Where have I been?

Wow, lack of blogging much?  I have good reasons.  I promise.

First of all, I’ve been doing photoshoots and those take up a lot of time.  Good time, but still time.

And second…I have been spending the past few days with this boy:

Look at that scrawny little cutie!  My little nephew, J, has had a rough go these past few weeks.  Born with what is called malrotation of the bowel, little J had to have emergency corrective surgery at only five days old!  They only figured this all out when my sister knew something wasn’t right.  He was fussy, throwing up yellow and seemingly in pain.  Thank goodness for an alert pediatrician who told them to go immediately to the E.R at the Children’s hospital.  Poor baby.  He had emergency surgery to correct the problem.  At only 5 days old!  You can’t see the scar in the picture, but it’s there, under that diaper flap, across his abdomen. He  spent two very long weeks in the NICU to assure he was digesting properly, half of that time he could only have an I.V. 

Did I mention my sister and her husband have three other children?  It’s just not feasible to spend all your time at the hospital when you have others who also require much attention.  Thankfully my mom was there initially, then the other grandma and then my other sister and I flew up over T-day to help them (thanks to my parents).

And here is the concerned and exhausted mom and dad, on their first night home administering some Tylenol.  My sister’s face just says it all.

 

We managed to come up with a decent Thanksgiving meal to salvage what was left of their holiday week.  J was released from the NICU just in time!

 

 

And this girl, my little niece.  A princess in a house full of brothers.  Oh I love her.  She has everybody in that house wrapped around her finger.  Only 2.5 and just the feistiest little girl I have ever met!

Not to mention she’s got some serious looks.  Her parents are in deep trouble when she’s a teenager.

So now I’m back home and left my sister to fatten up her sweet little newborn.  Can you believe that in only the 10th week of pregnancy is when his bowels formed incorrectly?  That just seems crazy to me considering they were probably the size of a piece of thread! 

And what about MY family?  The girls were left with their dad back home.  I didn’t worry about them once.  I knew they were in good hands.  My mom has been so helpful watching them while the husband worked. 

I see how hard it is for my sister to live so far from family during difficult times like this but their ward was amazing.  They really looked after them.  They watched their kids, fed them dinner and prayed for them constantly.  I am so grateful for that!

Also, my husband is awesome.  I mean truly.  After worrying about how the girls would fare if I went at a different time he suggested I go over Thanksgiving weekend since he had off most of those days.  He did fun things with the kiddos, kept the house clean, did the laundry and never complained about me being gone over a very important holiday!  See?  Awesome.  Thanks hon.