Ian is getting glasses

The past three weeks have been a whirlwind and an emotional roller coaster. In order to respect my mom's request for privacy, I deactivated my Facebook account and temporarily stopped blogging, but yesterday was a big day for Ian, and I felt it deserved a post. Yesterday was Ian's second spiritual birthday. I bought a gallon chocolate milk on Tuesday in honor of that, and yesterday we stopped and had a donut at Dunkin Donuts on the way to their eye doctor appointment. Ian had two donuts, and the rest of us had one. Paul wasn't with us, but we brought his donut home. Ian's present this year was four Larry Boy books that I purchased for our Kindle. From Dunkin Donuts we went to the eye doctor where Ian and Nadia had their first eye exams (not counting the ones Ian had when he was an infant due to his prematurity to make sure he didn't have ROP). Nadia's vision is fine (yay!), but Ian is farsighted and has a lot of astigmatism. The astigmatism is interfering with both his near and far vision. I was surprised to hear the doctor say he was farsighted because both Paul and I are nearsighted. Paul didn't need glasses until his late twenties, but I got glasses when I was in first grade. Not surprisingly, Ian picked frames that were green because that is his favorite color. The woman said that the color he picked is by far the most popular color by both girls and boys. The lenses are rimless. Here's to hoping and praying that we picked ones that will really look nice on him and that he will take good care of them. The insurance paid over $400 toward the exam and glasses, and we paid about $150. Nadia's exam only cost us $5. We stopped at the library on our way home, and we happened to be there during preschool story hour which hadn't attended in years. Sometimes I feel badly for Oliver that he doesn't get to do things like that which his siblings did.

When I got home for lunch I learned that my sister from Turkey had bought airline tickets to fly to Maryland today and also that my mom had taken a turn for the worse. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital yesterday afternoon. When I arrived last Friday I was stunned to see how much she had gone downhill in the eight days I had been away, but it seems that since I left this Monday she had gone downhill even farther. Wendy was due to fly in today, but due to my mom's health she came in yesterday. I am leaving in a few hours so it will be the first time in 13 months that I will be with all my siblings. Because a blizzard is supposed to start in Maryland tomorrow (18-24 inches of snow is expected between Friday and Saturday), my dad has made reservations for us for rooms near the hospital in Annapolis as we won't be able to drive back to my parents house from the hospital for a few days. We ended Ian's birthday celebration by having dinner at Friendly's. I want to write more but don't have time. Please pray for my mom and my entire family as we walk through this together. Please pray for Ian as he was crying a lot yesterday over the thought of losing his Grandma. Please pray for Oliver as he had hard time with my separation. The kids stayed with Paul's parents during my last trip to Maryland. I really want to be in Maryland right now, but it's also really hard for me to leave my kids. Paul will be watching them the first couple of days and then Paul's parents will probably watch them for a couple of days. I don't know exactly how long I will be gone.