All right, for those that have been asking, I am finally updating my blog! We have had so many changes and things happen, that when I got behind, it just seemed so overwhelming to try and update it. So instead of trying to update every little thing, I am just going to give a brief overview and then work on keeping it updated from here. I will work on uploading all of our pictures, but it will probably be out order.
So on to our biggest of changes-- we moved to Chicago in November! We have been trying to get Hallie somewhere where there is a children's hospital for a while now. It has taken such a huge toll on our family to have to take her out of town for her care. Last year, I was out of town at least once a month at doctors or hospitals. It really concerned us that if something big came up for Hallie, we would not be able to get her the care that she needed fast enough. Last July, I woke up one morning to Hallie throwing up and with every sign of a bowel obstruction. I had to put all 3 kids and the dog in the car and drive 8 hours to Salt Lake by myself with Hallie throwing up in ziploc bags the whole way. She was admitted to Primary's as soon as we got there. We knew it was just a matter of time before something even bigger came up and we were very concerned for her life, living that far away from the care she needed.
However, we couldn't afford to go without insurance for her and with the economy the way it has been, it has been a huge challenge to find a way out of Reno. Derrick has really enjoyed working for Freeman and they have been very good to us, so we were hesitant to leave them. Our prayers were answered this fall when Derrick got a call from the Chicago branch of Freeman, asking him to apply for a position. The laws have changed here in Chicago to allow his company to open up their electrical department and they needed someone with experience. After a few weeks of fasting and praying and a lot of negotiating, we made the decision to move.
It has been a big change for us. We are loving the schools and being this close to such great doctors and hospitals. The winter was very different for us, with Chicago being so much colder and getting so much more snow than Reno, but we loved it! We have a little pond a street away that we ice skated on all winter. Carson and Tucker especially loved it, begging us to take them skating several times a week. Carson was so sad to have the snow melt. I caught him putting the snow in my freezer to save for summer. We love our neighborhood and the cute little village we moved to. We live about a mile from historic down town. I can't wait for it to start warming up so that I can just walk downtown with the kids.
Derrick is doing really well in his new position. He is the electrical account executive, so he is basically the liason between the clients and the union electricians who actually do the work. He is very busy, especially right now, with it being the middle of show season, but he seems to have adapted to his new responsibilities very quickly. We are very proud of him for his hard work and being able to juggle his new job and the family. We will be glad for the middle of April, when he can slow down a bit and be home more often with us.
Hallie had a really good few months after we moved here. We had prayed so much that we would just be able to get her out here without any major issues and she did great. She was actually better than she has been in almost 2 years. It was so nice to have that down time to get settled in. And then she crashed in January with a partial bowel obstruction. We spent a few days in the hospital while they cleared it and we have been on a roller coaster ever since. She's been diagnosed with asthma and migraines, so we have added a pulmonolgist and neuroligist into the mix, as well as her surgeon, GI doc, and cardiologist. It has been a very long couple of months filled with doctors appointments. We average 3-4 a week, especially since Hallie and Carson have started counseling. I have been pushed beyond limits I didn't know existed and yet here I am, still standing. Hallie is going to have surgery on Monday to take biopsies of her intestines. We are trying to elminate all of the possible causes of her pain and malfunctioning bowels before settling on the cause of it being a problem from the STEP procedure she had done at 5 months.
I am going to go give Hallie her meds, but I want to do an update for each kid with pictures, so I am hoping to be able to work on it while Hallie is at preschool. Blogging has really been therapeutic for me, so I am going to try and be much better at keeping it up to date!
