Life Happens

We’ve heard it a million times… “Be thankful for what you have because life can change in an instant”, “Don’t take anything for granted”, “Enjoy the little things”. I do my best to remember these things on a daily basis, but I’m not going to lie, I lose my patience A LOT. Mostly when I have to repeat myself 10 times, and still nobody does what I’m asking. Or when a two year old who can’t verbalize what he wants just screams and cries because I can’t read his mind. Or, the worst, when the actions of my rambunctious boys cause themselves (or others) harm. 

My sister and I each have two kids that are very close in age, and we end up seeing each other almost everyday. She is one of my most important soundboards, and being able to talk with her on any given day can bring me back to earth when I feel like I’m about to lose my mind.

Making this move out the East Coast together has been a HUGE blessing. We’ve been able to lean on each other a ton during this change, and we joke that we sometimes feel like a family of 8. It has been incredibly hard moving farther away from our parents, leaving our youngest sister, and leaving all our friends, but the fact that we moved to the same place has helped. It was about as “unsucky” as a sucky situation could be… you know what I mean??

“You got this”

The day before my sister’s family was scheduled to move into their new home, in the neighborhood we moved into just weeks before, my sister was crippled by a terrible headache. It was almost impossible to rouse her from sleep, and when we could, she wasn’t making any sense. Her husband rushed her to the ER where they found a mass on her brain. I can’t even describe the days following that discovery.

Seeing her in that state, it was impossible not to fear the worst. In the hours waiting in the ER, I found myself rotating between praying, crying, and trying to think of what all of this meant. I tried my hardest to prevent myself from thinking about “what if”. I can’t lie, though, I did go there. Now that that weekend is over, I don’t think I can even revisit those thoughts in a blog post.

We somewhat quickly (even though it felt like a year) found out that the mass was most likely an abscess/infection that needed to be removed as soon as possible. In the moment, none of this news felt reassuring, even with the doctor telling us this is the best possible outcome. It still meant surgery… BRAIN surgery. It was a long-ass week and one of the hardest my family has experienced.

Bottom line, the surgery was a success, and we finally have her home and continuing on this road to recovery! We had TONS of people praying for Sara, and those prayers were definitely heard. We received some pretty cool signs all week, and we can’t thank people enough for all the love and support. She could feel the love from all over, and we are so grateful.

We were blown away by everything, most of all, by my sister herself. Her strength throughout the entire thing has been truly inspirational. In a situation that would make most people yell, scream, or cry out of frustration (and 100% rightfully so), she remained calm. While the rest of us were a tearful mess, she only teared up a couple times the entire time in the hospital. No joke, at one point after the surgery, the surgeons were walking out of the room after rounds, and she said, “Thank you all so much, this was awesome” hahaha…. Obviously not the term most would use, but that’s how gracious she was… and how much medicine she was on;)

A couple examples of some of her little requests throughout the week… sprinkle donuts and her Powerade kept nice and cold in a “champagne bucket” ice bath<3

        

Everything happens for a reason…

“Everything happens for a reason” is another quote I’ve heard a million times, and one that I really try to believe in. This was hard for me to understand. I still don’t know why Sara had to endure a brain infection, BUT I’m starting to understand why we may have been brought to Baltimore.

The apartment that we lived in while house hunting happened to be a mile away from the Johns Hopkins hospital that Sara was at. That apartment happened to have some of the most incredible people running it, and they allowed us to use their guest suite as our “hub” for the family members staying close to the hospital… Even though we had all moved out by then.

The resident who performed the surgery… He did his undergrad at Miami of Ohio. We were there at the same time! Once I got over the fact that I felt old being older than Sara’s brain surgeon, I thought it was really pretty incredible that we had been together at that school, just one year apart. We even knew some of the same people.

He’s originally from Colombia, South America, ended up in Oxford, Ohio at the same time I did, and then he’s my sister’s neurosurgeon ten years later in Baltimore, MD?? So crazy to me. He’s our real-life McDreamy, and my family and I will always hold him high on a pedestal, along with the other members of that amazing surgical team.

The other thing that was confusing at first was the timing of it all. Watching Mike try to figure out how to coordinate a move while his wife is in the hospital awaiting surgery just seemed cruel. In hindsight, my sister really seemed to be in the right places at the right times. Being in the apartment, she was able to get to the hospital quicker, and we were all able to stay closer to her throughout the week.

Bringing her home to the new neighborhood has also proven crucial. This new neighborhood is SO supportive! A neighbor brought over a meal for them the very first night she spent in their home, and we were able to line up really great babysitters in a heartbeat. The other game-changer related to timing was that my parents were already in town to help with the move. All hands were on-deck, and them being in town allowed us to take care of her girls, the move, and still be with her in the hospital.

Anyway, to sum up this long post (and believe me, I shortened it. It was originally twice this long)… I have a new outlook. This whole experience scared the crap out of me. As scary as this was/is for our family, people go through things like this all the time, and with much worse outcomes.

Tomorrow isn’t a guarantee… So basically I feel like an idiot for wasting this past year just being annoyed about moving. We were brought here for a reason, and I need to stop dwelling on what we left behind and start focusing on all the good in this next chapter of our lives. Especially since we were blessed with that opportunity. Spending every chance I get with the amazing people in my life… They’re everything!!