Our little family has had many changes these last few months. We'll go backwards and come to our current position.
December: We wrapped up our little apartment in West Stadium Villa as Dane finished his Master's in Education. After feeling prompted by the spirit that we need to be in Star Valley we prepared our family to move. Christmas was celebrated with lots of family and fun. We enjoyed sharing it with Grandma JoDee and Grandpa Bryan through Skype. Shortly after we all got terrible colds. Jayden struggled with breathing and eventually ended up spending a night in the hospital with RSV. I also got RSV along with clogged ear ducts and had a horrible infection in my head that made m loose my hearing for a month. I appreciated being able to be a part of a conversation again and to be able to hear again. But it was a lot of pain, swelling, and discomfort. Symi followed up her cold with a terrible double ear infection. She was a trooper. Ben struggled with his cold and eventually got strep and the beginnings of pneumonia. Dane had a cold that didn't last too long. But his blood poisoning came back in his leg and he was put back on antibiotics.
January: I don't quite remember much other than we didn't really sleep. Dane didn't have a job. Living with family was a LOT harder than I had anticipated. Sick kids. Sick parents. Struggling with finances. Trying to come out on top. All of this was more than we were up for. Dane was faithfully trying to fix up his parent's basement while we were living in it. All of this was just too much for me. I asked Dane to help me find us a place of our own for a while. He graciously agreed and within a week we were moved into the Porter's place. A small barn that was turned into a small 2 bedroom apartment.
February: We moved in! It was small but it was all ours. We were happy and becoming more and more healthy. After a few weeks we were starting to celebrate our health when we noticed a lump on Symi's wrist that was rapidly growing. After tests and exams they thought that it was just a cyst and we would have it checked every year. I was ok with this. Slowly she started to stop using her hand. She wouldn't feed herself, color, wipe her bum (big deal for her as she had just started), and other fine motor skills. She was frustrated and we were too.
March: So we went back into the Dr's and they were concerned too. They wanted to remove it right away. So surgery was scheduled and we were preparing our family for this change. Time seems to fly when you are so busy with health issues. I felt like a nurse in a war zone! But alas it was all worth it. Anyways, Symi had her surgery and all went much better than expected. Originally they thought that the cyst was growing down into wrist joint. And that there was an artery running in the middle of it as well as a tendon. They had prepped us for a 2 hours surgery, but it ended up only being 20 mins. I was grateful to hear that it was all much better than expected. The artery was lying under the cyst. The cyst was on the surface and didn't even go down into the join. But it was wrapped around her tendon and "shoe stringed" down it. It was an abnormal looking so they sent it to pathology to make sure. Test results came back as a ganglion cyst and she was cleared! It's been a long week. We have struggled to keep her nausea and pain under control. Her mornings are the toughest and we struggling until the afternoon to make her comfortable and to keep her puking at bay. At her first check up they changed her bandages and splint. We took her home and she seemed fine. That night she was up most of the night screaming and crying. Begging for pain killers and her bowl. Throwing up till there was nothing left and crying throughout the next morning. She struggled all day to be comfortable. Finally I was able to get a hold of our regular Dr before the weekend. We started to notice that her hand kept turning blue. She asked us several times to fix her hand. It's hurting me so much. When we got in we found out that both the first and second brace were cutting off the artery to her hand. We adjusted to yet another brace and a sling to keep her from rearranging the surgery and sutures. After that she changed! She no longer threw up or asked for pain killers. She started to eat well again and wanted to get down with the boys and just play! It's been a huge change!
April: I suddenly realized that we've had so much going on that I haven't had time to focus on Taxes. Oops!! I don't have much time left. So Dane and I started to spend some late night's together working on putting together our taxes. Hopefully the return will be a relief. To top it off for the last several months we have been applying for jobs and spending time researching areas we've applied too. It's been a challenge to say the least and has been tough to work out between the two of us. We are hoping and praying for ANY job and to be where the Lord needs us to be. I personally am SOO ready to settle down and to have a home. One where we don't have to move again!
Love you all and hope you are all well too.
