Grace Showed Up - Again!

January 28, 2014,     Brieanna Round 2 - Day 1 

     It is amazing how, some times (okay, most times), our minds just run wild with thoughts of how certain situations will play out.  To be honest, I just could not imagine today's events.  Would we be running all over the hospital checking on Brieanna who was having her small bowel put back together and stoma stitched closed and then back to the other side of the hospital to check on Andy who was having upper and lower GI scopes performed?  Maybe I would just be sitting in a waiting room for news on one or the other?  I honestly did not know how it would all work out.  Would I be a nervous wreck?  Would I cry or be scared?  Others emotions can be hard to gauge at times, but your own emotions?  Surely I should know my own response.  Not always the case, I am finding out.  Especially not when that extra measure of grace appears!

What's So Special About "Normal" Anyway?

Have you ever felt like you did not belong?  Have you ever been in a room full of people but still felt like you were standing alone?  Maybe you have felt like you were "just not normal"  or "not like everyone else".  It is never a wonderful feeling, but I do believe it is okay to be different than "the norm".  It is okay to swim against the tide.  What it is not, is easy!
     It has been 6 weeks since Brieanna's surgery.  She is dealing well with each day as it comes.  She has gotten use to the fact that we have to change her external bag and clean the stoma area each morning.  She has even gotten use to emptying the bag and has adjusted to the pain of stitches pulling and even the necessity to sit on a pillow at all times.  On the outside, Brieanna has done so well and her body is healing nicely.  We are awaiting word from the doctor in January 2014 to be called to the hospital to have the reversal surgery and put her all together again. =) For this news, our whole family is so thankful.
     Emotions are funny things, though.

When God Steps In

 

 Well, the time is almost here…..Brie is scheduled to go in for the reversal surgery here in just two days!  It just seems so unreal, yet we are all so ready!

     The past almost 12 weeks have been a myriad of triumphs and trials, stumbles and progress, giggles and tears.  I have cried and laughed with Brieanna.  We have giggled at the strange noises coming from "Steve the Stoma" on a daily basis and we have tried to help Brie endure the pain and, yes, even embarrassment, she has felt through the changes her body has suffered.

      I cannot comprehensively express the pride I have felt in ALL of my children over the past 12 weeks.  Now, I have always been proud of my babies - I am their mother after all :) - but watching the way they have patiently taken care of their older sister has brought me to tears on more occasions than I could count.  Brie has always taken care of her brothers and sisters in such a "little mommy" sort of way, it has been sweet to watch her siblings reciprocate the gesture for their big sister. 

THIS IS WHAT FAMILY IS ALL ABOUT!!