Before last weekend Travis said, “I need just one weekend, just one.” He meant without call, without a sick child or sick wife, without anyone being in the hospital, without a trip, and wouldn’t it be nice if Lucy would sleep a little bit more.
We’ve had a busy season. We were planning on my bouncing back from pregnancy quickly, but such are the viscissitudes of life that our plans haven't been realized. Michael has had the stomach flu four times since Thanksgiving, and strep. Each of these bouts of flu has been over a holiday or a weekend, and three while at grandparents’ houses. We’re losing what little popularity we had. Sarah has had a couple of stomach viruses too, one so bad we took her to the emergency room. At three and a half weeks after Lucy’s birth I had a postpartum hemorrhage. Fortunately we were in Orem and could hand Lucy to my mom. Travis rushed me to Utah Valley and that night I had an emergency dnc. The on-call OB had a hard time stopping the bleeding. You don’t want to hear from your surgeon that “you were in the disaster zone.” I was admitted for a day and a half and then recuperated at my parents' house all week. We had wonderful help from my mom and my dad and from Travis’s parents who kept Lucy while I was in the hospital and kept tabs on Michael and Anna when they went back to Ogden with Travis. We’re so thankful for our wonderful family and for friends in Ogden who helped out too. I couldn’t believe how weak I was. I’m doing tons better, but my hematocrit is still low and I can tell it’s more than long nights with Lucy making me feel so drained.
So over the weekend—what was supposed to be our weekend for recovery of all kinds--our thermostat broke and the temperature in our house was stuck between 61 and 63 degrees until we got it fixed on Monday. I got the stomach flu and could barely nurse while Travis was up all night with our fussy baby. We had an appointment to meet with the Stake President the next morning, so I told the Lord (in prayer) I was happy to go if He could help me stop vomiting. You can’t cancel on a stake president the day of ward conference. I stopped throwing up and my nausea quieted down, and we were able to make our appointment Sunday morning. Travis was called to be a second counselor in the bishopric of our ward. I think this calling will be a great blessing in our lives. His parents were able to come to Ogden, and his dad ordained him to the office of High Priest before he was set apart by President Crowell, the second counselor in the stake presidency, a wonderful man who Travis has the privilege to work with at Country Hills Eye Center.
It’s hard to get one relaxing weekend in life, but we'll keep plugging along and counting our blessings, which are many.
