2016 was one of the craziest years for our family
Not only was our family expecting our second child, but we had made the decision to sell our house and move to a new city. The move was to happen in my last trimester of pregnancy.
During the time of Maddison’s birth we were homeless, so to speak. All our belongings were packed up and in storage. The keys for our new home wouldn’t be ours until after our baby would be born. We were so thankful that my husband’s parents were able to open up their home and we would be living with them for a month or two.
So much happened that year, it was all such a whirlwind.
The stresses grew when Maddison was born
Maddison was in the NICU at BC Woman’s hospital for over a month, and even when she was discharged we didn’t have a clear diagnosis. Most of the specialists that we are working with are shrugging their shoulders because all the dots don’t connect. But on October 21st, she was stable enough and growing so we brought her home.
I’ve never received any medical training myself, and found it hard to stay clear of googling every piece of gibberish I heard the doctors speak. I found myself so desperate to find people who were living with issues like Maddison’s. I wanted to see how they were thriving in their lives. The idea of sharing our story through a blog came to mind.
What happens when your dreams seem shattered?
We had (and still have) so many big dreams for our daughter. There have been days that it felt as if the dreams we had for her were crashing down with each new issue the doctors discovered. How do you raise a child with special needs? How do you feed a child who doesn’t swallow? What kind of therapy does a hypertonic child need? What is Developmental Hip Dysplasia? I had all these questions. Desperately I wanted to know if we were going to be okay.
We’re going to be just fine
It took me a couple months to really feel like I could get a decent grasp on our new life. When I did, I knew I wanted to share our experiences. I somehow knew that there would be some mom searching “how to wash poop out of a Pavlik harness” from her phone at 2 am and I wanted to be a light in the darkness. I’ve been there, I’m still trying to figure things out myself, but if by sharing our life experiences we can bring some hope to even just one family then I feel it was worth it.
Just keep faith
I have always believed that the tough life experiences we go through shouldn’t be wasted. I believe that God can use these circumstances to develop our character, and I know I have grown as a person through this all.
Allow me to put my thoughts into words, and put our family’s story out there to share. Follow along as we live our life as a family of Ohs.