Happy birthday, Dr. Frederick Grant Banting!!

Today is World Diabetes Day.
It's the birthday of the Nobel Prize winning co-discoverer of insulin, Sir Frederick Grant Banting.
I originally wrote this post on January 11 which is the anniversary of the date Dr. Banting and his collegues first administered insulin to children dying of diabetes.
Below is the incredible story of how their discovery changed the lives of millions.



A stunning thing happened on this day in history.
Most people aren't even aware of it.
It was the silent miracle that literally raised the dead.
It's incredible to me that this discovery, which had such dramatic effects on the lives of so many, can still be within the memories of those alive today.  It really wasn't such a long time ago.
Many advancements in treatment have been made since this life-saving discovery, and for that I am so thankful.

According to this website the above picture was taken in 1922.
On this date 95 years ago, January 11, 1922, insulin was injected for the first time ever into a 14-year old Type 1 Diabetic child in Canada.  One of my favorite stories about what happened after that date is this story taken from Wikipedia:

Children dying from diabetic ketoacidosis were kept in large wards, often with 50 or more patients in a ward, mostly comatose. Grieving family members were often in attendance, awaiting the (until then, inevitable) death.

In one of medicine's more dramatic moments, Banting, Best, and Collip went from bed to bed, injecting an entire ward with the new purified extract. Before they had reached the last dying child, the first few were awakening from their coma, to the joyous exclamations of their families.^[45]

Can you just imagine?  Knowing that a diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence for your child.  A very slow, horrible death.....and there was nothing anybody could do?? And at that time, they did not know enough about diabetes to have the distinctions of Type 1 and Type 2.

A couple years ago, I was fiddling around with some of my family genealogy.  I was pretty much blown away to discover that my great-grandfather had passed away in January 1922 of diabetes. Nobody in my family had ever mentioned that before.  I found his death certificate online!
I knew at that point that scientists first treated someone with insulin in January of 1922, but I was thinking it was later in the month.  So when my friend mentioned on facebook (January 11th a couple years ago) that insulin was first administered this week 94 years ago, I ran and pulled out my notebooks.
Could not BELIEVE what I found.....

My great-grandfather died of diabetes 95 years ago YESTERDAY....January 10, 1922.
One day before insulin was first injected into a dying patient.
He was not quite 30 years old.
My grandfather had been married not quite 3 years earlier.
He left behind a nearly 23 year old wife with 2 children.
The youngest of which was almost 5 months old.
She would eventually become my grandmother.

This is my Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother on what we assume is their wedding day.
June 2, 1919

How grateful I am that his great-great granddaughter was sovereignly chosen by God to be born in the 21st century and given Type 1 Diabetes where the treatments and technology for this horrible disease have advanced so far that patients can live fairly normal and healthy and long lives!!

I can't WAIT to see what God is up to in our Ashlyn's life, and why He chose this for her/us!!

Texas State Fair 2018

This field trip will not go down in the record books as "The Most Fun Ever!"
But it will probably be remembered as "The Craziest Thing We Ever Did."

Here in Texas, you can get free homeschool tickets to the Texas State Fair

by simply requesting them early in the year.

This year I actually remembered to do that.

Once we received them around the first of September, 

we checked our calendar and decided to go on a Monday in October.

It was the only Monday we could fit it in and all of us were looking forward to it.

The children would get a day off of school work and PE class so they

were especially excited.

But as the day drew closer, the weather was not cooperating.

In fact, it was becoming clear we would break records for the wettest

October on record in our state.

To make matters worse, on the day we were planning to go,

the temperatures were forecast to be frigid along with heavy downpours all day.
We had a family meeting the night before to decide together if we still
wanted to brave the terrible weather and make an adventure of it,
or just can the whole idea.
We collectively decided to go for it, and that we wouldn't gripe.
We would make the best of it and make lemonade from the bushel of lemons
we were being handed.

What a challenge it was to make that lemonade.
My plan was to create a map of what we wanted to see
and then figure out a path of walking through buildings in an effort
to stay out of the rain!
What I did not count on was how much farther we would park away from
anything we wanted to see,
and that there would be rivers of water that we would have to walk through,
jump over, or navigate around.
But often we were trying to keep our eyes on where we were going
and on what we could see
and then would accidentally be in water over the top of our shoes.
We didn't have enough umbrellas or layers of clothes to keep dry.
By the time we were ready to walk back to the car
our feet and clothing were soaked and we were freezing.

In retrospect, I learned that no matter what, it is not worth
braving the traffic and rain just to use free tickets.
All the children had a great time though
and only think fondly of our wild adventure.

So very grateful for hot showers, hot soup,
hot drinks, warm jammies and blankets,
and a cozy evening with candlelight
and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

{Butter sculpture}

{This fried pumpkin pie warmed me heart and soul!!  It was so delicious!}

Autumn Breakfast

Recently, I had a quiet Saturday in front of me, 

and felt the urge to do something fun for our family!

I was finally ready to pull out the fall decorations,

and to celebrate I decided to slow down the morning 

and have an "Autumn Breakfast."

My oldest daughter picked up a bunch of gorgeous roses

and they were the highlight of the table.

Grandma's homemade cinnamon sugar donuts, bacon, apple cider,

cinnamon apples, and mexican hot chocolate were on the menu!!

I pulled out my wedding china to share with my children

and the stemware is from my husband's side of the family.

{This post was actually from a year ago, and now I feel the need to do this again!!}

Ladies Retreat 2018

There is no single event I look forward to more in the fall

than the annual Ladies Retreat held at Southland Christian Camp

in Ringgold, Lousiaina!

It is always a time of spiritual and physical refreshment,

a time to catch-up with long-time friends and to make new friends,

and a time to just unplug from our hectic, daily routines and stresses

and to get recharged for the super busy season just ahead!!

My family has noticed a pattern of "catastrophes" happening

while I'm gone on this weekend the last several years,

but there was a break in that pattern this year for which we were all thankful!

I was still struggling to navigate through some brand new vision issues

that were really distracting to me,

but the Lord knew what we all needed that weekend

and in His gracious kindness provided joy, rest, and gladness to

refresh our weary hearts and minds!!

One of my favorite Bible sessions was on Knowing the love of Christ.
Our speaker pointed out that you can use John 3:16 to understand

just how immeasurable God's love is for each one of us:

What is the breadth of His love?
"For God so loved the world...."

What is the length of His love?
"...that He gave His only begotten Son,"

What is the depth of His love?
"that whosoever believes in Him should not perish..."

What is the height of His love?
"...but have everlasting life."

When God accepts me --> Grace

When I accept God --> Faith

When I accept me --> Peace

When I accept you --> Love  

So this guy above would show up during meal times to play the part of "Russell" 

from the movie Up.
It was the perfect character for our Wilderness/Nature Theme happening this year.
He was so much fun and worked so hard 

to earn his Helping (the Elderly or whoever needed help) Badge 

as a Wilderness Explorer.

Because of some confusion in registering this year, we had a group of 4 ladies

from our church attend this very same retreat the previous weekend.

They just adored "Russell" and all his antics so much

that one of those ladies went home and created her own "badge"

for Russell on her embroidery machine.

She gave it to me before our group left for the following weekend,

and asked me to please be sure to present this to Russell.
It was the perfect ending for the perfect weekend!!

Fall Frolicking

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

~Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

The last several weeks have been a literal blur of activity.

From meeting a two-day old Thai-American baby,

to saying "see you later" to dear friends who moved to Pennsylvania,
to hosting dear missionary friends for a morning of coffee and conversation

before one of them headed back to the field of Thailand,
celebrating a mile-stone birthday with a dear friend

who had a brush with a life and limb threatening infection this summer,
to sharing incredible fall-themed and British delights

while watching a new favorite movie, 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,

with fellow Anglophiles who live in my neighborhood!!

God is good and I'm so grateful for the treasure of nurturing friendships!