A Hitch, A Pump, and A Pony

We spent all week this past week at Grandma Mary & Grandpa Scott's house on a new adventure. About 6 months ago a new family moved to our area and was invited to our Bible study. Since then, Kimberlee and I have become really good friends even though we are just about total opposites on a lot of levels. One of those things that is totally different is family size - they have 6 kids total and a 7th on the way thanks to a blended family. We, obviously, do not have a big family. But we do know a thing or two about being part of a big, crazy, happy family. And I love it :-)

So... this past week Kimberlee's daughter, who is 9, needed to be at DeVos Children's Hospital (where Olivia spent her week in the NICU) to receive an insulin pump, since she has type 1 diabetes. I went into the week not knowing much about the disease, since it is nothing like the gestational diabetes I had with Abby. I can now say I am getting pretty good at helping a little person with the disease (I don't know how to manage the pump yet, but I'm sure that is on the way). It is one thing I pray we never have to deal with for either of our children. But, thanks to amazing modern technology, Evelin now only has to be poked once every few days to move her pump instead of getting a shot before eating anything and before bed. I'm sure she is going to be very happy about that. And, since Kimberlee is getting pretty far along in the pregnancy and wasn't comfortable getting around in Grand Rapids, the girls and I went along for the adventure to keep them company. We were all thankful that my wonderful parents were willing to open their home for a few days. Both Evelin and Kimberlee talked about how much fun it was most of the ride home.And in the process we managed to do some things I was pretty excited about. One of them was having Abby (and Evelin) experience their first horse back rides. Let me just assure you that Abby, as you all probably would guess, was terrified of Lucky the miniature horse right up until the point when I called her a "princess pony." There is nothing Abby won't do if you label it a princess thing. She rode Lucky bareback with me holding onto her and Aunt Emily leading the horse. It was only about a bazillion percent humidity and in the high seventies, so Abby and Evelin rode while the rest of us swam in our sweat. Yuck! We also perfected Abby's swimming skills and taught her friend Huron (Kimberlee's youngest son who is 2 this week). And we had a hitch put on the car just in case we can find a great pop-up camper. That was an adventure in itself (the dealership guy said it would take 2-ish hours... seven hours later I left with a very cranky baby in tow). Olivia was a real trooper in helping me get a hitch put on and dealing with not one, but two toddlers trying to play with her all week. I think all the grandma hugs made up for it.

After all that fun I am pretty sure I need a week (or two) to recover. After I clean all the toddler mess and snacks out of the car that is ;-)