Update

A lot has happened these past two months. John and I were lucky to have our first foster child. He came into our home on Sept. 4Th. This was a Friday. John had just left on a weekend football trip with his two brothers and dad. I was able to have a fun weekend with my new four year old buddy. John got back late Sunday night. Monday was a holiday so we were all able to spend the day together watching football.



That next Friday John called me from work to tell me he was not fired but put on leave without pay for at least the next two months while they waited on a project to pick up. We figured out our finances and realized we would be OK for a couple of months.



On Monday Sept. 28 my brother Mark called to tell me my mom was in the hospital. They didn't know what was wrong. I knew in my heart that I needed to get to Utah as soon as I could. We called our little guys case manager and after pulling teeth were able to get permission to take him with us the next day as long as we were back by the 8Th.



Tuesday we started on our adventure bright and early. We were able to make it just outside of Flagstaff when we got a phone call from the case worker telling us to turn back because our little guy's mom had a court date the next day an would probably be going home. The drive back was a crazy one. Little guy was very disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to see my mom anymore. All I wanted was for him to be able to go back with his mom the next day.



After much consideration we arranged for Little guy to stay the night with another foster family. We dropped him off and by 3:00 pm we were on the road back to Utah again. The trip was long. I am not quite sure how John was able to drive the whole way without many stops. We made it in 10 1/2 hours the second time for a grand total of 18 hours. We made it safely to my parent's house by 2:00 am. (Our little guy did go back to live with his mom the next day.)



I was able to spend the next couple of days with my mom in the Utah Valley Regional Hospital. By this time the doctors were able to find that she had a staff infection in her blood, the main source being on one of the wires on her defibrillator. My mom's kidneys stopped working and the toxins in her body started building up. She was moved to the ICU on Thursday. Michelle, Tish and I were able to have a really fun time laughing and being happy that night with my mom. The next morning I went in bright and early to see my mom. She had really gone down hill and was no longer making any sense. She would talk to me as though she knew I was there but wouldn't say anything coherent except when the doctor told me she was confused and she said "I'm not confused". That night was one of the most painful nights of my life when the doctor came into tell us we had to make a decision. We either needed to take my mom home and she would pass away in a couple of days from renal failure or we needed to put her on life support that night then move her to IMC in Murray were she would have a surgery to remove the defibrillator. There are only two doctors in Utah who could perform the surgery and one had just left on vacation that day, the other one was in Murray. We were told the surgery would be very difficult and is a difficult recovery for a healthy 40 year old, meaning my mom being 73 didn't have much chance of a recovery.



After praying and asking my non responsive mom what she wanted, and getting the answer that she wanted the surgery and life support we decided to go ahead and have her intubated. The intubation was supposed to take only 10 minutes. After 45 minutes I got antsy and went to see how things were going. The doctors were all still in the room and I was told there had been some difficulty. After all was said and done the family was able to go back into her room. She looked Horrible, her tongue was so swollen; I didn't know it was possible for a tongue to be that size. Her eyes were swollen and bleeding. She just laid there. I never want to see my mom like that again. When John saw her he was pale and the nurse asked if her was OK. She made him sit down and drink some soda. Michelle and I got in on the soda action, it helped a bit.

It was so comforting to have my family around. I am so grateful to have the gospel; to know that no matter what happens in this life it is not the end. I will be with my family again. I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who has made it all possible for us to live together for Eternity. We are so blessed.