In the last three years the circle of our friendships has shifted in some regards. Many of my beloved friends and the boys friends always stayed at our side and are still here with us!
Some we lost, but we also gained a lot of new friends into our life that changed us and our perspective in so many ways.....
If you read this blog then you heard me talk about Connor's and Alexander's lovely and beautiful friend Elizabeth Bailey. She is a Classmate of theirs at Cottage School and the relationship between the kids but mostly between us Adults has developed into something purely beautiful. Elizabeths Mom, her Aunt and Grandma have become a form of Therapy for me as I can be myself around them with my worries and my fears and they completely understand and know where I come from.
Now I am posting something below that was written by Elizabeths Aunt, Avonlea, thanks to an FB challenge. She gave me her permission to put a copy of her note here on my blog. When you read this you know why this Family has so much Wisdom and understand the worries and challenges Families face that have Children with no Cures. I am in awe of them because of all they went thru they still face people around them with nothing but kindness and determination....:
When I was 21...There are two huge events that mark my 21st year, one painful and scary, the other joyful and amazing: Ecmo and pregnancy.
My 21st year started out in August of 2010 with life seeming like it was finally normalizing after a very rough couple of years. A year and half prior to that my niece Elizabeth had been diagnosed with cancer and while she was still hospitalized Coe and I relocated from Pagosa to Red River, NM for a job. We were in Red River and were extremely tied down, Josh and Alia were Monument, CO while Elizabeth was undergoing chemo and radiation treatment, and I was lonely and discouraged!
But, by August, Alia's family had recently moved back to Pagosa, Coe and I were living in Durango, I had a job that I loved, our marriage was the best it had been up to that point, and all of my family except one brother was only an hour away.
We enjoyed a beautiful fall, a wonderful Christmas, and a special trip with immediately family to visit extended family in the first of January. Elizabeth was doing absolutely phenomenally! Her brain tumor had been stable for a year and a half, and after worrying over her health for almost two years, it felt like a weight off of all of our shoulders for her to be getting back to her old self.
A week and half later on a Friday I got a call from my mom while I was at work that Elizabeth had fallen and hurt herself. Sweet silly girl had been dancing in the kitchen in her socks, slipped, fallen, and hit her head on a metal trash can. She was unable to move her body from the neck down. I was immediately incapacitated with fear, in way that I had never been before. I felt sure that her fall was very serious and dangerous.
Elizabeth was taken to the local hospital where her parents were told (incorrectly) that she had just stunned her self and that her movement would slowly improve. By Sunday, she still was not normal so on Monday her parents took her to her regular drs at the Denver Children's hospital where she was admitted and treated for a spinal cord injury.
The following weekend Coe and I spent in Denver. By Sunday evening she was doing amazingly well so Coe and I, Josh, and Elizabeth's siblings all headed back to Pagosa/Durango to go back to work leaving Alia and Elizabeth in Denver while she finished up her steroid treatments for her spinal cord injury. I breathed a huge sigh of relief from being told that Elizabeth was OK and there was nothing to worry about. I felt a little silly for falling apart so badly when I first heard of her fall.
The very next day, in the early evening- again when I was at work- I got another call from Mom saying that Elizabeth's oxygen levels were slumping some and they were going to move her to the PICU just as a precautionary measure. What seemed like hours, but was probably only a matter of 45 minutes that followed brought an onslaught of cryptic information that Elizabeth's oxygen was not coming up as it should and that they would be giving her a breathing tube that would most surely take care of the problem.
This was all taking place in the middle of a snowstorm. The woman that I worked for - God bless her!- found out that the last flight from Durango to Denver that was scheduled to leave in 20 minutes (which I would not have made) had been delayed because of the storm. My amazing Coe helped me pack and drove me to the airport as quickly as possible. Thanks to an omnipotent God, amazing husband, and wonderful boss, I made it to the airport in time.
While buying my plane ticket we received a call from a social worker at the hospital who was sitting with Alia telling us that Elizabeth was not responding to the breathing tube and was going to be placed on life support. We were told that it would take about 30 minutes to get her onto the Ecmo life support machine and that it was very dangerous and the chances of her surviving the transition were slim. Wow.
I had thought that we had gone through the worst with Elizabeth back in '09 when we was originally diagnosed. How wrong I was!
The next half hour was the longest 30 minutes of my life- sitting in the Durango airport, crying out to God to save Elizabeth's life. I was so afraid. Afraid of loosing our precious girl, afraid for my sister to be in Denver alone, afraid of not knowing that Elizabeth was safe before boarding my plane and turning off my cell phone- afraid of the fear itself.
I was the only passenger on the plane that night, and the flight crew was amazing enough to give me as much time as I needed before taking off. While going through security, I got the call that Elizabeth had been put onto the life support machine safely and was stable. Praise the Lord!
In the middle of a terrible blizzard, my flight to Denver was the smoothest flight I've even been on. I took a taxi cab to the hospital to find that Alia was not alone. Our cousin's in-laws had a daughter in Denver that they were visiting and as soon as they heard what had happened had gone to hospital to be there with Alia. What an amazing blessing that was! I also found sweet Elizabeth hooked up to a life support machine, but stable.
That entire night was so full of miracles it still gives me chill - and a migraine- to think about. Elizabeth was able to be put onto the Ecmo machine safely; God sent people that we barely knew to wait with Alia; I was able to catch the flight from Durango- a flight that was scheduled to leave long before I could've even made it to the airport!; Josh made it safely to Denver over very bad roads a few hours after I did.
Looking back at that night it is so evident that God had a perfect plan for all of us!
The next 5 days were spent with Josh, Alia, and I sitting in an ICU room watching and praying for Elizabeth. On the 5th day, they doctors decided to experimentally override the life support machine to see how Elizabeth's body would handle it. The idea was to bypass it so Elizabeth would not be relying on it at all and see how far down her oxygen levels would drop and then let the machine kick back on before they got dangerously low.
Once again, God delivered a miracle that left all of us and the room full of doctors speechless- her oxygen level did not change! Her body kicked in and was doing exactly what it was supposed to do! After a decent period of time with her functioning without the life support, the decision was made to remove the machine completely.
The Ecmo machine was removed from her body, and she did just fine without it. We believe that she ended up on life support because she caught RSV in the hospital and her lungs responded adversely to the normal treatment. Elizabeth had a long recovery road ahead her. She was in the hospital for several more months doing extensive therapy and learning how to walk again.
Those months were hard months, but they were also really special months of blessing for Coe and I as we had the opportunity to travel to Denver with Shane, Garret, and Kaitlin almost every weekend to see Elizabeth. Those drives back and forth hold a lot of sweet memories for us with those 3 kids, and we are so thankful for that time!
Like the amazing little girl that she is, Elizabeth fought her way through rehab and was released from hospital in April. In order to be close to her doctors, Elizabeth's family decided to permanently relocate to the front range.
On May 1st, 2011, Coe and I discovered that I was pregnant with our first baby! We had been married for close to 4 years and had decided that it was time to start our family. We really enjoyed our first few years of being married without kids and establishing "us", but looking back I sometimes wonder what we ever did without our Hannah!
My 21st year ended with a recent move to Manitou Springs in order to be close to Alia's family. Coe went back to building with a contractor in Woodland Park, we lived in a beautiful town home right in downtown Manitou, and I focused on sleeping a lot and growing Hannah! Twenty-one was full of heartache, joy, and lots of change! I'm and so thankful for God's faithfulness through it all!
Today- now at 23 - we are living in Woodland Park. Hannah just turned 1 on December 25th and she is the light of our lives! Coe has one more week of building before he starts college classes to become certified to be a power lineman- another huge change for us! I am loving most of all being Hannah's mom and living just 5 minutes from my nieces and nephews! I also have been incredibly blessed by the opportunity to work from home managing vacation rentals. I should mention that Elizabeth has made a beautiful recovery from her life support expedition. She has not fully regained her physical abilities from her spinal cord injury, but she is a happy, healthy, and beautiful 8 year old and we are SO thankful for her. ♥"
Some we lost, but we also gained a lot of new friends into our life that changed us and our perspective in so many ways.....
If you read this blog then you heard me talk about Connor's and Alexander's lovely and beautiful friend Elizabeth Bailey. She is a Classmate of theirs at Cottage School and the relationship between the kids but mostly between us Adults has developed into something purely beautiful. Elizabeths Mom, her Aunt and Grandma have become a form of Therapy for me as I can be myself around them with my worries and my fears and they completely understand and know where I come from.
Now I am posting something below that was written by Elizabeths Aunt, Avonlea, thanks to an FB challenge. She gave me her permission to put a copy of her note here on my blog. When you read this you know why this Family has so much Wisdom and understand the worries and challenges Families face that have Children with no Cures. I am in awe of them because of all they went thru they still face people around them with nothing but kindness and determination....:
When I was 21...There are two huge events that mark my 21st year, one painful and scary, the other joyful and amazing: Ecmo and pregnancy.
My 21st year started out in August of 2010 with life seeming like it was finally normalizing after a very rough couple of years. A year and half prior to that my niece Elizabeth had been diagnosed with cancer and while she was still hospitalized Coe and I relocated from Pagosa to Red River, NM for a job. We were in Red River and were extremely tied down, Josh and Alia were Monument, CO while Elizabeth was undergoing chemo and radiation treatment, and I was lonely and discouraged!
But, by August, Alia's family had recently moved back to Pagosa, Coe and I were living in Durango, I had a job that I loved, our marriage was the best it had been up to that point, and all of my family except one brother was only an hour away.
We enjoyed a beautiful fall, a wonderful Christmas, and a special trip with immediately family to visit extended family in the first of January. Elizabeth was doing absolutely phenomenally! Her brain tumor had been stable for a year and a half, and after worrying over her health for almost two years, it felt like a weight off of all of our shoulders for her to be getting back to her old self.
A week and half later on a Friday I got a call from my mom while I was at work that Elizabeth had fallen and hurt herself. Sweet silly girl had been dancing in the kitchen in her socks, slipped, fallen, and hit her head on a metal trash can. She was unable to move her body from the neck down. I was immediately incapacitated with fear, in way that I had never been before. I felt sure that her fall was very serious and dangerous.
Elizabeth was taken to the local hospital where her parents were told (incorrectly) that she had just stunned her self and that her movement would slowly improve. By Sunday, she still was not normal so on Monday her parents took her to her regular drs at the Denver Children's hospital where she was admitted and treated for a spinal cord injury.
The following weekend Coe and I spent in Denver. By Sunday evening she was doing amazingly well so Coe and I, Josh, and Elizabeth's siblings all headed back to Pagosa/Durango to go back to work leaving Alia and Elizabeth in Denver while she finished up her steroid treatments for her spinal cord injury. I breathed a huge sigh of relief from being told that Elizabeth was OK and there was nothing to worry about. I felt a little silly for falling apart so badly when I first heard of her fall.
The very next day, in the early evening- again when I was at work- I got another call from Mom saying that Elizabeth's oxygen levels were slumping some and they were going to move her to the PICU just as a precautionary measure. What seemed like hours, but was probably only a matter of 45 minutes that followed brought an onslaught of cryptic information that Elizabeth's oxygen was not coming up as it should and that they would be giving her a breathing tube that would most surely take care of the problem.
This was all taking place in the middle of a snowstorm. The woman that I worked for - God bless her!- found out that the last flight from Durango to Denver that was scheduled to leave in 20 minutes (which I would not have made) had been delayed because of the storm. My amazing Coe helped me pack and drove me to the airport as quickly as possible. Thanks to an omnipotent God, amazing husband, and wonderful boss, I made it to the airport in time.
While buying my plane ticket we received a call from a social worker at the hospital who was sitting with Alia telling us that Elizabeth was not responding to the breathing tube and was going to be placed on life support. We were told that it would take about 30 minutes to get her onto the Ecmo life support machine and that it was very dangerous and the chances of her surviving the transition were slim. Wow.
I had thought that we had gone through the worst with Elizabeth back in '09 when we was originally diagnosed. How wrong I was!
The next half hour was the longest 30 minutes of my life- sitting in the Durango airport, crying out to God to save Elizabeth's life. I was so afraid. Afraid of loosing our precious girl, afraid for my sister to be in Denver alone, afraid of not knowing that Elizabeth was safe before boarding my plane and turning off my cell phone- afraid of the fear itself.
I was the only passenger on the plane that night, and the flight crew was amazing enough to give me as much time as I needed before taking off. While going through security, I got the call that Elizabeth had been put onto the life support machine safely and was stable. Praise the Lord!
In the middle of a terrible blizzard, my flight to Denver was the smoothest flight I've even been on. I took a taxi cab to the hospital to find that Alia was not alone. Our cousin's in-laws had a daughter in Denver that they were visiting and as soon as they heard what had happened had gone to hospital to be there with Alia. What an amazing blessing that was! I also found sweet Elizabeth hooked up to a life support machine, but stable.
That entire night was so full of miracles it still gives me chill - and a migraine- to think about. Elizabeth was able to be put onto the Ecmo machine safely; God sent people that we barely knew to wait with Alia; I was able to catch the flight from Durango- a flight that was scheduled to leave long before I could've even made it to the airport!; Josh made it safely to Denver over very bad roads a few hours after I did.
Looking back at that night it is so evident that God had a perfect plan for all of us!
The next 5 days were spent with Josh, Alia, and I sitting in an ICU room watching and praying for Elizabeth. On the 5th day, they doctors decided to experimentally override the life support machine to see how Elizabeth's body would handle it. The idea was to bypass it so Elizabeth would not be relying on it at all and see how far down her oxygen levels would drop and then let the machine kick back on before they got dangerously low.
Once again, God delivered a miracle that left all of us and the room full of doctors speechless- her oxygen level did not change! Her body kicked in and was doing exactly what it was supposed to do! After a decent period of time with her functioning without the life support, the decision was made to remove the machine completely.
The Ecmo machine was removed from her body, and she did just fine without it. We believe that she ended up on life support because she caught RSV in the hospital and her lungs responded adversely to the normal treatment. Elizabeth had a long recovery road ahead her. She was in the hospital for several more months doing extensive therapy and learning how to walk again.
Those months were hard months, but they were also really special months of blessing for Coe and I as we had the opportunity to travel to Denver with Shane, Garret, and Kaitlin almost every weekend to see Elizabeth. Those drives back and forth hold a lot of sweet memories for us with those 3 kids, and we are so thankful for that time!
Like the amazing little girl that she is, Elizabeth fought her way through rehab and was released from hospital in April. In order to be close to her doctors, Elizabeth's family decided to permanently relocate to the front range.
On May 1st, 2011, Coe and I discovered that I was pregnant with our first baby! We had been married for close to 4 years and had decided that it was time to start our family. We really enjoyed our first few years of being married without kids and establishing "us", but looking back I sometimes wonder what we ever did without our Hannah!
My 21st year ended with a recent move to Manitou Springs in order to be close to Alia's family. Coe went back to building with a contractor in Woodland Park, we lived in a beautiful town home right in downtown Manitou, and I focused on sleeping a lot and growing Hannah! Twenty-one was full of heartache, joy, and lots of change! I'm and so thankful for God's faithfulness through it all!
Today- now at 23 - we are living in Woodland Park. Hannah just turned 1 on December 25th and she is the light of our lives! Coe has one more week of building before he starts college classes to become certified to be a power lineman- another huge change for us! I am loving most of all being Hannah's mom and living just 5 minutes from my nieces and nephews! I also have been incredibly blessed by the opportunity to work from home managing vacation rentals. I should mention that Elizabeth has made a beautiful recovery from her life support expedition. She has not fully regained her physical abilities from her spinal cord injury, but she is a happy, healthy, and beautiful 8 year old and we are SO thankful for her. ♥"
Anke, thank you! I am touched beyond belief that you would share Elizabeth's story on Conner's page! Your love and support is indeed a blessing!
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