We Left the Country

That's right!...and we're back! Yesterday, Craig had the day off, the weather was nice, we had no other plans, so we went to Canada for the day. Canada is only about two hours north of us, so we thought it would be fun to cross the border. I've been to Canada a couple of times, but Craig has never been ...so we set out. We ended up going to Vancouver which was very interesting to say the least. Once we could see all the skyscrapers we were both taken back quite a bit. Craig described it as looking like it had been "blown up", I described it as looking like it had "been abandoned." It was the weirdest looking city we had ever seen. All the buildings looked about the same...tall and completely rectangular, no neat architecture to speak of. The color of all the buildings were the same too.. gray and washed out. The only difference between all the buildings was the height. Some were taller, some were shorter. The weirdest part of all was the windows though. You may not even realize it, but in most downtowns, all the skyscrapers have tinted windows, but in Vancouver, not one skyscraper had a tinted window which made it look really weird...kind of dumpy for a lack of a better term. In addition, the skyscrapers seemed to stretch on for miles. It was really weird. Once amongst all the big buildings however, it appeared to look like any other downtown. People everywhere, shops, restaurants, no where to park, one way streets, etc. A couple of other things we noticed in Canada that were different from the U.S.

- Their traffic lanes are really really skinny. I could seriously reach out and shake the driver's hand next to me we were so close. This was scary, especially when you were alongside a bus.
- They don't use medians, even on highways. The oncoming traffic was waaay too close...only one little yellow line between us and the 100 kph oncoming traffic
- Not all, but some of their green traffic lights blinked. I tried looking up what they meant, but google supplied me with too many answers.
- People's houses are right on the highway...as in their front doors are literally no more than 4 or 5 feet from the street. I hope they don't have kids in these houses!

After exploring Vancouver we decided to head out of Canada but on the way a HUGE casino caught our eyes. We decided to go in to check it out. It was pretty neat. We had some dinner, walked around and then left. It was a nice little pit stop.

Overall, our trip to Vancouver was fun, and quite interesting. I'm not sure if we'll have a huge desire to go back to Vancouver but I hope we do make it back to Canada to ski at Whistler (location of the 2010 Olympics!!). We'll have to return to explore more of British Columbia as well. It is always fun seeing new things!

Up...Out...and...About!

We woke up this morning to blue skies and lots of sun. As Craig's surgery wounds get better and better we have been picking up our exercise routine. With the sun out, we decided it would be the perfect day to go on a hike. As you have probably heard on the news, the northwest has had a lot of water...and flooding everywhere. Well, flooding isn't really an issue in Anacortes since it is an island but we do have a lot of water. We figured there would be a lot of neat little waterfalls and streams to see on the hike now that all the snow has melted and it is getting pretty warm again. We were right! It was really something else. Oh..and I must mention. I'm in the middle of the third Twilight books now...and hiking through the woods reminds me of that book. It was really crazy when we came to this little clearing in the middle of the woods where the sun was brightly shining. If you've read the book...or seen the movie, you know what part this reminds me of! hehe....I was half expecting some vampires to jump out of the woods! If you haven't read the books yet...hop on board...they are GOOOD!!!

Here are some pic of our hike today.

This was taken in the "twilight" clearing I was talking about. :)

Some good words...

In the midst of my hunt for the right profession...this one popped up today on my flip calendar.

"What are you doing with God's personal request that you live with him forever? That is the only decision which really matters. Whether or not you take the job transfer is not crucial. What college you choose or what profession you select is important, but not compared to where you spend eternity. That is the decision you will remember. What are you doing with his invitation?"

This one was a good reality check for me. It is so easy to get caught up in the "not so important" matters of every day life.

Life isn't always beautiful....but....it's a beautiful ride.

As of yesterday (12/31) at 7:30 pm, our kidney donation journey came to a close. The journey....it is one to remember. Was it challenging? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

The journey started on December 5th. We woke up bright and early to get the house decorated for Christmas. We knew we would be arriving back home just in time for Christmas and we wanted Christmas to be waiting for us upon our arrival. We love decorating for all holidays, but Christmas is our favorite. The smells in the air, the magical feeling as all the ornaments go on the tree, and the warmth of all the twinkling lights. By mid afternoon, everything was up. The stockings were hung, the tree was decorated, the nativity was on display, and the outside lights were lit! Upon completion we called it, "Our Christmas House." Since the moment we first set foot in our house, we both decided that it would be the perfect "Christmas house." We were right.



Before we began packing for our departing flight early the next morning, we went outside to look at our masterpiece. We both stood there in the dark gazing at all the colorful twinkling lights. I gave Craig a big hug and said, "now, whenever you get scared in the hospital, close your eyes, and remember The Christmas House." He smiled, gave me a kiss, and we went inside to begin packing. We were to pack up our bags, and head to Seattle to stay the night in a hotel. The hotel was a bonus for two reasons. 1) Cheap parking while we were in Denver, and 2) Our flight left at 5 am in the morning....so...we got to sleep in a a tad bit.

Before heading off to the hotel, we made sure we had everything. Clothes. Check. Toiletries. Check. Hospital paperwork. Check. Plane/hotel reservations. Check. Dog. Check (yep, we decided that the dog needed to come along, as kenneling him for 3 weeks is too long. I should also mention that this was his first in-cabin plane trip. We were both very nervous about this). Keys. Check. Lock the house up. Check. Leave a note for our house sitters. Check. And last but not least, my cross necklace (my wedding gift from Craig, which I wore on our wedding day. I ALWAYS fly with it, and I wanted it with me as I waited for Craig to come out of surgery). Check. Good to go! We were off....well until we got about 40 minutes from our house when I realized....uh oh. Where is my purse??!?!?! Dang! Back to Anacortes we went. There was my purse on the couch. Okay. Purse. Check. Off we went (again).

We made it to the hotel just in time to hop into bed and get a good nights sleep (3 full hours). Before going to bed, I took my wedding necklace off and draped it over my purse as an insurance policy...guaranteeing myself that I would not leave it in the hotel in our morning stupper.

Three hours go by really fast. Time to get up and head to the airport. I haven't mentioned that the hotel doesn't allow pets (so yes, we had to sneak Maverick in and out...and we had to sneak him on the shuttle to the airport.) Oh boy. That was stressful, but we made it and he was being such a good boy in his little carry-on. After going through security, we had plenty of time to sit by our gate, and calmly wait for boarding. Before getting on any plane, I always say the Lord's Prayer with my hand over my necklace. Necklace! Oh no! Where is it! Oh no, no no no no! Panicked. "Craig, my necklace, I forgot it! It is in the hotel. I never put it back on! NO NO NO NO! Tears. Craig calls the hotel to have them look for it. They promise to call back after looking for it. We are boarding. No! Craig calls back. They said they searched the room and couldn't find it. Tears. This isn't good. My wedding necklace. Not now. Tears.

After we boarded, Craig reminded me that everything happens for a reason. God doesn't want me to think I'm safe because of a necklace. Fist lesson of the trip. Faith in God, not in a necklace.

The rest of the plane trip was uneventful. Maverick was such a good boy. We only had one layover and no one seated around us knew we even had a dog under the seat. We picked up our rental car and headed to my sister's house. We planned to stay at her house before and after the surgery. We were excited to spend some time with my sister and her husband. On Saturday night we went to the parade of lights in downtown Denver. We had a really good time taking silly pictures and drinking hot cocoa. The parade was quite beautiful and we all had a great time.


The next morning we were super excited because we were going to the Broncos game! Craig's brother has season tickets (really good seats!). This was my first (Craig's second) professional football game. It was a blast! The crowd really gets into it, which makes it really exciting.

The next morning, was the first trip to the hospital. We met Craig's mom and dad at the hospital for the pre-op appointments. They poked and prodded Craig Jr. and Craig Sr to do some more blood tests, made sure all vitals were good to go, and then proceeded to meet with both surgeons. The surgeons explained the entire procedure and what to expect after the surgeries. Craig Sr. was expected to stay in the hospital for 4 or 5 days, and Craig Jr. 3 or 4. We all felt prepped, nervous, yet excited. The surgery was on and planned for Friday (12/12).

The week up until the surgery was full of good food, friends, family, and of course...Christmas shopping! We were happy to get all our Christmas shopping done before the surgeries. Friday quickly arrived and the morning of surgery was finally upon us. The team (Craig's mom, Craig's sister, Craig Sr., Craig Jr. and myself). 5 am, ready to get this started. Once we all got called back to the pre-op room, my heart started beating fast. Craig and his dad were put in beds right next to eachother. Both of them had another briefing... or two...or three...or four....or ten. They both had their IVs put in. whoooo weee....that was one HUGE needle. Wow. The IV fluids were flowing, gowns were donned, and nerves in the air. I took this picture in the pre-op room. The last picture of Craig Jr. with 2 kidneys! :).


The next step. Craig Jr. was given a nice little cocktail that made him...well...calm...happy...and well...ready for surgery! They wheeled him off. A half hour or so later Craig Sr. was given the same cocktail and wheeled off. The waiting began.

As we waited in the waiting room, we all tried to keep ourselves busy with chatting, reading, pacing, crossword puzzles, and anything else that would keep us busy. About 2 hours later, Craig Jr.'s surgeon comes out with good news! "Craig Jr.'s surgery went well, the kidney is out. He had very little bleeding and the kidney looked wonderful. They are attaching the new kidney to Craig Sr. as we speak!" One relief down, one to go. About an hour later, Craig Sr.'s surgeon came out with more good news! "The kidney is in, no complications, and it is already producing urine!" Second sigh of relief! Oh Thank God! They both made it through and so far the kidney is working! We had to wait an hour or so before we could go back to the post-op room to visit the Craigs. This is the part I somehow forgot to prepare myself for. For some reason, I thought I would walk in there, Craig laying on a bed, slightly sleepy, saying, "hi babe." This isn't exactly what happened. I walked in, he was laying on a bed, and he was as pale as a ghost, with tubes coming out of every orifice, with a real quiet raspy voice, breathing really deep. His eyes were closed and I didn't know if he was still asleep. The nurse said that he was awake and that I could talk to him. Hold it together. I had to hold it together. Don't cry, please don't cry. I grabbed his hand and said, "babe, I'm here. How are you doing." He opened his eyes, and said quietly and raspy, "pain, a lot of pain." I didn't realize that when he woke up he was virtually on no pain meds and they were still trying to get the pain under control. I kissed his head, rubbed his arm, and held his hand. His eyes were closed most of the time as he was concentrating on breathing deep to relieve some of the pain. Our first visit into the pre-op room could only be 10 minutes so it went by way too fast. I wanted to stay with him but I had to leave. The next visit into the post-op room, Craig Sr. was in the bed across from Craig Jr. I told Craig Jr. how well his dad was doing, and that the kidney was working great already. He smiled. He then asked me to say the Lord's prayer since he couldn't seem to remember it. The pain meds were kicking in and he kept getting distracted. I said the prayer quietly in his ear. Every two hours we got to go back and visit them as they waited for their room to open up. Upon every visit, they both looked better and better, although both of them were still in quite a bit of pain.

Once their room finally opened up we were all very happy to be able to be with them as much as we wanted. They shared the same room so we were all able to be in one place. They both had oxygen, IVs, catheters, and pressure boots on. They were both controlling their own pain meds, each wanting more than the machine would allow.

The first night, I wasn't sure if I was going to stay the night in the hospital or not. They both seemed be doing very well, and they were both trying to get some sleep. I decided to go ahead home and get some sleep. I fell right asleep but was awakened by a text message from Craig, saying, "I miss you babe." Another one shortly followed with, "I need you here." Of course, I rushed to get dressed and hurried off to the hospital. Upon arrival, I learned that Craig Jr. had a rough night. He was still in tremendous pain and he had just thrown up. After abdominal surgery the abdomen is extremely bloated. The bloating causes a lot of pressure on the incisions and an overall uncomfortable feeling. Most people are able to get rid of the gas in a day or two and leave the hospital. It quickly became appear ant that this was not going to be the case for Craig Jr. That morning he tried to drink some apple juice, shortly followed by vomiting. His belly was so full of gas that there was no where for it to go. The anesthesia that they use during surgery puts the bowels to sleep, which are slow to wake up which compounds the problem of having a bloated stomach. Some people's bowels wake up right away and the gas can be expelled and others, it is a much slower process. The day went on, and Craig Jr. became more and more uncomfortable. The pain meds do not relieve the tremendous gas pains.
On a brighter side, Craig Sr was doing extremely well. The doctors continued to be impressed with how well the kidney was working. It wasn't long before they started Craig Sr. on liquids shortly followed by solids....which he loved! Craig Sr. doing well kept our spirits high.

Craig Jr. on the other hand, still bloated, sleepy bowels, no food, and little pain relief. The next couple of days were somewhat blurry. I stayed in the hospital with him overnight, every night, as it seemed nights were the worse. One night the bloating in his stomach got to be unbearable. Over time the bloating should go down, however his was getting worse. Second big lesson from the trip: Our bodies are so very fragile, and it is so easy to take our health for granted. His belly was so distended that he looked pregnant. The doctors had no choice but to order and nasogastric (ng) tube to be put in. Now those of you who don't know what that is, it is a tube they put in your nose that goes all the way down to your belly. It pumps your stomach. We had heard they are pretty painful going in, but once again, I wasn't prepared. As the tube goes down, it gags the patient, it hurts, and hopefully it goes into the stomach not the lungs. I held craig's hand as it went in. I won't go into tremendous detail but I will say it was terrible. I was shaking, yet the nurse actually wanted me to help him hold the tube at one point. I pulled it together, and did my best to be there for him. The tube immediately sucked out a tremendous amount of gas and liquid. You could see his stomach start to shrink.


He immediately felt some pain relief. Thank God. I can't remember if the ng tube was in for one of two nights, but Craig started to feel better and better. The doctors decided to go ahead and take it out and get him on a liquid diet. He was so happy to see it come out as it hurt his throat and nasal cavity. Once he got it out he felt so much better and he was ready to eat his chicken broth. He ate for about a 1/2 hour or so and immediately started to feel sick again. The pressure started building up again and he couldn't get rid of it. It became appear ant very quickly that his bowels were still not working properly. The doctors decided to put the ng tube back in. Oh boy. Please no. This time our nurse was less experienced in the procedure. The tube ended up going down the wrong tube and Craig started choking. Of course, I ran out of the room to get another nurse. I couldn't be by his side it was too painful to watch. You could hear him gagging on the entire floor. No matter how far I went, I couldn't stop hearing it. Once the tube was in, I went back into the room. Craig's whole body was shaking, his eyes watering.

Craig's mom came to be with him, I had to call Davis to calm me down and I asked my sister to come to the hospital as well (at 2 am). It was one of those times, where you have no idea what to do, so you reach out to those closest to you. I was so thankful to have my sister there that night. Thank you again. Craig fell asleep at some point and I laid in the chair next to him. Every time he moved I woke up. At some point he moved, I looked over and there he was in the middle of his sleep pulling the ng tube out! I couldn't believe my eyes! I ran over to him and he had finished yanking it out. I asked him what he was doing! He mumbled something about it not working and then fell back asleep. The last thing I ever wanted to see was another ng tube being put in! I went out to tell the nurse what he had done. She said they would wait until morning to see what the doctors wanted to do. Once Craig woke up, he didn't remember pulling it out. To date, it is the closest I have seen him to crying. He knew, it might have to go back in. The next couple of days were full of a very sick Craig. He was determined not to go back on the ng tube, but he just kept getting sicker and sicker . By then it was day 4 or 5. Everyone knew the inevitable, yet trying to avoid it. Two or three days went by and he was getting worse. The doctors came in with the news. The ng tube was going back in! I wanted to cry for him. They went on to say that their most experienced nurse was going to put it in. alright...that would be nice. I wanted to be next to him through it so bad but I couldn't. I was scared I was going to panic seeing it go in again. I tried to get as far away as possible so I wouldn't hear the gagging. After it was in, I went back to the room. He wasn't shaking this time, but his eyes were watering and he was in pain. The tube provided relief once again.



He kept it in for two nights. Slowly his bowels started working again! This time, before taking the tube out they took extra precautions and made sure his body could function on its own first.



Slowly he progressed to liquids.


After careful monitoring, the doctors took the tube out. This was day 8. The next day he ate solids and his body was back to fully functioning order. Time to go home. Day 9.

Craig Jr. spent 9 days in the hospital. They were 9 very long days, but we made it through. My third big lesson of the trip: My husband is stronger and braver than I could have every imagined.

The days in the hospital were long, they were hard, but there was a very bright side to the time spent in the hospital. Craig got to his dad get better and better and feel better than he had in years. Craig Sr. was released from the hospital on day (3 or 4....I believe) and the doctors continued to be extremely impressed with his newly, extremely active kidney. The one reason Craig Jr. decided to donate his kidney was to see his dad better again, and he witnessed the transformation first hand. Seeing his dad doing well, gave him a good spirit during his time in the hospital and for that we are very grateful.

Since Craig spent more time in the hospital than we had planned, we did unfortunately miss our flight home on 12/21. After his release, we were both very excited to get home and we were determined to make it home before Christmas. It isn't finding a flight home so close to Christmas...especially since we had to reserve a spot for our dog as well (only two pets are allowed on each plane.) Well, somehow we managed to buy two one way tickets home on 12/23. We flew from Denver to Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City to Vegas. Not home yet, so we got another one way ticket from Las Vegas to Bellingham. The trip home was Looooooooooong. Craig isn't able to lift anything greater than 10 pounds so I drug the luggage throughout the airports, dog included. Of course he felt bad and kept trying to help, but I kept insisting that I had it. Because we bought two one way tickets, we had to check our bags twice and go through security twice. Wow...how lucky were we to get "randomly chosen" to get strip searched both times. Yep...with a dog in hand, they stip searched us...twice. What a mess. Now if you noticed, our final flight landed us in Bellingham. The good news, Bellingham is only 20 minutes from our house, the bad news, our car is still at the hotel in Seattle. No problem. We will rent a car when we get to Bellingham. Upon arrival in Bellingham, we had no idea how much snow to expect. We heard it had snowed, but there was more than we could have imagined. Oh boy. We got our rental and started heading home. At this point we were in awe at all the beautiful snow and we were so excited to get home! All the way home we talked about all the crazy things that happened and how we were so happy that it was all over. Fourth big lesson of the trip: Never speak too soon. Our house is at the top of a hill. As we approached his hill we both looked up it and both said, "there's no way!" The street had not been plowed once and there was about 1 foot of snow up the entire hill. Here we were in this tiny, non four wheel rental at 11 pm. Great. Here we go! We try to go for it. About 1/4 of the way up, we slid right back down. One more time. Same thing. Okay, back up...and.... great, we're stuck. We managed to get our little rental stuck in a foot of snow, in the middle of the street, at 11 o'clock at night. I hiked up the house to get a shovel (keep in mind, Craig's body is still very fragile so we decided that he should stay with the car while I do the hiking). The only shovel we had was a dirt shovel. I brought it down. After digging, trying, and pushing, we had no luck. Two of our neighbors came out to help. Thank God for good people. It isn't easy helping someone get there car out of a foot of snow at 11 o' clock at night. With their help we got the car out...but not up the hill. We were able to pull it to the side of the hill. We still had to hike up the hill...with the luggage...in a foot of snow. i didn't want Craig to help at all...as this work was well over his 10 lb limit so I got some good exercise and we eventually made it up. Thank God our house was in good shape....no leaks, no damage, nothing...just Christmas waiting.

We were so happy to be home. The only problem, we were completely snowed in, with a rental and a very empty fridge. The next day...Christmas Eve. We decided to spend the day celebrating together and put everything else aside. It continued to snow, and Christmas was in the air. We had some food left in our cupboards so we made ourselves a wonderful feast. We had spaghetti, bread, and baked garlic with olive oil and basalmic vinegar...oh and some sparkling apple cider we had left over from Thanksgiving! I can't even put into words how happy we were. We had eachother, we were both safe and healthy, and we were home for Christmas!

On Christmas day we borrowed a snow shovel from our neighbors and dug a path for our car. We were able to dig the rental out of the newly fallen snow and make our way back to Bellingham to return the rental car. We spent the rest of Christmas day celebrating the special day, watching the snow fall, and opening our gifts.
After Christmas, we took the next several days to rest and relax. Craig still has some pain due to his incisions, but for the most part, he is healthy, doing well, and recovering quickly. After several days of relaxing, we decided to finally make the trip to Seattle to pick up our car from the hotel. Because the car had been sitting in a hotel parking lot for a month, we were nervous about how we would find it. We had called the hotel several times making sure it wasn't going to get towed, and we were pretty confident that no one would break into it...as it had nothing to steal...not even a CD player. One wild card...it had been sitting in the cold, not used, for a month. We begain the drive to Seattle. It is a pretty hefty drive but it was extra long due to traffic. Neither of us thinking...we found ourselves in the middle of downtown Seattle traffice on New Years Eve. We did not know that they have a huge event at the space needle every New Years in which thousands of people show up. We were in the midst of all the people. We finally made our way to the hotel and there was the car. Untouched, untowed, and un-robbed. We were thankful. I hopped in, excited to get going, and turned the key. Click. Click Click. Try again. Click. Sigh. After a phone call to my step-dad, and some research on Craig's blackberry (thank you google) we figured out that the gasoline had flashed off essentially leaving the tank full of non-gas liquid. We went to the gas station bought some gas, came back, filled the car up, and it started up right away. Thank you! We headed back home slowly, but safely. We made it time to go out to a nice New Year's Eve dinner and watch the fireworks at the Space Needle (on TV :)). Our Journey had finally ended.

There were a lot lessons to be learned this last month. This month was my first time ever really realizing how fragile life really is. Our bodies are amazing machines, but more fragile than we could ever imagine. Every day we must wake up, and count our blessings. There are always bumps along the way, but with a little faith and a prayer (or two or three...), you can get through anything.

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and your prayers. It is amazing how much difference a prayer can make.

When any journey ends, one should always ask themselves...would I do it again? The answer for us is absolutely, without the smallest doubt. Seeing Craig's dad healthy again, is worth every moment. We wouldn't change a thing. Struggles make you stronger. Changes makes you wise. This is life...and it is...a beautiful ride.