Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Playing Catch Up

This last month has been full of blessings, hardships and turns that I never saw coming!  Because of some of these things, blogging has taken a back seat for a while.  I miss writing and I hope to get back into some kind of routine again.

Just some of the things:

Announcing the arrival of our newest babe!  That has been more of a blessing than I expected it to be.  I tend to dread sharing it with people because I really don't want other people's negative opinions to taint my fun blissful excitement about this baby!  So far, people have been gracious, encouraging and loving about it and that is a huge blessing to my heart!

We had about 3 weeks of company in April.  It started with a fun visit from a college friend, Kelli, and then my sister, Katie came and joined her for a couple days. It was so great to spend some time with people that just "know" me - and I "know" them and we could just relax and enjoy the awesome weather we had that week.

 After they left, my mom came and hung out with us for her spring break.  It is always such a treat to get to have "Mom time."  It doesn't seem to matter how old I get, I will always need my Mama!  I am thankful we have the kind of relationship that makes our time together enjoyable still!  I know that isn't always the case, so I praise God for healthy family relationships! 

After she left, Hayden's mom, Hope, came to visit for a week.  It's the longest amount of time we have spent with her since we got married 11 years ago!  I wasn't sure what to expect, but we had a nice week together.  The boys loved having her around, we hadn't seen her in over 2 years so it was really a treat for them.  She was coming out to meet with a potential job prospect with the idea of moving her out here closer to us shortly after.  The plan was for Hayden to fly back out to Kentucky (where she lived)  and drive her over here with her things and she would start the job she had arranged. 

Hayden flew out Easter Sunday at 6am.  When he arrived at the airport, she wasn't there.  He called her and she was really confused and thought he was coming in on Monday.  This was really strange because she KNEW he was flying in on Sunday I listened to their phone conversation and there's no way (from his side that I heard)  that he said it wrong.  So, she said she would call Mel, Hayden's sister in law and they'd drive the hour out and come get him.  He waited 2 more hours, and there was no sign of her.  At this point he had started calling her and Mel without any success of getting through to ANYONE.  I suggested calling his brother (who was in Georgia at the time) to see if HE could get a hold of Mel.  He did get a hold of her and she also thought Hayden was coming in on Monday and hadn't heard form Hope that day.  She drove over to Hope's home to check on her and found her disoriented, confused, not knowing what day it was or that Hayden was waiting at the airport for her.  Mel called 911 and got her in an ambulance.  Something was not right!  At this point Hayden had been at the airport for over 3 hours.  It would've taken Mel another hour to get to him but she went to the hospital with Hope.  After doing a CT scan they discovered Hope's brain was bleeding and wanted to transport her to a bigger hospital in Louisville right away.  We decided to get Hayden a car rental so he could get out of the airport and free Mel up to be with Hope. 

When they figured out what was going on, Hope had a 6cm bleed on her front right temporal lobe.  This is a huge bleed and was causing a lot of pressure and pain for her.  Thankfully it wasn't in a portion of her brain that affected any motor skills.  They needed to do surgery to remove the clot.  When they got in there the area affected was much larger than they initially realized.  They were working with something the size of an orange - between dead brain matter and clotting, they removed a portion of her brain, and left some of the clot where they couldn't tell if the tissue was dead or not.  They stapled her skull back together and waited for the swelling and everything to go down.  She was doing really well after surgery and miraculously is doing great today.  She hasn't lost any physical functions at all.  Her short term memory still seems to be slightly affected, but she has all of her long term memories pretty well intact. (as far as we can tell)  It's hard for me to gage if it's changed her personality all that much.  The area it hit is the area that affects behavior, personality, etc..  But, never being around her for longer than a week or less at a time.  It's hard to tell.  I don't think a stranger would notice or think twice about it if they didn't see the huge scar on her head. 

So, during the week Hayden was out there and she was in the hospital, we both came to the conclusion that if she needed to recover she needed to come here.  She had already sold her home at the prospect of coming here and Hayden's brother and his wife don't have the resources to care for her.   We really felt a peace that it was God's desire for us to do it, so we took a step of obedience and did it.  We flew out last Monday morning and drove her back to Richland.  We made it home Wednesday night and she is now a part of our household.  The rehab center she was discharged from estimated it would be another couple weeks before she could be on her own again.  So, we are hoping to help her find a job to get back on her feet again and move into her own place once she seems able to do that again.

It has been a beautiful thing to see God's hand woven throughout this whole ordeal.  From the timing of Hayden being out there, to finances and everything in between.  It has been clear who is in control and that is always so comforting in a crisis situation!

That is our crazy last 5-6 weeks!  It has been an adjustment having someone here all the time - especially without knowing how long of a situation it will be.  She and I have had a polite relationship over the years, but I would never describe us as "close."  We have very different personalities and interests and at this point and I am just trying to take it one day at a time and trust that God will give me what I need to deal with each day.  So far, I'm failing miserably at that...but, it's only been a week.  I'm hoping I'll be more willing to give things over to Him soon or this is going to be a much longer and harder road than it needs to be! 

We would definitely appreciate your prayers through this time!

1 comment:

Montgummibears said...

Praying for you, friend. Great post. :)