God is faithful

It's really hard for me to put details of my life out there for "the world to see", but I have been so encouraged by my family and friends over the last couple days. There's been some good, not so good, and great things that have happens over the last couple of days.

Some good things: Danny was able to get the steroid shot done and it was somehow covered by insurance. His back is feeling 100% better. He is constantly giddy about being able to take a step or roll over in bed without pain. Pray with me that the pain stays away. Many people have told us that this sort of shot doesn't work in the long run. I would love for this to be the exception.
We're still not sure if he'll be able to get the two eye procedures done this next week. I'm hoping that since the insurance covered yesterday's procedure that it'll cover the next two also.
More good things: We turned in the paperwork to get disability pay so hopefully a check will be processed in the next two days.

Not so good: I didn't get the job that I was hoping to get. It was just a part time job. I really thought it was going to work out. I'm sad about it. I had just gotten used to the idea that I was going to go back to work. Gotta figure out what I'm going to do now.

GREAT THING: Today we were blown away by someone's generosity. We received a check, a very large one, by an anonymous person. WHAT A BLESSING!!!!! I'm still in awe! Using our Dave Ramsey skills we budgeted the money to the areas that were most needed. If the person who did this is reading, THANK YOU! THANK YOU FOR BLESSING OUR FAMILY! THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO EASE OUR BURDEN! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!



Here is a picture of my two sickies. Daniel's fever got up to 104 last night. I don't like my kids being sick of course, but I do love how cuddly Daniel gets. And as you can see in the picture, a princess is never too sick to put on her princess dress and tiara! She would sleep in it if I let her. They are both doing better. No more fevers.

Here's the deal-e-o

Thank you to so many of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. We need them both right now, I need them both right now! Here's the scoop:

Danny has been on disability for almost six months now with a back injury. We don't know what caused it and the doctors could never figure out what exactly was wrong. The MRI showed a slight bulg in one of his discs but the doctor said that is no big deal, that any person could go get an MRI and it would probably show that they had one. He finally saw a pain specialist and Danny has an appointment scheduled for a steroid shot on Monday. We were really hoping that this would take care of the pain and Danny would be able to go back to work.

About a month or so ago Danny went for a routine eye check up and found out that he has fluid building up in the back of his eye. It took awhile but he finally saw the eye specialist yesterday. We thought it was just a consultation but he ended up having a laser eye procedure. It was not a very pleasant procedure but hoping it will help. (The doc said that it may or may not get better but it won't get worse. Danny has a pretty big blind spot looking from his right eye.) He is scheduled to go back in a week and have the other eye lasered and then back again for for a shot in his eye. ugh!!!!! So we were expecting three procedures in the next two weeks for Danny. Scary but very grateful that we have the ability to have them done and hopeful that Danny's eyes and back will be restored.

Well, we got a letter in the mail last night that informed us that our health insurance was cancelled as of Jan. 1st due to lack of work hours. WHAT!!!!????!!!! We are right in the middle of all this stuff and so close to Danny possibily going back to work.

Did I mention that we haven't got a disability check in 3 months. We FINALLY got a hold of someone to figure out why (their automated system always hung up on us saying that they were too busy) There's one simple paper that we have to turn in. We would of turned it in but Danny was told that he didn't have to. So we have been frantically looking for that paper and just found it tonight.

I have no idea what's going to happen with all this medical stuff. And I hate going on and on about all the things that are "wrong". (I haven't even listed all the issues we are dealing with because of lack of money.) But to be honest, I am very discouraged and feel like things are piling up. I need my faith strengthen and my eyes focused on Jesus. I need His grace, His help, His encouragement, His peace, His healing, His provision, His everything!

So what am i grateful for: four beautiful, healthy children, a husband that loves me, extended family that are so supportive, wonderful friends that will pray for me, a roof over our heads, Caleb's laugh, Matthew's energy, Daniel's hugs, and Brianna's creativity!

Thank you for reading.

Updates

My mother in law and I got in a car accident tonight. We were driving in her car through an intersection and the guy coming from the opposite way didn't yield before making his left turn and we crashed into each other. Nobody was hurt, just a little shook up. Danny came and was able to drive his mom's car home but the other guy had to have his car towed. I am so grateful that at the last minute i decided not to take Caleb with us! Thank you God for protecting us!

On a happy note- Brianna reached her 14th day of not sucking her thumb and she got to celebrate yesterday by taking a friend to Pump It Up. She had a blast! Her and Izzy jumped for 3 hours straight, only stopping to have a couple quick snacks. I am so proud of her! She hasn't completely kicked the habit but we are still working together on it.

Day 2 of brianna not sucking her thumb. she did great again! i caught her sucking her thumb late in the afternoon in the car (that's always a tired time) but as soon as i reminded her she stopped. danny stayed with her tonight till she went to sleep. by tomorrow or the next day we'll have her go to sleep without us. i'm so proud of her. she is not complaining or trying to cut corners at all. 2 days down, 12 to go then pump it up here we come!

what in the world am i doing? i will sit at my computer sometimes for 20 minutes trying to think of my status for facebook. why in the world am i starting a blog? well, because so many of my friends have one and i love reading about their families. i'm hoping that i will continue to update this blog to keep my family and close friends in the know of franco family happenings.

what's the current topic? brianna's thumb sucking. she has sucked her thumb pretty much coming out of the womb. she was convinced that she would stop when when she turned 5. i guess she thought that it would magically happen but it didn't. danny and i decided now is the time to help her. for the last week we asked her to not suck her thumb during the day and she did great. tonight is the first night of no thumb sucking at night (the hardest time to not to). she is such a trooper! we got a small notebook and some pretty stickers. in the morning she gets to put a sticker in her notebook and when she has 14 stickers she gets to go to pump it up. when i told her tonight that we were going to start i expected some tears and her to say it was going to be too hard but she said, "i think that sounds good."

i am so proud of her. i stayed with her and rubbed her back till she went to sleep, to help her on her first night away from her thumb. she is so adorable. she kept her arm under the covers at her side to help her with the temptation. she did wake up once and creeped out of her bed to tell me she couldn't sleep without me. i rubbed her back some more and and gave her a stuffed animal to cuddle with.

i am so proud of her for taking on this challenge with such a good attitude. so night number 1 is under our belt. only 13 more to go. hopefully by then the habit will be kicked!