March 2016 Recap

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

I'm going to try to keep this on the short side because I'm also attempting finish my post about our trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  

The month did not start off very promisingly as Audrey came down with a fever the very first weekend.  We'd gone to Home Depot kids' workshop, which was a lot of fun, but she was very crabby and complained the whole way home about her head hurting.  We discovered she had a fever and she and I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend lying around and reading books.  She never had any other symptoms except ones related to her fever, like loss of appetite and energy.  It hadn't broken by Sunday afternoon, so I made the call that she would stay home on Monday.  Of course she woke up Monday morning with it gone, but I kept her home anyway so she'd be 24 hours fever free before being around other kids.  I'm almost sure it was the very first sick day she's ever had, including through all of preschool (other than missing for her endoscopy or another check-up) which is impressive.  I hated that she felt bad, but I did like having an extra chill day with her!


This month held a lot of volunteer hours at and for Audrey's school.  The second week I went up one day to work on a project for Teacher Appreciation Week, volunteered at my regular shift the next day, and then went up to help chaperone the mini-Relay for Life that the school put on that Thursday.  Thankfully they had a day off that Friday, which I was ready for.  My mom came over and I went out for about an hour and caught my breath.  That evening the kids and I met Kara and her kids at a local park as they were passing through town on the way to her parents'.  We caught up in between swing pushes and head counts and then ate a pizza picnic dinner together before heading out.

That Saturday David and I dusted off the bikes and went for a ride.  We weren't too far in before we discovered the gears were shot on his and were stuck in the highest position, which made hills impossible.  We did a couple of miles before packing it in and heading to lunch.  It was a beautiful day and made us thrilled about the onset of Spring.  

The next week was Teacher Appreciation Week for both Audrey's and Luke's schools.  It's honestly a bit of a blur, but I remember dropping off things on a lot of mornings and sending a whole bunch of email reminders to parents.  There was a short substituting job in there somewhere, which mainly involved lots of counting heads and making sure no one broke a leg at recess.  St. Patrick's Day was that week as well and I did my motherly duty of putting the kids in green and then moving on with life because expectations need to be kept in check.  (This is a great line to use anytime you don't feel like summoning the energy to make a grand gesture.  You're welcome to borrow it anytime.)

The end of that week brought really terrible and scary news from our precious friends the Taylors.  I want to respect her and her right to her own story, so I will only cover the highlights here.  Kara had called me on the 16th to let me know that she was really sick with some very strange symptoms.  After many in-depth tests, they diagnosed her with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a very rare disease where the immune system attacks the nervous system.  It is very serious and can result in paralysis or worse as the lungs are effected and breathing becomes impaired.  She was checked into the hospital in Columbia, South Carolina and her sister Meghan, who is also a physician's assistant, kept me in the loop about what was going on.  Around 8pm that night, Meghan texted me "She just keeps getting worse.  This is so scary."  David and I got on our faces and I sobbed as we pleaded with God for her healing.  We debated about driving up that night or whether to go the next day.  We ultimately decided to wait for news in the morning and spent a restless night alternating between fitful sleep and urgent prayer.  The next morning we got word that treatment had begun and that she was improving.  Relief and joy fell in our house and I forced myself to go work out in her honor that morning.  She pushes me to be better when she's well and she even pushes me when she's not...amazing.  

I went up to see her a few days later.  It was so good to lay eyes on her and see improvement. Again, I won't go into great detail, but she was exhausted and weak.  She could barely feed herself and was in a lot of pain.  Still, she called every nurse and tech by name, she admonished me for not having eaten anything all day, and she struggled to laugh at my lame jokes.  She did her very best at OT and PT, which at that point meant standing with a lot of help and a walker for just a few seconds.  Her mom came in that afternoon and the two of us visited while Kara snoozed before I left to drive back home that evening to get back in time for Luke's egg hunt the next morning.  For the next day or so, she seemed to improve a little bit.  Unfortunately, the worst was not over.  She began to regress and by Monday the 28th, she was moved to ICU and had a feeding tube put in.  They began another form of treatment and, praise God, she finally turned a corner.  I went up the next week to see her and, even though she was in ICU, I could tell the new treatments were working.  She was able to do a few sit and stands on a walker at that point and even sat up in a chair for a few hours.  I probably kept her awake by running my mouth too long, but it was just so good to see her finally getting better.  I drove home that evening feeling confident she was on the upswing, but still had a few intense conversations with the Lord about the entire situation.  It's just crazy how much we take our health and our loved ones for granted until either or both are at stake and it's offered a huge dose of perspective for me.

While she was in the hospital, her kids came down to stay with their Aunt Meghan, who lives about two miles from me.  We got to meet up with them for a couple of play dates, including one at the park where I'd been with Kara just two weeks earlier.  It was a sad, surreal realization.  Between Meg's, Kara's, and mine, we had eight kids ages seven and under, so I don't how much was "play" and how much was simply keeping everyone alive and mostly fed.  Still, it did my heart so much good to be around people that were an extension of her.  I loved on those kids like they were my own and cherished every minute with them.  Spoiler alert for next month's recap:  The kids went back home to South Carolina on April 8th, which was also the day Kara moved from the hospital into a rehab facility.  They finally got to see their mama, who is doing amazingly well and will hopefully get to go home in a couple more weeks.  

Easter rolled around at the end of the month.  The day before, we got the kids up and met David's parents to do a 5k near us.  I was so incredibly impressed with the kids, who walked the entire thing.  We had taken their jogging strollers just in case, but they didn't use them even once.  Audrey was a little moody because it was such a small race and we came in last, but she got over it when we drove the entire course afterward and she realized what an amazing feat they had accomplished!  That afternoon we went to a birthday party for my niece, who came up from Savannah.  We painted pottery, bopped balloons, and visited with everyone for a couple of hours before heading home.  We dyed a few Easter eggs and then had a pajama pizza picnic while watching Horton Hears a Who.  

The next morning we woke up and celebrated Easter with a great church service followed by the kids finding their filled baskets and us doing an indoor egg hunt (due to rain outside.)  There may have also been a nap in there somewhere.  For dinner,  I fixed a big meal with ham, macaroni and cheese, green beans, pinto beans, deviled eggs, and mashed potatoes. (I realize this is the way our grandmothers cooked nightly from scratch, but it's a rare treat in our house.)  It was a great weekend full of family and fun.  


Other highlights of the month:


 - I took a tour of the day center of Family Promise, which is the benefactor for this year's Timber Trek.  More details on them to follow, but it was very impressive and I'm so excited we'll be able to bless them a little this year!


 - We had to repair both my computer (new hard drive and battery...way, way cheaper than buying a new one and hopefully it'll make it last another 12-18 months) and my brakes (faulty pads that they replaced for free) because we couldn't find anything better to do with our money or our time.  (Adulthood can be a blast sometimes.)


 - On the slightly more fun side of spending money, we had three new trees put in (that sounds more impressive than it is...they're only about 5 feet tall) and a 12 foot deck with a pergola built onto our existing deck.  Pictures to follow once the wood is dried out and staining is complete. 


As for my resolutions, I'm doing pretty well.  I did finally clean out the master closet, though...cough, cough...that may have been done in April which was a little past my first quarter goal.  I had dinner with two different girlfriends and I had two dates with David this month.  I got to see my mom outside of a family birthday party, which was great.  For our service project, we did the 5k (had to swap March and April's projects) and had a good time.  I definitely need to work on blogging more and on community and family social time.  It's important to have things to strive for, right?!

To close, some kid stories and quotes:


 - I started working with Luke on how to call 911.  When discussing actual emergency reasons to call, he spouted off three in a row immediately: "If your hair was on fire! If Audrey fell in hot lava! If Daddy got thrown onto the roof!"  Sounds an awful lot like premeditation there, buddy.


 - Luke: "Hey! This is the song you and Daddy always sing to me and Audrey!" Was it some sweet, loving lullaby or praise song? Nope. Try Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."


 - Audrey was beyond ecstatic when she got home from school one day because she got to play the part of lunchroom monitor for her class and take down names of disruptive students. Two thoughts: a) She is most definitely my daughter and b) do snitches get stitches in first grade?


That's it for this month!  Please lift up Kara and her family in prayer and I'll keep you posted on her progress!

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