I think God is trying to teach me and Mark something. I a not really
sure what exactly it is, but it may be patience....or faith....or
stewardship. This last month has been like life on steroids. If it
could happen, it probably did, and it usually wasn’t enjoyable.
Thursday,
Feb. 28th, I was on my way to pick up Kaiya from school for a dentist
appointment. The boys were fussing, and I was promising them a snack
once we retrieved Kaiya. Suddenly, I started to feel my van slowing.
I tried to pull into a parking lot, but my power steering started to
lock. I was able to pull the van onto the sidewalk, but the van was
dead. Of course, my new cell phone was supposed to be delivered that
day, and we had missed the delivery man while cleaning that morning. I
unloaded the boys, and walked accross the street to a hair salon to
call Mark to pick up Kaiya, and my dad to pick up me and the boys.
Turns out, the timing belt on the van broke, bending all eight valves.
Yeah, I don’t know what that means either, but Mark assured me the only
thing worse was replacing the transmission. $2300 later, my van was
fixed, but my tax return paid for it and not the debts I wanted to rid
myself of.
Two days later, I was on my way to work when my mom
called and told me to come back home. Cade Paul had fallen and broken
his top tooth off. I rushed home, and called the dentist. She talked
me through what to look for to see if his nerve was exposed, and gave
me instructions for monitoring him that day. Monday morning, Mark took
Cade to the doctor. He had NOT broken his tooth off. He HAD chipped
his top left tooth, and the rest of his tooth was jammed back into his
gum. OUCH! She told us to wait three weeks to see if the tooth
started to cut through again. For now, he was to look like a hockey
player.
Three days later (Tuesday, for those keeping track), I
was out with my mom, sister, and friends shopping for Kristin’s wedding
dress. I called home to check in. Little did I know that Mark was
cooking at that moment - in particular, he was cutting veggies for
dinner. 2 minutes into our phone call, he yelled and then asked to
call me back. Yep, he had cut his finger - took off two-thirds of his
nail and some meat. Trooper that he is, he wrapped it, put on a latex
glove, and finished dinner for everyone. When I got home, we headed to
Solantic because it was still bleeding, almost two hours later. After
having his finger cauterized to stop the bleeding, we headed home with
one of Mark’s fingers looking an awful lot like a Doodlebop finger
(Rooney, in particular). He was to go back to Solantic the next day
for a check.
After taking Mark on Wednesday for a check-up on
his finger, I left to pick up my kids, so Mom and Dad could head to
church. Upon arriving at home, my plans changed. Kaiya had been sick
since Sunday - the day after Cade’s injury, and two days before
Mark’s. She had been complaining of stomach pains, but she would seem
fine for 12-24 hours, and then was sick and throwing up for 12-24
hours. It seemed very odd, but she was obviously dehydrated. Mom and
Dad took Juke and Cade to church. (This was poor Juke’s 3rd
birthday.) Kaiya and I headed to pick up Daddy (Mark) from Solantic,
and then the three of us went to spend an entire night at Wolfson’s
Children’s Hospital in the ER. The doctors were unable to determine
what was wrong with her, but she did get an IV to help with her
dehydration.
This was day 7 of our crazy week. Kaiya followed
up with the pediatrician on Friday, who also couldn’t find anything
"wrong" with her. That night, we celebrated Juke’s birthday with
homemade pizza, and a chocolate Mickey Mouse cake. We had family night
in the Living Room, and enoyed ourselves. Kaiya continued throwing up
until Sunday night, and then was suddenly better - no worse for the
wear.
We had a week with no major occurences, and then last
week, Mark got bronchitis (probably his fourth time in the last year).
Cade caught it, or came down with similar symptoms within a couple of
days. Mark took him to the doctor this past Wednesday, while I was on
a field trip with Kaiya. He had a double ear infection. While the
doctor did not say he had bronchitis, he had a yucky cough that has
since subsided.
I finally was able to see Cade’s tooth cutting through on Thursday or Friday! Yay! No more hockey player!
This
brings us to yesterday. We were having Mark’s family over to my
family’s house for Easter dinner. We had a WONDERFUL meal planned. The
prep work was done early, so it promised to be stress free. I was in a
great mood, because we had just sold our washer and dryer to Mark’s
sister, so we had more money to put towards debt reduction. We headed
to church, dropped Kaiya and Juke off at Sunday School, and took Cade
to the nursery. It was mine and Mark’s week to watch the nursery, and
Cade turned out to be the only kid there. I settled into the rocking
chair, and thought, "Finally, a chance to relax!" We had been in the
kitchen most of the morning preparing Easter dinner.
A few
minutes later, Cade was running across the nursery, tripped, and went
face first into the toy shelf. He managed to spli his lower lip really
badly, and tore the frenulum at his upper lip. (The frenulum is the
skin that connects the top lip to the gum.) He was bleeding pretty
badly. Mark got some papertowels, and we rushed to the van, and
proceeded to Solantic. The doctor at Solantic referred us to the ER,
and we went over. Oddly, we were the only people in the waiting room
at the ER, so we were taken back pretty quickly. Cade only needed one
stitch on his bottom lip, but they were unable to do anything in
regards to his frenulum. The doctor and Mark also said Cade’s tooth had
been pushed back into the gum again. He has an appointment Wednesday
at the dentist. The doctor said if the frenulum can be fixed, the
dentist should be able to do it or refer us to someone who can. So,
there went the washer/dryer money!
Today, I was surprised to be
able to still see Cade’s top tooth. I don’t know if it was just hidden
because of the swelling, or if I can only see it because the frenulum
tore so badly. I guess we’ll find out!
Oh, and Juke has a
speech therapy assessment today at Paterson. **Here’s hoping he gets
into the program and can start speech therapy right away!**
Anyway, this is what I have been up to lately. I guess it is true - when it rains, it pours!
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