Good Times. Good Times.

My birthday is in September and when I turned 16 my parents bought me a Mustang. I was one lucky teenage girl. However, I think they bought it to torture me because even though I was 16, I didn’t have my license nor would they allow me to get my license until I completed the driver’s ed course. Who knew the course had a waiting list and I wouldn’t be able to take it until the following summer. The school year had just started weeks before and I was going to have to wait until it ended to take the course and then I was going back to school (in the summer!) OMG… I was going to be 17 before I got my license? AGONY! Thank God my best friend, Lindsey, had her license. My parents agreed that she could drive my car since she didn’t have one. Finally, freedom…. somewhat.

This arrangement worked most of the time, but every now and then I wanted to drive my car and Lindsey had had her license almost an entire year before I got my car… who better to teach me to drive. She would let me drive backroads most of the time, but I did drive in the city some too. I remember learning about red lights. I was in the turn lane waiting for the green arrow. It turned green and so I started to turn, but then I looked above me and saw another red light (the one telling the opposite direction to stop) and so I stopped. Lindsey freaked out a little bit. No more than anyone else who had just witnessed a moving car stop abruptly in the middle of an intersection and I told her about the red light and she explained that it was for the opposite direction (DUH Traci) and so I went on. I’m so glad I made that mistake with her and not with my soon to be driver’s ed classmates. They wouldn’t have been so nice about it.

One of the Firsts…

I remember when I pregnant with Nate and I first felt him kick. It was the day after Thanksgiving in 2006. I was taking a nap, laying down on my stomach with my hands underneath my stomach. I woke up and was laying there trying to remember the dream I just had when I felt a nudge on my hand. It frightened me so I rolled over and realized I had just felt my baby kick. I raised my shirt over my stomach and stared hard at it and not only did I feel him kick, I saw it too. I saw either his foot or his hand poke up. It was the weirdest thing, but it made my pregnancy real. I mean I knew I was pregnant, but it made me realize how serious the pregnancy was. Even though I knew there was a tiny person living inside me a light bulb went off and I realized that within 5 months I was going to meet the beautiful creature that not only made me sicker than a demon possessed human, but my baby. After that day, I was obsessed with everyone feeling him kick. A lot of women don’t want you to touch there belly when they are pregnant… I was the opposite. I wanted to be approached by strangers so they could feel my son kick. I loved sitting on the couch with my shirt raised above my belly and have everyone around me see him move. I was a proud mama from the get go. God Bless You!

I Believe in Angels…

Abbie was a few months old. She had been fussy that night and I was trying to soothe her. We both fell asleep, Abbie was on my chest and I was streched out on the couch. I remember waking up and feeling awful. My sugar was dropping by the minute and I was so weak I couldn’t yell for Tim to help me. I don’t remember a lot, but I remember holding onto Abbie and then passing out. I woke up to paramedics, they had put medicine through an IV to bring my sugar up. My sugar had gotten so low that I had a seizure and Tim woke up because of the loud crash I made when I fell to the floor. All I kept thinking is that I hurt Abbie. That’s why Tim called 911. I hurt Abbie. Apparently I was saying my thoughts out loud and Tim was baffled. He wanted to know what I was talking about. He said, “Traci… You put Abbie in her swing. She was in her swing when I found you?”. The swing was about 10 feet away from the couch. The last thing I remember was holding Abbie close to my chest and wanting to yell for Tim to get her and help me, but not being able to. There was only one explanation… Angels. There had to be at least one angel to pick her up and put her there before I started seizing otherwise I would have surely hurt her when I fell. I know I didn’t do it. I couldn’t yell for help much less pick up Abbie and carry her 10 feet to her swing. I believe angels are all around us and I’m thankful that angels were there to protect her that night and to protect all three of my children of every minute of every day. God Bless You.

Ready to Update.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I hope to change that soon. There hasn’t been much to update. Anna is doing extremely well. She is such a happy baby. She smiles at everyone and I love it. Abbie turned 3 in June and we had a birthday party for her at Chuck E Cheese. She loved it. Nate starts school next week. Pre-K, but he will be going full time. He is such a big boy, it feels like it was only yesterday I was having his first birthday party at our house. And since then he has had 3 more birthday parties, Abbie was born and has had 3 of her own parties, and of course Anna was born and will be having her 1st birthday party in a little over 3 months. Where does the time go?

The reason why it’s been so hard to blog is because of my health. Since I blogged last, I was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Failure (ESRF) and I have been placed on dialysis. I had surgery at the end of June for my access point. On July 5th, I started dialysis. I first went to a clinic for the treatments and while doing them I was also being trained to do them at home. And now I’m completely on my own. I see my kidney doc once a week to make sure everything is working as it should. I feel a lot better and have more energy than I did before. It’s amazing how well I’m doing. I didn’t realize how bad I felt until I started feeling better. I was talking to my mom one day after a long day of treatments that I felt like I had drank 10 espresso shots. I was wired and full of energy and even after coming home and cleaning, I still was ready to go. It was a great but short lived feeling. I have had ups and downs and 3 hospitalizations since that day, but I stay positive and thank God for everyday that I have.

If you still check to see if I update my blog, thank you. And upon reading this… please continue to pray for my family. God Bless You!