My so called crazy life

Since there wasn't enough going on or to worry about, Becca decided that she would have her appendix taken out on Sunday. She started feeling abnominal pain Saturday and decided it was bad indigestion. When it didn't go away or lessen, she finally gave in and went to the hospital. They couldn't find her appendix on a sonogram, so they decided to do a laparoscopy. When they went in, they found that the *appendix had not ruptured (phew!) but was inflamed and so they took it out. She was discharged Monday morning. The timing wasn't the greatest, since her Mom, who has been in Texas for the last two and a half weeks to help with the kids, had to fly home on Sunday morning.

*blue = blessings

Due to this change of events, I booked a flight for later in the day and am back in Texas. My work has been really understanding. I talked to the CEO today to make sure he didn't think I was a flaky worker. I mean, work 6 days, take 4 off. Work 12 days, take a day off (when the pipe burst in our house), work 7 days, take probably 5 off. Since I'm taking care of the wife and family, I at least get to take sick time and not vacation. I don't know if it was due to the principle of compensation, but I got bumped up to first class on my flight and got bumped up 2 car classes on the rental car.

I remember back to when my appendix burst my freshman year of college and I didn't go to the hospital for 12 hours or more. I was in the hospital for 5 days. Becca - barely a day and a half. So the moral of the story? If your tummy hurts and you think it's food poisoning, indigestion, etc. and it doesn't go away, get it checked out. Once you go through it and get your appendix out, it does you no good to know the symptoms anymore. Well, maybe to warn others. Also, if your 2 year old daughter copies and keeps saying, "my tummy hurts" you can probably ignore it.

Before going up to Becca's aunt & uncle's to relieve them of baby duty, I stopped in to be with her in the hospital. By the time I got up there Riley was in bed asleep. This morning, when Riley woke up, I went to get her and she looked at me, put both hands on my cheeks, said, "daddy!" in the sweetest way possible that melts your heart, then gave me a big hug. When we came out of the room, she looked at Aunt Ann and point at my chest and said, "This's my daddy". She has only seen me on Skype for the past 3 weeks, so she was very happy to see me. While she has been hugging and kissing me via the computer monitor, I think she was excited to finally see 3D Daddy again.

It's been great to see Becca, Riley, and Asher again. Riley has really stepped up her talking since I left and I can have a real conversation with her. I know, it's only been 3 weeks, but man, it's made a difference. She mostly talks in subject, verb, direct object (and sometimes indirect object) phrases. She is cracking me up. In fact, as I type this, she is trying to get me to look up something on Youtube and is saying something like, "pinjewy". I have no idea what it is (maybe Becca does, but she is taking a nap), so when I repeat it, she looks at me, repeats what she said and then asks, "What're you saying?" That's what I want to know. Riley and I went outside and played some tennis. Asher has grown and is looking cuter and cuter.

I've realized that although I enjoy my work, it's not what I live for. I'm committed to it, I'm interested in it, and it provides for my family. I love being a father. I knew I missed my family, but didn't know I missed them this much. I guess I've tried to ignore it so that I wouldn't get too depressed while being alone.

On a better note, we now have a signed contract on our Austin home that should close Feb 23rd. We allowed a contigency that their house gets sold (they have a contract on it, but previously had another contract fall apart so they are understandably nervous now). It was the same family that we were in negotiations with in December, so they were the ones that requested the foundation work. Let's hope that everything goes well and we move the property and get back to paying just 1 mortgage.

When things were really looking bad last week and we were all down, I emailed the director of the Colorado Bureua of Investigation and also our State Representative to see if they could help move things along with Becca's background check. The next day, someone from CBI called me and started to look into it. They were able to see that it was approved in Colorado and it had been forwarded to the FBI. He put a priority on it with the FBI last last week. I just got off the phone with him and Becca's fingerprints have now passed the FBI check. So now we are a good deal closer to getting everyone home.

I've realized this post has become quite long, but it's a nice way to put down some of my feelings. Although this whole experience has been really hard, trying, frustrating, demanding, there have been many blessings along the way. The Lord has looked out for us. If our house had sold in December, Asher wouldn't have been able to be placed with us (he was placed with us under our Texas homestudy since the Colorado one was waiting on the background checks) and would have been in foster care up to this point. Becca was in good hands with her appendicitis. Becca's Aunt and Uncle have been incredible and have not complained at all. They have been such a help and blessing and we pray that they will be compensated in their lives. My job has been very understanding about all the craziness. Our new church congregation has been great. They have been supportive and I've been invited to quite a few dinners with their families. One person called during the water pipe burst just when I was totally overwhelmed. Maybe because of our situation, more people know us (or at least are interested and concerned for us). I think we have learned alot about ourselves and our priorities. We've just tried to roll with what life has given us and make the best of it. We are grateful for all the prayers that have been offered on our behalf. We have no doubt that those prayers have been heard by a loving Father in heaven, and that things are working out according to his plan for our family.