Car Accidents, Pregnancy Problems, and Halloween!

I can’t believe it’s been a few months since I posted.  Well, actually I can.  Life has been giving us some big mama sized lemons and we are having a hard time making the proverbial lemonade.

Aside from almost all of our electronics blowing out… you probably read that post a couple months ago about losing our computers and phones.  I miss my laptop so much I can’t even think about it without crying!!  And since then we have lost our TV and another phone… and well, our van.

Three weeks ago, my husband and I were on our way home from a doctor appointment when a lady came cruising out of a Walmart parking lot cutting us off (after cutting off the semi to our right) and we t-boned her.  Air bags deployed and everything.  Ben and I were fine, just shaken up and a little burned and bruised from the seat-belts and the airbags. The other lady hurt her back and neck, but she’s fine too.

But our van… our dear beloved van… wasn’t worth the cost of replacing the airbags and seat-belts so the insurance company had it totaled.  We’ve been driving around in a rental (which my 4 year scraped up with the handlebars of his bike) the last 3 weeks, trying to get everything worked out, but after 3 moves since we got the van, the title has been lost and it’s been a huge deal just to get another one.  So this week, I get to look forward to having no vehicle.  Yay.

Then there is the issues with the un-born babe.

At my 20 week ultrasound they determined that the baby was in the 11th percentile and since all my others were beefcakes, it was a cause for concern.

So off we go to a perinatal specialist.  Longest ultrasounds ever.

At 26 weeks, the baby was in the 10th percentile, and now at 29 weeks he is in the 8th.  He is still growing, but slowly and he’s a tiny little man.  So I have to go in every week for monitoring and measurements.  But the doctors are hopeful that I will carry to full term.

Then there are the on-going ADHD issues with my two oldest.  My 8 year old is struggling really badly controlling impulses and focusing.  He also has some behavioral issues, like not taking personal responsibility for his choices among other things.

Along with other trials, I won’t talk about on-line, I feel like I’m being attacked with crap from all sides.  It’s been a ROUGH few months.  It seems like no matter how hard we try, we just can’t catch a break.  But I’m hanging in there and trying to keep my crying to a minimum and keeping my head up as best as I can.  I think being hormonal makes everything worse, but whatever.  I can do this. WE can do this.

But I didn’t let all the bad stuff get to me this Halloween.  We had a blast!  My husband and boys are really into the theme thing — or at least I am and they are cool enough to go along with my shenanigans.

This year’s theme was Harry Potter:

AND it was little guy’s 1st Birthday!

Also, while I was on bed rest for 6 weeks, as depressing as it was, I got a lot of crochet projects done:

Only, I had to stop because it gave me a bad case of pregnancy carpal tunnel… BOO!  Which is much better since I got some super sexy arm braces to sleep in.  But whatever.

But that’s life.  It’s a roller coaster.  And ALL of us go through things we would rather not have to go through.  Even though many of our trials AREN’T our fault, we ALWAYS have a choice on how we choose to face them and how we are going to come out of them.  Yeah, things are pretty sucky right now, but know what?  It’s going to get better.  I KNOW it.  Sometimes trials are so big, it’s hard to see the Lord’s small tender mercies hidden within.  Yeah, we lost our beloved van – BUT we found a great one for the perfect price to replace it as soon as we get the money.  It was really depressing when Jake “keyed” the side of the rental van, but my brilliant husband was able to treat and buffer out the scratches so they were hardly noticeable and he even fessed up with the rental company about it and because he was honest and he did a great job they didn’t charge us a penny. Yes, the baby is tiny, I hurt all the time, and it’s been the hardest pregnancy by far!  But the baby still healthy and he is cruising along and this pregnancy will be over soon.  Yes, Nephi’s ADHD is really out of control, but our doctor’s and teachers are working hard with us to figure things out.  And not having a good TV was pretty stressful at times (especially being on bed rest, and now being on partial bed rest), but then our neighbor sold us theirs for a reasonable price and saved us!

I am sure all the other trials will work out too if we just keep faith and hope and do our very best to make good choices, be patient, and work hard to get things done.  We got this!

-Cat