Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Updates: My Excuses and an Addition to the Cast of Characters

It's been approximately five years since my last post. And for the random person who has stumbled upon this blog and wondered if I fell off a cliff or  got hit by a car, I assure you, nothing that dastardly has happened to me. Thank goodness. So now, much like Amelie in the movie of the same name, I'm going to give you the written version of speed-walking the blind man through the market and catch you up on the last five years! 

I started this blog in 2011 a short time after Kerian died, along with its sister blog, Remembering Kerian. At the time I was home on maternity leave/bereavement leave and was overly optimistic about getting a blog (or two) written and published. I went back to work three months after Kerian died, and went straight into taking care of Mister 10,000 Volts (Mr. 10Kv), Pierre-Francois (PF), our home, and myself. The blogs faded into the background as something I longed to have the time to do.

PF and I had decided that after our loss, we would try to have another baby. So from 2011 to 2013 I was totally, completely, and entirely immersed in attempts to become pregnant. It became another full time job. And aside from work and my necessary duties at home, I was obsessed.

In the middle of all of this, six months after Kerian died, we got the bad news that my father had esophageal cancer. My parents live 2,000 miles away from where we live, so I went back and forth to visit and help my parents. Then one year after his diagnosis, and after a brave fight that included the removal of his esophagus at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, my father passed away. I will write about his loss in a different post.

I was 42 when Kerian died, I was 43 when my father died, and at long last, at the age of 44, and after so many IVF injections (those needles are HUGE!) my hips were dotted with bruises, we got the happy news that we were pregnant (and we got the confirmation from the doctor's office on Valentine's Day no less!).

Enter Sunshine Boy (SB), who lives up to his name. It didn't bring Kerian back to have another baby, but it brought the joy and laughter back to our home. He will be two years old in six short days, and the most truthful things I can say about him this morning (since he has been teething and cutting his two-year molars for about a week now) are that he keeps life interesting and we haven't looked back. 

I hope to write honest stories about what life is like in my home. No glossy, picture-perfect, magazine-ready housewife blogging here! No. This will be honest. Truthful. Refreshing. So come with me on this journey and I'll tell it like it is. Whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever your life presents you with right now, I wish you peace and a great day!