Life Recently

Sorry I haven't been writing lately, there has been a lot happening and things have been to hard and emotional to sit down and write.

My dad has always been my hero, the strongest man I know, nothing bothers him, he's always been able to defeat everything that has come in front of him, and Tuesday night, August 31, he had a heart attack. It was the scariest night of my life. I had just gotten home from work and got some mail for my uncle at the house, so I called my mom to see where she was and when I can get the mail to her. She sounded upset when I called so I asked her what was wrong and she said she was taking Dad to the hospital because he wasn't feeling well. So I quickly changed my clothes and met them there. Dad said he was having symptoms of nausea, dizziness, upper back pain and tingling in his arms and legs. He didn't think heart attack at first because it was pain in his back, not his chest. The doctor in the ER thought it was kidney stones because he has a history of them and the pain seemed kind of similar to kidney stones. After tons of tests and a very long night in the hospital, they ruled it a heart attack and scheduled him for heart cath the next day. Mom, Rae and I were there when he went in for the heart cath and the doctor came out and said he would have to have a quadruple bypass to clear blockage in four of his arteries, the major one being 100% clogged. They were going to send him home for a few days to relax and get stronger before the surgery that was scheduled for the next Thursday. The night before the surgery was stressful for me beyond belief. I didn't sleep much at all and at the same time I was dealing with a very sick guinea pig. So after sleeping for about two hours, we headed to the hospital at 6 am Thursday morning, September 9th. We were prepared for the surgery to take between 4-6 hours so it was surprise when the nurse called 2.5 hours later to say they were finished and only had to do to 2 bypasses! God is so good! That morning, Zach had prayed for healing for my dad, had prayed for no to little pain, and fewer bypasses if any at all. So it was a huge answer to prayer that they only had to do 2 bypasses. It was a scary sight seeing my dad after surgery, he had tubes coming out of him everywhere and was still very out of it; very surreal for me. He is still in ICU but doing very very well. He is hopefully getting the draining tubes out tomorrow morning and being moved to a room out of ICU either late tomorrow or Tuesday morning.

After having a great day the day of surgery, full of good news, answered prayers, and love from family and friends, we came home to find Lilly (guinea pig) had died. She was the first pet I had ever had to bury. But I got my best Converse shoe box (she's buried in style), packaging tape and a towel and made her the best casket I could. Zach dug a hole in the backyard by our bedroom window and we buried her. She was a good girl and I still miss her so much.

My birthday is today, she we celebrated Saturday the best we could. I went with mom to see dad in the hospital while Zach ran some errands that I wasn't allowed to go help him do. So we met up in the afternoon and went to eat at Lupe's with mom. After lunch, we decided to go to Pet Depot to look at the guinea pigs. I had no intention of getting one, I just wanted to look at them. I feel in love with a 4 month old multi-colored female so mom said she would buy her for me for my birthday. So now we have a new guinea pig! We also ordered a long haired multi-colored for a friend and she should be here in about a month. We have Millie right now, and Mollie will be here soon! I am so excited...Millie is so sweet and she's so lively. I am excited to see how she interacts with another one.

I had a great birthday today! It was Rally Day at SJD which is like their big festival to kick off the year. Mom, Rae, Collin, Derek and Tab came and Zach threw me a little surprise party with cake and ice cream and some friends from the youth group and staff. It was so fun! Then we came home and I took a nap...a perfect Sunday afternoon!

I'll try to update more, I will definitely update when Dad goes home and let y'all know how that is going. Until then...to God be the glory!