Caleb and Family

Update:
Caleb is officially "Tubeless in Seattle"! Out of surgery!

Update 8/16/16:
Today is the day Caleb has the dialysis catheter removed finally! By this afternoon he will no longer have any tubes in him after 10 months of having that one. Yay! And they move into Ronald Mcdonald House finally! Yay again! Thanks for all your support!

Update 8/15/16:
Great news! Caleb and Michelle move into Ronald Mcdonald House tomorrow. Although a couple weeks near the space needle and Seattle Center was fun, it's a huge relief to be out of a hotel and into a more comfortable housing.
Also tomorrow is surgery to finally take the catheter used for dialysis for 9 months, out!  The last tube taken out! Yay!  The journey continues. Thanks for all your support!

Update 8/14/16:
Caleb and mama get a visit from Alyssa and Genevieve this time. Last week they got a visit from Lyndsey! Yay!

Update 8/12/16:
Yesterday was 4 weeks since surgery. It went well. Some very rough days for Caleb and his mama in the days after. They are still staying near the hospital in a hotel for a while with many doctor appointments and lab tests. Still  have hope for Ronald McDonald House to open up a room. Or there's a chance of coming home if we want to make trips to the hospital at least once a week for a while.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Update:
Kidney Transplant surgery is scheduled for this month July 2016.

Caleb is 14 years old. Prior to our finding out about the kidney disease he has, he was pretty healthy.  Although he was starting to lose weight and eventully started having pain in his abdomen area.   So we took him in to the family doctor.  A couple years ago he was diagnosed anemic.  So they thought it was something to do with that. They referred him to the blood doctor at Mary Bridge Hospital.   We went the next day.  There they did some blood draws and then sent us on our way. We were in Spanaway about an hour later and got a call from the nurse.  We were told to bring Caleb back immediately to the emergency room. That there were "abnormalities in his kidneys" We went. They did many tests. They did ultrasounds. More tests. Lots of questions.  Finally told us they called a kidney doctor from Seattle down to see Caleb and talk to us about the next steps.   She showed up several hours after we first arrived to the emergency room and told us Caleb has chronic kidney disease and will need to go immediately on dialysis. They told us Caleb's kidneys were functioning at 5%. We were to have him admitted to Seattle Children's Hospital either the next morning or that night if we wanted to. We chose to drive up there immediately that night.  That was September 30, 2015. His mama and him spent the next 11 weeks first in the hospital and then at the Ronald Mcdonald House across the street. Doing dialysis 3 days a week and lots of monitoring and testing and some stressful days with a few surgeries. My wife went through some training to be able to do home dialysis.  And finally on December 8, 2015, I brought them home. We didn't have Thanksgiving and now were just happy we would all be home for Christmas.  Almost immediately when we found out Caleb would need a kidney transplant, both Caleb and I knew that I should be tested to be the donor of a kidney for Caleb.  Now Caleb does dialysis at home every night for 11 hours.  I am going through extensive testing to be the kidney donor.   This kidney disease they believe is genetic and only happens to 1 in  922,000 kids in the United States per year! We are blessed to have so many good friends and know so many good people surrounding us. We have experienced so many little miracles along the way and I have started naming them Fingerprints of Jesus. We have never experienced anything like this and have no idea what to expect in expenses.
We believe God will provide. We didn't really want to set up a gofundme account but some friends have asked and want to help and have convinced me it would make it easier to.
We are not a family who waste money or resources, so if for some reason we receive more than we need, rest assured, excess money will go to either Seattle Children's Hospital or Ronald McDonald House, as they have been wonderful.
We thank all of our friends and new friends and family thus far, who have already helped in so many ways. God will bless all of you!