Blessed with Another Year! Kai is FIVE!

Five years ago, I delivered a gorgeous healthy baby boy. So I thought. A couple days after birth, realizing something wasn't right...he was rushed off to Children's Hospital in San Diego.

There, diagnoses were thrown at me...my head swimming...knowing what the outcome of every disease mentioned was...none of them good. One stuck out...and surely Kai could not have this disease...he isn't but a pinch Caucasian...as this particular disease predominantly impacts Caucasians....doesn't matter any more...not this day in age.

What? Cystic fibrosis? NO WAY. Not our little Korean-Native American-Mexican-Black-Irish baby. Shuh... Whatever!

Well, blood tests showed that he has cystic fibrosis.

I knew my life was going to change with the addition of a little baby...having already had one...adding another to an already strained marriage was surely going to be life changing. I had NO IDEA just how much.

Therapies, nebulizer treatments, medications with every meal, weekly visits with Miss Lisa at occupational therapy(for over 3 years now!), and hand sanitizer up the wazoo...well, it's all normal now. Normal for us. Normal for Kai. Normal for a family with a little guy with cf. I realize that every day is a blessing...each and every breath is a gift from God...each smile...each I love you...every tantrum...all gifts.

A little over a decade ago...children with cf were not even living long enough to get to grade school. Kai is in pre-K. He will start kindergarten in the fall. Praise the Lord!

Advances in medicine have raised the bar and along with it the median age for life expectancy...we are almost at 37 years old I believe. So, with continued advances in medicine and better therapies...Kai is gonna make it to be older than his old-lady mom is now.

I am so grateful for another year with this baby boy. I should say BIG boy. Kai has given up his beloved binkies to a baby named Lucas. Since Lucas is a baby and needs them more than Kai does. Also he started (just last night) drinking his high calorie formula from a straw instead of a bottle! This is HUGE. This was mostly out of necessity since his front teeth are causing him pain. Why? Not from decay said the dentist but because his BIG BOY teeth are already coming in early. Too early...but at least we know the teeth are loose because of that and not because his teeth are rotting out of his head.

Thank you God for another year of oral aversions...all the gagging and the refusal of solid foods...thank you for always providing the finances to afford to not-so-cheap high calorie formula...thank you for providing for his expensive Dr. visits and medicines...thank you for my delightful sometime pain the butt son Kai. Thank you for his continued health. Thank you for an extended family of loved ones that care so much about him and his well-being. He is a blessing. I love him so much and thank you for another year.

Please join me in wishing Kai a very happy birthday.

Happy Birthday BIG BOY Kai. You are such a wonderful gift from heaven and God is going to always be with us carrying us through the toughest times and holding our hands and hugging us through every good time.

I love you son.

Love,
Mommy