Brooks went straight from Saudi to Borger, so after several weeks apart we were ready to see each other! We decided to fly him to LC for the weekend and surprise the kids. They were so excited when Brooks walked in the room, they didn't let go of him for at least an hour! Gavin showed him the tooth he lost, Miles sang the songs he learned, and Brooklyn tried tickling him over and over! It was precious to watch the kids with their daddy and get to love on him. Brooks' weekend with us was jam packed! We had dinner at my brothers house and got Brooks a cake to celebrate him being with us! We took the kids to a local park and after running around playing we through our swim suits on and played at the nearby splash park. I can't describe how great it was to be together as a family! 
We also had Brooklyn dedicated to the Lord. What a special day that was. The older our kids get the stronger our desire and prayer for them to know the Lord has become. We're believing that Brooklyn will come to know our Heavenly Father and serve him with everything in her!
Brooks flew back to Borger and within a few days Miles got sick with a stomach bug. I figured it had to run its course and knew that it was only a matter of time before Brooklyn, Gavin, myself, and even my parents got it. Our pediatrician gave us meds, which I hoped was going to alleviate how bad we got the bug, but it didn't. It hit the whole house and after several days of it not getting better, we went back to the doctor. Our kids were miserable. They laid in bed for the first few days and just weren't themselves for a while. After almost two weeks and multiple trips to the doctors office, everyone started feeling better. I was beginning to see a pattern and felt like something wasn't right since outside of our home, no one else got the bug. The kids had what I called cylcles. Every 12 days, they would be sick for 3-6 days. Once one of them got sick, another would start the next day, and another the next. It seemed like they would be fine during the day and then at night it would just be horrible. I monitored everything they ate, kept them as hydrated as could be, but nothing seemed to work. At some point we had them tested for several bacteria parasites, but they all came back negative.
I was still getting use to living in the USA and had difficulty adjusting to grocery stores that were filled to the brim with multiple options of each item. While Walmart trips use to be my saving grace because I would load up on our necessities for the year, it quickly became an opportunity for full on anxiety attacks. I just couldn't handle that there are 9 flavors of goldfish, Saltines now come in round (isn't that Ritz crackers job?), Capri Suns can be purchased 6 different ways- 25% less sugar, Roarin' Waters, Real Juice, Super V, etc etc. AND you can now buy it in one large container versus the pouches!! Say What?!?!? I quickly realized I somewhat missed the few selections we had offered in Saudi.
I also was getting use to driving and with driving means filling a car up with gas. OOPS! Thankfully, I made it to the gas station!
In between our sickness, was my dads birthday and I wanted to make it special for him so I made a cake and invited our family over to celebrate with him. My mom was sick at this point and if I remember correctly, I ended up getting sick that night. Oh well. The kids enjoyed the golf cake I made and had fun singing Happy Birthday to my dad! This summer was also time for Brooklyns 6 month check up on her kidneys. I went by myself since today she was scheduled for not just an ultrasound but another MAG3 exam where they inject the dye and watch how her kidneys work and if it distributes throughout her body the way it should. Our biggest focus on this exam was to check the rate at which her kidney secretes the dye, which would tell us whether a blockage was there as well as how good her kidneys were doing what they were suppose to be doing! Brooklyn was a trooper throughout her exam. She wasn't interested in laying flat or still on the table for her ultrasound and since they have to look from the side she kept laughing from feeling ticklish! After calling in another ultrasound tech to help, they eventually got her results. I've done this exam with her enough to know how beneficial it is for her to pee while they are screening so I filled her up with liquids 30 minutes before! Praise the Lord she peed twice so they were able to watch both kidneys, separately! Woo hoo!
After the ultrasound we went to radiology and waited for a room to open up. Brooklyn had no idea what was about to happen to her- the last time she did this test she was two months old. I purposefully scheduled her MAG3 during nap time hoping that she would already be tired and willingly laydown on the table. While we waited for her nurse I gave her a snack and we played peekaboo and sang silly songs. I think in reality I was trying to keep myself calm! Brooklyn's nurse arrived and prepped B for her IV and Brooklyn somewhat cooperated- okay who am I kidding? She tried everything she could to get off the table and did not like being restrained. After about 10 minutes of tears and tired of fighting off the nurses, she ended up falling asleep. TCH is awesome and their pediatric rooms are equipped with lullaby music to calm and sooth a child, lights that will scatter around the room on the walls you can follow with designs, not to mention TV's with cartoons and movies ready for the kids. Brooklyn fell asleep while I was humming in her ear. She slept the entire test and didn't wake up once while they moved her in and out of the machine. The test lasted about 45 minutes and I never stopped praying the entire time. I just wanted them to locate the blockage and be able to determine if or how it is affecting her. 
After the MAG 3 test Brooklyn and I waited to see her urologist for 2 hours. They were waiting for her MAG 3 results to come in before the urologist finally arrived. At this point I was so nervous and anxious I'm pretty sure I didn't hear the first 10 minutes of what she said. I tried my hardest to focus and pull myself together to hear every word she said. At the beginning of the appointment our urologist asked me if we did surgery on Brooklyn in Saudi because her Hydronephrosis was completely gone?!?!? What?!? Those were the very words we had been waiting 18 months to hear and then I hear them and I don't believe it! She said how the dilation surrounding Brooklyn's kidney was no longer there and she couldn't explain it. Even though B's condition can go away and fix itself on its own, it still can show remnants of some form of dilation and hers didn't. So after a few minutes of both myself and the urologist in shock, she asked me why Brooklyn was currently taking certain meds that I shared with the nurse at the beginning of our appointment. I mentioned how Brooklyn had been sick with a stomach bug vomiting and diarrhea. The urologists face just fell. She asked me to give her a few minutes while she left the room. She came back and pulled up more of B's exam results side by side. She brought me over to the images and told me to look at two spots. I saw them. I've seen enough of B's kidney ultrasounds to know what I was looking at. There it was plain as day. The bottom right quadrant of B's kidney had deteriorated some. It had a shriveled look to it and you could see how the normal shape wasn't there. The urologist explained how Brooklyn must be dehydrated since her kidney had NO signs of thickness or shape like it normally would. Basically, while she was dehydrated her body had been trying to soak up anything and everything it could from her body causing her kidneys to show up as having NO dilation at all. For a hydronephrosis patient you want this! You wait for this, but upon further examination the urologist noticed inside the "shriveledness" was in fact some damage to her kidney. So while I went from getting the BEST news to the news we had been dreading, the next step was determining what was our next step. The urologist didn't want us to base everything off of these tests results and asked for us to come back again in 6 months and reevaluate things when she was healthy. I agreed and was immediately filled with heartache for my daughter. Will this ever end and will we ever be able to not have to worry about her kidneys? Other then birthdays and doctors appointments we spent a lot of time at the Country Club pool swimming. Gavin swam most of the summer without floaties, Miles wanted to swim without floaties thus giving us several scares, and Brooklyn showed us she's fearless with or without floaties on. These kids will certainly keep us on our toes at the pool!
Our summer wasn't over yet. Next, we were heading to the Mediterranean for a 12 night cruise!
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