Sharing some journal entries of the past couple weeks.
May 26, 2013
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Wow what an UNREAL
week! It’s Sunday and yesterday I hit my 37 week mark. See usually you get to
this point in your pregnancy and you’re just excited to have it over with, but
even more to have your little angle in your arms. Well both of those are true,
more the latter than the first because the Lord has truly blessed me and my
discomfort/pain at this point are most definitely minimal. But unlike other
phases of life where I got to just look forward to the new addition to our
family, this week has had my mind in a WHIRL! Not only have I been trying to
get home projects done, and clean out closets, and prepare my little nest for
the baby, but Monday our world was almost turned upside down. A massive tornado touched down just 1.5 miles
from our home and grew into a mile wide beast! We had a storm shelter installed
in our garage just March 1st so although I knew it was close, I felt
very safe and calm. The kids got a kick out of cracking their glow sticks, and
eating from the 72 hr kit. J
Adam was at work and was following the tornado on the radio as he raced home.
He made sure to stay behind it but was terrified because they were projecting
it would take the same course as the May 3rd 1999 tornado which took
out most of our neighborhood. And also had the highest wind speed recorded on
the earth, 318mph, pretty serious stuff. Well we were spared and blessed
tremendously because the tornado stayed just south of us. But our community of
Moore was devastated. Two elementary schools were demolished and 7 children
were killed. In total 24 deaths were recorded. Two of which were our neighbor’s
wife and 7m old baby. Devastation is one thing on TV, but it’s another thing in
your community, and even another emotional level when its people you know and
so close to home. Over 40 homes of members were affected, and roughly 20 of
those are a total loss, but thankfully no deaths or serious injuries. So yeah for us it was a measly 24 hrs without
power. But the mental comprehension of things slowly grows with each passing
day as we try to reach out to those affected by the tornado. This weekend has been Adam out with helping
hands practically all day Saturday and Sunday. I’m lousy offering to be out
there picking up debris, not to mention I have 3 kids I’d have to pawn off on
someone. So I’ve just been kind of stuck at home, but at least I’ve been able
to watch kids for others. That has made me feel much better and like I could
contribute to the cause in my own special way.
If a tornado wasn’t enough, Wednesday had its own emotional
rollercoaster. We attended the Lusk “School’s out” pool party for the youth
since Adam is in the Bishopric, and Brother Lusk personally invited me to bring
the kids to swim. While there a boy
almost drown, and Adam performed CPR on him. Caleb Nichols is his name, 11 yrs
old, and he was teasing the other kids about drowning all night, so when he
really was in trouble no one took him seriously. Finally a young woman swam
down and got him at the bottom of the pool and Adam rushed over to try and
revive him. It was a surreal experience, watching my husband try to save a gray
lifeless body by the side of the pool. After 5+ minutes of just throwing up
constantly the paramedics arrived and Caleb had just begun to take in air. He
has remained in the hospital since then, and is still on a ventilator. Probably
still has a week or two of recovery ahead of him. Adam said in reflection that
he was remarkably calm for the whole situation, and it wasn’t until it was all
over that it started to really settle in. Mostly just hard mentally, realizing
what had happened, and mulling over thoughts of, “What if it had been my child?”
So glad the week is over and looking forward to a much
needed Memorial Day break…if you can call pulling up carpet, and tearing down a
fence a break. Yeah we’ll see what gets done with a super beat, sun burnt
husband. But at least the kids will get some time with him, so important after
having him gone all day Saturday and Sunday.
But on a lighter note I have three ADORABLE children who are
growing and changing SOO much. Especially McKay, he’s just at that stage. The
last month for him has been leaps and bounds in communication. He doesn’t just
say words, he says complete statements. Like: “Dat’s my soccer ball!” and he
uses a p sound for his f’s calling his foot a put. Which is interesting cause
Ephraim used an s for his f’s .
Oh and McKay is my
first child to be so adamant about a favorite color at such an early age. What
is the color? Yellow. I’m sure having siblings demanding certain color bowls,
cups, and everything else has had its impact. But I still find it quite
intriguing and amusing that Yellow is his favorite color. Every time he goes
potty he asks for a “yellow bean”, which is a yellow jelly bean. Yeah, doesn’t
help that there are maybe 20 yellow beans in the bag of 300 that I bought.
I started potty training him on May 8th. Figured
I didn’t have the energy, but he was showing all the signs of being ready, and
if I put it off, I’d miss my window and be fighting him on it with a nursing 2m
old baby girl. So even though we still
have a long way to go he has made some serious improvements, and at least he’s
for it, not against it. He tells me now when he needs to go…although I still
try to take him every couple hrs max. But he also will feel it coming such that
his underwear gets just slightly wet and then he says “Potty Mommy…potty!” And
I run him there and he holds the rest of it till he makes it! J Pretty impressive! I’m
predicting three more weeks of real effort on both our part, and then hopefully
accidents will all together disappear. HA….ok but maybe they’ll be real sparse,
cause in three weeks I’ve got myself a newborn and this boy needs to be pretty
self sufficient by then. Regardless of
how long the full process takes, I don’t think I’ll regret starting the efforts
when I did, because he’s getting a head start and a head start will be better
than no start once baby sister takes front and center on the stage of life. J
Ephraim and Emeri are both a joy, but considering its 9:28pm
and they are both still screaming and giggling in their room I better try and
elaborate on that another day when my memory isn’t so clouded. J ~Love Jessica
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