Austerman Family: These two kids nearly broke my heart into a million pieces today! Ellie looks at my lunch and tells me that she thinks she would like cottage cheese. I'm always ready in these situations to have a "teachable moment" about why she and Zay can't eat protein because they have PKU. Zay is so good at this! He always speaks up that they can't eat this or that because they have PKU. However today, Zay went on with his explanation, telling Ellie that once they grew as tall as mommy and daddy then they would be able to eat the food that we eat. And he further thought that we had PKU when we were little like him and Ellie. :( We had to have a great big heart-to-heart discussion answering hard questions like "but mommy, why did God make me this way?". And correcting his assumption of eating like mommy and daddy someday. And how we need to be praying that one day there would be a cure for PKU so they can eat like mommy and daddy... Hard stuff for this mama's heart. I always say... I'm so thankful that PKU only involves food, but WHY does food have to be everywhere and a part of everything!? A constant reminder to my kids that they are different and have this thing called PKU. However, I can confidently say that today was great reminder to me that by the grace of God we will do our very best to answer these tough questions for our Zay-man and Elle-Belle...helping them understand just how special and loved they are! One hard conversation down...dozens more to go! ;) #pku