Fasten Your Seat Belt and Hold On Tight!

Since mid-January, our lives have altered course.  When I went last weekend to pick up Kris, our babysitter/Nanny, I was telling her about school and what we did and what was required from the kids each day.  I was amazed as I talked to her about how much stuff we used to do – choir, piano lessons, cultural studies, read alouds, fun stuff!  We are pared down to the most essentials for the moment.

Since January our lives have entered a parallel universe.  I know that people are still living their lives, but we are focused on such different things at the moment.  I have been proud of my Becca.  She has grown up a lot these few months.  She now has to handle all things school by herself -  and I must add that she is doing a darn good job at it!  Jason has once again had to step up to the title of SuperDad as he handles shopping, cooking, working, everything – ing.  I am grateful he always does and doesn’t complain.  My other babies are growing and learning to live without their Mama – waa!!  I watch sick children up here all the time.  I see elements of my little ones in them.  I look and remember when my little ones were smaller and I long for those times again when they were small and cuddly.  Our house has decided to have a mid-life crisis.  The latest and greatest is our washing machine.  It decided no one was paying enough attention to it, so it went kupt.  Hopefully today the repairman will be able to give it some TLC, otherwise we will be looking for a new one.

Yesterday afternoon/evening/this morning, Houston was hit by a massive storm.  We lost power.  I am so grateful for our generator!  The power company was stringing a new line this morning when I left for the hospital.  12+ hours of no power.  Glad Bella wasn’t home!  I had stayed late at the hospital yesterday because Bella hasn’t been behaving of late.  I left with strict instructions for the hospital to call me if she took any wrong turns.  So when the phone rang at 3 AM, I assumed it was the hospital. (Bella didn’t misbehave until 4AM)  No, my sweet sister had gone into labor.  I got dressed and headed out into the rain.  We got Asia off to the hospital and I bundled up her cute baby and headed home.  Once I was home, I just held her for a while.  Her little body just melted into mine.  What a wonderful feeling.  I can’t remember the last time I held Bella, and then it’s so delicately because of all the wires and tubes.  It was lovely to feel her softness cuddled into my body.  Asia is home – no baby came during the storm.

Jason and I are looking around and wondering – what’s next?  :)  Hopefully something happy, there aren’t many other machines to break!

An Unusual Blessing

(a cross-post, in case you read both our family’s blog and Bella’s blog)

Last night I had to leave the hospital a little early and take Joy to the doctor.  She has had a lot of drainage and had started wheezing.  I wanted to get her into the doctor before we had to deal with anything serious.  (In case you are wondering, she is going to be fine)

While I was at home, though, Kris and the girls were telling me that the lights had been acting weird.  Some outlets were working, some not, and the lights were going dim and then coming back.  Weird.  When Jason got home we started making dinner.  We started to smell this horrible metallic burning smell.  We called an electrician super quick!

We had a little problem.  One of the four main lines in our meter box had burned or something – it’s very confusing to me.  There was one tiny piece holding this large line up – that was why the lights were coming and going.  When the line was just right, some power was able to go through.  He totally disconnected that line, so we could be safe.  So then only half of our house had power.  We had no AC, no dryer, and no oven, but we also had no house fire!

This morning he is out there fixing that faulty wiring.  We are so glad that the house didn’t burn down and no one was hurt.  We are grateful it will all be fixed and safe.

But there is more to this story.  One question the social worker asked me was if we had power.  Well, yeah.  But no, this is a serious question.  Bella will be on a portable ventilator – and it is electric.  Some families get generators.  Fortunately after the hurricane we already have one.  But most families have to just load up and leave if the power goes out.  I am so glad that the wire decided to go ahead and break down now rather than after we were home.  Then I really would have freaked out!  So, a wonderful blessing.  I’m glad that’s fixed!

Visiting Bella

This past week while Bella was in the PCU and before she had to go back to the PICU, the girls were able to come up with me to the hospital to visit Bella.  Texas Children’s Hospital has Child Life specialists whose entire job is to help patients and their siblings understand what is going on in this medical setting.  Our CLS on the 7th floor is Juli and she is wonderful.  I have pictures of Becca, Sammi and Jessi up here.  I have no pictures of Lizzy.  That day Bella had to be intubated.  Things were crazy!  Juli came and sat with Lizzy and explained what was going on.  She gave Liz a teddy bear (that Liz named Julie) and together they gave her bear an IV.  She stayed with Liz until the craziness had stopped and Jason was able to come and take her home.  What a blessing to have her!

   

Juli explained all of Bella’s tube and wires and then helped the girls make this poster for Bella’s wall.

Easter’s Real Meaning

After our sugar fix, we gathered to read the real reason for Easter.  My plans for Easter this year were grand, but Bella and I ended up back in the hospital, so things were much more simple.  I left her at the hospital last night with the nurses to be able to spend Easter morning with the kids.  We read from the Gospels of our Savior.  How grateful I am for Easter.  What a blessing to have a day to reflect on our Savior’s love for us and the joy of the Resurrection!  I wish it was something I reflected on more often.   This is a moving and short video on our Savior for this Holy day.

 

And on a softer side, we wore Jessi out this morning.  Here she is as I was leaving for the hospital – asleep on her scriptures!  :)  Love ya chocolate face!

Happy Easter Morning!

 

 

 

 

We should all have sugar highs for a while!  Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Egg Hunt

Our neighborhood has an annual Easter egg hunt.

the girls had a lot of fun and Joy and Becca both won chocolate bunnies.

 

Dye Eggs, DYE!

 

With all the pirate talk going on,  We were laughing this morning about making the eggs walk the plank and Dye!

So here are the results of our pirate egg dye:

 

Day at the Park

I have been wanting to take my family down to Herman Park for a while and decided to take the day off and bring them down.

We ended up dropping Shelly and Bella off at Texas Children’s, go see Bella’s blog for the details.

We went to see the Japanese gardens and play.  so here are the pictures and the videos: