Home for the Holidays

Several years ago, when I first started blogging, I wrote a post called "The 12 Irritants of Christmas." It was a great post, if I do say so myself (and I do). It's one of my favorites. And it helps that every Christmas I pass the inspiration for many of those irritants. (Tacky yard displays? Check. Decorated cars? Check. Freaky people in the mall? Double check.)

This year, the holidays are a little bittersweet for my family. In June we lost 2 people that were close to us ... as much as either of them could be close to anyone.

At the beginning of June, our friend David died from pancreatic cancer. He'd been diagnosed last Thanksgiving. David was a small, quiet man who worked with us at the church, and SuperHubby and I kind of adopted him. He spent most holiday dinners with my family. He didn't say much, but when he loved you, you knew it. I hoped he knew we loved him. When he died, I was given a gorgeous scarf he'd made for me and set aside to be gifted only after he was gone. Yeah, he knew.

Then at the end of June my grandmother's husband, Van, died. He'd fallen at their assisted living facility, hit his head on the sharp corner of a wall, and never recovered. He was married to my grandmother for 20 years, and in all that time he never complained when we talked about how much we loved and missed my granddaddy. He knew my grandmother could never love him as much as she had Granddaddy and he was okay with that too. He didn't say much, and often grumbled when he did say something. He was in hospice near my house, and I really didn't want him to die alone, because I wanted him to know that he was loved. True to his nature, he passed away right after the nurses had checked him. He was totally alone. I got there about 20 minutes too late. I was afraid he'd never known I cared. My grandmother told me later that he told her he loved me. He knew.

So Thanksgiving was tough this year, and Christmas will be hard too. We have 2 empty chairs around our holiday table. But Van and David both loved the Lord, and they knew where they were going, and so did we. We rejoiced in their homegoings. There may be 2 empty chairs around our holiday table, but they are both spending their holidays at home.

God's Provision

So my previous post was about Froggie getting braces, and all that will entail. Anyone who draws breath knows we can't afford to pay for braces, so I thought I would explain how God provided them for us.

We've been discussing the need for braces for Froggie with his dentist for years, but we needed to get to a certain point in his growth before we could moved forward. Over the summer, it was finally time to take him to an orthodontist for a suggested plan of attack. After a couple of hours, the plan was in stone...and boy was it gonna cost us!

I felt horrible, because the orthodontist kept stressing how important it was to start as soon as possible to prevent loss of permanent teeth, the need for dental implants, etc. I felt like a failure as a parent when I had to tell him, "I just can't afford it." They offered us a 10% discount for SuperHubby being a minister. Still no. We couldn't even handle their payment options. They changed them - very graciously - but I still didn't feel like it was something we could take on. I hated myself for letting down my little Frog Man.

Then it dawned on me. Maybe I could get a grant. I contacted the grant folks, and got a big fat no. But I also got a big fat referral to an agency specifically designed for Froggie's type of dental need. I got in touch with them and the ball started rolling - fast.

In order to qualify for this program, you have to have a serious, life-altering issue. They take all sorts of measurements of your mouth, and you're graded based on that and some other criteria. Base score to qualify is 35. Most kids score around 36 - just hovering over the minimum. Froggie scored a 42.

Since I'd already taken him to the orthodontist, the paperwork was easy to do, and the case worker came out to the house shortly thereafter. She pushed him through at the cranial facial clinic at MUSC and what could have been a 6-month process was about a 3-month process.

Our contribution? We have to make sure Froggie takes care of his braces. We have to let them know every time he has an appointment (so they can approve payment). Basically, we have to be adults.

When I found out Froggie needed braces, I felt horrible for not being able to provide for him. Through prayer, I was led to the program I needed, and God has provided abundantly more than I could have asked or imagined.

Never think He won't do the same for you.

Braces!

It's been about a year in the making, but on Tuesday, December 1st, Froggie started the process of getting braces. I say "started" because, of course, nothing is simple in our house.

Because of the seriousnes of his jaw problems, it turns out that there is a very extensive plan for fixing said problems. Tuesday was just the beginning.

Froggie now has braces on his upper teeth only. This is to get things aligned and straightened enough to have oral surgery to pull down an upper tooth that's killing it's next door neighbor. I found out Tuesday that when he has the surgery, they will put him completely under anesthesia. This does not make me happy. I am trying not to dwell on that aspect of the process.

Once he has the oral surgery, they will put a little pulley system on that particular tooth and hook it up to the braces and pull that tooth out. In addition to the braces not being comfortable, that little dealio will probably be painful for him. At some point after oral surgery, they will add the bottom braces.

Supposedly he will have the full braces on for 2-3 years, at which time they will remove the braces and figure out which jaw should be broken to fix THAT problem. At this point the orthodontist is 98% sure he will have to have the jaw surgery, which will require breaking his jaw and wiring it shut. After that fun, he will get to be in braces yet again, probably another 1-2 years.

Seriously.

To top things off, his underbite is so severe that they had to put a bumper brace on the back of his bottom front teeth. It's halfway up and would annoy me like nobody's business. It's there to keep him from closing his mouth all the way, because if he did, he'd knock the braces off the upper teeth. This means that even when his mouth is closed, he has about an inch of space between his upper and lower back teeth. It feels like he can't chew his food.

Really.

He did pretty well getting the braces on - which took over an hour - although he did try to talk the entire time. He has asked about a dozen times a day since then when he's getting these stinking braces off. Could be a long adventure.

I rewarded him with a Lego for his troubles. He seemed pretty happy about that at least.

An Interesting Month


Yes, I realize this is a couple of months late in coming, but that's life. Especially with the month we had in October.

It started with a visit from one of our New York cousins at the beginning of the month, when Grandpop came home. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Matt and the rest of the family.

Then SuperHubby left (in the middle of Matt's visit - poor planning!) for a conference in Atlanta. The day he left, FrogBoy was injured at school. He was walking to the back of the school, and the automatic door opened FAST and smacked him in the forehead. He had a huge bruise, a dent running down the length of his face, and a serious "head-ick." So while SH was gone, I got to study him for a concussion for 3 days.

We had about a week of calm, and then Froggie had to go to MUSC for a scheduled visit with the cranial facial clinic about his jaw issues and getting braces. Not to be outdone by his little brother, Spanky picked the EXACT day and time as that appointment to get injured at school. He was tripped in drama class, landed on his wrist wrong, and ended up with a major sprain (which was determined after 2 visits to the ER, a CT scan and an MRI). Yes, only Spanky could get hurt in DRAMA class.

Needless to say, we were happy to see October come to an end!