More Joy

My word of the year for last year was Joy. I partnered with a group of bloggers on a 365 project that fizzled out after a few months but I’ve decided it might be nice every once in a while to share with everyone what our life is like outside of being sick. Illness is time-consuming. Seeing doctors, trying to get caught up in school and searching for answers is just exhausting. We try to find a little laughter in everything we do.

I firmly believe that you have two choices in life when you’re dealing with chronic illness. You can live as a sick person all the time and alter your dreams and goals to be short-term. Or, you can keep the faith, laugh a lot and believe that tomorrow you’ll wake up and have an answer and be on the road to being healthy. We’ve chosen the second route because the first one just doesn’t work.

Here are some of the moments that have given us joy so far this year. 

Getting those MagicBands

We took an unexpected trip to Disney in January when my mom announced that she was going for a convention. Planning was part of the magic. So, was ordering the tricked out sticker and monogram for Rosie’s band.

 

Sooo cold for the stunt show. #waltdisneyworld

A photo posted by Deb Clem-Buckert (@debclembuckert) on Jan 23, 2016 at 12:57pm PST

Going to WPA

Okay, the name of the dance is sexist (Women Pay All), but Rosie was excited to ask Hunter to WPA on their 6th month anniversary. There was just one snag, she just happened to be in the hospital that weekend. Luckily, she got out and her mom is crafty. I whipped out the Silhouette (thank you to my blogging girls) and helped create the blues for the scavenger hunt she’d been planning. The ask went off without a hitch and she got to attend the dance despite having to have a blood patch a couple of days before. 

Killing time Playing with Puppies

 

Killing time before the doctor with a little puppy therapy. #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #woof

A photo posted by Deb Clem-Buckert (@debclembuckert) on Feb 3, 2016 at 9:51am PST

 The support for #teamjaiden

My teenager had an idea. What if she could sell some shirts and make some money to help other kids who had invisible or undiagnosed illnesses. She ran a successful campaign and we were able to donate $425 to Children’s Mercy last week.

 

Help us raise money for Children’s Mercy Hospital! #invisibleillness #chronicillness #pots #migraines #spoonie #spoontheory #teamjaiden

A photo posted by Deb Clem-Buckert (@debclembuckert) on Jan 5, 2016 at 6:20pm PST

So as you can see, even in the midst of a terrible couple of months. We’re smiling. We hope that makes you smile too. Thanks to everyone who’s been dropping off meals and treating us to all kinds of goodies. That give us joy too!