Birthday week

Just a warning.....I probably won't be posting current pictures for a few days......but I'll still be posting cute pictures, pictures that take me back, pictures that help me remember where we were and how far we've come. It is at this time every year for the past 3 years that I reflect back on April 9th, the day L and L were born, and the days and weeks that followed it. So many things could have turned out differently. I am thankful everyday to be here, to be alive, to possess the ability to reflect that even though there are days I feel like trading my kids in on a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream.....really....that there's no other place I'd rather be.

For those that know me, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who know me only through this blog (I know there aren't many of you, but I am thankful for those that do) let me just say that God must have known I had important things to do still! I survived a pretty big bleeding out episode that required me to go back the OR and receive 4 units of blood which put me into D.I.C., a nasty little side effect of losing that much blood, which confuses the liver, that then tries to compensate by going totally wacky. It can affect multiple organs if it gets really bad but thankfully it didn't get THAT bad for me, but close. 3 days after finally getting out of the hospital I was having difficulty breathing and went back to the E.R. to find out I pulmonary embolisms in both lungs....all this with newborn twins, a 3 year old and 5 year old twins at home...and we were building a house. Yup.......but, here I am today...healthy as a horse with no long lasting problems. God is GOOD!!

So this is why I looked like this 2 days after L and L were born:

Well, I can't find the picture that really showed it, but my hands were swollen so badly I could barely bend the fingers and my face was puffed up like a balloon...thanks to gallons of fluid being pumped into me. On the bright side, I did lose a lot of weight...water weight!

And this is what we got out of the deal....well worth it, don't you think?

And here we are enjoying the accomodations at hospital #2 while contending with the embolism problem. 5 days of comfortable 'hospital bed' sleeping. Well, not really. Bill brought L and L to see me if he could. Luke came home with me after I went home the first time, but Laurel stayed to finish up her round of antibiotics for the pneumonia she was born with. She was home only a day before I went back to the hospital and I remember how thankful I was to see them both. I felt so bad about my parents and Bill having to take care of everybody-it was a very emotional, stressful time for all of us! Kids included!

So to close today, a few 'proud big brother' moments after they came home.

We were still waiting for Laurel to come home....they weren't showing favoritism.....yet! More tomorrow..