It's That Time Of Year Again....

Well, it's kinda snuck up on us once again....can y'all even believe how fast time flies???  This will mark the 12 year that we've Walked To Cure T1Diabetes.  And, this year we have TWO daughters to walk for!

I'll never forget the first time we showed up at the annual JDRF Walk To Cure.... It was quite literally the day after Gracie had been released from the hospital as a Type 1 Diabetic.  She was 15 months old!  We were still in the "dumbstruck" phase and were still trying to wrap our mind around those two little words the doctor had said to me just 7 days earlier..."She's diabetic".  It was an incredibly windy Nebraska day; the type of wind you expect in November along the Maine coastline ~ gale force.  We showed up with a twin stroller, Gracie in the front seat with her paci in her mouth and trademark bow in her hair, Hannah at 3 weeks old in her carrier in the back seat covered as completely as possible to keep the wind from taking her newborn breath away, Tess and Sarah excited to run around.  We wandered around the park, looking at the vendors and not really understanding anything about what they were "selling", eating hotdogs, and basically absorbing our new community of families like our own.  I'm completely sure we had the "deer in the headlights" stare going on;)

Over the year following that walk, we settled into our new normal.  Life was no longer what we had expected... but in many ways it was better.  No, I would not wish T1D on anyone!  However, when faced with a chronic illness, an invisible disease, you tend to embrace life a bit more and you learn how to roll with the punches like pros.  You focus in on what's important and you suddenly no longer worry about the rest.  It is THANKS to JDRF for the amazing life both our daughters have now as well as the bright future they have to look forward to.  JDRF is integral in the advances in diabetes care and management: new technology, less long term health complications, better management of this life threatening disease.  Thanks to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) both Gracie and Sarah lead healthier and more "normal" lives than they would have 10-15 years ago.  We are able to stave off complications, DKA, and hospital stays because we know have real-time trends that we can watch on each of the girls from our phones ~ we can see ahead of time if Blood Glucose is climbing or crashing and do something about it to avoid a crisis, we can easily see when their insulin doses need tweaking, we can even tell if they are beginning to get sick thanks to their CGMs and get them into the doctor quickly to keep them out of the ER with complications.  This year the brand new Closed-Loop system has been made available.... the predecessor to an artificial pancreas.  This system will read algorithms and self adjust ~ add insulin when needed, decrease insulin, and even turn itself off if the diabetic is crashing.  AMAZING!  The days of only 3 finger pokes with a small knife blade and injections with steel needles that you sterilized and sharpened (I remember this from when my Dad was diagnosed as a Type 2 when I was in Jr High) are long gone :)

It was only a week after last year's Walk To Cure that Sarah was diagnosed with T1D.  Yes, our world was suddenly shaken to the core yet again with those same two little words.  But over the past months we've watched Sarah take ownership of her T1D and we've watched as Gracie came alongside her big sister in a mentorship role.  This is a really hard life and unless you're living with the life and death decisions you must make each and every day, all day long, you have no way of understanding.  Our girls, and everyone like them, don't look sick.  By all accounts they look like very healthy kids leading active, normal lives.  What y'all don't see under the surface is the struggle to stay healthy and feeling good.  Life for T1D kids is like a 3 ring circus that nobody ever sees.  It's a balancing act: insulin, carbs, food (yes, separate from the carbs for many reasons), activity, emotions, stress, hormones, weather...you name it and it affects them and their BG.  Once you hear those two little words, nobody in your family sleeps straight through the night EVER AGAIN, because doing so could have fatal results.  You want to hop in your car and run to the grocery store?  If you're living with T1D you can't do that until you know your BG first; if you're low, you must get some fast acting carbs into yourself and wait for them to bring your BG up before you ever turn the key in that ignition.  Want to go visit family an hour from home, even for the day?  You must pack extra supplies "just in case".  What are those supplies, you're wondering?  How about a small duffle bag full of extra pump supplies, sensors for your CGM, 3 kinds of tape, short acting insulin, long acting insulin, syringes, Glucagon kits, scissors, juice, snacks, lots of water.... and that is just the short list off the top of my head.

So why do we raise money every year for our local JDRF chapter's Walk To Cure?  Because we hope and pray every day that our daughters and everyone like them, live to see a cure and they no longer have to live with T1D.  But until then, we walk to ensure that they have a better life with fewer complications from this life threatening disease.  T1D is not something you can "grow out of" or change your diet and exercise routine to get rid of.... It's an autoimmune disease and it's LIFELONG, and as of right now, there is no cure.  Insulin is not a cure, it is LIFE SUPPORT... without it they die. That is the reality of T1D.  The other side of our reality, however, is the amazing community that is as strong as it is because of JDRF and their mission to finding a cure and bettering the lives of all kids like Gracie and Sarah along the way.  Please join us as we fundraise for this year's JDRF Walk.  I'll be posting about fundraising opportunities as we schedule them, and of course we'd love for ya'll to join our Saving Grace Team (Schroeder Family Team).  While our team was named over a decade ago and life threw us another curve ball with Sarah joining the T1D ranks, Saving Grace is aptly named... for it is by the Grace of God alone that these two girls are living the amazing lives they are.  Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God knows the plans HE HAS FOR THEM and those plans are awesome, even if we don't understand or see His vision while we are on the journey.

Right now I would like to share a link with ya'll.  Tupperware graciously donates 40% of all sales from this link to JDRF:)  http://www.tupperware.com/?fundraiser=5963cfdf1f800b180743e9da
I'll be setting up our team page tonight and will post the link to that this week.  We'd love for everyone to join us as we Walk To Cure T1D