secretramblingsofapastorswife

I know..its always something with me. But I've got a new project right now. I've been working on for about a week. give or take a few days. www.spinabifidakids.blogspot.com there is a link on the right of my blog. Im super excited about this because I think it is NEEDFUL! It is so hard to sit and google tons of information regarding spina bifida and all the MANY MANY areas of these kids lives. I am hoping to have others contribute ideas and for it to slowly start growing into a site that is easy to search and easy to find ideas. It is also a place for all the SB blogs out there. SO you can see how these kids are doing and how incredily strong they are. It is also a place for people to donate used medical equipment like walkers and such. Anyway, check it out when you can.

So, thanks to some incredibly generous people we were able to give Toby his first bike for Christmas this year. It was soooo exciting. I will admit that at first he was more excited about his bike helmet. (for some reason he attributes helmets to being a big teenager.) I love this video sooooo much. In the first 2 seconds you can hear Nate talking to Toby in the background, "Never give up." Then later on you hear Toby tell Gracie, "I'm gonna beat you" I just love that we went outside and the kids got to ride bikes together. HOW AWESOME!! Just wait till Milo gets bigger and gets his first bike. I am just so incredible thankful. sooo increidbly thankful. One day I hope that Toby can look back on this and truly understand how many people love him. For now, its just a totally awesome bike with a totally awesome helmet that makes him look like a teenager. : )

This entry is really supposed to be about the kindness of strangers. Hence the title, right? Well, I have to preface it with what happened last night. Toby walked around a store for over an hour with no breaks!!! Nate had Upward Basketball practice and so I was left with three kids and Christmas shopping to finish up. I've been really wanting them to pick things out for each other this year so they can be focused more on the giving than the receiving. Well, we went out and I brought the sit and stand stroller and Toby's walker. I was feeling pretty stinkin' daring if you ask me! So of course in the process of going into the store, the walker slides down the bar that I have it hooked on and smashes right into Toby's wrist. He cries and I'm feeling quite bad about it. Well, I decide at that point I might as well say goodbye to him walking because his wrist was already looking rough. We got in the store, and I started walking and Toby yelled out, "Hey, you forgot ...

So, it had been almost 3 years since our last Spina Bifida-related ER visit. Not bad!! After so many ER visits the first few months of Toby's life I just thought that it would be that way on a regular basis. But here we are almost three years later. Praise God! Toby had been waking up at night crying randomly and complaining of his head/neck hurting. I didn't think too much of it because it wasn't incredibly consistent. I decided to call our Spina Bifida nurse, and of course it was the usual, "Take him in if he gets any worse." Well, nothing happened Friday, and then Saturday it seemed like all night long. I ended up putting him on some pillows in the living room and sleeping with him out there. I was hoping to keep the rest of the family sleeping. Well, we went to church and afterward he started telling me he was crying because of his shunt, and that it was hurting during Sunday School. Well, that was enough for me. I nursed Milo, got everyone settled in and Toby...