As I contemplate the events of this last year, I am extremely grateful for the blessings we have received. Here is our year 2008 in review……
A week into January I got a very unfortunate call from Jeff in the late morning on a Monday. He called to tell me that he had just been laid off. He had 2 more weeks of work and then would get 2 weeks of severance plus a payout of his accrued vacation. We were not shocked by this and knew it was a possibility, it happened a little quicker than we had anticipated.
Immediately Jeff began sending out resumes’ and contacting the friends he had made in the aerospace industry to see if they knew of any jobs that they might have open.
In the meantime, Jake had surgery on his feet that very next week after he was told he was going to be laid off. We felt fortunate that we had health benefits to the end of February so this critical surgery could move forward.
Jake had surgery on his feet because of severely flat feet. He had been wearing orthotics since he was two and in three years they had done nothing to help correct his flat feet. So because of the pain he experienced and the fact that he tripped and fell when he ran even after extensive physical therapy, after careful research, we decided to go ahead with a procedure called Subtalar Spacer System (STS). They made a linear incision of 2 to 3 cm in the relaxed skin on the side of his foot just below the ball of his ankle. Then a titanium screw was inserted in his ankle and then they used a guide wire to set the bolt at the approximate angle that would position his feet so that he would have a normal arch like the rest of us. He was a trooper during and after the surgery. A few days after the surgery when we changed the dressing on his feet, he already had this beautiful arch on his sweet little foot. It was amazing for Jeff and me to see.
The doctor said it would be two weeks before he could walk and he would either crawl or need to be carried around until he could support his weight on his feet.
Against the odds, he was walking on his heels a week later and adapting as he could to his situation. Now our boy runs with the rest of the kids and does not get tired after a few steps, he is just like everyone else and we are so grateful!
We are grateful for the family we had who made an effort to help and support Jacob during this time as well as our wonderful friends, Thank you!
In the meantime we took an inventory of our food storage and finances. We lived primarily off our food storage for about a month. We are grateful that we had this to sustain us through that difficult time.
We are grateful for the friends who came forward and offered up their food storage if we needed it during this time, we have amazing friends!
Within 6 weeks of being laid off, Jeff had 3 solid job offers and was trying to decide which one to take. He ended up back at L-3 Communications in Salt Lake. He was happy to return be back to a company with more solid footing and was glad to be with all friends he had made when he worked there previously.
While all of this was going on, I finally obtained a business license for my professional organizing business, received a little more training, and started Clearing Space by Design. It has been a little over 3 year process of getting training shadowing experienced organizers, and picking a time that was best for our family to start the business and move forward. Now nearly a year later, it has been an exciting, rewarding and an amazing educational experience owning my own business. I’ve never worked harder at any job (other than being a wife and mother) in my life! I LOVE my job!
In April Jake had another surgery, this time on his eyes. He has a muscle imbalance known as “intermittent exotropia,” in both eyes that was beginning to affect his balance and tunneling his vision. Exotropia -- a common type of strabismus – is an outward deviation of an eye (away from the nose). The deviation or eye turn may occur while fixating (looking at) distance objects, near objects or both. And he had both. Our optometrist noticed it a year or so back (thanks Dr. Lincoln!) and at the time it was not bad enough to do surgery. He recommended we go to a specialist at Primary Children’s. We went in and visited Dr. Hoffman and they said to come back in six months to evaluate his condition further (that was in 2007). Right after he had his foot surgery, I noticed his eyes appeared to be getting worse and so we went back in to Dr. Hoffman at PCMC and my suspicions were correct, it indeed had gotten a lot worse.
After talking with another Mother who had just gone through it with her daughter (Thanks Ally!), we decided to go ahead with surgery to correct his vision by having them balance the muscles so that one is not more relaxed than the other, thus helping his vision so that it would significantly reduce the side effects of his condition.
Once again, he was a very brave boy! The only thing that was so difficult was they had to numb his eyelids after the surgery to protect his eyes that first day and as he was coming out of anesthetic, he started yelling “They took my eyes, they lied to me Mom!” It was a good thing he could not see me because I held him and cried, seeing my child in pain and not being able to soothe him was about more than I could take!
A day later he still refused to open his eyes even though the numbing had completely worn off, so we decided to motivate him by buying him a “Woody” doll from “Toy Story”. Our plan worked and he couldn't’t take it and had to open his sore blood shot eyes to see Woody. The healing progressed quickly from there.
Again, we were amazed at the love and support we had for Jake. We have such great people apart of our lives! We thank you!
Now a year later, we have a new child! Our boy can run and run and not get tired and for the first time he can look us in the eye with both eyes at the same time. Jeff and I are amazed at his transformation. He has also had quite an academic jump since he had his feet and eyes fixed. We are so grateful for modern medicine so we have these options available to us!
In Late July I went in for the 4th time for surgery on my ovaries. Because of my Poly cystic Ovaries they did what they call “ovarian drilling.” They poke holes in the ovaries to drain the cysts which gives an extra 40% chance of getting pregnant (rather than the 15 to 20% otherwise) obviously it did not help as I am not pregnant. But I have a new resolve about all of it and am so grateful for the amazing son, and fantastic husband, I have and the wonderful life I have. Whatever will be, will be.
We were just "skinny" spring chickens in this picture!On December 27th Jeff and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary, time flies when you’re having fun! 11 years have flown by faster than I ever would have imagined. I love you baby!
Overall our year was a good one another year of learning, growing and hopefully progressing.
For those who are interested, I have some exciting events coming up for my business this year and I am excited for all the events these next couple months. I’ve also established an organizing tips and products on my site as well as a calendar of events of classes (Click on the link on this page for more info.).
Happy New Year Everyone!
