Hi everyone! We just wanted to jump on and give you all an update on how our family is doing. Summer has been in full swing and we always have something going on. The girls are playing softball, TBall, and taking swimming lessons. Zeke has been a great sport through all this as he can’t participate yet. He’s been very busy riding his bike and Hotwheels Jeep around our neighborhood.

At the beginning of April we took a family trip to Ohio to incorporate Zeke’s appointments. We went to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and did some light hiking, saw an amazing waterfall, and played in some streams. The girls even became Junior Rangers. We had a lot of fun all enjoy being outdoors. We then surprised the kids with a trip to Colobus Zoo! Our kids love love LOVE the show Secrets of the Zoo on Disney+. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a real life look of the inner working of the zoo with all the animals and even vet emergencies. They were so surprised! Even though the weather that day was very cold and rainy, which we were not expecting, the kids had a blast. Everywhere we went they were saying they recognized places from the show.

Next we went down to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for Zeke’s appointments. Previously, his kidney sonogram in February showed some worsening hydronephrosis. He then had a Mag 3 Lasix test done to make sure there were no obstructions, which thankfully there were none. His doctor then increased one of his medications that relax the bladder so urine could drain more freely. The kidney sonogram this month (in April) showed much improvement and we are now back almost to baseline for his kidney. All his lab work has stayed stable over the course of all this so we were hopeful nothing was permanent. He will be getting another kidney ultrasound coming up in August. We have been traveling out to Cincinnati about every 3-4 months and I (Katie) am drawing labs every month at home.

After our trip we finished up our homeschool year. We all really enjoyed the time we got to spend together and all 3 kids did so well. We absolutely loved the flexibility of it and being able to travel more during the week when places weren’t as crowded, especially with COVID being so crazy. We definitely needed the trip we took to get out of our house. The kids will be going back to public school this next Fall, and are excited but both have asked to be homeschooled again. Which makes us extremely happy that they still love us after a full complete year at home all together! HAHA!!!!

We are happy to say we are expecting a new baby at the beginning of October. All 3 kids are excited to be big helpers with the new baby! And no, we don’t know gender yet….we are going to get the biggest surprise life can offer!

I’m still working full time as a nurse and David has been very busy at home building a foundation for our new business called LIfeline2Health. He has also been working on small projects around our house that I come up with, gotta love my crazy ideas. It has been really nice having David home and the kids love having their daddy home more. It’s crazy to think back on when he worked out of the home how much he actually missed out on. We love the flexibility of our new business and what life offers. We are extremely grateful for where we are now and our journey that got us here.