How's THAT Work?

When we started the adoption process, we often wondered how this would look from day to day. What is breakfast gonna be like? (Noisy.) Will we still take vacations? (Yes!!) What happens if someone gets sick?

Man, we are experts in illness. Especially lately.

I'm a believer that there is NOTHING worse than both parents getting sick. When the kids are all feeling just fine and both of the adults are dragging, it's a miserable time to be in our home. Lots of movies are watched, that's for sure.

Recently, I went and got sick. Well, I've been sick for a good long while really. For about 3 years now, I've been having recurring fatigue and muscle weakness episodes that are nothing short of debilitating. Then, in June, I started having awful stomach pains that quickly progressed to the point of me being bedridden. In early June I was hospitalized for 6 days. 6. Whole. Days.

So what did that look like? Well, when I was in the hospital, Hubby became something of a single dad. Another family from church stepped up HUGE and took the girls every day (big brother was on visitation with his bio-dad's family) so Papa could go to work. When someone's in the hospital, you suddenly feel like you need money. When Papa came home from work he would grab up the girls and some dinner prepared for us by some of the other ladies from our church, then come to the hospital and eat with me. Well, when they were letting me eat. They kept putting me on "Nothing By Mouth" orders. It was, truly, feast or famine!

The gulag in which I spent 6 days, days I can't get back.

After dinner together, Papa would take the girls home and put them to bed, then put in a bit of overtime to make up hours and we would talk on the phone for a while. Rinse, repeat.

When I was released from the hospital, I had a brief period of feeling better and then it all tanked again. At that point, my fantastic mother-in-law made an 8-hour drive to stay with us for over 2 weeks. Which was good, because about a week into her visit, my gall bladder had to be removed.

The bottom line is, we made it. Lots of wonderful people rallied around us and carried us through. Lots of adoption experts talk about setting up your support network. They are righter than right. At some point, you'll need help. At some point, you'll be able to be a help to someone else. But if there's one thing I can promise you, you'll hit a point where you need more hands than you have. Let people bless you with their help and just tell yourself "Today you, tomorrow me."