Week 33

This week brought some heart-wrenching news for us.  Tom’s sister, Aunt Nancy, has been having severe headaches this past week.  She went to her regular doctor three times with little result.  Finally, her daughter took her to the ER where an MRI was performed.  They found an inoperable brain tumor on her left frontal lobe that is the size of an adult fist.  Due to its size and proximity, her speech, gait, memory, etc. are affected.  Our hearts are broken!

Thankfully, Andrew is done with finals for the school year.  It was a tremendous blessing that he was able to fly home and be with his family as they all gathered together for the holidays.  He flew out early Tuesday morning and was able to stay for a week.  He had many wonderful experiences with his family and because I know what a huge support he is to me, I am sure he was an amazing source of peace and strength to the rest of his family at that time as well.

We live day to day at this time awaiting any news on Nancy’s condition and constantly praying for her and the many doctors attending to her at this tender time.

In other news about Little Miss Baby Girl, she continues to be a source of delight to Andrew and me.

On Sunday, the children in Nursery finally seemed to comprehend that I was having a baby.  I go in to sing songs with them for about fifteen minutes every Sunday.  One of the older boys had been told by his mother that they were giving me a special blanket for my baby at an upcoming baby shower.  He must have passed along the news because all of the kids were so excited to touch my belly as I came in for singing time.  Little Xander Leech put his little arms around me and gave my belly a big kiss.  He proudly told his mom, “There’s a baby in there!”  Joshua Penrod looked at me and asked, “Can we see your baby?” as he looked me up and down.  I was afraid he was going to lift my skirt to sneak a peek!!!  And Pailyn Harris delighted in pushing my outtie back in for me only to see it pop back out.

At work on Monday, I had a patient that needed a three-month evaluation post-SRP and a periodontal maintenance appointment.  It’s kind of an intense, uncomfortable hour at the dentist.  But this man was in really good spirits and happily “hummed” (?) along to the office Christmas music as I worked on him.  I don’t know how he managed to with the water from the Cavitron instrument and both of my hands in his mouth but he was just “singing” (?) away.  I believe the tune was Frosty the Snowman.  The funny thing about this story was that Baby Girl would start dancing in my tummy as he would sing and then stop when he stopped.  After about three or four rounds of this, I told him how much Baby Girl seemed to like his singing.  We had a good laugh!