Success.....Finally!

Success never seems to come easily to the members of our family. None of us really stand out in the crowd, having a great talent or achievement. Sure, we all are fairly good at one thing or another. For example, Nolan has a great memory and school seems to come fairly easy to him. Jacob is a fairly good artist. And, Caleb has always been very agile. Otherwise we all have to work fairly hard to get to a level of success. This can be frustruating some times. It always seems like getting from point A to point B takes so much effort!

Take for example, yesterday. I dropped the older boys off at Vacation Bible School and left to have Gavin's blood drawn down the street. I figured that I would be back within an hour. Wrong! I got back just in time to pick them up, 2 1/2 hours later! I was told that an order had been faxed to the clinic to draw Gavin's blood. I had talked to our doctor's office 3 times to make sure that it was, but when we got there.....there was no order! So, we had to wait for almost an hour for the order to be faxed over. Then, we got back to the phlebotimist and he said, "I hate drawing blood from little ones." I should have taken this as a sign to just leave and go to another clinic, because usually when they aren't hip on drawing his blood, then they also aren't good at doing it! Gavin was SO good! The first 2 pokes he didn't even flinch or make a noise at all! He just sat there looking around and tolerating all the annoying things this guy was doing to him. The guy missed to first stick, and the second one he moved and lost the vein! And, he would'nt even attempt a third poke, even though Gavin was tolerating it VERY well!

So, we were sent to another clinic to have them try. I only had 40 minutes left to get there, have his blood drawn and get back to church to pick up the boys! We got there and thankfully got in right away! We were told that we came to the right clinic, because the girl there was "the best!" Her first try didn't succeed either and by then, Gavin started to complain a little. (I don't blame him!) Her second attempt worked, but Gavin was ANGRY!!! I felt so badly for him. But, after 2 1/2 hours, we got success!

Last week was the same for us, at the cardiologist's office. An hour visit turned into over 2 hours, because they couldn't get a good EKG reading on Gavin., The blood pressure cuff wasn't working properly and they had to get 4 readings from each of his limbs!, And, the echo of his heart took FOREVER! But, we finally got success and we were told that Gavin was doing well. He still has a moderate leak in his Mitral Valve, but his heart and body are tolerating it for now. Often times when you have a significant leak in a valve of the heart, your heart can become enlarged. Thankfully, Gavin's is not at this time, so we are very happy about this!

Gavin has also had a tiny bit of success in regaining some of the weight that he lost. He has only gained about 3/4 of a pound since we increased his calories, but at least he isn't losing any more weight!

The biggest success that our family has had in the last week is that Caleb learned to ride his bike! Our children have had a difficult time learning to ride a bike. In fact, Nolan still hasn't mastered this skill! (I feel so badly for him! He is very smart mentally, but physically he has always had to work hard. He crawled late. He walked late., Etc.) He is getting a little better at the bike thing and hopefully he will taste success by the end of the summer! Then there is Jacob, who does fairly well with physical attributes, but he struggles grasping things in school. He has to work harder than his brother, Nolan, and this really bothers him. But, when he does really well with something in school, he feels so good about it, because he had to work so hard to find success! Anyway back to Caleb, he decided that he wanted to try out the bike at Grandma's house last week and within 1/2 an hour he had great success! He is so proud and we are too! Here he is learning and mastering his bike. (His 2 favorite things lately are his bike and the football uniform that he got at a garage sale last week! He's so cute!)






Then, there's Gavin. Success has always come hard for him! He has been through so much in his short life and so much has been taken away from him, due to the stroke that he had. He lost his sight. He lost most of his brain function. He lost his smile for the longest time. But still, he finds success sometimes. Look at him! He's happy and he's alive! And, because it takes so much more time and effort to get to progress, success tastes so much sweeter and it means SO MUCH MORE to us when it comes!



I just wish that it wasn't so tiring in the process! I need a nap and I just woke up a couple of hours ago! :)


"If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; But wisdom brings success." Ecclesiastes 10:10