The List

Well my monthly or bimonthly posts that I aspired to write got put on the back burner these last six months. It is fair to say that a lot has been going on, and for those that have seen my mother's facebook status now, know why. So let me play catch up and see where this all goes...

My beautiful Meredith just turned 8 months old on the 5th. It is hard to believe that she is 8 months old already. I am a firm believer now, that time goes quicker with each child because it feels like just yesterday we were welcoming her into this world. She is the energizer bunny just like her sister was. To say she is underdeveloped or not reaching milestones is the biggest lie I could tell. Meredith was crawling by 5 months old and sitting up on her own. She is determined to walk right now, but gives me a hard attack when she decides to stand up on a surface, turns and lets go-like she just did right now, let me catch my breath.
Meredith can't get enough of Addison. She lights up when Addison comes in a room and jabbers at her like she understands every word she says. She follows her everywhere and plays in the playroom like she is a big girl with her sister. She is her motivation to hit milestone after milestone so she can really play with her. Which means she is getting too big, too quick.  Other exciting things about Meredith would be that  her first word was 'mama'.  She is currently working on her fifth and sixth tooth, and has learned to sleep in her bed this last week because I have been letting her co-sleep for my sanity while Kevin was TDY for the past month.

Addison is doing great as well. My little blonde hair, blue eyed beauty is full of energy and life. She potty trained herself in January and has been doing fantastic ever since. She has broken out of her shell and is learning to let go of me and try things on her own (thank goodness!). She is still a momma's girl, but worships the ground her daddy walks on. She is in this ballet mode as well- which I have no idea where it came from. Addison had her daddy convinced she was in ballet classes when he was TDY because she was constantly performing little routines for him. She is such a little diva. We have also been loving those fun changes that come with toddler hood -insert sarcasm here. Holy smokes! With the drop of a hat we can be happy, sad, full on tantrum, talking back, laughing, to full on meltdown. But I can say we never have a dull moment. Addison goes to a toddler program every day and loves it, but can't wait to turn 3 so she can join her best friend Tristen.

My student teaching didn't happen this past January like I had hoped. I didn't get placed and was told to reapply and try again in the fall. I am praying hard that it happens, but after a year long break, the idea of doing it now gives me some anxiety of changing our routine that we have going. But I am so ready and eager to be done with my degree and to finally say I am done with my schooling (for now). Until my start date for student teaching in September, I have been spending quality time with the girls and just enjoying life. I am trying to get into things that I wouldn't usually do during my free time, but am taking advantage of right now since I have all the time in the world. I dipped my hands into the crocheting pool and have become pretty good at it. Still have a ways to go, but I can make a scarf so I am happy. :o) Next up is to master my sewing machine so I can make some dresses, if I can ever figure out how to tighten my stinking stitches... Then I will feel like I conquered all during my year long break (yikes).

Kevin has been pretty busy with work. He has been coming and going a lot these past few months with training, but when we have him home we are so happy- especially this sleep deprived momma.

My big reason for not writing has been because all I have wanted to do was blog about my mom and haven't been able to share what has been going because of the unknown. So let me begin with this story- yes tissues might be needed. In October, a month after Meredith was born, mom started to get really sick. Most of you know my mom is a breast cancer survivor,but if you don't here is a little background. My senior year in high school she got diagnosed with breast cancer, went back to the states for surgery and came back here for chemo. Well, chemo took a massive toll on her body and sucked a lot of energy out of her and damaged her heart pretty bad. This past fall, She started to put on a lot of water weight which was affecting her heart and leaving her extremely short of breath. This was when she became a visitor to the hospital quite frequently which led to a long stay there. They were able to regulate things with her meds for a while, but this wasn't the 'fix' that was needed. As her stay continued in the hospital, the doctors decided that mom had two options. A- regulate things with medicine or B-you need a new heart. Talk about a scary thing to hear. It was like you can prepare to hear anything, but to be told you need a new heart, that's like a slap in face. Well lots of prayers were said and I was in denial. My mom didn't really need a new heart, hers was fine, she would be fine- was what I kept telling myself. My mother has been through enough and I just couldn't believe that this was the hand she was being dealt. But things didn't play out like I had hoped for. Mom was told that medication wasn't going to cure what had been done and the only hope would be a new heart.

Mom was able to come home from the hospital right before Thanksgiving (big reason to give thanks!!). It was a low key event, people wise, but the house was full of love and good food as always. December quickly was upon us and mom was still not feeling her greatest and we were told the process for the transplant would need to start soon. Where? Here or stateside? When? How? Who? How much? The questions were endless. You could see and still see the stress of this on my parents. Did they make the right choice? What about the language barrier? How will I get there? What is the process like here? Sooooooooo many questions. Needless to say, mom opted to do it here because her family is here. After going to two different heart transplant centers, mom picked her place and felt comfortable there- big reason to say yay! Then the next obstacle came, would they take an American living over here. Well, mom was the first, so that was a debacle in itself, but the final word came down and the transplant team said yes, and tricare was on board too. Hallelujah!

Now what seemed would be a quick process on the list, turned out to be a 6 month long process. Talk about nail biting! Tests were done, and we thought that was it for the list. Wrong. More tests were done and we thought she would be on the list. Wrong yet again. Well then the meeting was supposed to take place in March. Then April. It seemed like no one was giving us an answer. It started to feel like this was a bad joke and she was getting no where and no help was going to be given to my mom. Until today. Today, my mother received the phone call that we have been anxiously anticipating. The phone call that meant she was on the list. I had the pleasure of being there with her when she got that call. Seeing her face break into a smile was just what we needed after this wait which felt like eternity. It wasn't 'THE' call for a heart, but it was 'THE' call that she has the option to have a better life. One where she isn't winded walking down the steps, or up the street to the neighbors. One where waking up and going downstairs won't put her back to bed. The call that means she will be back to my mom soon. Hopefully soon. I feel morbid in the sense that I want it to happen. That means someone's life has to end and I am mad at myself for wanting that. But I don't want that. Maybe I can't look at this like that. I just want my mom to be given a chance to live her life to the fullest because I believe she has a lot more to do on this earth before her time is over. I just need my mom. I need my mom to be here for much longer. I need my mom to meet all my babies (don't take this as MANY more, just one more) and all my sibling's children one day. I need my mom because I can't imagine life without her. She is my best friend. She is the person in my corner even when I am wrong, talking sense into me. She is the person I strive to be. She is my mom. And I am not ready to live life without her. So here is to praying, like I have never prayed before. Here is to hoping that we get this phone call for a heart that will give my mom her life back. Sure, she won't be back to herself fully, but to have a mom that doesn't look like she is exhausted and clinging to her last string, would be the biggest blessing that we could get. So here is the update on what has been going on in my life, my family's life and what I will be keeping you all posted on along with my family. Until next time.


 

Forever Growing, Forever Changing

I have started to write this blog about five times since my first post. I find myself ready to dive in and share what is going on with our family, get halfway done and come back to it 2-4 months later trying to continue but starting from scratch. And well, today is the day (well tonight is the night) that I am pushing through and starting this for good!

Since our last post, I think it is fair to say that quite a bit has changed. I could elaborate on and on and on with details, but I think I will bullet our major life changing events since May 2010 to save time.

• We welcomed Addison to our family in July 2010. Our beautiful little girl came into our lives on the last day in July weighing in just a little over 7 pounds and 21 inches long. She made quite the entrance into the world and has kept us on our toes since that very day.
• 8 weeks later we were off on our new adventure to Germany with our brand new baby girl and two lovable pups by our side. 
• We spent the next 2 1/2 months spending quality time with Kevin, getting settled into our new house and just soaking up our growing beautiful child before we fair welled Kevin onto our first deployment as a family of 5 (well, for all purposes, I will now be counting the pups part of the clan so don't be confused).
• Addison and I spent the next 6 months spending quality time together, finishing another semester of school, traveling to France for baby Abby's baptism, settling into our unsettled and jammed packed home, and hanging out with friends. 
• We welcomed home our hero in May. Addison took some adjusting too,but in no time at all she became daddy's girl. She also saved the best milestone for last for her daddy- walking. :o)
• August was our first family vacation since we moved here (really sad, we know, but when Kevin was home, he was never really 'home')! We traveled throughout Italy for 10 days seeing Rome, Elba, Pisa, and Cinque Terra. It was wonderful- relaxing on the beach, soaking up some sun (which we rarely see during 'summer time' in Germany), eating all the wonderful carbs and gellato, and just enjoying each other's company as we camped out at Camp Darby.

• We spent up to December house hunting, doing more school work, doing in-school placement (for myself), seeing daddy off on more TDY's than I can count (which is the reason for no more traveling). December was our turn around month. We moved into a house off base of Vilseck with a massive fenced in back yard (just for the boys and Addison), as well as found out, on Christmas, that we were expecting Baby Pollock #2. 2011 turned out to be very good to us

Since the start of 2012, we have seen our daddy off, again, for our second deployment since we got here, leaving this pregnant momma, who is a full time student with a toddler that is all about testing the waters.It was QUITE an adventure to say the least. We spent the time hanging out with our families, friends, and getting resettled into our new home. We were able to visit Berlin with good friends before Daddy came home. Once Kevin came home we began the traveling adventure again- well as much as we could with a pregnant wife! We were able to knock Paris and Mallorca off our list (might I add- flying with a toddler while being 33 weeks pregnant who doesn't have her own seat was a NIGHTMARE!), which was nice, but we spent a lot of time enjoying each others company at home before our next chapter began.

On September 5th we welcomed our beautiful little girl Meredith into the world. That day we went from a family of 5 to a family of 6. I was so nervous and afraid of the unknown, but it is easy going from 1 to 2 than 0 to 1. Since then we have been spending quality time at home waiting for my student teaching to begin in the new year. My goal is to keep up with this blog to keep our family and friends in the know with what is going on with our hectic life. So I hope you enjoy!

This Crazy Little Thing Called Life.

     The semester is coming to a close, so breathing room now exists in our crazy life style... for the moment that is. Juggling a major move and a baby girl in a two month span is enough to make anyone's head spin and we are already feeling the effects. I wanted to start a blog to share with all our family and friends to keep them updated on our crazy life once we move to Germany. :o) I never thought this would happen this soon, but it is and we are thrilled (as are two sets of excited grandparents)! Lets see if I can play catch up from January this year....
     As we all know Kevin is in the Air Force and we are blessed to have him home during this wonderful time of our life. No deployments are in site, but that can all change at any moment. I am working on finishing my degree but unfortunately won't be graduating from Kansas State University due to our move. I could see my cap and gown right around the corner, but oh well! Guess we will see how University of Phoenix's program is! The pups are doing great and going through obedience training right now. We are trying to make sure they will be on their best behavior once Addison makes her grand entrance into the world. They can tell something is changing in the household, like the second bedroom doesn't have their comfy bed to sleep on anymore, but little do they know how drastically their lives are going to change too! The trip to Germany will be quite interesting with Thing 1 and Thing 2 with us... I pray Tucker doesn't howl the whole flight, I have had nightmares that I can hear him! :o) Speaking of Addison, this little girl is growing very quickly. I am 28 weeks tomorrow, which I can't believe. We only have 12 weeks left til our lives change forever and Kevin and I couldn't be more excited. But during these 12 weeks I will be cleaning and prepping the house for a move AND a baby.
     They say that God doesn't give you more than you can handle and I want to disagree but know that is true. I feel like we have so much going on in our lives right now and I just can't wait for it to fall in place. The anticipation of August 1st is getting to me, which could be the reason I am stressing...having to wait! :o) But I couldn't be more excited and ready for the challenge.