Update on Emily

Since I last wrote, I am happy to report that we are home.  Emily is doing much better.  We are working on getting all her sugar levels regulated.  Who knew that this was so much trial and error??
Who knows much about Type 1 Diabetes?  I sure didn't.  I feel like I still don't.  But I'm learning quickly!
For example, did you know that when diagnosed, 70-80% of the cells that make insulin have been destroyed?  And that within a year, the rest will be destroyed?  Her pancreas will never make insulin again!  I had no idea that T1D was an autoimmune disease!  That's a huge difference between type 1 and type 2...type 2 can be somewhat controlled with diet.  Type 1, even if you are eating the healthiest foods, you still need insulin to get the sugar to the cells.  No "perfect" diet is going to give you that insulin.  You HAVE to have injected insulin. 
It's all so crazy to me! 
And where does it come from?  They don't know!  Another one of those things that no one knows the origin of that just so happened to hit my family!  Crazy, crazy, crazy!
So, we are trucking along.  Em gets at least four injections a day, sometimes more, all depending on her glucose levels.  Today was a happy day, with only four!
She has hated the injections....who would like them?  She is getting better though.  Someone told us a trick, which is helping tremendously.  We freeze quarters, she puts them where she wants her injection, it numbs the skin a bit, and the injection doesn't hurt as bad.  She then gets the quarter.  I made a huge deal out of it and called them magic quarters.  Now she thinks they are magic, and while she still says she's scared, she doesn't cry anymore.  
I can't imagine how confused she must be.  There's no way she can understand any of this.
Earlier tonight, Natalie was laying on the ground and Emily was being her doctor.  She told Natalie that she was at the doctor because she had diabetes, and that she, herself, got diabetes when she was little.  She explained to her that she needed "shots" and gave them to her.  She also told her of the magic quarters and that all she had to do was say "brrrr".
She amazes me.  She is so brave.  She tells everyone, "I had to go to the doctor because I have diabetes."  It breaks my heart to hear her say that.  To me, it's still surreal!
My family has been through so much.  And through it all, I still know that God is good. 
I know some people think I'm crazy for thinking such a thing, especially after everything we've endured.  I know, though, that He has a plan for us.  It may not be a great plan!  It may just be a plan to help our children learn to lean on Him, no matter what.  Dillon told me last night that he knows God has big plans for our family.  I'm not so sure.  I certainly don't see us as the type to be out there telling the world our story, impacting loads of people, but if we can impact our children, it is all worth it to me. 
I'm pretty sure, the plan won't be revealed to us, this side of Heaven, and I'm ok with that also.
In closing, just a cute thing that happened in the hospital. 
There were loads of doctors coming in and out, everyone talking with Emily and us. 
Someone was asking her about her brothers and sister.  They asked who her favorite brother was.  She looked at them like they had three heads, and said, "all of them, I love them all!" 
And that's the type of girl Emily is.  She loves everyone (except by the end of the hospital stay she did say she didn't really like people she didn't know..of course not, they all poked her!).  She is so silly, and such a good big sister.  If you know her, you are blessed.  I don't know how we got lucky enough to be her parents.  She's one amazing little girl.