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If you check this blog with any regularity, you've probably noticed we've been MIA for several weeks! As soon as Jake's pneumonia was finally getting better, Mike started having pain in his lower back on the right side. This is a very bad sign. This pain can only mean one thing - another kidney stone. He managed on his own for a couple of days before we ended up in the ER. Our doctor wanted to admit him, but he was insistent on toughing it out at home. If it weren't for my wonderful sister, Cerra, and her briefcase full of meds (she has a terrible bone disease called a vascular necrosis) Mike couldn't have made it.

By a great miracle from God, Mike's kidney stone finally passed ending our family's bad health streak. Well, except for the fact that he also had bronchitis. He healed from that pretty quickly though. We were even able to go to our friend Vincent's wedding in Montana as we had planned. Mike, Jake and I drove 5,200 miles in 10 days and covered 11 states. We had a great trip! We spent 3 of those days in San Diego with Uncle Joby (aka my brother, Joe.) We saw lots of sights on our trip, but Jake especially loved the beach and the San Diego Zoo! He loved the pandas most. We had a caricature done of Jake at the zoo and his picture has a panda in it. The artist also drew one of Olivia from her photo. It's one of her at the beach. They're so cute! I'll try to remember to take a picture of them to post.

We're all very happy to be home, especially Jake. The last couple of days we were on the road, he had started to refer to the backseat as his "room." We definitely knew it was time to go home then! He was such an angel though. Even with all of the time we spent driving, he never complained once. We are such lucky parents. Now, if we could only get our daughter home, we could finally be a complete family!