Monday, June 30, 2008

Chickenpox

Luke had some spots a few weeks ago that Grandma and I thought were surely the chickenpox but the Dr. said they more likely bug bites infected with impentigo. He even sent a "swab" off to the lab but it came back negative. HOWEVER, two weeks later Gemma developed the same type of spots covering her entire body! There was no doubting in this case. Then about a week after Gemma, baby Marshall developed a hand full of spots and is currently in the active phase of his virus. Gracie had one vaccination for chickenpox so we don't expect her to get it. Meanwhile we took Luke in for the IgG Antibody titer to see if perhaps he did in fact have the chickenpox a few weeks ago(we all think he must have). We are still awaiting that result to determine for sure if we are done, or if Luke is next!

As a family who chooses not to vaccinate, the chickenpox is an event met with mixed emotion. On one hand we are relieved to have the virus while the children are young and we'd rather have it in the summer when the kids don't have to miss any school. On the other hand, there is no convenient time to be quarantined. The week of 4th of July when cousins are in town would not have been our first choice.

The good news is that the infections have been a breeze. Gemma only had two restless nights and barely acted sick during the days and Marshall is maintaining his happy disposition, seeming hardly bothered.

Making the decision not to vaccinate our children was by far the most difficult decision we've faced as parents so far. We are so grateful to Dr. Sherri Tenpenny of Middleburg Heights, OH (Cleveland area) for her guidance and support. We thank her for her boundless energy and her tireless and courageous effort to encourage parents to make an informed decision about vaccination! Learn more about her work at http://www.sayingnotovaccines.com/.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Scott Is Changing Careers!!

Well, after 10 years in the medical industry Scott has decided to make a huge career shift. Effective July 1st he will be the new "VP of Enrollment Management, Student Services and Athletics" at Concordia University here in Seward! (http://www.cune.edu/)

As many of you know, Scott left teaching in 1998 to start our company, Galaxy Medical Products. After 6 successful years of growing Galaxy, we sold three fourths of that company to Universal Hospital Services (http://www.uhs.com/) in 2004. We hired Brian Emich of Copley, Ohio to run the one fourth of Galaxy that we kept, and Scott joined the UHS team to help assimilate and further develop the Bariatric and Specialty Bed product lines.

Scott enjoyed 4 exciting and successful years at UHS traveling all over the East Coast and Midwest, but with the arrival of our 4th little one and the promise he made to himself in 1998 (to eventually return to Lutheran education) tugging on his heart, a career change became imminent.

Scott is just thrilled to be returning to his alma mater at such an exiting time in the school's history. The position will be a new challenge but as with all things, I know he will be hugely successful! The timing of it all was amazing and most certainly part of God's divine plan for our lives. And the kids couldn't be happier to have Daddy home every night for dinner and bedtime stories!