Today was a hard day, at least for me. It really is a blessing that the whole family is together, and we are able to go out and do things for the first time in a month. We were able to go out for lunch today at Earls. They were very nice and made a table up for us that was way in the back with no one around us, and we were able to sit and watch the rest of the restaurant. After lunch, we went off to Science World, which would have been really fun, but Brenn is just so tired, and Christine and I are both so paranoid of Brenn getting sick, that we were just on edge the whole time. We drove around for a while after Science World so that Samantha could have a nap, then came back to Ronald McDonald house for a nice family dinner.

Brenn is really starting to have trouble with her emotions. Part of it is definitely her medication, but I am really starting to think that there is also something else. When she was just having her problems with her medication, she would be inconsolable for maybe 10-15 minutes at a time, and she still does get spells like that. Now though, she is starting to have some problems that she is consolable during. Tonight at dinner, again there were lots of people around and she started to get upset, so I took her into one of the rooms on the main floor where no-one else was, and I talked to her, and calmed her down. She said that she was still hungry, but didn't want to go into the kitchen until everyone else was gone. It is really tough for her to talk about what is going on with her, she is still only 5 years old, and I think sometimes she still has trouble understanding her feelings, and then putting them into words so that she can talk to us about them. We are really trying to balance some discipline, and also a lot of compassion with her, but it is hard not to get frustrated sometimes when she is inconsolable. We love Brenn and Samantha so much, it is really hard to see them going through this.

Samantha is having a hard time being away from home for so long as well. It really is easy sometimes to overlook how she is feeling. Tonight when I put her to bed, she asked me tearfully when we were going to our real home. We still don't know. I do have to go home soon, and take care of a bunch of things that we are not able to do from here, but I think that is still a couple weeks away at least. We are not ready to be separated quite yet. There are still to many things going on, and we all need each other for support.

Anyway, today was a tough day, tomorrow is a new day. It will be better.

Scott