to figure out get well strategies….  I used to get sinus infections almost everytime I caught a cold – luckily I’ve figured out how to prevent those and have only needed antibiotics a couple of times in those same 6 years.  

Here are my favorite and most beneficial (for me) strategies –

I use Mucinex  - it is guaifenesin that helps your body thin mucus to get it out of your body. It in combination with not taking any kind of decongestant,  I think it has been the #1 thing that has kept me from getting sinus infections.  

I gargle apple cider vinegar at the first sign of a sore throat – it can be cut with water with lemon juice and honey added.  My tolerance has gone up through the years and I can just gargle it straight. 

The neti-pot – last year my Maui mom introduced me to the neti-pot and I will never turn back.  It is good prevention, as well as for getting my sinus cavities drained out – I use saline most of the time and add eucalyptus oil or coconut oil 1-2x a day (both of with are anti-bacterial and fungal).

Hot showers – I take 1-2 warm showers a day.

Breathing Steam – putting water in a sauce pan and bringing to a boil, adding apple cider vinegar and eucalyptus oil drops. I put a towel over my head, close my eyes and take deep breaths.  Today I did this about 5 times and it made a huge difference in my sinuses and lungs.

Rest – I stink at this, but I really try to rest more than usual.

2 and 3/4

Autumn you are growing up in front of our eyes!  Last night you said 3 or 4 times, "I'm a big girl now, I go to Sunday School."  You had gone to a 2s and 3s Sunday School here in Maryland with your cousin that morning.  It is so true - you are growing up so quickly.  Because it was so cute I will try to remember more of your dialog before bed.  We had a rough time getting you to bed and so when we came in you said, "Momma, I'm sorry for making bad decisions tonight." This was a good way to make your momma's heart melt. Other sentences I can remember...  "Momma, I'm getting older, someday I will graduate, when I'm a big kid." "Can I go to Sunday School tomorrow?" I said, "We will get to go again next Sunday."  You said, "I go to Sunday School on Tuesdays and Fridays." You were in a really talkative mood and I said, "Autumn can we keep talking about all this in the morning?"  You responded, "No momma, can we talk about it on Tuesday?"  Then you turned over and started listing our friends in Hawaii. "Chris and Andrea, Jackson, Ashley, Brad, Tosh, Saiah, Angie..." I asked if you were missing our friends in Hawaii.  You sighed and said yes.

New/refined skills:
POTTY TRAINED!!!  You are doing so well now and your accidents are getting farther and farther apart!
Today you buttoned the pajama's on Aunt Christie's baby
Jumping - you love to jump everywhere, if there is opportunity to jump, you take it! Off logs and rocks, down stairs, off stools, off play equipment...
You can manage most younger play equipment and now climb up harder structures

Since the last time I wrote one of these - we have been very busy and are now 5000 miles from Hawaii in Maryland with your uncle Chad, aunt Christie and cousin Eric.  In May we celebrated 2 of your friend's birthdays, had a nice little baby shower for your sister, finished daycare, found out you are having a sister in October, and flew to Maui the last day of the month.  You have done amazingly well for all the changes - which we really appreciate.  You've always gone with the flow as we've floated around the last 18 months, but I thought this move might be harder since you're now older and we'd been in Kona for 10 months.   We packed up the house mostly while you were at daycare and stayed with friends so that you didn't have to stay in your empty room.  The distraction of a cute dog, new toys and a swimming pool was enough to get us through!  You did have a really hard time getting to and while at daycare those last 2 days, as you knew I was pau working and you wanted to stay home with me - but it really was best for both of us that you had things to do while I packed and cleaned.  We had a great time in Maui! You stand up paddle boarded with me for a couple of miles - sitting, standing and laying on the board - finally the wind picked up and we headed back to the beach.  You loved the Maui Ocean Center and we even got to hold a baby green sea turtle thanks to daddy's college friend.  We spent a couple of days doing parks and playing at the house and ended our short stay with an afternoon treasure hunt with Tutu at the Lavender Farm.    We've been here in Maryland for almost a week and have done a lot of resting, playing and enjoying time as a family.  Yesterday we celebrated Eric's birthday with slide, pool, bubbles and cupcakes!  Eric and you had a great time in his new riding police car!  

I feel like I should have more specific details about your development - the last month has been mostly depth and breadth in your understanding and being able to explain more and more complex ideas.  Your humor grows and you make jokes or tease about things and giggle.

We love you so much sweetie!!!
Momma and Daddy


Other fun stories -

About 4 weeks before our 20 week ultrasound for your sister you told me we were having a girl and her name is Abby.  We found out at our ultrasound that you will be having a sister!  When we got to Maui I asked you in front of Marie what our baby's name was and you got a big smile on your face and said, "Monkey."  You thought you were so funny!!!  Ever since then you say our baby's name is Monkey!   Last night we were talking about how you had outgrown something and you asked what I was going to do with it. I told you we'd save it for your sister Monkey, Monkey Brown.  You said, "how about Monkey Purple!" (-:

Tutu Denise was doing your toe nails and got done with the first color and asked you how they looked.  You said, "oh, they are all mucked up, we need to do them again."  You selected a different color and she asked again and again you said, "oh, they are all mucked up, we need to do them again." After the third color Tutu said, "oh they are so pretty and didn't ask you what you thought!" (-: 

Slavery

We attended church with my brother and his family this morning and I had no clue what God had ready for me.  The topic was Slavery - the sermon was very good and looked back at the history of slavery in the Bible and how different it is from our perception of slavery.  The details of the sermon are many and can be found here - http://www.mosaicchristian.org/#/messages

He also talked about how evil the kind of slavery is that we are familiar with.

^{Hebrews 2:14} Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil — ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
 

^{1 Timothy 1:9-11} We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine ¹¹ that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. 


 We watched a video from www.IJM.org and I cried and cried.  They are a "human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to secure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that public justice systems - police, courts and laws - effectively protect the poor. "  The thought of anyone (mostly young children and women) being held, raped and mistreated for years and years is horrifying.  My brain and heart wants to deny it's truth - to believe that it doesn't really happy and certainly not to the extent that it does (400,000-600,000 people are taken across international borders in human trafficking every year).  I'm not sure my place in the this horrific tragedy, but for right now my commitment is to start praying for these individuals every day - both the victims and the perpetrators.  Also to pray for God to direct me and my families role in helping rescue and rehabilitate the victims of these crimes.    The thought of my own daughters in this situation is enough to make me puke and cry and cry.   It makes me so grateful for God's protection over our lives thus far - and to pray hard for it to continue no matter where in the world we are.   I challenge anyone who is reading this to look into it further and not be naive to the needed prayers and work to rescue and show these hurt people the love of Christ.  I admit that I have known about this organization for quite sometime and even get emails from them that I delete because the stories are much easier to ignore.  I'm grateful that the Lord put it in my face and broke my heart for these people again.

Night time prayers

It has been a very long time since Autumn wanted to pray before bed.  I'm not sure on the psychology, but I always offer "who wants to pray?" at the end of our bed time routine and her answer is almost always, "Daddy."  We will be sharing a room with her until we get to my parents in a couple of weeks, which allows us to hear what she says after she crawls into bed.   We lay there and 10-15 minutes after she went to her bed, she started talking and we hear - "Jesus, Thank you for fun with Tutu and Harrison (followed by practicing how she says it - Tutu and Uncle, Tutu and Uncle Harrison...), help mama grow her baby, be with daddy."   Such a sweetie!!!!! 

Update on life

The last week and a half is a blur!  We are now moved out and on the road.  I finished work on the 24th, started packing, had our 20 week ultrasound, played at the beach with our neighbor friends, packed some more and cleaned!  We were so blessed during our move out - friends watched Autumn, helped us haul boxes/stuff,  helped us clean, brought over food and kept us for the last 2 nights so we didn't have to stay in an empty condo.  It went so smoothly - no late nights, limited stress and Autumn handled it pretty well.  Other than being really bummed that I was done with work but she still had to go to daycare and struggling with potty training - she was a total trooper!  Only a couple of small fits the whole week!   She helped put things in boxes (and take some out) and played on her own pretty well when she needed to.  We flew to Maui on Thursday afternoon after checking out of the condo and running small errands.   Most of our stuff went to storage, we sold the green Honda and our neighbor friends are taking care of our silver car until we return.   All in all it has been a great transition!   The friends that kept us the last 2 nights have an adorable little dog, a fun teenager and a swimming pool - so Autumn was amply distracted and having a great time!  Our Maui mom picked us up at the airport after a bumpy little ride on a 9 passenger Cessna from Kona where we where an arms reach from the pilot.  Autumn did so well, sat in her seat nicely and fell asleep about 5 minutes after take off - it was a short nap, but she slept through all the bumps that may have been scary otherwise!  We are having such a nice time being spoiled and relaxing in Maui!  Nice dining, stand up paddle boarding, delicious home cooked meals, park, incredible real shave ice, picking mangos from the yard....!!! Out on the hammock Autumn asked to stay here 'forever' (-:   It is tempting!!!!