When It Rains, It Pours (And Then You Get Mold)

You know those times in your life when it just seems like lots of bad things are happening all at the same time?

This has been one of those months.

We've been struggling with Matthew's health issues again for almost 6 weeks. The itching that just won't stop is driving him (and me) crazy. His skin is totally clear and soft; it is not his eczema. It's like he's itchy from the inside. It keeps him from going to sleep, it wakes him up in the night and keeps us up for hours. We have been to the doctors numerous times, he's on three antihistamines and just finished another round of steroids, and last night we were up for 2 hours again with the itching. We're going to be back at the allergist soon, but truthfully I am just so worn out by this and I want my baby better.

On top of that, he has some fabulous stomach thing which has had him vomiting and having diarrhea every couple of days for the last two weeks. The poor boy needs a break.

Switching gears...the Korea trip. This part makes me so sad to even write about. A few weeks ago while trying to get things figured out for our trip to Korea, I spoke with the allergist who let me know that Matthew would need to be on a peanut-free flight due to his peanut allergy. Brad and I researched and talked at length, finally coming to the conclusion that taking him on a flight that is 14 hours long, even if it was peanut-free, could put him at risk of having a reaction because people could still bring peanuts on the plane. So that left us making a decision about traveling without him, or having Nathan escorted. We decided we would go without him and he would stay with my mom and sister. Obviously, this was not what we want, but we thought it was the best choice we could make.

And then...

Matthew continued to struggle with itchiness and getting sick. I started to wonder how I would leave him for a week if he was having such a hard time. We prayed and talked and didn't know the answer.

The more I prayed about Matthew's health, though, the more I started to think that we needed to check out things at our house to see if something there was making him sick. We have had a leak by our fireplace for a while and have wondered if there might be mold on the drywall around the fireplace. So Wednesday afternoon, Brad took off some of the drywall to investigate.

Sure enough, mold.

I packed up Matthew and headed to Brad's parents' house for the night, and then we came to my Mom and Dad's (where we are right now). Brad stayed behind to deal with the house stuff. We soon discovered that the roof and chimney need some major work.

Thankfully, we had some money saved. Unfortunately, the money was saved for our Korea trip.

It's been a difficult week full of difficult decisions. We feel strongly that we need to not go into debt for this stuff, so it seems that the only option we had was to use the money to fix the house and to have Nathan escorted instead. It is not what we want to do, and making that decision has caused some tears, but when it comes down to it that's just what we have to do.

Sometimes being an adult really stinks.

We are hopeful that fixing the mold problem will help Matthew's health, but he has still been itchy here at my parents' house so I am not sure that will be the case. I am beyond frustrated that we are not able to figure this all out.

And to top off the week, yesterday we found the owner of Little Dog and had to decide to give her back (we knew about them, but they didn't know we had her). It is good that we are able to bring them their dog back, but we are sad to say good-bye to our little friend. And it stinks that we had her fixed!

In the midst of all this, we see the blessings of God so clearly. Nathan is coming home soon - one way or another! We think June will be the month. Matthew is a joy to us and worth every sleepless night!!! We have wonderful parents who are always there for us and Matthew has been able to spend extra time with all of his grandparents :) We already had a vacation planned for next week, so Brad is coming here tonight and we're going to the beach!! Even though it wasn't how we planned to spend our savings, at least we have savings to take care of issues with the roof. And Brad just called and told me that he totally made the day of a single mother and her three kids by returning their beloved dog to them. God is good, all the time! Nothing has turned out how we hoped, but we see that our God is always with us, always faithful, and always providing for our needs.

We would really appreciate your prayers for Matthew as we try to figure out what is going on with him. It is so hard to see him unwell and we really just want to get him healthy.

Hopefully my next post will be full of happy vacation pictures :) I'm so ready to get away!