Our Mitchell Boy

We have had a wonderful month of family time.  We were able to see extended family members at a family reunion as well as our cousins, aunts, and uncles.  Mitchell has a difficult time in crowds because of noise, so we stayed home part of the day so he could relax.  We also spent a lot of the month going on and off of medications trying to find something that would bring him relief.  He was spending approx. 6-8 hours each day screaming.  He couldn't respond to questions so we didn't know how to help him and he didn't like to be touched so we pretty much just had to sit there feeling helpless and frustrated that he has to go through such agony.

As always we continued to pray for direction in how we can help him and for him to feel how much we love him.  We also prayed for at least a level of relief to come to him so he would not feel such suffering.  Knock on wood, but we are hoping we've found the right equation of meds for him to feel a bit of comfort throughout the day.  It will be a constant evaluating process as to what level of intensity he should be at, but at least we know these particular meds can work.


We started hospice a couple of weeks ago.  They come in twice each week to check vitals and make sure we are stocked with the necessary medications.  They also have a person who comes in to talk with Jackson, making sure he is emotionally healthy and well.  I feel our family has been blessed with amazing strength through all of this. I do think overall Jackson is doing well, but I also want to make sure he is able to express his deep-down feelings to someone because he doesn't always like sharing them with us.

Both of our families have been amazing helping us through this.  We're very fortunate in that regard.  I feel a large part of this trial is learning to allow others to help us, but I am really struggling with how to make that happen.  I truly do spend time each day thinking about how someone might be able to help me, but I end up feeling a lot of stress by the end because I can't come up with anything!  That is why it is so wonderful when little "treats" show up at my door or random forms of service because I feel the love and it was something someone else thought to do.  Does that make sense?  We have learned a lot about service and supporting people in trials from so many who have done so much for us.  It is a priceless blessing.  Just last weekend some amazing individuals spent hours and hours putting on a garage sale fundraiser for our family (and another dear friend going through a similar trial) and it was so touching to see the time and thought put into us.   There are so many wonderfully kind-hearted people in this world!

These are some of the beautiful pictures our very talented friend, Mary Thompson, took for us about a month ago.  She captured our family beautifully.