Sunday April 24, 2022
Chris enjoyed coffee on the beach at sunrise today.
Thomas was so excited to hear that we would be visiting a natural history museum, home to the skeleton of an extinct 20-foot ground sloth (see the picture he cut out and carried around). Long-time friends of Thomas know that the sloth is his favorite land animal!
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| Ready to see the sloth! |
Lunch in Wilmington
We drove an hour to Wilmington and ate lunch upon arrival. This particular restaurant hands out balloons to all children. It's like they
want children to be totally distracted and exhibit terrible restaurant manners so they won't eat the food in front of them. Are the restaurant staff snickering as they watch hapless parents inform said children, "No, we
won't be letting you bring those balloons in the car"?
After lunch, we visited the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science, which was large enough to be fantastic but small enough to be manageable, and very reasonable at only $41 to get all eight of us tickets. We stayed for a couple of hours and everyone found exhibits and activities of interest.
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| Thomas and the 20-foot ground sloth!!! |
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| No one is too old to enjoy building with small wooden planks. |
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| Life-size beaver cam |
Mass at St. Mary's Basilica
After stopping for snack time, we drove over to the church for its once monthly Latin Mass at 5:00 p.m. We had extra time so played on the parish playground to burn off energy.
While Thomas's Dexcom (continuous glucose monitor) alarms at least daily, I don't think it ever has during Mass until today. Because it is a medical device, it can't be silenced unlike the other apps on a phone. So, Thomas's phone alarms very loudly and five seconds later my phone alarms very loudly . . . and this continues every five minutes until Thomas's glucose is within safe range. I didn't know what to do in this new situation, so he and I sat outside for the half hour it took for our phones to stop blaring.
God and I have had a lot of conversations outdoors because over the last year, Thomas and I have missed portions of Mass more often than not due to his body acting up or his needing to eat.
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| Hanging out on the steps during Mass |
Milestone: For the first time in more than a year, our entire family went out for ice cream. We found a charming beach-y ice cream shop that sold one flavor of sugar-free ice cream. We let Thomas take a chance and he was over-the-moon happy to be participating in this normal family tradition of going out for ice cream on vacation. Unfortunately, he barely made it ten minutes till we got back to the house before he became quite sick and he cried tears of frustration.
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| Happy for fewer than ten minutes |
There are many sacrifices in life and this isn't the biggest thing in the world, but it remains hard and sad to be a little kid who just cannot eat normal, American kid foods. He has adapted so cheerfully so much of the time, but some moments still strike a dagger in his heart . . . like ice cream with his siblings. It is also sacrificial of his siblings who have had their home diet altered (due to my cooking for Thomas) and who aren't allowed to go out as a family for these treats because we won't subject Thomas to being segregated so obviously. God is allowing them this venue for learning to be self-sacrificial, which one hopes will benefit all of us in the end.
Traveling with this little guy isn't the easiest, but it isn't the hardest anymore either. My "muscles" have grown much over the last year. My panic over all the supplies I could forget and all the emergencies that could happen has lessened. I admit, I do still look up the nearest children's hospital before we travel and I enter it as a Contact in my phone. Would I travel somewhere without a children's hospital nearby? No, not at this point, I don't think so.
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| Medical supplies (plus an IV pole) required for Thomas to travel |
This Topsail beach trip was supposed to occur last August, but we all got sick a couple of days prior. In the end, this appears to be God's good timing because Thomas is so much stronger this summer than last summer, making him able to enjoy this beach trip exponentially more! Thank you SO MUCH to our friends who wanted to give us this trip.
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