First, Christian has been out of work since the end of June for a surgery he had in July. He has been in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable dealing with these physical issues prior and following the surgeries. This affected our finances greatly, especially since I am only working 2 days a week at Costco, but was unable to pick up hours due to my help being needed at home. The part time disability provider and the Dr. office screwed up and we were not paid anything for 3 weeks. After finally getting our payments figured out, Christian had the surgery and it was unsuccessful, so he was scheduled for another one in September.
However, at the end of August, everything changed. Dylan, our 14 year old, was very sick one evening. He had lost some weight over the summer, but we were not too worried since he ate so much and was possibley just growing. He was throwing up one night and was freaked out. He is not one to freak out when he is sick, so Christian took him to the emergency room. He had lost 30 lbs, 15 or so from the last week, and his blood sugar was over 700 (normal is 160ish). They diagnosed him as Type 1 diabetic and took him to Doernbechers Children's Hospital by ambulance. He was stablized and moved from the ICU that evening and spent the next 2 days in the hospital. Throughout that time, Christian, Dylan's biological mom Trish, and I spent time learning as much as we could about all this. Learning how to give him insulin, how to count carbs, etc. I was greatful I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant so I was somewhat knowledgable about a few things. We also realized his prescriptions each month were about 100 dollars. We were overwhelmed to say the least. Dylan was somewhat accepting of the diagnosis, but also enjoyed the "room service" and great food and cute nurses quite a bit. :) A Deacon from our church even stopped by to see how we were doing. It was so nice to see our church family was praying for us and that someone took time out of his day to come see Dylan and our family.
The hospital gave us his prescriptions for free to get us started so we did not have to spend more than 15 dollars for everything. That was an amazing blessing for us! Once we got home, we adjusted our lives to help Dylan the best we could. He did an amazing job of being in charge of his insulin and checking his blood sugar. He is such a responsible guy but it was so great to see him take this on so well. Throughout this time, he started high school and we built a great relationship with the school nurse, Janis. She has been amazingly helpful with the transition for Dylan at school, and we have been so blessed with her as his nurse. I have a little crush on her :) Just kidding....
Because his body is still adjusting to all this, we have been dealing with some low blood sugars and 2 seizures. This has been a great stress on us emotionally seeing Dylan have to go through this. It caused me to miss work and negatively affected our finances more. The Dr. at Doernbechers and everyone we talk to has encouraged us to get a companion animal for Dylan to help distract him from everything and be something positive and comforting. Dylan wanted a cat, but it would cost us 70 dollards plus supplies. We knew we wanted to do it but did not have the money, we were unable to pay all our bills as it was .But we knew how much help it would be for Dylan to have a cat, so this was constanly on our minds. However, Dylan's nurse at school, Janis, called in a favor to the Director of the Humane Society and they were able to give us the cat for free. :) We could not believe it!!! We knew this was going to help us immensely. Christian's parents also sent us $70 for the cat as an early Christmas present to Dylan. They told us "We are just doing what we are told." Love that saying about just obeying the Lord, "don't thank us" mentality. Give thanks to God. :) We went to Petsmart to use that money for cat supplies and we put everything we needed in the cart, not adding as we went. We went to the register, the total was $68.92. UNREAL!! God is so good!!
During this time of the cat search and managing Dylan's blood sugar...we kept Dylan home quite a bit from school. While he was home, Christian and Dylan spent every moment together and strengthened their relationship. They were constantly laughing and it was amazing to see them enjoying this time so much. Dylan and I are also closer than ever before. It has been so nice to have time with him and to see him happy, especially on days that are not easy.
Financially, we were beyond broke. Our amazing friends Jaimelynn and Kendall asked me for a list of groceries for them to buy. I gave them 5 things to get. They asked for more, I added 2 more. When they showed up, they had about 30 bags of groceries and a bag of clothes and cool things for the kids. I could not believe it!!! The things they bought us were things I would have bought myself, to the last detail. Like Thin Spaghetti noodles instead of Regular. The staples we have on hand, they bought, not knowing that was the case. The Lord walked them through that store, and told them what to get. It was so overwhelming!!! I am so thankful for these two!!!
Christian had his surgery and is now recovering with some complications, but I took a leave of absence from work to help care for him, Dylan, Sophia and Jess. My family needs me and it was a hard decision to make until I realized: the Lord will provide...
My parents came down and took Sophia and I out to breakfast, and that was refreshing for me to spend some time with them and my sister Christy. As they were leaving, my dad handed me money that covered some bills we were unable to pay!!!
So our fridge, pantry and freezer were stocked, my parents helped with bills, and we were got a cat for Dylan without paying a cent. His name is Milo and Dylan has a constant smile on his face. The Lord has blessed this family immensely through this time and He constantly reminds us He will provide and we need to Praise Him in our Storms.....Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts....God has showed miracles to the Randall family this summer.
