My kind of camping

It has been a while since we have updated the blog. We have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster since returning home from Hawaii. We have had good and bad days and are at times overwhelmed with this disease and what it is doing to our family. God has been good to us through it all and has still given us strength and peace through it all. We are looking to replace our caregiver, Lisa who has finished her schooling and is now starting her fieldwork. She has been such a huge help to all of us and we miss having her around to help out. She will do very well in her field. Please pray that we can find the right replacement for her soon. We were supposed to have our annual Kammeraad family campout this weekend in Muskegon (Eric and I were just going to go up for the day on Saturday) but my parents decided to cancel it since all of her kids were going through some tough weeks prior and we ended up having a campout in our backyard with a couple of tents and lots of us staying in the house. It was so much fun! The kids spent most of the weekend catching toads in the back yard and we all hung out together playing games, putting our speakers up out back (we love having music outside now)and preparing and eating meals together and camp fires at night. It was great having full bathrooms and a full kitchen while camping! It was great spending time with family. We will have to try this with the Fox side this summer too. My aunt and cousins came in to town Sunday from Mexico, AZ and TX and it was great to spend time with them too. We enjoyed time with them in Grand Haven on Sunday and again here at the house on Tuesday night. My dad's side of the family is very musical so Sapphire got out her guitar and we did something new, we all wrote a song together with her help. Eric said he always wanted to write a song with Zach and the night really meant a lot to him. Even in the little things, God knows the desires of our hearts and answers prayers. Eric has been praying for this for a long time and was blessed to do this with our family. We had a good week and it took our mind off of this disease and let us focus on things that are really important in life (faith, family and friends). Our elevator is finally finished today and Eric took the maiden voyage in it this morning. He went into the kids rooms and woke them up and they flipped out seeing their dad in their rooms. The elevator is so wonderful and will be such a blessing in our home. This was fully covered by the VA and we are so grateful! This weekend for the 4th of July holiday we plan on going to the parade and then having a BBQ at our house from 3-6 to promote awareness for ALSTDI and then going to the Whitecaps to support ALSA and celebrate the 70th anniversay of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech and watch the fireworks. It will be a full day! Eric's mom is coming to stay with us next week which is always such a blessing. We are looking forward to spending time with her. Have a great weekend! Thank you for lifting our family up in prayer and for those of you who have offered to bring meals and pick Eric up and take our kids. Lori and Eric