Searching For Camp Once Again

Don’t worry, Fulton isn’t still in the hospital. If you don’t follow me on Instagram or my page on Facebook, you might have missed the happy discharge photo. Thankfully, he’s been feeling back to normal here at home since Friday May, 27. We took him in to CHOP after only a few days of being sick at home, hoping it’d be a short stay. Unfortunately, he needed almost two weeks of care. (Teddy had a couple rough days with the same bug, but thankfully, he overcame it at home and saved us another ER visit.) We were so blessed to have friends and family make donations that allowed us to cover the cost of hospital meals, gas, parking, childcare for Todd, and getting a few special meals for the kids at home. Thank you everyone for supporting us financially and with prayer as always!

I missed my sister’s baby shower but still managed to take care of the menu thanks to ordering catering trays that family picked up for me, delegating other side dishes, and emailing a few games that didn’t require anyone to provide props like onesies or miniature plastic babies. It was the one event I unfortunately couldn’t reschedule and had to miss, but thankfully Addie and Edie got to attend. We’re all getting very excited to meet our new niece, my sister’s first child, in August!

Tony and I each took a few nights at a time during Fulton’s admission. After hardly seeing each other between Fulton’s hospital stay, my time in Cleveland and self-imposed bedroom quarantine, we finally managed to get a couple hours together on Sunday over wine slushies at the winery that’s only a short walk from our home. We’ve also been able to bring on some additional childcare to help with Todd, so hopefully more date nights are on the horizon.

Our first full week at home post discharge was spent trying to play catch up with mixed results. And in the midst of emergency room visits (PLURAL) for Todd last Wednesday, and my cold returning with a vengeance by weeks end (still testing negative for COVID), we got word that the Philadelphia MDA Camp, which was only two weeks away, would be cancelled due to lack of volunteers. This was a bitter pill to swallow on top of so much other craziness. We had respite care lined up for Todd (he’d be getting a fun week at the shore), the older three would be busy working, Fulton and Teddy would get a fun week of camp and Tony and I would get a break after a very challenging couple of months. Of course I immediately began researching other MDA camps that might accept Fulton and Teddy. Things are still uncertain on this front, so please say a prayer we can work something out because they really have their hearts set on attending an MDA camp this summer.

Meanwhile, we continue to fix up our old house. A pleasant surprise is how well our fruit trees have grown in our absence; Edie and I harvested several peaches and it looks like a bumper crop of blueberries is coming in on our two remaining bushes. I finally got Byron’s graduation announcements and will hopefully send them out before he leaves for college. Last week’s visits led to me scheduling even more appointments for the following weeks, so June is already starting to look rather full but hopefully we can squeeze in some fun around all the medical stuff. Fulton’s main wheelchair is still out of commission and we’ve got NO IDEA when it will be fixed. So for now he’s still using his old chair, which is supposed to be his beach chair, to get around, albeit with great effort.

The disturbances to our routine over the last couple weeks have meant that Todd has struggled a bit more lately. After seeing some improvements, we’ve moved, not back to square one, but a couple steps back. Hopefully as things settle down, we’ll start seeing more progress again.

We celebrated Pentecost with a liturgically correct dinner at Applebee’s. (The logo is red right?) It’s the first time we’ve all been out to dinner since an early feast of St. Joseph celebration, and our first big meal out with Todd. And today I took four kids to the Cape May Zoo because the weather was nice and Tony and I both thought Teddy needed to get out of the house. He’s taken the news of the camp cancellation the hardest and I’m going to try to plan a few more field trips for the next couple weeks just to give him something else to look forward to besides bonus schoolwork. So anyway, it’s not all stress and strife and thankfully I’ve got the pictures to prove it.