Taking a break...

Well this Saturday is the big "moving" day! We are moving our whole house into a Uhaul van this weekend. Next Monday the 19th, we are leaving Oregon and driving to California with my sister and the kids in her vehicle behind. (sniff, sniff) :-(
My sister is coming to town today to help me finish packing my house. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful sister who's willing to stop what she's doing and come to my aid. Since my son's brief and sudden illness last week, we have hardly been able to pack at all. My sister has planned to come for quite a while but after all that has happened, I am so thankful that she is coming. There will be plenty to pack! :-) And a fussy little boy to take care of as well. :-(
Anyway, to make this short I will be taking a break from blogging until we get settled into CA. We will be staying with my sister until we get jobs and then we will find a place to live. I will update as soon as we are settled.
Please, if you think of us, will you say a prayer for our son's continues healing, and for us to obtain insurance coverage for him in CA, and for us also to find good jobs and a good place to live. Thank you so much!
Happy Holidays... AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Blessings to you, Jennifer

My baby boy...

So, to answer your question to the picture, no, he doesn't have enough blankies on and yes, he does look quite pitiful. If you had the kind of night he and we had then you would probably feel like he looks... maybe worse if you're a guy. After getting him home yesterday, I caved in and even gave him a christmas toy early. :-) But honestly, any mom out there, tell me you wouldn't have done the same after hearing about our day/night. :-)

Tuesday afternoon I took Josiah in to see his pediatrician after some worry about the look of his... shall we just say "boy parts." She was extremely concerned after seeing him and doing the exam, so we were sent to the hospital to do an ultrasound to have "look-see" and try to decipher what the problem was exactly. After he endured a painful procedure, we went to dinner across from the hospital, and then as we finished eating we were called and told to go straight back to the hospital. We were seen by a couple nurses and the ER dr. We were finally told that we needed to drive our son to the children's hospital to have surgery tonight. We were told the Pediatric Urology Surgeon would meet us at the ER there.

Phew... at this point I am completely overwhelmed and in shock. At the very worst earlier in the day I thought that maybe he had a rash, or possibly an infection... not needing surgery. Now, my son has had a few complications in his life, that I won't get into now, but it tends to leave me a bit overprotective when it comes to dr's and health issues. The nurses finally came in to put in his IV, and I decided that maybe I should step out and let Daddy and Grandma help. The one thing that gets my stomach queasy is blood, and big needles... so I thought this would be best since it seemed like a simple procedure and I needed to call my sister to inform her of our current situation anyway. Well I come back to find that he is in major distress and crying heavily. If that just isn't enough to make you push your way in there and hold your baby tight and want to say "leave.him.alone!" Instead I went over to him and put my arm around his head and talked to him ever so sweetly and began to calm down the wheezing coming from my baby's lungs. After 8 tries, they finally got a successful spot on his right foot. They wrapped it carefully with gauze tape and all night we had to hear all about the owie on his foot. :-)

The hardest part of the night for me was watching my son being wheeled away, down the hallway to the operating room. And saying goodbye to him. And not feeling like it was forever. I'm really not trying to be dramatic but I had a very hard time letting him go. My most significant moment of the whole evening was being able to rock my son to sleep jsut before they wheeled him away to surgery. He was pretty upset still from being pricked by all the e.r. nurses and then being wheeled for what seemed like forever, so I picked up his exhausted body (it is now 12:15am and his bedtime is 8pm) and rocked my son and spoke sweetly to him. I was told later that he did not wake up before his surgery, he slept through the whole thing... well of course through surgery since he was completely under and was given significant pain medication. I was glad that my face was the last thing he saw before going "under" and was who he saw when he woke up disoriented afterwards... there is nothing like a mother's words to soothe an ailing child.

Well we were released from the hospital about 11 hrs after he got out of surgery and got him home and as comfortable as possible. Thank goodness I had made a roast the day before in the crockpot that my folks put in the fridge for me, so I heated that back up and we ate that for dinner last night(wed night). I was so completely exhausted and my son too, I put him to bed at 7:30 and I went to bed at 9:15 last night. He woke up about 7:30 and I woke up at 8am. WOW, that is a lot of sleep. But honestly, I don't feel like I slept too long either. I think my body was utterly exhausted, I don't think I have ever been more tired in my life... not physically or emotionally. Well maybe when I gave birth and the few months following... but I think of that time more like my "zombie" months. But this was stressful in such a completely different way.

I am so thankful that God has sustained my son through a very difficult time in his life. I am glad that this happened now rather than 2 weeks from now when we would have already been moved to CA and possibly not have insurance. This would have been so much more difficult for my son physically if he was a bit older too. God really takes care of us and really does carry us through hard times. I don't know how else I would have made it through the past 2 days if it had not been for God carrying me through. Today I am at peace, which is something I could not have said a week ago becuase of the stress I was feeling about our move. God's peace is truly amazing and I am extremely thankful for so much today. (quietly weeping)

Thank you for your prayers. It is appreciated greatly! :-)