Christmas Blessings

Wednesday morning, Matthew, Ruth Ann (my mother-in-law), the kids and I drove to Greenville for my colonoscopy.  Honestly, I was very nervous.  What if the doctor found cancer?  What would that mean for my family?  The Lord is good and filled the office with very sweet, friendly nurses.  The doctor himself was a great man, and he and I had actually lived in the same neighborhood when I was in middle school yet we had never met.  One of the nurses helping with my procedure had gone to the same high school as Matthew, just one grade behind him.  Things went just as I hoped.  The anesthesia was administered, I closed my eyes and opened them about 40 minutes later.  My first thoughts were to tell the nurse, whom I assumed was one of my children, that she should go downstairs and find her own breakfast.  I was sleeping GOOD!!  Matthew assured me that the doctor said everything was great, nothing found in my colon!  Funny how discussing your large intestine can bring such happiness.

The anesthesia used wears off pretty quickly so by the time I was in our car, I just felt that normal sleepiness after a good afternoon nap.  We drove to Waffle House as I was looking forward to some grits and a plain waffle... solid food!!!   These days we don't go many places without glances from strangers, hopefully smiles and not grimaces, and it proved true again as our party of three adults and five children took up two booths in WH.  The food was yummy and we drove on into downtown Greenville.  We were hunting festively decorated Christmas trees!

Upon not finding a parking spot for our Transit van near the Hyatt Regency, we continued on toward the Hampton Inn near the river.  We found trees!

And here's a photo of Rylan to insure that he was along for the trip! 

The next day was Christmas Eve.  It brought tears and joy.  The Christmas Eve service at our church is my favorite of all year.  The carols, reading of the birth of Jesus in the Bible, and concluding with everyone holding candles.  Jesus came to earth to bring light into this dark world!  My mom had driven to GA to be with her mom and sisters for Christmas.  My mother-in-law had driven to NC to spend Christmas with her other son, his family and newest granddaughter.  My heart was missing my Dad very much.  I wrote him a letter.  I will write him a letter each Christmas and around his birthday in June each year.  Writing to him helps me feel that he is still close.

After coming home for the service which was beautiful (Philip was asked to read Luke 2:1-20 and did a wonderful job!), we had our newest tradition... mystery gift swap.  The last two years, I've wrapped up new pajamas in matching paper.  This year, I had ordered "My Adventure Books", the kids' names are written into the stories of some of their favorite TV characters.  So they each picked which wrapping paper they liked best.... 

And Philip got Barbie, Rylan got Disney Princesses, Braewyn got The Lion King, and Juliet got Star Wars.  You can see that only one child was really upset!  They swapped to receive the correct books and were excited to see themselves written in as characters in each story.

Sully's first Christmas!

I don't mind finishing the sugar cookie Santa left behind.

A neighbor gave us this nice 20-pound turkey which he was given free from work.  I decided it was time, I am now 40 years old, that I cook my first turkey!  Matthew always deep-fries them at Thanksgiving, but I prepared this bird and into the oven she went.

Four hours later, and with a much yummier smelling house, we had this beautiful turkey to eat!!  It was fabulous and from the amount of leftovers, will be for a few more days.

Christmas Colonoscopy!

Of all the fun and enjoyable things to add to a person's Christmas week, I don't think a colonoscopy would make anyone's Top 10 list.  However, when you turn 40 with family history of colon cancer and have met your deductible for the year and your husband says you can schedule one within this calendar year, you make an appointment even if the only day available is December 23.  I have had two colonoscopies before (the first, 12 years ago due to bleeding after lifting something too heavy and the second, 7 years ago just to appease my worries after seeing Mom go through colon cancer surgery and recovery). Thankfully I can say both proved that I had a nice, clean, healthy colon!

For the normal heathy person, age 50 is the target time to get your first colonoscopy, but since my Mom was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer at age 50, her doctors recommended my brother and I begin the screening at age 40.  It's really not that bad a deal at all, but I will still ask that you please pray for me on Wednesday at 8:00 am.  Today is prep day... Operation: Clean Pipes!  

However I did want to enjoy a "last supper" so around 10:30 pm last night, this is what I had on my plate.  Lasagna, baked beans, Oreo ice cream and cool whip with pomegranate seeds (oops, my paperwork said no seeds, popcorn or nuts three days prior to the procedure). 

Today's menu included the above items plus a few extras.  Breakfast was Cranberry Sprite.  Lunch was Ginger Ale to drink, beef bouillon as the main course, and peach jello for dessert.  Dinner came the best part... Gatorade spiked with Miralax and an appetizer of Dulcolax pills.  It really brought the Christmas spirit alive for me!  Honestly, the prep would not be so bad if I had not had to feed five children meals and snacks all day.  I would have paid big money to eat a graham cracker with strawberry icing today, but alas, I iced them and passed them on to one of the "starving" children in my house.

The paperwork from this gastroenterology office specified for a "split prep" procedure.  That just means I drank 4 glasses of my spiked Gatorade, one every 30 minutes starting at 6:00 pm.  And in 10 minutes (at 11:00 pm), I begin my first of 4 more glasses, one every 30 minutes, to finish off all 64 oz. of that massive bottle.  Not sure why the separation in drinking sessions because for my other two colonoscopies, I was told to drink 8 oz. of prepared mixture every 30 minutes until it was all gone.  I suppose they've become sympathetic to patients who said they didn't enjoy drinking a whole bottle of Gatorade in 4 hours!

The process is really not that bad, although every 5 years is probably often enough for my liking.  One day of being uncomfortable and a few hours of laying your pride to the side (but you really don't even know what has gone on as the sedation is great!) are definitely worth having the peace of mind that you are good and healthy.  I pray the worse case scenario is that the doctor finds some polyps which are removed at the same time.  The really, really worse case scenario would be finding cancer.  If that were to be the outcome, I pray to have the strength to praise God in the good times and the bad.  The road to recovery my Mom traveled was horrible, but time passes quicker than we realize and I'm so thankful to still have her here 10 years later!!  To be alive and watch my children grow is 100% worth starving myself and using the bathroom a lot in one day.  I'll let you know what happens tomorrow sometime soon.  Cheers!

Merry Christmas, Grandpa!

Many of you know that my Mom has grieved so deeply over the last six months because in one disasterous week, she said goodbye to her husband, my Dad, and her dad, my Grandpa.  I was devastated to lose my Dad.  It was sudden (just a normal day at work), horrific (a two-week experience of visiting the ICU daily), and heartbreaking (knowing my children would never again play with their Papa).  Losing my Grandpa was a very different experience as he had been suffering from multiple health issues for several years.  We also had not been to visit in over a year.  I told my Grandma when Sully was born that we hoped to visit in the fall.  Little did I know then that the visit would not include seeing Grandpa.

I loved my Grandpa and have such fantastic memories of him from my childhood and adulthood. Visiting him and playing in the back yard; taking my children to visit and watching them play in the backyard.  Listening to him tell them jokes or riddles and remembering when he told my brother and I the same sort of jokes.  I haven't grieved for my Grandpa as my heart was troubled with knowing how to support my Mom.  At other times, I let the grief over losing my own Dad come to the surface of my heart instead of keeping it pushed down in the places where it feels safe and untouchable.

However, now with this being the week of Christmas, I do want to think about my Grandpa and let the grief come as he deserves that.  These pictures will bring him back to me for a few minutes.

Grandpa and Grandma meeting Philip, their first great-grandchild.

Grandpa was a proud Marine who fought in the Korean War.

Grandpa, we'll come see you again one day!

Grandpa meeting Braewyn.

Grandpa is the father of 5 girls.  He loves baby girls.

I'm so thankful my babies received so much love during our visit.

Back to visit again and this time with Juliet too!  And this time Grandpa was bearded!

Finally, Grandpa met Rylan when he was a few months old.  

I'll need to print this photo for Rylan to keep when he is older.  

My mom was very blessed to have such a loving, godly father.  I was very blessed to have a fun-loving, caring grandfather.  My children are very blessed to have a great-grandfather who left them a legacy of loving God, loving his family and loving his country!  I am sad that Grandpa didn't get to meet Sully.  I hope they will meet one day.  My Grandpa is now in Heaven as he knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  I pray that Sully will make the decision to trust Jesus for himself and then will be able to meet Grandpa.  

Grandpa, I love you and look forward to seeing you again.  I know you will have the best Christmas ever. We miss you, but I'm happy for you now to see the face of God, spend time again with your mother and father, and to be visiting with your son-in-law, my Dad!  See you soon!