Checking in

Here's how 2015 is going so far:
-Hubby is frantically but diligently working away at THREE courses as he wraps up his parental leave

-D is halfway through senior kindergarten, and we are tremendously thankful for dear neighbours who walk her to the bus stop in the morning so that we don't have to!

-M has officially been registered to start kindergarten in September; and just as I was worried about sending her to school in diapers, she spontaneously started going to the bathroom on her own a couple of weeks ago. It finally clicked for her, and I couldn't be more thrilled! She hasn't had an accident in a few days, which is amazing. And it only took us six months to get to this point.

-G is almost six months old, rolling all around, almost sitting up, and still the happiest baby. He'll be starting solids pretty soon, but I remember all too well how long it takes babies to get the hang of eating, and I'm in no rush.

Oh hai!

The past few weeks have been intermittently difficult for our family. We've had some car trouble (our van, specifically the sliding doors and the battery, would seem to despise winter as much as Hubby does), a disappointing school result, and then a follow-up ultrasound on G's kidneys. We knew from the many, many ultrasounds that I had during my pregnancy, that his right kidney was smaller than his left, and that this would require follow-up after he was born. He screamed through his first ultrasound at just a month of age, and had another diagnostic test a few weeks later (called a cytoscopy) to determine kidney function. Both of these revealed what we already knew: his right kidney is smaller, but the left one is working fine.

Last week he had what I had hoped would be his last ultrasound for awhile. However, in the intervening weeks, his right kidney has developed two small cysts. Now we are awaiting a referral from the pediatrician to a nephrologist to continue monitoring, and to determine whether the kidney will need to be removed at some point in the future, a point which I am trying not to focus on. Many families have to deal with much worse than this. It's a concern, but we have access to excellent medical care, and besides that we know that our Lord is sovereign over this. This circumstance is not good from our perspective, but God is good. We once again put our trust in him to use the situation for his glory.