Virtue and Vice

I'm very glad that Amanda is in the hospital. I am much less worried now that she's here. She has been diagnosed with croup. It fortunately has not turned into pneumonia. That was our biggest concern. She was admitted because her immune system was dangerously low and she likely would have developed a serious bacterial infection. She's been taken off her chemotherapy and already her immune system is inching back up. The doctor thinks we can be released tomorrow. She'll be wiped out for a while. Scott stayed the night with her and he said she only slept one hour. She finally fell asleep on my shift. Erin has the same crud, but fortunately Will is OK. Caring for two sick kids and a nursing baby has it's challenges. But being here reminds me that the last time was much harder and that handling this is much easier now. Amanda picked up the bug from school. I don't want to send her back. But as my brother-in-law pointed out, I can't keep her in a bubble forever. Amanda is just too social, and she has been so much happier since she went back to school. A couple days of misery is the vice to allowing her some social freedom.

I had hoped to post a bunch of pictures about Christmas but was obviously side tracked a bit. I had this feeling that we'd end up at Primary's some time this week. I'm glad it was after Christmas and we were able to enjoy the holiday together. There are a lot of kids up here that did not get that luxury. We owe a big thank you to the mystery Santa that brought over a big bag of extra presents for our kids. It made Amanda's day. She was so excited about Christmas #2. It will give her plenty to do to keep her busy while she recuperates. We appreciate the efforts made to make her life happier and ours a little easier.