The Journey We Are On.....

Jason Johnson is a writer of a blog and several books about fostering and adoption. One of his recent posts " Foster Care, Adoption, and Saying Yes to the Unknown " is a powerful and insightful look into the life of a foster parent. I'll be the first one to admit that when we said "YES" to two little girls who needed a family that we never thought that I'd be writing about the girls return to their biological parents. However, a little over a week ago our two foster daughters moved back in with their mom and dad. " Saying Goodbye To The Foster Care Child I Fell In Love With ," isn't exactly like our story, but there are a lot of similarities, and gives you a bit of a look into what we have experienced and are now experiencing. We are heartbroken and grieving. We miss them so very much, be we also know that they are loved and that they are happy. This summer as we prepared for this we spoke openly and often about the fact that you can be b

When I started this blog I don't think that I could have imagined a time would come in which months would go by without me writing. However, that is what has happened. So much has changed over the last almost eight years since Ethan's birth and subsequent diagnosis with PBD-ZSD, yet at the same time so much hasn't. Unlike parents of typically developing children we find ourselves still parenting a child with complex medical needs who's developmental skills range anywhere from 9 to 18 months. Ethan still has PBD-ZSD, and right now his uncontrollable seizures are a major issue. We still fight PBD-ZSD the best we can each day with a basket full of medications and supplements and other medical interventions (feeding tube, cochlear implant, AFOs, etc), numerous therapies, school (which Ethan loves), and prayer. We advocate for him and all children and families impacted by PBD-ZSD and related peroxisomal disorders through our involvement in the Global Foundation for Perox

October 5 th is a special day for our family as we celebrate #PauseForPBD , the annual awareness day for The Global Foundation for Peroxisomal Disorders (GFPD) . [Jeff's birthday also happens to be October 5th but he doesn't seem to mind sharing it with #PauseForPBD day.] Our son, Ethan, is 7 years old and is one of less than 200 children, known to the GFPD, living worldwide with Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorder (PBD).  Ethan has a contagious smile and laugh, despite the fact that PBD has caused him to have severe cognitive and physical delays. Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorder (also known as Zellweger Spectrum Disorder), is a rare, genetic condition affecting multiple organ systems in the the body. PBD is generally fatal in childhood. As a parent, it is difficult to express the sense of loneliness and feelings of isolation that enter your life when your child has a rare genetic disease that most people have never heard or and has no cure. However, #PauseForPBD, is a d

On July 13th and 14th over a hundred scientists, clinicians, and students came to Washington D.C. to attend a conference focused on the Development of Therapies for Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorders . The keynote speaker was Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) . As a parent of a child affected by PBD-ZSD it is hard to adequately describe how much it means to know that there is growing interest in finding treatment for rare diseases. In addition to the scientific portion of the conference was a separate conference designed specifically for families. More than 40 families from the US, Canada, and the Netherlands came together in the largest GFPD Family Conference to date. Check out the welcome video below. Jen Kerckhoff, a fellow GFPD Board of Directors member, wrote a wonderful article about her experience which you can read on the TulsaKids blog. Jen is one of just two members of the Board of Directors who is not a parent of a child

Ethan was diagnosed with strep throat on Monday, May 22nd. He was prescribed a 10 day antibiotic which finished up Thursday (June 1st). Thursday night we had to administer his rescue medication to stop his seizures and we had to do this again Friday morning. After giving him the rescue medication on Friday morning I took him to the ER. We were admitted and spent the night. Blood and urine samples were "okay," but the nasal swab was positive for a cold virus. So, sometime during the treatment of the strep throat Ethan also caught a cold. He is still extremely lethargic, but we didn't see any seizures today. We got home around 5pm this evening.  Jeff did an amazing job holding down the fort here at home while I stayed at the hospital and I'm very thankful for the friends that helped out yesterday so that Jeff could come visit us for a bit. Prayers for Ethan's continued recovery and for no more breakthrough seizures is greatly appreciated.

Ethan's continuing to fight the "bug" that has been plaguing him for more than a week now. The cough isn't going away, and I'll be calling the doctor tomorrow. Yesterday, I had to use Ethan's rescue medication in the first time since May. While the seizures have returned over the last couple of weeks, we weren't seeing them every day and they hadn't started to cluster until yesterday afternoon. I am thankful that the diastat stopped them, but I hate that I had to use it. The diastat really kicked his butt yesterday and he slept for more than 4 hours. It finally got late enough that we had to wake him, which was hard because he was so groggy, but eventually he woke up. Although we were concerned that Ethan might be up all night, he wasn't and slept really well until around 5:30am, which isn't bad considering that since the time change he has been consistently waking up between 5:00 and 5:30am. Ethan and I stayed home from church this morning