Mandy's party

Mandy had her fifth birthday party on Saturday and she had a blast! It was so wonderful to see her having such a great time with her friends from school. When I think back over the last five years of her life, I start getting teary-eyed! You see, Mandy was born with some pretty serious kidney issues: she has two right kidneys (not a good thing!) and a left kidney. When she was just over a week old, we were told that they might have to remove part of her right kidney as it was obstructed and urine wasn't able to drain. Thankfully, we moved back to Michigan (we lived in Missouri at the time as I was doing graduate work) and found a urologist who was willing to try and reconstruct the kidney so that it would drain, rather than just removing the top part. Between the time of her birth and her surgery, however, Mandy was in the hospital 9 times with urine infections. One of her infections was so bad that she had to be sent home on IV antibiotics with home health care (and that was at 6 months of life). It was a very difficult time in our lives. When Mandy had surgery at almost 10 months of age, her right kidney was the size of an adult males; after the surgery, her kidney was able to drain properly, and it became just slightly larger than normal. Shortly after Mandy recovered from her kidney surgery, she started in with ear infections, and 4 months after her kidney surgery, she got her first set of tubes. Luke and I honestly felt like we were unable to breathe at that part of our life. As her mom, I felt incredibly helpless to take pain away from my daughter, and it killed me. Seeing your child suffer is one of the most awful things ever.

So that's why seeing Mandy so happy and full of life on Saturday meant so much to me. Seeing her enjoy life, healthy, happy, and energetic, was the best gift. Mandy has no memories of her health issues from her first year of life and except for the scar on her right side, there is really nothing anybody else can see that would clue you in to her struggles. Her kidneys still aren't perfect, and she's still followed by a urologist, but for right now, everything looks really good! And for that, I am extremely thankful to the Lord.

And, to my sweet Mandy: Happy birthday tomorrow! I love how you were born on April Fool's Day; I think it suits your personality perfectly!!