This week we decided to share with you some of our favorite things. We could share with you our favorite websites, our favorite blogs or our favorite blog posts from other blogs.
I enjoy reading blog posts from different people. I like the funny ones and the silly ones but I am most moved by the blogs written by people who I know and people who share with others how they survive the challenges of life. Today I want to share with you a blog called “Our Family of 4”
This family of 4 holds a special place in my heart because not only am I long time friends with Josh’s parents but I also had Josh in my pre school class when he was 4 years old. Josh comes from a wonderful caring family that loves to laugh and enjoy life and this comes across in his blog. Josh and his wife Annette have 2 children Jackson 5 and Kade who is almost 3.
The first part of this blog is simply about Josh and Annette and their life but when their son Kade was about 5 months old he started having seizures. At first they were thought to be infantile spasms but tests ruled that out. After three weeks of hospitalization the seizures stopped for a period of 2 months but then they started again. Kade has been diagnosed with epilepsy, hypotonia, Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) and global physical and mental delays all possibly cause by multiple mutations in gene POLG1.
Kade has a low immune system causing simple colds to develop life threatening issues. He spent 1 week in the PICU from a simple infection by the Human Metapneumovirus. Typically the Human Metapneumovirus causes sniffles.. Kade could not breath, could not keep his blood pressure up, and could not keep his body core temperature regulated.
The first few years of this blog are filled with funny posts about the day to day happenings of life, then after the birth of Kade and as Kades’ condition worsened and they went through more tests in one day than most children go through their whole life, it was harder to find the time and the energy to post.
This year, Josh returned with his blog because he felt it was important to share Family of 4 through the challenges of life because he felt like if his blog helped just one family to know that there is hope and help out there for families who have children with rare medical needs,then it was worth it.
Life is never what we think it is going to be but when we take the unexpected and make the best of it, we open ourselves up to a new kind of growth.
Josh writes with truth and humor and gives you a peek inside his and Annette’s life with Jackson and Kade. Josh and Annette are doting parents and loving supportive partners. They are surrounded on both sides of the family by caring and involved Grandparents and extended family.
Feel free to go back and read all the postings but I started reading when Josh wrote A Return.
I hope that you will be inspired by “Our Family of Four”