We are adding another car seat!

Last weekend we bought a minivan. There is something wonderfully ironic about this picture. I'm 25, infertile, and yet I can't fit all our car seats in our semi-luxury sedan. So we lowered our debt, and got an amazing deal on a used Honda Odyssey.

I'm sure glad we decided to get it! This Friday we are getting an baby boy! Now I can't tell you how old he is or his name but let's just say he is really really really young and we'll call him Baby T for this blogs sake.

We've been almost this close to getting an infant before an then it fell through at the last minute. So while I am very confident we will get him on Friday, nothing is certain until we have him in our spiffy van. I'll let you know if it all works out Friday night.

We'll have gone from 0 kids to 3 in exactly 3 months if this works out. Crazy to say the least. We will love on these kids for as long as the Lord will allow us to. Miss Z and Miss M are still a temporary placement and we have no idea how long we'll have them. The verdict is still out on this baby's future but it looks like we'll have him for quite a while at the minimum.

Oh, quick update on Chase. He is doing MUCH better! We avoided surgery thanks to a speedy ENT doctor at the ER.

Strep can turn into what???

We've had quite an eventful few days. Thursday night Chase was not feeling well at all and called into work sick. By the next day he looked at me and said he was going to go to an urgent care doctor to get his throat looked at. Side Note: My husband doesn't go to doctors! Seriously, he has only been to a doc 1 other time in our 3 1/2 years of marriage...and that was a couple months ago with his staph infection. So when he told me he needed to see a doctor I knew he really wasn't feeling well.

They put him on an antibiotic and said it was strep. Great. Strep goes away pretty quickly with an antibiotic...or so we thought. Saturday morning, well really the middle of the night, he woke up in horrible pain. I look a look at his throat and said he should probably go to the ER. It was bad! I had never seen anything like it before! This was no longer Strep.

He went to a local ER who tested him for Strep and Mono, both came back negative. They didn't let him see the ER doctor and gave him another antibiotic and sent him home. Ugh! No answers.

So let's fast forward to this morning. He had been running a high fever for 4 days straight now. He woke up and said it was now effecting his breathing. I take a look at it and what do I see? I giant white puss pocket that is taking over half of his throat!!! I wish I was exaggerating. This time I take him to a different ER which was a good move. After the ER doc looked at it, he immediately called an ENT doc. Dr. S, the ENT doc, said it was on the verge of becoming an abscess. The only way to get rid of an abscess is surgery. He immediately placed hubby on a really strong antibiotic through the IV. He said if it doesn't get better or gets worse by tomorrow morning, he'll have to come in and do surgery.

His fever has broke, praise the Lord!, and he is feeling a lot better. The bulging puss pocket seems to be getting small, but definitely still there. We are praying we can avoid surgery! On our way out of the hospital this morning, they said this is really serious. If it gets to the point that it did this morning, don't bother driving him to the ER, just call an ambulance. This makes me even more frustrated with the first ER he went to as they would not let him see the ER doctor. If only we were into sewing....but we aren't. I'm just glad we went back in for a second opinion.

The moral of the story is: if you have a sore throat and think it may be strep, seek medical attention immediatly. If it goes untreated too long, it can develope into a deep infection that is called a really long word that I can't pronouce...this can then turn into an abscess which is really painful (so I hear) and will result in immidiate surgery. Oh, did I mention that you can also have perminent kidney damage? Minor side effect.

Happy Anniversary!

December 30, 2008 marks 3 years of marriage for Chase and I. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for a dinner, yummo! Chase has something else planned for this weekend but he won't tell me what. We had a great conversation about this past year and the year to come. Our marriage has had by far the most growth this past year. What's the difference between this year and the 2 prior? Community. We have realized that left to our own devices we make bad decisions and are selfish. When you surround yourself with a community that is intimately involved in your life, it's a lot harder to fail.

Chase, I love you. Thank you for constantly pursuing me, being an amazing servant leader in our family, and having such a teachable heart. I look forward with great anticipation to see what the Lord will bring us through in the years to come.

This won us $50...

We went to a Christmas party ealier this month and they had a Christmas hat contest. Chase won and we got a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

EXCITING Life Update!!!!

Sometimes timing is humorous. Chase got home last night with some great news. There is a newer woman in his unit that actually wants to take his place for the April mission!!!! What does this mean? Chase is now the alternate NOT the primary. There is still a possibility that he would go, IF this lady backs out or IF they find out that she isn't elligable. Otherwise, he is off the hook!!! This is such a burden lifted. This weekend was full of roller coaster emotions for me for a coule reasons, but it ended with great emotions! PTL!

Life Update

When I first posted about Chase's deployment there was a small chance that another guy from his unit would take his place. We learned this last weekend that the small chance has been depleted to no chance. It's official, Chase will leave in April for at least 6 months. There are a lot of un-knowns that won't be known until he gets there. We don't know if we'll be able to see each other even though he's only 3 hours away.

Chase gets back tomorrow after being away for 5 days with the Army. We haven't talked to each other at all and it's been HARD! Normally we can at least have a few conversations while he's gone but between a busy schedule on his part and horrible cell phone reception, there has been no communication. Grrrr. I will be extremely grateful to have him home tomorrow night.

I have a few friends who are military wives and their hubby's have been deployed overseas. Every time Chase is gone I gain more and more respect and appreciation for the sacrifice the entire family makes. To all the wives, thank you for supporting your husband as he serves. I only know on a small level what it's like...and it's not easy.

Life Update

It always feels like there's a lot going on in our small world. I heard a quote last week that has rung true in our life lately. "God is the God of curve balls." We found out last week that Chase is scheduled to be deployed in April for at least 6 months. The orders will be cut for 12 months but most likely it will just be 6...hopefully. The GREAT news is that it is NOT overseas, he's being deployed to Oklahoma. Yep, you can be deployed in the states. It's complicated but basically his units mission is to run basic training camps in Oklahoma.

We knew that this was coming down the pike so it wasn't a HUGE shocker but reality is starting to set in. I'm so grateful that I won't have to worry about his safety or even figure out time zones when I want to talk to him. I may even be able to see him once in a while during the deployment.

Logistically, a lot will have to be worked out. We are still trying to have a baby so Lord willing, if we are pregnant (and stay pregnant) before he leaves, I'll most likely have a bambino while he is gone. We will also have to figure out something with Apartment Life. It requires 70 hours a month so I will definitely want someone else to help me out with that.

The Lord is in control and I'm SO grateful for that.

Tis' the Season!

It's that time of year again....NFL starts tonight which means my hubby has been busy with fantasy football. Last night his group did their draft which meant focused time was needed. I think it's kind of neat because his group (there's probably a technical name for this but I don't know what it is...) is a bunch of guys he went to college with who are now spread out all over the states and even one guy serving in Iraq!