Be someone's tender mercy

These are my tubies. Blake has a gtube while Payzlee has an NGtube. Payzlee will be getting the same kind as Blake has this week. As I try to create an atmosphere of peace with the anxieties of upcoming surgeries this week, I decided to take all 4 kids by myself (Shaun was working) to Stake Conference this morning. There wasn't supposed to be anyone but our ward there so I didn't think Blakes sensory would be worse than any other Sunday. There were quite a few more people then I had anticipated. We made it 1 hour before Blakes sensory made it too much for me to bare. While we were at church one of our friend's little guys wondered over to play with our kids. He's just over a year old and is the cutest little guy EVER. Blake tried so hard to get him to talk to him. He tried hugging him, waving at him, and talking to him. This little guy babbles and smiles! He's still in the "melt your heart by expressions" stage. Blake turned to me and said, mom, he doesn't like me. He won't tell me he does so I know he doesn't. I chuckled to myself as I looked my little boy into the eye and explained that he didn't know how to talk yet so of course he couldn't tell him how much he really liked him! Blake seemed very satisfied with this answer and went on quietly playing. However, my mind started turning. Because I don't like to open up to people about all the things we are going through, most times I tend to just stay quiet or only talk about the subject at hand. I don't go out of my way to talk to certain people at church (most people) I don't sit by people and want to get to know them. I try to keep to myself because it's better then explaining who I am and getting the typical "you must be so tired" and "i dont know how you do it" responses. I'm not saying those are bad. They aren't. People care and that's how they show they care, by responding. I just hear it daily, sometimes several times a day. I have heard in the past that people think I don't like them because of how I have come off by not talking. They take it as I'm snubbing them off. This is where my thinking led. How many times have I come off with the attitude that people don't know if I like them, because I don't say anything. Now this post is not a "people don't like me I don't have friends" type of post this is more of a "trying to think like the Savior" post. If I keep to myself and don't ever share who I am, how can I bless those people who need it and how can those who need to teach me, bless me? How will those people know that I love (like as Blake said) them and want to know them if I don't speak to them. In our last ward, they did something AMAZING, in my opinion. They had a rule. It was a "no sister left behind rule" every week before the lesson would start, everyone would look around and if anyone was sitting alone, people got up from their chairs and sat next to those who were alone, so that they would never be left behind, forgotten, or alone. So many times in life, we might find ourselves feeling a little less forgotten and alone if we would open up to someone and let them feel a little love. Here is how my week ties in with this. Unless you deal with medical on a regular basis you will never know how alone you can feel just by entering a hospital or doctor's office. Until you sit on a chair waiting for your child to come out of a surgery/procedure, you will never know how alone you can feel in a crowded place. How the smell of medical gloves or guaze pads or iv poles can make you hold in tears. How when everyone goes to sleep at night and you're in the hospital room laying wide awake how empty the room is and how long the hours during the night drag on. I remember once when mylee was in the hospital 3 years ago, she had a neighbor who looked pre teen. I don't know what was wrong but I know she was often let alone as I assume her parents had to work. I felt strongly we needed to do something for her so we bought her flowers and gave them to the nurse to give to her. Mylee colored a picture and we wrote a very sweet note to this girl. Mylee was so happy to have served someone who seemed so sad and all alone. Not long after, the nurses brought in a few balloons from the girl next door. Oh mylee was beside herself! It's the little things that mean so much sometimes. When we flew to Denver for testing this last September, Shaun and I were waiting for the shuttle from the hotel. I was talking with the girls on the phone letting them know Blake hadn't gone in for his surgery/procedure but I would call after we got done. Blake doesn't do so well with anesthesia. He has stopped breathing during it do a "simple medical procedure" with Blake is no longer simple and short. It is agonizing and long. 15 minutes seems like hours and the taste of bile often enters my throat before they can update me on his progress. Putting any child under us not ideal but for Blake it is even more of a struggle for me to do so. Anyways, while we Waited in the hotel lobby, this sweet couple sat playing with Blake and trying to distract him from his hungry tummy and fussiness. she was pregnant with their 1st child. They were in their 20s. She said she over heard me and asked about our story. I briefly went over things. Mostly my normal response when strangers want to know things. The girl then looked at me with tears in her eyes, and asked if they could pray with us FOR US. I was dumb founded. All morning I had been praying for a tender mercy; to not feel alone. I felt the need to open up to this young couple. I learned that they were visiting the hospital as well, as their unborn child had a heart defect that more than likely could not be fixed and their 1st baby would more than likely die. This couple was such a blessing to me. They reached out and blessed our lives and let us know that we were liked and loved, without asking for what I would assume, was a much needed tender mercy themselves. I have often thought about how Heavenly Father sends us into people's lives when they need us, and takes us out and away from them when they no longer need us. Oh how I am grateful to realize that I need to be better and I need to open up and speak and let others know I "like" them just a little bit more. As I go in to surgery Tues and Wed I am going to pray to be someone's tender mercy. One of those days I will be on my own so as I will need a tender mercy myself, I will pray super hard to be someone else's first.

My Story

I have decided to start up my blog again. It's been a while!!! I will spruce up the pictures and stuff when I have time but for now I'm going to write because I need an outlet. I was talking to a friend today and she happily exclaimed, "I think I found your new motto!" Now I have been thinking for a month now what kind of motto I could have for this new year. She told me, "I can do anything for a day." after that you say, I'm fine right now but I'll let you know if anything changes. YEP that's my new motto!!!! We talked back and forth. I opened up about my resistance to letting people help me. It isn't a selfish reason and it isn't necessarily a pride thing. I have a hard time letting people know who I am because when people know what I am going through they feel obligated, in a sense, to help me. Now I'm not meaning or saying I think people tell me they want to help and then don't want to. I honestly believe that those who ask and offer truly mean it, but everyone goes through their own struggles and my life is more than some people will ever see in their whole life time. MY LIFE IS OVERWHELMING. MY LIFE IS HARD. But boy do I love my life. Boy do I absolutely LOVE being a mom and feeling the love in return from my 4 little stink pot children!!! I feel like when I let people in I overwhelm them when I allow them to help. I have felt this way for many many years; since Shaun was injured. My friend told me that she used to be the same way as me in a sense...It's easier to just not say who you are and overwhelm everyone else with what's going on, until one day as she was sitting in Relief Society and every week her president would get up and tell everyone how important their stories were. She would tell everyone that they had amazing stories and encouraged them to share their stories with everyone else. This hit me hard. I don't share my story. I don't let people in to know me because I don't want the burden to be on them. I had a Bishop tell me once that we go through trials to help others. Say what? I have to struggle so one day I can relate to someone else?? And then it hit me. One day down the road whether it's in 5 days or 50 years, there will be someone, or multiple people who will need me to be their rock or sounding board as they go through the same struggle that I went through. As much as I hate it, I have a few people who have struggled through trials FOR ME TOO. So I decided, after 4 years, to reopen the blog and share "my story". Let me start off with something more recent.... We started off last year in a good spot Shaun had a job we had a place to live and we had 4 beautiful children. I had just started home schooling and I was loving it. As the year went on, things started turning. That isn't to say I didn't like last year but it was a challenging one for sure! Blake stopped growing and so did Payzlee and our family made the very hard decision to go out of our comfort zone and change specialists. Our new specialist would be 8 hrs away. We prayed so hard to know if this was the right thing for us and we felt so humbled that we were given the opportunity to travel and find this set of specialists. As the year went on Shaun's job transferred us from New Mexico to Colorado. We felt so inspired to move. I knew we weren't moving for Shaun's job but that our family was moving to be closer to the specialists we had just seen. For about 6 years Shaun and I had said we wanted to end up in Colorado, to settle down for good, but we thought that was just a dream. We never thought we would ever follow through. Here we are. This place IS home. It feels like home. It smells like home. It looks like home. I don't know what I envision home to look or smell like but everything about Colorado feels like home. By October I was watching my son not eating and I started crying. no amount of bribery or pleading could get him to eat. Blake has Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Food is bad. Food isn't a good thing for him. I doubt it ever will be. When Blake was first diagnosed with EoE, we were told by 2 drs to never place a feeding tube....that if Blake got one he would have it for life. I cried daily knowing that we were headed down the feeding tube tunnel. I felt so alone. I know people who have, or their kids have, feeding tubes, but the decision to place one in my son DEVASTATED me. Just looking at Blake I would bawl. After a month of watching Blake starve himself I made the extremely hard decision (after countless nights of pleading with the Lord to make him eat) to call the dr and make the appointment to talk about placing a Gtube. Blake had a gtube placed a week later and it was the best decision of my life. That isn't to say it isn't still hard. I have guilt over it. I still cry over wondering why he has to have it. I know why but I want to know WHY. Payzlee is believed to have the same disease as Blake. We put her on formula and she started gaining her weight back and getting stronger. We knew she was aspirating (swallowing liquids and thin foods into her lungs instead of stomach) but we didn't know just how bad it was. Blake aspirated and she showed very similar signs. Blake was given a thickener to add to his liquids and thin solids and he thrived and did great with it! I knew the signs of severe aspirating were infections and respiratory issues. Payzlee had not had any of those so I thought she was just fine. Payzlee failed her swallow study. So much so that both thickeners (one thicker than the other) were both going straight into her lungs. Everytime Payzlee drank one of her 6 bottles a day ALL of the liquids were going into her lungs. We were not allowed to leave the hospital that day. We were admitted for an emergency NGtube. I was blown away. how could this be? I asked the dr. He said she was silent aspirating meaning showing no signs. It's rare to be as bad as her and not show signs but it does happen. We stayed over night in the hospital. As I lay in the bed I thought about the possible burden I had put on my friend to watch 3 of my kids overnight. She had never even seen Blake's feeding tube yet there she was hooking up feeds as I told her what to put in the machine. I cried. I thanked my Heavenly Father for her and for letting me put my guard down and ask her for help. I felt awful for putting so much on her. Yet at 4 am as I talked a sobbing little boy down to not crying, my heart was so full and so at peace that I made the right decision to allow her to serve me. She's totally going to heaven for that night!!!! We went to Payzlee's dr. appointment on Monday and we were told what she has is more than likely not Gi related but instead a malformation of nerves in her throat. Either they didn't form, didn't form all the way, or are malformed. She needs to have a gtube placed immediately. The doctor made sure I understood that this was a very long term thing. This would not be short and to put it nicely, it would be "years" with her having a feeding tube. It was such a hard decision to make to have a feeding tube placed for Blake. It took 2 years of praying and him starving himself for me to realize he needed one and wasn't going to change things on his own. Yet, with Payzlee I was being told this wasn't our decision and she would have it for years. Infact, with Blake we talked about how it's up to his body as to when it comes out. When he wants to eat we can wean him off the tube so could be months or years but it's not permanent. It will never be permanent. With Payzlee, we didn't have that talk. We had the, "this is a long term, VERY long term thing." I feel numb. I do. I feel mad that I couldn't make the decision yet I feel SO GRATEFUL and humbled that we have the ability with doctor's and medical equipment to keep my child SAFE, alive, healthy. This next week will be tough for me. Blake will have surgery on Tues. He has ,major granulation issues that we haven't been able to resolve (we have burned it 3 times with zinc oxide) so he has to be put under to get it taken care of. The doctor said it is far too painful to do while awake but he needs it done. Also they scheduled Payzlee's gtube as soon as there was an opening which just so happens to be the very next day Wed the 28th. I am terrified. Blake has had reactions to anesthesia where he stopped breathing while he was under (they had to breathe for him) so surgery scares me. I often wonder what kind of a person and mother am I. Can I do this? Can I make it through the very hard 3 days I have ahead of me? (Oh did I mention that I'm dealing with adrenal fatigue and have been for a few months now but I just now started taking meds to help my body heal??!) The hospital is a VERY lonely place. It's either too cold or too warm, it's quiet, and solomn and SAD. Everyone's always sad. You never know what kind of nurses you're going to get and I don't know about anyone else, but hospitals are haunted!!! So many people die in hospitals every day and at night I hear those people wondering the halls. IT'S CREEPY!!!! And I hate it. But I love my children so for them, I will lay in a hospital bed and hold them while they sleep as I listen to footsteps, and creaking, and random voices and doors opening! Next week will be hard but each day I will say to myself, "I can do anything for today."