This coming Friday our oldest son graduates from UNC Charlotte with his Masters Degree! At one point in time we thought Bobby would have to live with us for the rest of his life. At age 14 and at the beginning of his freshman year at high school he was bit by a mosquito that carried the LaCrosse Encphalitis virus. He became seriously ill and unresponsive. By the time the ambulance arrived to our house he was having grand mal seizures and was taken to Haywood Regional at which point they could not get him stabilized and called for MAMA to life flight him to Mission. The had to put him in a medically induced coma and intubate him. As a parent, watching the medical personnel taking your child out of the hospital and putting them onto a helicopter is one of the worst feelings you can imagine. Thank God for the very good friends I have here that came to take me to Mission and sit with me until my husband arrived. They finally where able to stabilize him and talk to him and it was determined he had LaCrosse Encephalitis. He spent 6 weeks in ICU...my husband drove all night to get to him and he spent 24 hours a day in the room with him, bathing him, feeding him and taking care of him. Our other kids and I would spend the evenings with him after school until he was ready to come home. He developed migraines and hardly had any energy, had memory problems, had trouble regulating his body temperature, but he went back to school 3 weeks after he was hospitalized. He went half days until he was able to go back full time. Within a year he developed partial complex seizures which only was discovered when get got his permit and was running red lights and going off the road. We took his permit away and he got put on seizure medication and by the time he was almost 18 he had been seizure free off the medication long enough to get his license. He struggled his whole high school years with migraines and lack of energy and at times he was unhappy and angry because he wasn't able to live life fully but he was determined to make something of himself. He managed to work during high school, go to college (and he worked almost full time at Wal-Mart the whole time he was in college) and get his 2 yr degree, then is bachelors degree and a job in Charlotte, a new car and an apartment and now his Masters Degree. Today you would never know anything ever happened to Bobby and we have said all along with think God has a purpose for him in this life. To say we are very proud of him is an understatement! He has overcome many obstacles and health issues to get where he is today and we are excited to see what he does in the next chapter of his life!
I don't want you to freak out about the mosquitos...this illness is very common, and 99.9% of the people that get it feel nauseous with a headache and are fine. We where told most of the people in this area have already had it, they just don't know it..they just thought they had the flu or stomach bug. It is spread by the Asian Tiger Mosquito which likes to come out in the day. The ones in the evening at night don't spread this illness. It doesn't hurt to use some bug spray, though! :)
This past week we finished up our projects for Mothers Day and graduation! We had our wonderful pet day and the kids loved it so much! It was so fun watching them get up and tell their friends all about their animals and answer questions about them as well! I brought in a bubble refill station and the kids loved it, especially Ms. Rhonda's class who was outdoors at the same time as us and all the bubbles kept floating over to them! Some of our kids went out of their way to blow bubbles to those younger kids...it was so sweet!
This week is our Mother's Day Tea on Wednesday morning! The children worked really hard on their beautiful gift. They will give it to you at that morning. It looks like its going to be a pretty week so we are going to try to spend a little more time outside and let them run and play. This time of year they tend to get itchy feet and want to move more and play more and I don't blame them, it's so nice outside! We will continue our circle times and everything else we normally do, but we are going to go allow them more time to play inside and outside. We have had a very busy year filled with experiments, art projects, learning and creating and they have earned and deserve some free time! :)
- Please bring in a plain white t-shirt that we can tie dye for the kids to wear for graduation.
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday May 6th: Mother's Day Tea....drop off time. Snacks and a gift for moms
Thursday/Friday the 7th and 8th: I am off from school getting ready for Charlotte and heading there for graduation. :)
May 22nd: Graduation 10:00 a/m in the Sanctuary. A reception will follow. The children may go home with you and they are also welcome to stay the rest of the day with us.
May 25th/May 26th: We are closed for Memorial Day and a teacher workday
May 27th: We re-open for our summer session
Leader Day for the week of May 4th-May 8th:
Monday: Andrew
Tuesday: Mary Beth
Wednesday: Khloe
Thursday: Allie
Friday: Weston
Have a great week!
some pics from last week:
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