Call to Congress

A few months ago, Collin (with Mommy's help) filled out a long application to participate in this years Call to Congress, an event sponsored by the National Diabetes Association. They bring in children and adults from across the country to speak to Congress, to tell their story and to explain what life is like living with this disease.

We found out this morning that Collin was chosen to go. I am so proud of him! And he should feel very honored. I know I am a bit biased, but I know he can be an inspiration to other children. Some of the questions were: Have you ever played any team sports. He answered, YES! Baseball, basketball, soccer, roller hockey. It asked what outdoor things he has done. He answered: a 3 day 18 mile backpacking trip in the Saw Tooth Mountains, downhill skiing, white water rafting, swimming, hunting, sledding, and a few more I can't remember right now.

It asked how long ago were you diagnosed and at what age. He answered: I was 5 years old and have been dealing with this every day now for over 5 and half years.

Basically, he is living his life to the fullest, not letting this awful disease stop him from doing whatever he wants. I think he is a great example to other children and their parents of how to live with diabetes, how to not let it stop him from pursuing ANY dreams, showing a living example of leading a normal life.

Yet, even though he does all of the above, and more, diabetes is a terrible thing, especially for a child. He checks his blood sugar numbers a minimum of 8 times a day, he has to give himself his insulin EVERY time he eats, he has to be able to know and count carbohydrates for every bite of food he takes, he has to recognize when his blood sugar is low and treat himself, also for when he is to high. He has to deal with not feeling well when that happens. It is a lot of responsibility for a child. But he has taken this responsibility and proven that he is capable and basically does all the counting and programming his insulin pump by himself now. Not every day is sunshine and roses, there are times when he gets angry and upset about having this disease. Times of tears and extreme frustration at the unfairness of it. But his soft heart is open to God's word, is accepting of what the Lord has put in his life to shape him for something in the future, and after the tears are over, it is a blessing to see him accept these truths.

He would be a great example to talk to the leaders of our country and other families with their diabetic children and also appealing to our leaders to find more funding for a cure.

All that being said, this morning school was put on hold as we worked on a budget. The ADA does have a stipend to help cover some of Collin's lodging expense, but travel and meals and the rest of the lodging is up to us.

Some details began to work out, Sam's boss agreed to give him leave that week, and I worked out childcare for Christopher and Kaebrie for 6 days.

But the cost is high. It takes a lot of money for 4 people to spend 6 days in DC. They were amazed at the cost of airplane tickets and at the cost of sleeping in a hotel. A nice spontaneous life lesson, one of the many reasons we love homeschooling.

Sam and I decided that yes, we could go. BUT, it would mean cancelling our June trip we have been planning. (Going to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park on the way to our denominational meeting in Dallas, then home to Alabama for a week to see loved ones, then up through Colorado then to Yellowstone for a few days.) Not only is it to expensive to do both trips, if Sam took leave days to go to DC, he wouldn't be able to get enough leave days in June to do the other trip. So many of the other chaplains are traveling as well, they have to share time so there are people working at the chapel!

We spent probably an hour talking about the pros and cons of each decision.

We decided to take our family trip in June. He can apply again another year, and we will probably be living closer (we can't get to much farther away, unless we go over seas, but we REALLY REALLY want to go overseas) and will make traveling expenses less. He is sad. There have been a lot of tears today, but he made his decision. And separately, the rest of us also made the same decision.

Another life lesson in making HARD decisions.

Well, that is what went on in the Smith house this morning. Not a whole lot of book -learning, but a whole lot of life lessons.

Sometimes, we google topical cartoons, here are two that made us laugh.