I sorta missed blogging in December.... whoops! It has been a busy month between Christmas preparations, a niece's baptism, finally closing on our mortgage, and having all of Adam's siblings in town, not to mention getting ready for a new baby. I haven't felt frantic but it definitely has kept me going! As I was laying awake one of the many times last night (I am up because I'm pregnant and Adam got called in and was gone all night. I don't sleep well without him. Maybe we need a dog...) I was thinking about the ending of this year and everything we've been through....
January - Adam turned 33. I spent the month not feeling well only to suffer the devastating heartbreak of an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. The surgery left me with physical and emotional scars but also provided me with an amazing opportunity to get closer to the Lord, since He is the only one who could truly understand my loss.
February - Porter turned 4 and my parents were kind enough to come up and help us celebrate, including my sweet mother making his Spiderman birthday cake since I was only a handful of days after surgery. We spent the end of February and beginning of March in the "Happiest Place on Earth" a.k.a Disneyland with all of my family. It was so fun to take the kids and see their reaction. I love Disney. I wish we could afford to go every year!
March - Paige turned 6. And we finally got our construction loan for the house on the 29th, giving us 9 months til December 29th to finish the house and convert to a conventional mortgage.
April - We finally broke ground on the house mid-month. I've never been so excited to see a hole in the ground in my life!
May - Framing on the house started. I turned 32, then found out the next day that a new baby was on the way! We got the walls up and then it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained.... We were terrified that the lumber would be ruined!
June - I got to go to Billings for the weekend and spend time garage saling and then going to my sis in law Tove's gigantic dance production. When I got back the trusses were up and the sheathing was on the roof. It looked like a real house! That was an amazing change! Windows and doors went in, roofing and siding went on... That was really fun to see the changes! I also started to panic that the living room/kitchen/dining room weren't big enough....
July - We celebrated the 4th by going to the parade in Choteau and then wiring the house the rest of the day. It was so hot and I wanted to die. We spent most of July wiring, siding, and working on soffit and fascia. The well was dug in July too. The well witcher told us 80 ft. We hit good water at 183. Whoops.
August - We finished wiring and got the house insulated. Then it was time for the sheetrockers. It was glorious to not have to sheetrock and mud and tape ourselves. In the meantime, my awesome friend Heidi helped me paint the cabinetry for the laundry/mudroom and the kids' bathroom. It was fair bit of work but such a huge saving in $$$. We go to Billings for my uncle's wedding reception and celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary with a trip to DQ. Adam suffers health problems all month, including a seizure. Tests finally reveal the brain tumor, which we find out about on August 23rd. Life kicks up into hyper-drive. That weekend following the diagnosis, approximately 30 people show up to work on the house. People bring food, watch kids, paint, lay flooring, install outlets, lay tile, hang doors, put up trim, hang lights, install bathroom cabinetry and more. We have never felt so blessed in spite of everything.
September - Work continues on the house. People sacrifice so much for us. On the 6th, we find out that the new baby is a girl. Adam can't believe it. They even check a second time just to be sure and she's still a girl. :) On the 9th we go to Portland for Adam's initial consult. The drive is brutal but the neurosurgeon is wonderful. Surgery is scheduled for the 26th. Work continues and people keep doing so much for us. The house is finished and we move in on the 23rd/24th, which is miraculous because our inital goal was mid-October. Adam, Jo, and I leave for Portland on the 25th. The kids go to stay with my family in Billings while we're gone. Surgery happens the 26th. Everything goes well and so recovery starts. I discover that my husband doesn't handle anesthesia very well. He is finally released on Thursday the 29th. We leave Portland with the goal of making it to Jodie's house near Spokane. Adam gets incredibly sick near the tri-cities in Washington. We think it's just a reaction to the meds. We stay the night at Jodie's and drive the rest of the way on Friday. We make it home late afternoon and the kids come home a couple of hours later. I discover that it is incredibly stressful to take care of my children and my recovering husband at the same time. We eventually discover that a huge part of Adam's problem is the pain meds. They make him super nauseous and sick.
October - Recovery continues. As Adam gets better and starts to get his appetite back, he starts gagging/choking on almost everything he eats. It freaks me out but he says it's nothing. We give it a little time but finally call the doctor. They order some tests, Portland gets involved and orders more tests and a visit to an ENT doctor in Great Falls, where we are told that we have to get back to Portland asap. We leave the kids with Adam's family this time and leave within a couple of hours. Reece comes to give Adam a blessing before we leave and we are told to trust the doc's and not worry about finances. We end up back in Portland from Saturday til Wednesday. They discover that half of his throat and vocal cords aren't working. They don't know why exactly but guess that it's from swelling from the tumor removal since the nerve the tumor was on and the nerve that controls that side of the throat are next door neighbors. Part of everything he eats and drinks is going into his lungs. They are terrified that he is going to get aspiration pneumonia so they take him off all food and drink and give him an IV. They end up doing a procedure to inject his left vocal cord to help it fill it's half and inserting a feeding tube to allow him to get nutrition and bypass the throat. He hates it. I hate it. It's probably the darkest, hardest part of the everything we've been through. We argue, cry, and have breakdowns. It is awful. We are glad to finally come home, with another overnight stop at Jodie's. He ends up missing that entire week of work, when he had finally had his first day back. They allow him to go back the next Monday with some restrictions. He is doing computer work and it is mind-numbingly boring. We get to celebrate Halloween. Paige is a pretty witch, Porter is Captain American, and Sarah is Tinkerbell.
November - Adam starts speech therapy to help his throat get better. We have high hopes that he'll make lots of progress before Thanksgiving! I attend Paige's parent-teacher conference. They tell me that she's reading like a super start and is a joy to have in class. I am not surprised but still so glad to hear it! Sarah turns 3. I attempt my first stacked cake. It actually works but it's waaaay more cake than we needed! Thanksgiving comes and Adam eats anyway, while we all pretend we don't see it. We have more to be thankful for than ever this year and still have more blessings coming our way than we feel we deserve!
December - We finally get our wood stove after much trial and tribulation. Adam has another swallow study which shows some improvement. We get to go to Billings for our niece's baptism. We also have 'Christmas' with my family while we're there. I do most of my Christmas shopping online and it's glorious. All of Adam's familiy comes into town and we have family pictures and a mini 'Christmas' with everyone. It is wild and crazy but so fun to have everyone together. In spite of our refusal of help, people give us gifts and money for Christmas anyway. The bishop says that it's a sign of what good people we are and how we've lived our lives. I appreciate that but we have been so, so, so, so blessed that we honestly and truly didn't need help for Christmas! The strangest one is when the Sheriff pulls into our driveway. We start to panic. He comes to the door with a garbage bag with gifts for the girls, including the baby. He says it's a "Rudolph Run". Some sweet person in the community submitted the kids' names for gifts but doesn't know us well enough to know we had a boy too. :) Now we are just getting ready for this new baby to join our family. I just know that she is going to be a huge blessing. I know they always are but I feel like the Lord knew we needed this gift of joy after everything we've been through!
Now we are just hoping for a peaceful, blessed, glorious New Year. Hopefully it will bring a lot of health, healing, and joy! Thank you to everyone who has helped us and prayed for us. We could not have done it without you. It is an amazingly powerful thing to be the recipents of so much love and faith. I always thought it was slightly strange when I heard someone say "I could feel everyone's prayers" but now I know that it really happens. I don't wish hardship on anyone but everyone should have an opportunity to have such an experience. I wish you all the best in 2012!
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