Shortly after I wrote the previous post we hopped a flight to STL with a week and a half year old baby.
Long story short, Chris's mom has stage 4 breast cancer that is throughout her abdomen and on her lungs. She went into the hospital and had a blocked kidney and part of her lung was collapsed. From there she underwent a series of procedures one of which resulted her being a breathing tube and having difficulty getting off of it. She now has a tracheotomy that she is breathing through and started her first round of the heaviest dose of chemo they can give her about a week ago.
We talked to Chris's dad Saturday morning and after hearing how she was doing that day decided we shouldn't mess around and were leaving our house by 6pm that evening for the airport.
We have been so blessed by the prayers and grace that covered us.
I was pretty nervous traveling with such a young baby, and mainly nursing as it was still very painful and awkward. Throughout the trip I nursed on take off and landing of the airplane, several parking lots and the ICU waiting room. I think if we survived that we can get through just about anything with nursing. She also put together two nights of 7 hours worth of sleep while we were there, which was such a blessing since we were emotionally, physically and spiritually worn out. She was a trooper and did wonderfully.
The boys both did great as well with all the insanity. They especially handled seeing their grandma like that well. She's not able to talk and so she writes messages. Instead of talking back to her, Josh started writing back and forth with her. It was precious.
By the time we left she was stabilized, and since has been moved out of the ICU. There is still a long road to fight, but she is a fighter and if anyone can make it, she can. Your prayers for healing, continued strength and perseverance for her would be greatly appreciated. Prayer for Arnold and the rest of the family would be wonderful as well.
We've been back home a week and are almost fully recovered and trying to figure out our new normal. I think we're getting close.
So far I've been grocery shopping (with all 3!), to Target, and to the mall all by myself. The biggest accomplishments though have been getting Josh ready and to baseball (with the other 2), getting all 3 and myself ready for church and there on time, and surviving my first evening of Chris having practice and feeding everyone as well as getting them to bed all by myself.
I think we may survive : )
Now if we could just get a bit more sleep...
