It is done!

So, as an update: a couple weeks ago B was asking how the Easter bunny comes to visit us (like Santa comes down the chimney, what does the Easter bunny do?). So, I took the opportunity to spill the beans, if you will, on all things traditional and fiction. She took it just fine and didn't seem shaken up in the least. Little J was alongside us and so he heard too, though I'm not sure he can quite catch on to what all this talk of Santa and the Easter bunny is. I felt so much relief that we were no longer passively allowing her be lead to believe these characters are real. Thanks for your comments and encouragement!!!!

So, I had a possible breakthrough on our little J the other night and I'm so excited to share that I thought I'd just post it. Some of you know he's had itchy legs since he was about 1 1/2 years old. They've been off and on and go from not bothering him at all to so itchy he wakes up with red scratches all over his lower legs. It kills me to see him suffer without knowing a cause and thus a remedy. Well, we've had him tested several times now and have tried several things but his itchies have persisted. Recently he began to get them on his wrists, neck and shoulders as well. Finally, a couple nights ago he was having a fit of the itchies and I prayed harder than ever before for the Lord to give us the insight and information we needed to help him as the allergists and various Dr's we've seen have avoided my questions of it saying he's allergic to so many things it's nearly impossible to know what's causing it. Well, after praying I didn't feel like I'd received an answer yet, still, until I went downstairs and got on the computer. And for some reason I thought, hmmm, what about corn? The Dr.'s/allergists we've seen have mentioned almost nothing of the corn allergy that he has tested positive for the last two times so I'd previously dismissed it, focusing on his various other allergies and asthma. It appears so innocent, doesn't it. I thought back to what'd he had to eat earlier in the day and he'd had several foods containing corn that day. I googled 'corn allergies' and found an excellent website devoted to those with corn allergies. The woman had only a corn allergy and talked of unexplained rashes, stomach aches, migranes, sinus infections, asthma, etc. and they were all linked finally to her corn allergy. I was beginning to get excited of finally finding a cure to his itchies! Then, I thought of his trip to the ER last fall. He'd talked of stomach pains and I saw how intense they were for a few brief moments before they appeared to pass. The two Dr's we saw both explained them away saying it was just associated with his rapid breathing but their answers didn't satisfy me. I looked at the dates more closely. The night he started his rapid breathing he'd had corn bread for the first time. Corn bread I had specifically made egg-free for him so he could eat it at a ward party. That may explain why after a day of as intense as I could get nebulizer treatments did almost nothing to slow his breathing. This woman on the website said her asthma was directly related to her corn allergy. Then I clicked on her 'what to be wary of' list and got scared. The list has to be about 80 ingredients long, including such common things as popcorn, vanilla, confectioner's sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn flour, bleached flour, brown sugar, various topical products such as lotions and on and on and on. Her allergy is quite sensitive and we hope little J's is not that sensitive. But, if it is she listed recipes, links and corn-free products available. An answer to prayer or coincidence? To me, there's no question. It all seems to add up.

Now, I say all this in hopes of lifting spirits.

*Prayer works, even if it takes a while (this is not the first time I've prayed for an answer on his itchies).

*The internet is amazing! There's so much filth and trash on it but there's also so much good and there's no way I could have all this information SO rapidly at the touch of my hands without the internet. *And people who have had discoveries and done research on these topics are so incredibly helpful--much more so than a Dr. who can't possibly empathize or specialize like one who's had the difficulty. I'll be forever grateful to the woman who shared about her experience, and the many others I've found since.

*Anyone who has had to see one of their children suffer so much and know it will continue can have hope for some relief.

Our bodies are incredibly complex. In talking with B about helping us help little J I mentioned how our little buddy is just the same person as he's always been. She wants to help her little brother. She's even gone to such lengths in the past as not having particular candies or cookies, knowing he can't have them. It gives her a chance to show herself how thoughtful she is and how we are all different and we can support one another in our trials. It has shown little J that everyone is different but yet still a wonderful child of God and that his life is no less important than one who is allergy-free. He can prove excellent skills of self-control and thoughtfulness as well. He's mentioned several times that we can have toast for breakfast and eggs for B. And I get to learn about new ways of doing things, new recipes and inter-personal relations skills as I try to help B understand how important it is not to make little J feel any less important or left out and help little J understand that he truly is no less important and that he can be happy with what his body allows him to do. I'm truly grateful for the resources we are provided with to help us on this journey we so frivolously call life--a great miracle of our God and mankind.