One more step in our Journey!

(A few minutes after she was diagnosed, they put in an IV, which she of course hated, they put a diaper on the other hand to keep her from playing with the IV, that lasted about 1 minute before she pulled the diaper off with her mouth!)

This is a hard post for me and I have been avoiding writing or even thinking about what I wanted to write. Ironically enough this comes right after my last post in which I talked about affliction and how we all have to experience it to get to our happily ever after. As I read over now what was our affliction then I would give anything to go back to those being our biggest problems. We spent Easter weekend in the hospital with Kailie after we discovered that she has type 1 diabetes. Her blood sugar level was 387 and will be forever ingrained in my memory for that number changed our life and especially her life forever.

(Kai pretty much stole all of the hospitals toys and brought them into her hospital room to play. Notice her wing!)
These past two weeks have been tough to say the least but each day it has gotten a little bit better. Jared and I have each taken turns having break-downs and wondering why little Kailie was given this disease. At some moments I am at peace and think that everything is fine and then I think about the future and how she will never get a break from it, every meal or snack she eats for the rest of her life will have to be counted and accounted for with insulin. Even when she is sleeping the concern for her to drop is elevated.

(Showing off her winged arm. We were amazed how quickly she adapted to it!)

Everyone keeps saying that it will get better and get easier and I think that is true to some extent but it will never be fully okay, we will always worry about her especially when she goes to school and then becomes a teenager. Everything she does from playing at the park, to going out in the cold can change her numbers and that is so scary to me. I wonder how can she live a normal life but then I see my friends who have this same disease and they live normal active life's. In the hospital I just wanted to go back to the way things were before and now I think I have finally come to terms with the fact that it will never be the same but our goal is to make it as similar as possible.

(Finally getting the IV taken out!!)

The hardest thing for me personally besides the fact that I don't want my child to have any illness or hardship is that I feel as though I don't get to just be a mom anymore. I have so much enjoyed being a mom to Kailie, something that I didn't really expect before I had her. All the worries I had before as a mom have just gone out the window and I feel as though I have to spend all my time and energy worrying about how many carbs she is eating, if she is drinking enough, if I gave her too much insulin or not enough. It just comes down to the fact that I don't want to be a doctor and have to figure out how much insulin to give her and I don't want to be a nurse and have to give her shots, and I don't want to be a dietitian and have to count her carbs constantly I just want to be her mom and worry about all the normal things you worry about with your kids. I guess in time things will get easier and will become second nature for us.

Kailie has been pretty unaffected by everything thus far except the IV that had to be put in her at the hospital she is happy and seems to be feeling so much better than the few weeks before her diagnosis. One thing that I noticed then was that the house was staying really clean everyday which is not like Kailie at all, usually within the first 1/2 hour of the day she has managed to get into everything. Now she is back to her usual getting into everything self. She is happy and carefree and has no idea that she has anything wrong at all. She has done so great with the blood pricks and only whines a little when we give her shots. Her reaction to it all has been such a blessing for us, she always has been a great kid and I pray that she will continue to not be bothered with it all. I love and cherish these years that she will not know that she has this disease and will just be able to be a normal toddler for the most part. I wish she could stay innocent to this forever but our hope is that it will just be apart of who she is and she won't mind too much.

(Still our happy Kai, one week after Diagnosis at the ward camp out)

We are so grateful for the new technologies of today that make living with this disease easier and more comfortable and we pray and hope and will do all we can do to assist in the developments of new things that will make it even easier and better and perhaps even someday find a cure or at least a way to prevent others from getting it.

We have come to the realization that this is our life now and are so thankful for all the love and support from everybody. We know we have a long road a head of us and are so blessed to have everyone in our lives. We are especially grateful to Jared's mom Carolyn who came out here to help us with this big adjustment and even stayed longer than she planned to help me learn how to take care of Kailie.

We know that if we rely on the Lord he will help us through this new adjustment. We have already felt his love and peace and comfort and are so glad that we have his love and guidance in our lives.

So here's to another step in our journey!!

Once upon a time

This past weekend was the Young Women General Conference session. I, as a YW leader was supposed to go. I really didn't want to, I was tired and just wanted to hang out with Jared and Kailie but I ended up going and am so glad I did. The talks were amazing, especially the last two.

The last speaker was President Uchtdorf and his talk was funny, spiritual and kept you listening. As he finished and started to walk away the young woman next to me quietly said "no don't go, keep talking" When is the last time you heard a teenager beg for a speaker to keep speaking, that is how great it was.

He started his talk with how in every language that he knows there is always one common phrase and that is "Once upon a Time." He then talked about how don't we all want to live happily ever after and to get there we have to understand who we are and what we must become. He mentioned how in all the fairytale stories the main character has to go through adversity and affliction before they can have their happily ever after.

The week prior to this was a rough one for us, actually the past three months that Jared has been Bishop has been rough. Not necessarily from the new Bishop responsibilities but more of the repercussion from his work due to his accepting of the calling. It is not cool in the life of residency to put anything before your work!
Wednesday last week we both were just so frustrated with it all. Jared who hadn't had a single day off since December, who never gets to eat or just have time with us was exhausted from it all and I was just tired of everything. As I was driving to pick Jared up from work and rush him to the church for some interviews I couldn't help but think why if the church is so family oriented would the Lord ask Jared to be Bishop in a time when he already hardly gets to see his family? I thought about this question the whole week and as I was reading in 1 Nephi, I realized that the Lord has always asked his people to sacrifice their time. Then Pres. Uchtdorf's talk just really gave me the answer, which is for some reason though neither of us knows why, that the Lord called Jared to this calling. I guess this is just one step to our Happily Ever After.

One particular thing he said really stuck out to me, "How you react to adversity and affliction is most important." I know that they are many people out there going through much harder afflictions than us and I am grateful for the small time we do have together. I know that we could do better and I will try.

After hearing this conference all of the us including the young women were so excited for this coming Easter weekend where we get to hear from all of our leaders!

And hopefully we will all find answer to our questions and take one step closer to Happily Ever After!

P.S. The Picture above is Kailie taking her first steps towards the Temple, with a boy no less.

cheerios anyone?

A birthday and craziness!

Jared turned 34 two Saturday's ago! I know I am super slow at posting but I have good excuses.

(the calm before the storm)

I was so excited for Jared's birthday this year because 1-I finally thought of a couple of great gifts. 2-he actually had the day off for the first time in over a month and by day off I mean he still planned on heading into work to catch up on some things and then we had stake conference from 3 pm to the end of the night. So really it wasn't a day off but for us just a few hours off is a huge deal! 3- I planned a little surprise party for him.

Here was the plan for the day:
Sleep-in: which was the one and only thing Jared really wanted for His Birthday!
Make Waffles with Strawberries and Whip cream for Breakfast
Ship Jared off to his first gift which was a 1 hour massage
Then give him his second gift which was a Dart board. Things have been a bit tense and crazy at his work right now, so I thought the dart board would give him a nice outlet to let out some steam. What I can't tell you is what was on the dart board! You will just have to let your imagination fly with that one.
Then Sunday was his Surprise party.

Here is What really happened that day:
First -off we stayed up late Friday night because we thought we would be sleeping-in Sat. morning but instead at 6 in the blasted A.M. we hear the tsunami sirens go off. So we get up and Jared finds out he has 6 missed calls already! He immediately starts calling all the ward leaders and setting up a plan for emergency evacuation.

I start filling up everything in our house with water including the tub!
Pull out the 72 hour kits, make Kailie some eggs for breakfast instead of yummy waffles.
8 am Jared has all the ward alerted to the plans and goes up to the church to make sure everyone who was up there(it is high-up and was used as an evacuation place) was okay!
By the time he gets home we are both exhausted and have no idea what is going to happen in the next few hours. It is really weird to have advance notice of natural disasters because you prepare for the worst and try to plan for everything but then when nothing happens, it is really hard to just pick back up your normal life.

12 p.m. -2 p.m. we spent up at the church. Come home all fall asleep. Sleep completely through the 3 pm priesthood session and the dinner we were invited to by the stake president. Yes, they still held Stake Conference and guess what the topic was on?? Emergency Preparedness-which had been assigned as the topic months ago!! Pretty ironic!

6:30 p.m. I run Jared up to the stake center because our 4runner was broken and we were supposed to get it fixed that day but obviously that didn't happen. While Jared is at Stake conf. I run around trying to hurry and bake two cakes, run to the store and get everything to my friend Andrea's house for the party and then make it home. Clean up all evidence of cake baking including the smell before Jared got back!

(Kailie on the other hand had a great day and even learned to climb the ladder! Yep this is how we found her when we walked into the kitchen)

It was the weirdest day I have ever experienced, words cannot describe the emotions that you go through not knowing what the next few days or weeks could be like. Thank goodness we really didn't have to find out what it would have been like!!
Needless to say, Jared didn't really get a relaxing, stress free birthday which was my whole theme this year for him. We did however get a good dry run of how prepared we are and learned we need a few things but were for the most part pretty well prepared!

(the gang, waiting to surprise him)

Sunday brought his surprise party which he almost missed because he was so stressed out about not being able to do any work on Saturday he knew he needed most of Sunday to get it all done.

(as he walked out to all the people)

But in the end he made it, and was surprised and said that he was really glad I made him come to "dinner". (Chatting with our previous Bishop, his wife and current 2nd counselor)

(Kailie trying to get water!! of course)

He even liked the cake, which is a big deal since he doesn't really like cake. I really wanted to do some surfing decorations for him so I made a chocolate cake with sour cream, chocolate chips, chocolate pudding and hershey kisses. How could you not like it.

34 candles for one 34 year old man!

(Jared surfing on his two boards!)

In the end, it will be a Birthday that will not be forgotten!
Happy Birthday Babe!
Love you!
Hopefully next year will be a nice quiet, relaxing Birthday!

What has this Squirt been up to?

(Her first hair do. Her hair is finally long enough to at least do a little pebbles or twitty bird look!)

Kailie has been having so much fun lately and is really starting to show her little personality!

One of her new favorite activities is putting anything and everything over her head! Here she is sporting a pretty headband, a onsie that is draped around her shoulders, my sports bra and shirt, Jared's visor and cowboy hat!

She loves her necklaces and plays with them every day!

One day she found our bag of leis and proceeding to wear all of them!

She is so fun to play with since she is more interactive now!

I don't why but I just love this photo, anytime she wears these shorts she just seems so much older. Here she looks like a girl scout to me!

And of course she is getting into lots of trouble and makes fun messes everywhere she goes!

Some of her new tricks include giving kisses but only when she is not distracted. She can find my nose and her belly button, loves to wave and clap, can feed herself with a spoon although I think she makes more of mess than actually eats. Loves to climb and can even safely get off our really tall bed, LOVES stairs and can almost do them totally by herself which is amazing since we don't have any in our apt.
These are all more from Jan. now she has even new things but that will have to wait for a different post!

A call to help freezing children!!

My friend Marcia Vanderwood from church has asked for some help from anybody who can donate. Marcia's husband Rex(the old 1st counselor in our ward) is deployed and a leader at the base he is at. Here is the info, please help even if you have to go to a thrift store and pick up a few items, every little bit helps! I know some of Marcia's family in Utah has gone around to schools and asked if they would donate all of their warm clothes from the lost and found, so go to your local schools and see if they will help
I didn't want to post Rex's address just in case so if you would like to mail some things please email me at ginatheler@gmail.com and I will send you the address. Please don't wait, these children need it now!
-Gina


Operation Kyrgyzstan Warm Babies

All friends: Rex says there is an orphanage near the Air Base where he is. Children are freezing to death daily. There are families nearby that have children they cannot clothe for this horrible weather and the children are dying. He is witnessing this himself and is trying to help them. He and I will be collecting ...children's winter clothing. Used (but clean) is fine. If you are interested, details below:

I will take any used winter items for children from ages 0-12 years of age anytime at my home. Coats, hats, scarves, gloves/mittens, socks or sweaters. I hope to have enough to mail in two weeks time or sooner. If you are not in Hawaii, but have clothing donations please box them and mail to:

Leave off Rex's rank, and please make sure the items are clean. All items are welcome! They are desperate. Thank you!

Here's to 93

Kailie's Blessing, 4 generations!

My last living grandparent, Grandma Gardner celebrated her 93 Birthday last Saturday! She is pretty amazing and has done a lot in her 93 years of life. I wish we were closer so we could have been there to celebrate with her and the rest of the family!!

93 was a big landmark for me, she has now lived longer than any of my other grandparents. Her husband passed away 14 years ago in his early 80's. My mom's parents both lived to be 92.

Way to go Grandma! She is still going strong, has lived on her own in the house that my dad grew up in and even still drives!

Happy Birthday Grandma! We Love You!!

(the famous Orange couch, got to love it!)