April Showers

Our lives are always calm then crazy, calm then crazy.  We've really learned to enjoy the calm when we get it because we know everything tends to happen all at once in our household.  Looking at the calendar we did know that April was going to be wild, but we had a few curve balls thrown in just to keep us on our toes.  The first day of our Vegas Vacation, I woke up to pink eye and a tooth infection.  Thanks to my amazing old dentist from high school years, we got some antibiotics and healed right up, but then on our last day of Vegas I woke up to a bone sticking out of my shoulder.  Google informed me pretty quickly that I had separated my shoulder.  Thankfully, it didn't hurt until a few hours into our drive home and I knew there was no time to take care of it because Eve's surgery was first thing Monday morning.  After a week of Evey recuperating and my shoulder not healing, Nate finally convinced me to go see my favorite Orthopedic Surgeon who did my knees 7 years back.  He informed me I did indeed have a level 2 shoulder separation and that I also had a case of tendonitis, awesome.  One huge cortisone shot later in my shoulder, (that was an experience within itself), I was on my way preparing for my own surgery the next day. 

Before Nate & I married, I had some precancerous cells that were wrecking havoc on my ever so important female organs.  Because of that and many other issues we were never sure if we would even be able to have children.  Soon after we were married we decided to just go for it, not knowing the outcome.  Hence the children who are respectively 4,3,2, and almost 1.  With a couple of preemies and some fancy medical procedures we got the children here safe and sound.  After some tests and discussion with our OB, we decided now was the time to get the ticking time bomb pre-cancerous cells and all organs affiliated out of me. 

It was so surreal because we had the procedure done on the same floor where we had Evey and they wanted to put us in the exact same room post-op where I stayed after Evey's birth.  Nate kindly asked them if we could stay in another room because those are some memories we did not want to relive.  All pain aside, I've felt incredibly grateful these last days for the children we have been blessed with, whom we were never sure were going to be able to have in the first place. Being back in the hospital reliving the first few days of Evey's life was also incredibly humbling and such a welcome reminder of how much the Lord has given us and how far we've come from almost a year ago.

We are indeed grateful for the April Showers we've had and for family and friends that have stepped up yet once again and have watched kids and rescheduled their lives around to make ours a little easier.  As kindergarten taught us, the good news about April Showers is that we know right around the corner are May Flowers.  Thank you, thank you for your endless love, prayers, and service.  We are blessed.