Our Family

I wish there was an easy way to start this post. I've started several times and erased each attempt. I will be amazed if this one doesn't get erased too.

*Warning: graphic*

Last Friday started out like any other. We had plans to go swimming with some friends around 10 so we spent the morning rushing through our routine and gathering our swimming supplies. We left in a hurry leaving breakfast dishes on the table, figuring we'd be back later to clean it up (I know, y'all would never do that)

We got to the pool and I put sun screen on all the kids and got the arm floaties inflated and secured on the girls and then I let them get in the water. I was there with 2 friends and their kids and I took this opportunity to do my Visiting Teaching and enjoy some casual conversation. The kids were having a blast! They were chasing each other in and around the pool.

Everything was going great, until it wasn't.

One of the little girls that was there with us came over to us and informed us that she was not having a good time to which her mother asked if she wanted lunch. The young girl replied that she did not have an appetite since some girl threw up in the pool. Of course I figured it was my daughter who threw up because that would be my luck so I started walking toward the pool to find out who was sick. At the same moment I saw a woman who had been sun bathing on the deck. She was in the pool and she frantically asked "Who's baby is this?" I focused on who was in her arms and my heart sank. It was Islay.

I ran as fast as I could as she laid Islay on the deck. When I reached her my heart started pounding and I could tell immediately it was bad. Her body was limp and cold, her eyes were rolled to the back of her head, her lips were grey and water was coming out of her mouth and nose. I called to my friend to call 911 as I frantically tried to find a pulse. I didn't spend much time looking for one since it seemed clear to me that she was not breathing.

In the next moment we began CPR. The lady who pulled Islay out of the water (who I found out later was an off duty police officer) began doing chest compressions and I did the breathing. I counted each beat out loud then gave 2 breaths. With each compression water came pouring out of her mouth and nose. She didn't choke, or gag. I kept thinking "She should be coughing, or gasping!" I wanted to freak out, I wanted to scream. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. But that wouldn't help her, so I counted. 1 and 2 and 3.... and 13 and 14 and 15.... breath, breath. Over and over again. More and more water was coming out. I would turn her head to help get the water out of her mouth and search her face for any indication that it was working. It wasn't. It seemed like hours.

The children were so worried about what was going on and the tried to come close. I didn't want any of those precious children to see what was going on so I told them to go pray and my other friend that was there gathered up all the children and led them in a prayer. At that same time the other woman started to pray out loud. At one moment, as I was wiping the water from Islay's mouth, I held her face and begged her to come back to me. I pleaded with the Lord to save her. Never have I needed something so much in my entire life. It had been nearly 3 minutes since we pulled her out and I was starting to panic that she might not make it.

Then I noticed a slight change in her lip color. The very middle of her bottom lip didn't look as grey as the rest of it. Then I noticed she was trying to focus her eyes. We continued our efforts with renewed hope. She started making that sound children make when you hug them too tight with each press on her chest. This was wonderful to me. She was starting to come around. I could hear the ambulance coming and I was relieved to know they were for us and would be there soon.

5 minutes after we started CPR my precious baby girl started breathing on her own. Just as the ambulance pulled into the parking lot.
She was disoriented and was still pretty out of it until the EMT tried to put the oxygen mask on her. That's when she let our her first big cry. I was so happy to hear her scream It reminded me of when she was born. How exciting it is to hear them scream. That means they are breathing.

I quickly put my clothes on over my swimming suit and called Jason as they loaded her onto the gurney. After hanging up with him, one of my friends offered to take my kids so I hugged each of them and told them everything would be OK and left to sit in the ambulance with Islay. She was not happy about being strapped down to the bed and was down right angry about having the pulse/ox monitor on her finger or toe. She kept kicking it off. haha.
I asked her, her name a couple of times and I was able to get her to say "Islay" although I'm sure I'm the only one who knew what she was saying since it was very slurred. But I didn't care. I was so glad that she knew her name!

We rushed off to Children's Medical Center in Dallas. I could have had them take her to a closer hospital but CMC is right next to Parkland where Jason works. Since she was stable they allowed the longer drive and I was happy about that. Plus CMC is a better hospital than any that were near us. For those of you in UT it the Dallas equivilant to Primary Children's.

As we walked in Islay started crying for her daddy and lucky for us Jason was just walking into the hospital and met his daughter in the hallway. Once I got my arms around him I lost it. I didn't want Islay to know how bad everything was so I hadn't cried even when she was sleeping in the ambulance. But when I saw Jason I couldn't hold it back any longer. I didn't get to cry long before I had to go back into her room so I composed myself and went in.

While in the ER she had a chest x-ray and while we waited for the results Jason texed a friend who works nearby and asked him to help give Islay a blessing. He was there within 15 min and in the blessing Islay was promised a full recovery and that she wouldn't have any lasting fears. I cried tears of relief at hearing those words. I had been so consumed with getting her to breath I was so grateful that she was doing better but I hadn't realized how worried I had been about lasting effects until I heard those words. I wish there were words that can describe how I felt at that moment but I can't find any.

We got the results from the chest x-ray and they were great..no fluid in the lungs and no broken ribs. At this time Jason went home to pick up our kids from one friend's house, take them home to get changed into pajamas and take them over to different friend's house to stay the night. We had been told that they wanted to keep Islay in the hospital overnight for observation and we had been undecided on who would stay. On the one hand Jason is the doctor so he's better equipped to deal with this sort of thing plus she cried for him during the night all the time anyway but on the other hand, I am her mother. And the thought of leaving her there was killing me. Thankfully we have a wonderful friend who offered without hesitation to let the kids stay overnight with their kids.

So Jason, Islay and I all snuggled in one hospital bed until we couldn't take another second of laying contortion style and laid down on the "bed" for parents. After she was sound asleep I lost it again. This time I was able to have good long cry. Knowing she was asleep and couldn't hear me I cried. I cried because I was so scared that I nearly lost my baby girl, I cried because I was so grateful to my Father in Heaven that she was still here, I cried for my other kids who witnessed something a child never should and I cried because I felt guilty that I had let this happen.

Then next morning Islay woke bright and bubbly. She was all smiles and happiness. What a wonderful thing to see. We saw the doctor in the morning and were told that we could leave that morning or we could stay until that evening. Since Islay had been asking to go home since the night before we decided she was well enough head home that morning. So after breakfast we packed up our things and left the hospital. We picked up our other kids and went home where we had a lazy day of watching movies and napping.

I have never felt more loved and supported by my Father in Heaven in my whole life. As I look back over the events of that day it is clear that He was there every step.
We tried to figure out how she got into the water since none of the adults saw what happened and based of all the witnesses it seems that she fell into the pool near the son of one of my friends. He then held onto her. The off duty officer noticed that the boy was holding onto what she thought was a toy. She took a second look and realized it was a child. She then jumped into the pool and grabbed her.
If the little boy had not been holding her she would have sank, and who knows how long it would have taken us to notice she was missing. The fact that she was an officer, trained in CPR and just happened to be at the pool on that day is not a coincidence.

I am absolutely, 100% certain that Islay is alive today because the Lord was watching her and knew she needed help. He guided the events of that day so that even though a terrible thing happened she would still be with us today. He brought to my memory, training that I received as a junior in high school. He helped me stay calm when I wanted to do everything else. And most of all, He helped me feel peace in a moment when peace is not likely to be found. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing me with a beautiful daughter and for letting me keep her a little longer.

It seems like I was doing good for a while in writing on my blog and I have enjoyed looking back over it and reading of our adventures. I haven't been very good lately (the past several years, haha) and I feel like I am missing out on recording the adventures we have been having since we left Grenada.
One day, I hope my kids look back on this blog and remember all the fun we had in all the different places we lived. I also hope they see a realistic portrait of family life. I want my kids to know that life isn't perfect, no matter how perfect the picture is. I like to write honestly about the hardships that are experienced in being a wife, mother, home maker, and teacher to a family. I don't want them to get discouraged when they struggle. I want them to know that everyone has hardships and difficulties.
So I am committing myself to writing more frequently (It really can't get less frequent can it? haha) for my family.

In my last post I reviewed things that had happened until we moved to Texas. Let me just start by saying how much I LOVE TEXAS!!! The saying is "Everything's Bigger in Texas" but I think it should say "Everything is Better in Texas." We have really enjoyed living here and have made some great friends who will be life long friendships.
 The kids made giant bubbles thanks again to grandma!
All the kids were naturals at getting the big bubbles. Ridge made some big ones.

I started this post long ago and never finished it but  I wanted to post these pictures because I love them. It's also a good thing to remember the positive.


There are so many wonderful things going on in my life right now but I am having a hard time remembering that.

I have a few minutes and I thought I would spend some time updating my blog. To say that lots has happened since my last post would be an understatement and I'm not sure I could do justice to all of our adventures. I have pictures scattered around my computer, phone, and camera and I'm not sure I could organize them into a timeline with out considerable time. So I'll do the best I can with the limited time that I have.

February: We started the month with Jason's birthday. We didn't do much but we did have a few friends over for cake and ice cream.
February was a big month for us in deciding where to go for residency. I spent the first half of the month stressing over the order for our list and the second half stressing over when we would end up. We submitted our list around the middle of the month (it's been so long I don't remember specifics) and then we had to wait until the middle of March to find out. We had our list all figured out but at the last minute made some changes and I was really nervous to see how that would affect where we would go.
I also started to pack and de-junk in preparation for our move. We weren't sure where we were moving to but we knew in just a few months we would no longer be living in NJ ( such a relief. I'm not a big fan of the Garden State)

March: March came and with it came nicer weather which was awesome. I am used to having snow and cold weather until the April and even May so to have no more snow in March was perfect.
March brought lots of activity in our house. Jason and I had our 9th Anniversary on the 14th and we went out for a nice dinner without kids (always nice.) We had a visitor, Nick, come stay with us until we left. It was nice to have some extra muscle to help load the truck (thanks Nick), I spent the whole month packing and we found out where we would be going.
Jason and I sat waiting patiently (ok, really I was waiting impatiently. I know I wasn't fooling anybody. haha) clicking "refresh" over and over again on his email until it came in. We opened the email and it said University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas TX!! We were kind of surprised since we thought we had a good chance of going to Arizona or California. We also changed TX to our #3 choice at the last minute. A life changing decision I am sure. We were so excited and happy to have a destination to plan for.
A couple days before we moved Jason's mom came to stay and help pack up. We were able to get all the  boxes packed and loaded into the truck the day before members of the ward came to help load all the big stuff.
It was not hard to say goodbye to NJ but it was really sad to say goodbye to all the friends we'd made while we were there. I had a wonderful goodbye/birthday dinner with friends from the ward where I had my first taste of Indian food. Yum.
But it was probably hardest to say goodbye to Jacqueline. We'd become fast friends and it was great to have her close. I miss being near her and was super excited to have her visit, more on that later.

April: So we packed up our truck and mini van and headed out. We drove to Pittsburgh PA where we stayed with a high school friend of mine. It happened to be conference weekend so we missed seeing her husband but it was fun to see her and catch up. We were so grateful to them for opening their home to us. The next day we made our way to Indiana where we me up with family. We enjoyed conference and a yummy dinner with extended family that we don't get to see very often. It was wonderful. The kids had a fun time playing with cousins and being out of the car. We all got showered and went to bed exhausted. The next day Jason and I took the truck full of stuff and headed to TX where we would stay with his aunt for a few days while we moved our stuff from truck to storage unit and then look for houses, and Jason's mom picked up his dad from the airport and took the kids back to UT in the mini van. It was a crazy trip and I was glad to have it over with when we finally flew to UT to be with the kids.

Me, shoveling the walk with Miss Islay.

Rori wanted to help shovel too :)

Ridge was in heaven in the snow. Whose kid is he anyway?
Ice and daddy! One of my favorite pictures.
This is our landlord George playing with the kids. Rori wanted him to dump snow on her head!
She wanted me dump snow on her head too. Ironically, she loved it and wanted me to do it again and again. Silly girl.



Dyson with a snow face :) He had so much fun until his pants got so heavy with snow that they were falling off! I had a pair of snow pants for everyone except him. Instead he was wearing a pair of warm up pants under his jeans. It didn't help much but it was the best we could do on short notice :)
Ridge's snow face!
Islay had such a good time in the snow in spite of the fact that it was hard for her to maneuver through. Between the snow pants, coat, and gloves and that the snow went half way up her legs she struggled, but she was such a trooper.

I LOVE this picture of Islay. Her eyes are so beautiful. Love her!
Dyson, adjusting his gloves. Don't ya just love his "snow pants" ?
Islay spent a lot of time on her bum unless she was walking on the shoveled sidewalk. But she never cried. (Really, whose children are these?)
Oh yeah, they are his. Jason loves the snow, especially when he can go skiing. My kids must get their love of the snow from him.
We had a fun day in the snow. And there are pictures to prove that I was out there with them. Everybody was worn out and hungry by the time we were done. I'm really glad that I decided to go out and play with the kids. It was so much fun and now I'm good for several more years.