Things will be fine in 2009!!!

It’s a new year…and that means new adventures in life. I’m excited….2008 certainly brought me many adventures…..some happy, some sad….but all brought about changes in my life that I wouldn’t trade for anything. So before I go forward let me recap the past month and a half to fill you in on why I haven’t blogged since mid November.

So at my last update my mother in law had suffered a stroke and after a bleak initial diagnosis, she began to turn around. We continued to see marked progress in her and the nurses in the ICU were WONDERFUL with her. She improved so well in fact, that she finally was well enough to be moved to a regular room on one of the hospital floors. We thought that would be a good thing, instead however that is when all of the problems began. What followed were three weeks of emotionally and physically draining hell.

Without going into overwhelming detail….in a nutshell we encountered multiple incidents of neglect (so bad in fact that at one point she contracted pneumonia and had to be sent back to ICU for a week), false orders (DNR), and constant phone calls from hospital staff telling us she wasn’t improving (in direct contradiction to what we saw when we were there with her) and trying to get us to let her die. Things got so bad we had to bring in a 24 hour private duty nurse to watch her and make sure she was getting proper care. Over time Momchu began to get tired….she overheard our conversations with the staff, chewing them out for lack of proper care etc and I think she was as weary as we were. She was fully aware of her surroundings, and was as interactive with us as always (even though she was tired physically and her speech was still impaired heavily) and although we had to make it a guessing game to talk to her, she communicated quite well.. So one night the three of us, Ben, Mike and me all hung out in her room for a few hours and watched some movies with her. She was bubbly and in good spirits, blowing kisses and such.

Two days later she was gone. They said it was brought on by her pulling out her oxygen line….but I had personally put on the little padded boxing gloves to prevent her from doing that and so I know they were tight and there was no physical way she could have done that without help. Not to mention the fact that they were supposed to be checking her hourly, and they admitted that they hadn’t found her until the morning and by then her oxygen levels were so low that she couldn’t fight her way back.

It would have been really easy to get sucked into the rage of the tragedy….and stay there…..but as you know, I ALWAYS know God places a scarlet thread of good in every situation…no matter how deeply imbedded. This one happened to show up relatively early. After years of unsuccessfully trying to contact my brother in law who had, for various personal reasons, removed himself from the family, Ben hopped onto my Facebook account and sent him an email. By that night, he had contacted us and a few days later I got to meet him for the first time at her wake. By the after funeral luncheon the next day I realized how happy I was to have him back in the family. He has the same wack job sense of humor that Ben and Mike have and he likes hot peppers as much as Ben too. That one still makes me shake my head! LOL.

Soooooooo……..as horrible as it was to lose mom, it was all worth it in the end because it brought my brother in law back to the family when possibly nothing else would have.

Meanwhile….during the drama with Momchu, Tatu, my father in law, was in the hospital twice during that time. Long story….but after a brief stint in a nursing home for rehab, he is fine now and thankfully there is no more news to report regarding him. My parents FINALLY finalized their divorce….something that was LONG overdue and had the same relieving effect as setting a broken arm after it had been left to dangle uselessly and painfully for almost 10 years. I was actually in court with my mother helping her fight her case when the phone call for Momchu came in. Thankfully I didn’t listen to the voicemail until we had recessed for lunch.

Work at Sprout Central has been soooooooo much more than I ever imagined. I can honestly say I have not enjoyed a job this much, in years……perhaps ever. From coming up with fun and creative crafts for them to make, to doling out snacks and cheering them on like a maniac when they go potty, I am loving every minute of it. My co-workers are amazing and fun like a family and the kids….ohhhhhhhh the kids. Some are exasperating…..but the vast majority are a blast. WHERE has this job BEEN my whole life???? On that note however, I REALLY must insert a PRAISE GOD here. When I left my job at the deathstar, my last day was ten years almost to the day that I was hired. When they mailed me my final paycheck ( I left mid pay period) we were shocked at the huge dollar amount of the check . It was FAR larger than it should have been, in fact it was the amount of three of my normal paychecks with them. Upon some research I realized that since I had worked a few days past my original hire date I technically qualified for all of the vacation time I would have had to use for the year. Instead of writing it off, they GAVE it to me in one massive payout!!! Something I had never imagined or planned or dreamed of. I couldn’t help but think that after all the years of garbage I had endured there and the fact that I refused to be cruel or callous upon my exit (even though my friends and coworkers encouraged me to leave the same nasty way the company treated me, and fleshly speaking they would have deserved it), but to honor my God and my faith, and I even TOLD my coworkers that in my last weeks there, God chose to bless me because of that. Something I was and still am, sooooooo thankful for. God ROCKS!!!

Sargie is doing well. He has decided that he loves to have his teeth brushed and every time I try to brush my own he wedges his way between me and the sink whining and crying for me to do his. LOL. He also experienced his first snow last week. LOL…oohhhhhhhhhh my goodness, what a nut. He LOVED it and repeatedly asked to go outside again and again so he could snowplow with his nose, run, jump, hop and roll in the snow. We took him to the home of some family friends for dinner one night where he played endlessly with their two little girl mini American Eskimo dogs. One of which was totally enamored with him…we joked that she had a crush on him…since he IS an older man (she was only 7 months old). LOL.

Our Christmas was quiet….we just didn’t feel like celebrating this year, and didn’t even exchange gifts. Sargie is the only one that lost out on that deal…pitiful boy….but doting mom and dad will buy him plenty of gifts later. Instead, Christmas day we slept most of the day away and watched TV.

I know this year is going to be a good one though, 2008 proved it to me…..no bad thing ever happens without being followed by a God thing…a GOOD thing. So, happy new year to all of you and lets go forward with excitement and anticipation for all the great adventures this year holds!!!