VBS and Vomit

Where was I? Oh yes, so Mark had been in the hospital, intubated, chest tube, ICU, the works, BUT a silver lining...for time being...a Cadillac XLR-V. She fell right into our laps. She was a fight but she was meant to be ours. Mark and I took the girls to our parents in Florida and we flew to Wisconsin to pick the car up and drive it back. We flew out on Thursday and got home on Friday. We literally picked the car up and started driving. It was a blast and a much needed long overdue road trip for the two of us. Sunday Mark had to go home because he had a doctors' appointment on Monday and depending on how that went he would be back at work on Tuesday. Well, he wasn't back at work but you read all about that already. Monday at NJBC was VBS and this would be McKenna's second VBS and McKaela and Maisie's first! I was SO excited!! AND it would be my first in about 6 years since I got married. SUPER excited!! 

So the week is going great and I was supposed to be a teacher in a room but when it came down to it they had it going on and I wasn't needed in there. I did snacks and whatever else needed to be done...my old job. It was bliss! I had SUCH a good time! And as VBS of years past, there were wrenches thrown in our flow. First off, we had a little girl whose name we could not figure out. When we asked her she insisted that her name was Repunzel. She was very insistent and would not let up no matter how we phrased the question of her name. Her identity was finally confirmed by a call from her mother saying "...she will probably tell you that her name is Repunzel but it is..." CASE SOLVED! LOL 

Next came the popsicles that we didn't have enough of. How that happened, I have no clue but I had to make a Walmart run for popsicles. And we wound up having some left over, too. o_O 

And then it happened....the vomit. A little girl threw up and I had to go find her mom...however, no one told me her mom's name, they just sent me to find her. My mom was not to be found at the moment (I think I kept missing her) so I was running blind. I FINALLY found her and all was well......until dinnertime that evening when MY middle threw up. Then my youngest threw up. What?! NO! Then there came the emails about 2-3 others in my middle's class that had been throwing up. AAHHH!! Friday numbers were super low because in both preschool and children's this virus was going around. Oy. Saturday evening it finally hit my oldest. Luckily, she got to finish out VBS. We were at dinner....at a restaurant. Yeah, she still talks about that. Then that night *I* get it AND my daddy gets it. God, please don't let Mark get it. Sunday night Mark gets is. NNNOOOO!!! He said throwing up might have been the worst pain he had ever felt. :( Monday was his doctors' appointment and that is the one that they sent him into emergency surgery at. 

So, all in all, VBS was a success and my girls had a blast! BUT the stomach virus I could have lived without.

Ciao!

Tumors and surgeries

I don't know that I blogged about this last year but last year when Mark was going through Chief season he went through a lot of doctors' appointments for his heart and his lungs and all. A year later he was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. Well, during a routine CT scan to make check his lungs they accidentally found a tumor. Yes, a TUMOR! Within two weeks of finding out about that Mark was rolled into surgery to remove it. I was prepared to be at the hospital by myself for however long the surgery took...turns out, God knew just what I needed, as usual, and He had set up for our pastor and our family deacon to be there...the entire time! The surgery was supposed to take about an hour and a half and wound up taking 4. They stayed with me the entire time! Our family deacon, Clyde, had a sleep study the night before and not slept well but got out and came straight over to where I was. He was there from about 530 until 11-1130 when Mark got out of surgery. John, the pastor, got there about 6 and he, too, stayed until Mark was out. I don't think that I will ever be able to really tell them just how much that meant to me. Anyway, this 1.5-2 hour surgery went on and on...I was starting to get worried. Finally I got another call from the OR letting me know that Mark was doing ok but the surgeon was having a problem getting the tumor out. Let me interject here and say that the tumor was on the outside wall of his chest, not IN his lungs. Nonetheless, the surgeon was having trouble getting it out. The three 1-inch incisions wound up being one 1-inch incision and one 4-inch incision. Once they finally got it out it wound up being just a ball of dead nerve cells that his body was trying to rid itself of. It was biopsied and, as they figured, it was benign. SO nerve-wrecking!!!

Come a week later Mark was diagnosed with pneumonia. PNEUMONIA! Seriously?! Antibiotics, ok. Good. However, this whole time he feels as though he has a water balloon in his side and it is more pressure than pain but not comfortable at all.

A week later he goes to the doctor and is sent from his appointment into immediate emergency surgery. He has a large infection in his chest. WHAT?! That "water balloon" he has been feeling? It was basically a true assessment. They went in, cleaned out the infection, inserted the chest tube again, and ta-da. Mind you, I am along again at the point. My parents and Mark's parents' have all gone home. Mark literally called me to tell me that he was going into surgery. I called my babysitter, she came straight over, I called a friend to come take me to the hospital because I needed to pick up the Caddy (that is another post ;) ), and I headed up to the hospital. Mark was already in surgery when I got there. I called his grandparents to see if they could come up and help me and they said they would be there the next day.

Things the next week with Mark in the hospital were so smooth it was amazing! Mark was even more comfortable than he was the first time! How is that?! He was up and walking and everything on his own. It was 20 million times better than the first time!!!

It is now 7 weeks later and Mark has finally been cleared to go back to work and is doing amazing!! He has two 1-inch scars and one 4-inch scar on his left side but I wouldn't have him any other way. He may not have had those scars when we got married but those scars have made us think and those scars have been reality, and those scars have brought us closer together than we could ever have thought before. Do you think that at 28 and 30 (Mark went into surgery ON his 30th birthday) we thought we would have to be scared and worried about cancer? No! We have always relied on each other and always showed each other our love but even though we were told "99% sure benign" from the beginning, it is one thing to be told and one thing to be TOLD. Mark's scars are beautiful wonderful reminders of the man that I married, the man who will do whatever it takes to make sure that he is here for his wife and children. We both realize that it could have had a much different outcome but we praise God every day for His blessings and His plans for us.

Well, that is the biggest thing that has happened in our lives. It has been a nerve-wrecking scary time but it has been a beautiful outcome.

Ciao!  

We ARE One Nation Under God

I will get back to my regular family updates here shortly but right now I need to get this out...

As much as you may disagree and you may yell and scream "separation of church and state!!" the fact of the matter is, we ARE one nation under God. Our "great nation", that everyone likes to claim, was built on Christian standards. Do I need to go into history about the pilgrims who were Christians who were fleeing religious persecution in Europe? Or the Puritans who followed and created bible-based commonwealths? The Quakers and William Penn? Do I really need to go on? I think that Ronald Reagan put it best when he said, "If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under." Here lately it has been quite the controversial time in our nation when we are being asked to blatantly turn our backs on God and please the world. As Christians we are to separate ourselves and set ourselves apart. We are to love everyone but that doesn't mean that we love what they do. We, as Christians, are still human and we still mess up and we still sin the same as everyone else, but the difference is, is at the end of the day we strive to turn from our ways and be more like God. He knows that we mess up but He also knows our hearts and when we are really striving to turn from our wicked ways. We should always strive to better ourselves and be more like Christ. It breaks my heart to think about where our world is today. There is so much complacence and lack of ambition...and more so than that, lack of God.  A picture was brought to my attention a few days ago that really hit home and ties this whole post together...

and I will leave it at that. 

Ciao!