Our T1D story

Our story......

They say hindsight is always 20-20, right?

Well, that is certainly an understatement!

I distinctly remember having a conversation with my husband, Andrew, shortly after ringing in the year 2016.  We were so hopeful and so excited for our future.  Things were going so well.

And then, through a series of unfortunate events, we discovered that our oldest daughter, Kinsley, has type one diabetes.

She had all the usual symptoms.  She would beg for another snack right before bedtime.  She was thirsty all...the...time.  She was in the bathroom several times a day.  And, then, the bed-wetting started.

When she started wetting the bed, I should have figured it out.  Bed-wetting was just never an issue for Kinsley and that is exactly why it should have been so obvious to me.  But, I was seriously clueless.  I really just thought it was a growth spurt.

But it wasn't a growth spurt.  It was a type one diabetes.  And, only by the grace of God is she still with us!

Kinsley has been knowingly battling this disease for a year now and I still sit back, occasionally, in shock.  When did her pancreas start betraying her?  What "environmental factors" triggered the obliteration of every viable beta cell?  How did I miss the classic symptoms of type one?  And the most difficult question of all...how much longer did she have left?

I know, entertaining these thoughts and questions are futile.  I try to convince myself of that, I do.  But, for all the advances in type one diabetes, there remains so many unanswered questions.

The most difficult are Kinsley's unanswered questions, though.  I am not going to lie.  Kinsley has asked some very difficult questions that mom and dad just don't have answers for.

As a homeschooling mom and licensed teacher, I turned to children's literature to help our family assimilate to this very difficult way of life.  I was hoping that there were books available that might resonate with Kinsley and help her manage through the very challenging and natural emotions that surface after being diagnosed with this lifelong disease.

I found the lack of selection very disappointing.  The few books available, we devoured in a matter of days.

I felt like something was missing.

It was.  Just as I looked up to Ramona Quimby and Laura Ingall Wilder as a child, I wanted my daughter and all children with type one diabetes to have someone, just like them, to look up to!

And, then came Maggie.