She's Home Now

It has been a bitter sweet sort of day. I received a call early this afternoon from my dad and as soon as I answered the phone I knew exactly what he was about to tell me...that my grandma had passed away.

All day long I have had a mix of emotions. On the one hand, I am happy that she is now in Heaven with Jesus and my grandpa and great-grandparents, whom she has talked about many times in the past several months. I am happy that she is well again. She is not suffering. She is not bedridden. She is not in any sort of pain at all. She is probably dancing around and oh so excited to see her Savior and her loved ones who have gone on before her.

On the other hand, I am sad. I have tried to prepare myself for this day for the past few weeks. My family has known that this day was coming. Her body was telling us it would be soon. We were seeing signs of her passing this past weekend. It was important to all of us to spend as much time with her as we could. We all took turns sitting at her bedside and prayed that she sensed us and knew that we were there and we loved her. This may sound stupid but I wanted her to know how loved and appreciated she was but I also wanted her to know that we were proud of her fight to stay alive but that it was O. K. to go. We all wanted her to be well again and we knew that was not going to happen here on Earth.

It has only been less than a day since she passed and I miss her already. I miss hearing her voice and seeing her smile. I am saddened that my boys will never really know her as their great-grandma and how special she is to our family. I just try to continually remind myself that she lived a great, long life and is now happy and healthy in Heaven. I am able to find peace in the knowledge that I will one day see her again in Heaven.

Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for my family this week as we celebrate Christmas and celebrate my grandma's life and the fact that she is Home now.

Grandma Update

My grandma has not recovered well from her partial hip replacement surgery last Sunday. While we were all very relieved that the surgery went so well, we did not realize how difficult the recovery process would be. We were told last Monday that the surgery is the easy part...the recovery is the difficult part.

She has not wanted to eat hardly at all this week. We were able to get some "Boost" energy shakes down her and a few bites from her meals but that isn't enough.

My family has probably had one of the toughest weeks this past week. There has been a lot of talking, question asking, decision making, crying and most importantly praying. We all want to do what is best for grandma.

Today we were notified that Hospice has been asked to step in. The plan is that Grandma will be discharged from the hospital into the care of a nursing home where Hospice will come in and help care for her. As you can imagine, it has been a very tough day for us all.

If you would all please pray for my family in the coming days and weeks, I would really appreciate it. We are all praying for the Lord's Will to be done. Please also pray for strength and health for my family as we are all spending as much time as we can with Grandma. We are all very worn and tired tonight.

It is never easy to let a loved one go, however, we are blessed with knowing that when it is Grandma's time, we know she will be going to Heaven to spend eternity with her Savior and that we will one day see her again.

My Grandma

Friday morning my mom called to tell me that my grandma had fallen out of bed early that morning at her assisted living place and had been taken to the ER where they discovered that she had a broken hip. My grandma will be 89 on Wednesday. So, as you can imagine, as a family, we were all very concerned.

This is not the first time she has fallen out of bed. You would think that we could simply buy some sort of bed rails to put on the side of her bed and all would be great...right?! Apparently, there is a law stating that bed rails are not permitted in assisted living homes or nursing homes. From my understanding there were some cases of some elderly people who got their feet caught on the rails and therefore rails are not allowed on the beds any more.

To make a very, very (I am seriously not exaggerating!) long and confusing story short, it was decided to do a partial hip replacement instead of a whole hip replacement because she hasn't been walking at all for the past few months and would not be able (and she would refuse!) to do any sort of rehab. Our goal is to have her be able to sit in a wheel chair instead of laying in bed for the rest of her life. We were told that if the surgery wasn't done, she would be in excruciating pain for the next 4 months. So, at 9 pm last night she had her surgery and I thank the Lord that she came through the surgery with no complications at all. The surgeon told us that everything went very smoothly, that it was a good Sunday!

My grandma will now be going to a nursing home after being released from the hospital where she will receive more care. She will not return to the assisted living place. She needs more care than they can give and to be honest we aren't too happy with the assisted living place, but that is another story. My mom and aunt have already picked a nursing home for her and as far as nursing homes go, this one seems to be one of the "good" ones.

As I close, I ask that you keep my grandma in your prayers. Please pray for her to heal well from the surgery. Please pray for my mom and aunt as they are going through all of the paperwork to make sure that the transition into the nursing home goes smoothly for my grandma and also pray for them as they deal with the emotional aspect of putting their mother in a nursing home.

My family thanks you in advance for your prayers.

Have a blessed week!

Thanksgiving 2008

Whew...I am tired after a long and fun holiday weekend! I don't know if it is because I am getting older but I find myself becoming quite sentimental about the holidays. I really cherish the times that our family can be together and I am very thankful for our family. Here is a run down of the activities of the weekend.

Thursday: We started off the afternoon by having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my Uncle and Aunt's house. My brother and his family were in and we all had a nice time together.

From there, my parents, my brother and I and our families along with my cousin went to see my almost 89 year old Grandma at her assisted living home. We had a nice visit with her. She is getting older (will turn 89 on Dec 10th) and not doing so good, so it was a blessing for us all to be there. All 5 of her great-grandsons were able to be with her at the same time. As you can imagine it was quite chaotic at times have all 5 boys there, but we wouldn't have traded that time for anything.

After leaving Grandma's, Dustin the boys and I headed to his parents house for our second meal of the day. We were able to visit with Dustin's family. I was very excited because I got to snuggle and hold my sweet nephew Brock who is getting so big!

After leaving Dustin's parents house we ended up spending some more time with my parents and brother and his family. We actually had our 3rd Thanksgiving meal of the day. Can you guess what we had? Betcha you can't so I'll tell you. We dined on White Castle's around 8 pm that night because it was the only place opened! How funny is that?!

Friday: Let me first start by saying that I for some reason could not fall asleep on Thursday night. It was seriously after 2 am before I finally fell asleep. The alarm was set for 4:45 am so I could get up, shower and set off for a morning of shopping with my cousin! We shopped for a bit and I was home by 9:30 am.

I rested a bit and then it was time for movie and lunch with my mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece, Dustin's aunt and family friend. We went and saw the movie "Four Christmases." It was quite funny but not too funny for my niece. It is definetly an adult movie. It wasn't bad but had some adult situations that we weren't prepared for. Hopefully some of it went over her head as my mother-in-law said!!! Good luck answering those questions, sister-in-law!

Then it was home for a nap and off to my parents house. Dustin had to help my Dad get his new HD tv all set up. And a big thanks to Mom and Dad for dinner that night!

Saturday: We stopped by Dustin's brother's house to help them put up Brock's crib which also happens to be the crib that Logan and Luke used, although they didn't get much use out of it. Hopefully, Brock will enjoy it more.

Then dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with my parents and Scott's family before they headed back home.

After dinner, we went to the mall for a bit more shopping with Grandma and Papa. Then home finally!

Today: We went to church were we discovered that Luke was running a temperature so we came home right after church (no Luke was not in the nursery; he won't stay in the nursery so Dustin had him the whole time...we did not contaminate the nursery!) took naps, ate dinner and am hoping to get to bed soon.

See what I mean when I said "WHEW!" What a crazy, busy, long weekend, and except for a few illnesses along the way (hope you feel better Aunt Vickie, Caleb and my Lukey!), I wouldn't have changed a thing. I love my family and love to spend time with them.

I hope everyone else had a nice Thanksgiving too!

Happy Birthday To You!

Thirty-three years ago today, the love of my life was born. I praise God that he was born and that when he was 19 years old he would meet a girl at a bible study who would later catch his eye because she was a bit knowledgeable in sports. Later, he would date then marry this girl and 10 years later while celebrating his 33rd birthday he would not only be her husband of 10 years but the father to their two precious little boys.

I am so thankful for Dustin and his life. I am thankful that he is a Christian and that he loves the Lord with his whole heart and life. I am thankful that he is my husband and that we met and married while we were young. I am thankful that we have been married for 10 years and will be married until the day we die. I am thankful that he is "daddy" (and a great "daddy" at that!) to our two little boys. I am thankful that Dustin is such a hard worker and provides for his family. I am thankful that Dustin is not only my husband but my best friend. Just simply hearing his voice can brighten my mood or make me feel that everything in the world is O. K.

I love you Dustin and wish you a very Happy Birthday. You are the best and the boys and I love you so! Enjoy your day!