Coburn Kids

Christmas was just wonderful this year.  Even though we had some sick kids, Christmas morning was awesome. They were so excited and so good!! The girls were really excited about their presents, especially the new fish tanks that each girl got… courtesy of Uncle Jason. They have been diligent and excellent in feeding them every morning.  Though we did have 1 die this morning, Gena’s fish, so that was a bit emotional for her.

Christmas night was a different story, with a trip to the ER. Caden has been feeling miserable, he has an eye infection and a sinus infection. Christmas evening he started a fever of 101.  So we gave him ibproufen, and a few hours later it was up to 104 and he was throwing everything up.  We called his Dr. and she recommended we get him seen.  I would have just brought him to one of the Kid Urgent Care’s, versus a trip to the ER, but alas they were closed.  So we braved the crappy weather (seriously, in UT it had been snowing non-stop to the point that my brother’s car was stuck out in front of our house for 2 days). They gave him eye antibiotics and oral antibiotics and by the next morning, he was doing wonderful.  Strangely enough his rash that he’s had for the last 2 weeks was gone as well.  He’s back to his happy self today and all smiles.

Below is a pic of the kids Christmas morning, and yes… Caden really looked that sick:

Then there was Adessa’s dance recital.  She did wonderful!  Below you can see the pics of her doing her different positions and leaping:

First Position

Second Position

Third Position

Leaping

I have updates I promise, but I found this beautiful message on a blog I frequently read, Musings of a Distractible Mind, and had to share:

Christmas is not about prosperity and comfort, it is about help to the hopeless.  The central doctrine to this season is the incarnation: God becoming man.  God didn’t become a man because he thought it would be nice to spend time with us; he did so because we were hopeless.  He didn’t come to live in comfort, but to be poor.  He didn’t come to help good people, but to rescue the outcast.  He didn’t come to hear cheers for saving people, he came to be rejected and so to identify with rejects.  He scorned the self-righteous, and embraced the shameful.

What about the Christmas story itself?  Mary got pregnant out of wedlock and Joseph chose to bear the social shame.  They were in a country that was occupied by a foreign empire, ruled by self-seeking despots and self-righteous religious leaders.  Jesus was born in a barn -  not the clean manger scene we are used to.  The birth was announced to shepherds – people who were scorned by the “good” people of society.  The local ruler was so worried the messiah would overthrow him, he sent death squads to murder all children under two in the town where Jesus was born.

Fact or fiction, the scene was not pretty, but instead was filled with pain, despair, and hopelessness.  This is hardly what we see on TV.  This is hardly what we hear in church.  That is the setting describing the first Christmas, not a mall or warm living room with a tree.  Christmas doesn’t hide from pain, it addresses it.

Whether you take it as truth or just as an inspiring story, we should pay far more attention to this meaning.  Yes, it is great to give gifts and be with family – I will be doing that as well.  But there is no escaping the pervasive pain and suffering in this world.  The Christmas message is not about sheltering ourselves from that suffering, but instead going out among the suffering and providing comfort.

Well, little Caden has some type of full-body rash going on right now.  Really no idea what it is.  We went to the doctor and because of Gena’s history of eczema she gave us some steroid cream but it hasn’t done anything.  So over the past 6 days we’ve been watching it spread.  Started on the back of his neck, then moved to his ears, then arms, then face, then sides and it just keeps progressing.  Doesn’t seem to bother him too much though. No fever, no runny nose, no cough.

Then there’s Gena.  She has a sore throat and cough that started 3 days ago.  No rash.  I’m thinking 2 totally unrelated things.  The rest of us are doing all right though.

We had Caden’s Preemie Clinic and his hearing tested okay! So thankful for that. I also was able to see Caden’s little girlfriend he had in the NICU.  Which was very exciting.  They roomed together nearly the entire time Caden was there for 4 months.  A little 24 weeker, 6 months in the hospital, little 1 pounder just like Caden. She’s tiny but doing fabulous.  Walking and babbling everywhere.  Just goes to show how much those surgeries have set Caden back but it was great to see them.  Incredible story too that I’ll have to share sometime.  She didn’t even know she was pregnant when she delivered her little girl.

On the job front, Daniel has so many interviews and phone calls going every day it’s like he HAS a job.  This is, of course, good news but no bites yet.  The problem being that a lot of companies want to wait until the first of the year to hire anyone.  Which is understable, but crappy all at the same time.  More and more people are losing their jobs every day, can’t tell you how many stories and people I know that have.  I like to see companies though who are actually making efforts to let people keep their jobs.  By enforcing paycuts, getting rid of company match 401k and just generally being responsible in these times to see that even more people don’t lose their healthcare and homes.  It’s encouraging to see some employers actually thinking out-of-the-box and not contributing to the economic struggle right now.  That there are other solutions then just slashing payroll. So kudo’s to those companies and their management.

Here are what some companies are doing to manage:

“In a recent interview with Tom Brokaw, President-elect Barack Obama urged business owners to “figure out ways in which workers maybe have to take a haircut, but they can still keep their jobs, they can still keep their health care and they can still stay in their homes.”

• Some companies like Toyota keep workers busy during downturns with training sessions or classes. Hypertherm reallocates employees to departments where there is a greater demand for labor. Others choose alternative cost-cutting methods like hiring freezes or shorter work weeks.
• Dean Gruner, CEO of ThedaCare, a Wisconsin-based health care system provider, instituted a no-layoff policy 18 years ago. To slash expenses in lean years, the company slows the hiring process and redeploys workers to other areas. “We can manage our staffing levels by being thoughtful about our turnover rate and redesigning the work that we do,” Gruner said.
• Jason Zickerman, president and CEO of the alternative board, a business coaching group, advocates this approach for all types of companies, even in times of financial hardship. Zickerman suggests offering employees shorter work weeks at reduced pay, encouraging employees to take sabbaticals or extend year-end breaks to avoid cutbacks. If 20 workers took two weeks unpaid at the end of the year, “you’re talking almost a full-time salary,” he said.”
• One of Utah’s largest employers, Intermountain Healthcare, has told its 28,000 employees it will not contribute its share to their 401(k) retirement funds next year. Physicians and midlevel managers will forgo small, end-of-the-year “thank you” payments this year in order to provide more for those payments to rank-and-file employees, Cowley said. Those bonuses range from $85 to $250.

Caden’s hearing test and health assessment for Jordan District Early Intervention was on Thursday. I didn’t even know we had an appointment but apparently it’s a yearly thing. Which is just sad that any doctor/therapist/place can call me up and I don’t even question why he needs another appointment.

So, after giving Caden’s history and health story for the (literally) billionth time we did the hearing test and it shows the exact same as the preemie clinic.  He’s still dragging in a certain frequency.  They can’t rule out mild hearing loss.

Funny enough, Dec. 9th Caden has yet another hearing test and an eye appointment with the preemie clinic.  Redundant I know.  I’ve learned though how poor the communication is in the medical community. I love my pediatrician because she knows and has told me that she basically acts as the single point-of-contact for Caden.  Meaning she has all the records/results/tests/diagnosis/surgeries/dates/etc. I go to Caden’s immunization appointments just to give her updates on what every other doctor has said.