successes, surprises, and some sadness

No, we really haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.  I promise.  It’s been a big, busy couple of weeks around here!  The successes have been great fun to witness.  The little guys had their first ever ‘fishing trip’ while we were on vacation, courtesy of big sister Hailey and her young man Alec.  Ryan and Logan think it was a rousing success:

And Ryan’s learned to ride his bicycle.  That’s been great fun.  He LOVED the freedom of riding his bike around the campground.  He thinks riding in the cul-de-sac is pretty awesome too.  :)

And today both boys had their eyes checked, and both of them passed with flying colors!  Such great news, since Logan tends to be on the very edge of what is considered ‘normal’ vision for his age. 

Those were great things.  The surprise came July 18, when we took Logan to see the audiologist.  For months and months—since January at least—I’ve gone back and forth wondering if he’s not hearing as well as he has in the past, or if he had just mastered the fine art of ‘tuning Mom out’ rather early.  Then one day in early June, when it was particularly bad, I picked up the phone and made an appointment for a new hearing test. It felt like grasping at straws, especially since his hearing loss has been completely stable for 4 years.  The results of the hearing test were disheartening at best.  Our little guy with a moderately severe hearing loss has lost a big chunk of what hearing he did have.  No wonder it appeared he was ignoring us or tuning us out.  No wonder he seemed to give random answers to questions.  No wonder cooperation at speech therapy has been hard to come by.  There are lots of unanswered questions, and we have an appointment to see the ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor in 3 weeks.  The recommendation has been to try hearing aids again, something that Logan finds intriguing.  We still have his hearing aids from our last (failed) attempt, so that part is good.  The hard part is that we can’t get in for a fitting (to have earmolds made and to have the aids programmed) until September 19!!  That’s the earliest available appointment.  Until then, we wait and watch and try to not be frustrated by his seeming lack of response.  Knowing it isn’t intentional helps.

The sadness is mixed with excitement and a sense of adventure.  Next Wednesday, Emily heads back to school for her junior year.  (Where does the time go??)  Then, the weekend after Emily leaves, Tori heads off to college as well.  My baby girl is all grown up.  She and Em will be at school together, so that’s fun.  Getting from here to there will be quite the challenge—the ‘to-do’ list to get them both ready to leave is about a mile long.  And growing.  I know there will be plenty of tears over the next few weeks as they both leave home.  I’m excited to see them spread their wings and fly, but it is bittersweet at best.  For a bit, it looked like it would be just Jim and me and the little boys here this fall, but Hailey got word that she’s been accepted into the program she was hoping to, so she plans on moving home in September.  I’m certain I’m not looking forward to the ‘adventure’ of shifting things around so that we have space for Hailey and her things, but having her live at home will be fun.  She’s a great young lady, and we all enjoy her company.  She’ll be super busy (full time classes + 2 part time jobs!) so I don’t know how much we’ll see her…

Successes.  Surprises.  Sadness.  Amongst all the goings-on of the summer, it is nice to know that none of this surprises God.  HE has it all in control.  I just have the (simple!) job of trusting Him…