“Some of the older kids would hold her hand and keep her calm while I changed the G-tube, and that was a hard task,” Kari said. “One instance, when we were trying to change the new G-tube, I pulled (because) you have to let the air out of the inside balloon that keeps it in place, so I let the air out of the balloon, and then I pulled the G-tube out, but it was still stuck a little bit. When I pulled it out, all this gastric juice splashed up into my daughter’s face.”
Kari remembers how upset her daughter was at that moment, but they were able to laugh it off together shortly after. Of course, her daughter, who was 13 at the time, continued to hold it over her head for the next five years.
All of Kari and Don’s children relied on each other throughout life, and since so many of them were unique in their own ways, children outside of the family could sometimes be cruel. Kari remembers all of her children, Ashley included, being bullied at one point or another throughout their lives because of their differences.
“All of them (our kids) were teased at various times. Some of them, pretty heavy teasing or bullying because they all had, you know, wheelchairs or (were) legally blind, or walkers, or developmentally delayed, or different looking,” Kari said. “So, they’ve all gone through some bullying, and what our kids ended up doing was, you know, if people didn’t want to play with them because they were different, well, who cares?”
