The Ugly, the Bad and the Good

The Ugly:

Thursday December 9th at an away game for the Idaho Stampede Jason hurt himself during the third quarter. I, the good wife, was watching online and saw it happen...groan. I have been watching Jason play basketball for 10 years and have never seen him not get up. Sure he has taken some ugly spills but he usually pops back up and is good to go. Well this night he was down. The trainer ran over and they were talking and looking at his leg and I just kept thinking, "oh God don't let it be his knee". After a few minutes he was helped to the sideline by a teammate and his trainer, another first, and didn't return to the game. Fast forward what felt like forever and I finally got him on the phone. He had already been looked at by a doctor and he was feeling pretty optimistic. He had no pain in his leg and he suspected just a sprained knee but said he would probably play in the next game.

The next day he went to the doctors in the morning and had an xray to make sure there was no bone chipping. The xray looked good but he was feeling pretty stiff and an MRI was scheduled for the next Monday back in Boise.

The Bad:

The MRI was very early in the morning and I was not able to go since I needed to get Quincy off to school. By the time I got home Jason was done with the MRI and had already seen the doctor. Bad news, he had torn the ACL and both meniscus in his right knee and surgery was scheduled for the 28th of December. In a blink of an eye the season he had worked all summer for and had so looked forward to was over.

The Good:

Jason has one of the most positive attitudes of anyone I know! He has been a pillar of strength for me when I should have been his. He is mentally preparing for surgery, recovery and rehab. We have an amazing support group here in Boise. Even though this was not the outcome we wanted we continually see so many positives.

We would appreciate all your thoughts and prayers come the 28th and beyond! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and God Bless!!

A tad delayed but 9 years no less!!!!!

November 20, 2011 Quincy turned 9 years old!!!

This year has been full of changes and our guy Quincy has handled them all with grace, just like his good ol' dad! When he turned 8 we were living in Holland and experiencing the European life. We moved back to Boise and spent a summer having a blast. Quincy started the school year here in Boise not quite sure if he would be staying for the year or not. Quincy is funny, SMART, resilient and adaptable. He offers smiles and hugs with impeccable timing and is always a voice of reason even at the tender age of 9! This was his first full year of being a big brother and it has been a roll he was born to take! He is equal parts patient and loving with a little bit of big brother bullying thrown in. He is an amazing example for Cooper and now little Cooper has pretty bigs shoes to fill following Quincy.

We celebrated this special guys birthday twice, first with a family party and then a bowling party the next day with some school friends. He LOVED all his gifts especially anything that had to do with Legos and Starwars with a bonus if you could combine the two;)

Here are some picks that we took to celebrate 9 years with our sweet Quincy!!!

Where has the time gone...

Hello again! Well hello to you few people who actually follow my blog;) It has been such a long time since my last post! There are a couple reasons for this but the main reason is that Jason and I just got Internet TODAY. We went from May 30- November 8 without it!!! How have we gotten by you ask?!?! We checked email and FB every now and then on my parents computer and then a few weeks ago we got a smart phone that made us feel a little more in touch but I realized how connected the Internet really does keep us to our family and friends and I couldn't wait any longer!

Since my last post so much has happened. We came back to Boise and spent an amazing summer with friends and family. My sister and her family came to visit as well as Jason's mom. We packed up the car and drove over to WA. to spend some time with Jason's family as well. As the summer started to come to an end we expected to hear from Jason's agent about where in Europe we would end up. We waited and waited and heard nothing. Well the end of summer came and went and we had to adjust a little. We quickly got Quincy enrolled in our local school and made sure he knew that we would probably be pulling him out to head overseas. So we waited and waited...All of the sudden it was the end of September and we were still in town kind of wondering if we should be worried or enjoying ourselves. Our conversations constantly had the phrase, "if we are still here we will..." We weren't actually living our lives we were waiting...so we stopped. We started making plans that actually extended past the next day. We allowed ourselves to just enjoy this extra time.

Fast forward to today and we are still in Boise. We have had to mentally changed our plans and now we are just living and having a great time (hence just getting Internet today;)! This is not the season we envisioned but this is the plan that God has in our lives and we are excited to see what happens. Jason was just picked up by the Idaho Stampede, our local D-League team and his season is starting soon. Quincy is loving school and has made lots of friends. We just booked his 9th birthday party which will involve LOTS of kids, cake and bowling!

The one person who has changed the most since my last post is sweet Cooper. Last you heard he has just turned one and walking was his new challenge. Well now he is 18 months old and running is just as easy as screaming at the top of his lungs:) He is so funny. He is talking more and more everyday but it isn't until someone else hears him that we realize how much we actually have to translate. "Da du" is thank you, "ni ni" is night night and "da da" is dad, bye bye, please, Quincy, cat, and pretty much everything else! It's his one phrase for about a hundred words;)

Now that we have Internet again I will not go this long without a post. I miss sharing our lives! Here are some pics to get you caught up!!!! Get ready for picture OVERLOAD!!!! Note: There are a lot more photos but I can't seem to find my other memory stick...more to come later...hee hee.

Can anyone say Holland w/o thinking of tulips? I can't!

Last Monday we were fortunate enough to once again have amazing weather and a free afternoon. So we packed into the car, drove an hour from home and arrived at one of the most beautiful sights ever, Tulip Fields! The fields are so vibrant and so full of color I just couldn't help but to take picture after picture! Here are just a few from our afternoon out. Enjoy!

Part II

I wanted to write this down so I figured I would share it. Here is the story of the day Cooper was born:

April 21, 2010 (Wednesday)- Jason and I were sitting on the couch watching a movie. The movie was actually Knocked Up, which was not my personal preference but it was all that was on t.v and Jason and I thought it was a little ironic. It was about 10.15 pm and the movie was about to wrap up when I felt...something. I must have made a sound because Jason looked at me and I must have had a strange face too because he asked what was wrong. I said, "Well, I'm not sure. I think my water just broke or I peed my pants." So I stood up to go to the bathroom and at that point I pretty much knew it was my water. I was immediately worried because at my last appointment my midwife said that the baby had not dropped yet and so if my water were to break I need to call right away. I think there were some translation issues because I wasn't sure why I would need to call right away but I did anyway. So after I assured Jason that it was my water he got on the phone to the midwife. She said she would be right over to check on me. By this time we had turned off the movie and we were sitting nervously waiting for the midwife trying to prepare ourselves for what was coming. At that time I was 38 weeks along and I figured I would have a couple more weeks...at least 1! About 20 minutes later the midwife came and checked and sure enough the baby had still not dropped into the birth canal so I would need to go to the hospital right away instead of laboring at home.

Let me rewind a second. Here in Holland when you have a baby you have the option of delivering the baby at home or in the hospital. I know if you are in the States you have the same option but in Holland the most preferable way is to have the baby at home. Jason and I had decided very early on that we didn't feel comfortable with a home birth so the midwives knew we would be going to the hospital to have the baby. However, the plan was to labor at home as long as possible and then go to the hospital, deliver the baby and then be home three hours later.

Since the baby had not descended but my water had broken the midwife decided I need to go to the hospital to be in the care of a doctor. (Apparently if your water breaks and the baby has not dropped there are certain complications that can occur...I'm still not quite clear what those are but I wasn't opposed to going to the hospital early). So while the midwife was giving me instructions Jason Skyped Robby, our designated babysitter for Quincy, and told him it was time and we were going to be headed to the hospital. About three minutes later, while I was still talking to the midwife, Robby buzzed our intercom and Jason buzzed him up. Robby hustled in wearing glasses...I had NEVER seen him in glasses...and looked like he had run over. I just had to laugh. Robby was thinking this baby was going to be here within minutes. We assured him it would probably be awhile before the baby actually came and proceeded to get Quincy ready to go off to Robby's.

We arrived at the hospital at about midnight. At this point I had yet to have a single contraction. The midwife had called ahead so the doctors on call were waiting for us. Since many women in the Netherlands give birth at home the maternity ward was VERY quiet. I think we might have been the only couple there! As soon as we got there and I changed into my gown the doctors came in to check me...that was a bonus to being the only couple in the maternity ward we had multiple doctors in the room with us. Well in the hour that it took to get checked by the midwife and get to the hospital the baby had dropped into the birth canal and removed the threat of the complications that accompanied it. So here I was at the hospital my water had broken and I was not having contractions. The doctors, Jason and I talked about my options and we agreed to wait to see if I would start having contractions naturally. So we waited. Jason, who's team was set to start playoffs that day decided it was a good idea to give his team a heads up. He called his team manager Rob to let him know that we were in the hospital and at some point in 24 hours we would have a baby...30 minutes later in walks Rob. He came in and asked if there was anything he could do or get for us or if there was anything we needed. Jason, thinking we were in it for the long haul decided he needed the book he was reading. Bless Rob because he left and went to our apartment to pick up Jason's book.

After Rob delivered the book and left the doctors came back in the room and started asking questions about Jason's game later in the day...by this time it was about 1:30 or 2:00 am. Jason always the pitch man told the doctors and nurse all about his team and how they were favored to win the the championship, he asked if they had ever been to a game and told them they need to go. Well turns out before Rob left he gave the doctors and nurse tickets for the game that night so they were all actually planning on attending the game later. One of the questions they asked was if Jason was planning on playing in the game. Jason said, well probably not for obvious reasons. I knew I was pretty far from having the baby...I mean I hadn't had one contraction up to this point and we had agreed with the staff that we would wait to see if I went into labor naturally. Well now that the doctors knew about the playoffs they talked about inducing right away and assured us...Jason...that we would have the baby before the game later that night. Jason reassured them that his first priority was me and the baby and we wanted to stick to the original plan of waiting. At that point we turned off the light and tried to get some rest.

April 22, 2010 (Thursday)- Ok hold on to your hats because it goes fast from here! At around 6:30-7:00 the doctors and nurses came in and I let them know I hadn't had any contractions. At that point...9 hours after my water broke...I was getting pretty excited to meet the baby. So we decided after a shower I would receive a low dose of Pitocin to try to get the ball rolling. 7:30 they started the i.v drip and so we waited. Thirty minutes later the nurse came back in and after I let her know that I was still not having hard contractions she bumped up the drip and said she would be back in thirty more minutes. 9:00 am I am feeling them now but still not unmanageable by any stretch of the imagination. So as a reward for high pain tolerance they bumped up the Pitocin again. Thirty minutes later I am in full on hard labor.

Side note: In between every contraction Jason would pick up his book and read. I was to distracted to voice my annoyance to him so he just kept reading. Later I found out that he actually finished the book! I'm glad someone was able to do some enjoyable reading!

9:30-11:20 I am focusing on breathing and getting through the next contraction. I asked the nurse how much worse the contractions were going to get and she said she thought they were at their peek. ( I have no idea how she knew that but she ended up being right) If she had told me they were going to get worse I would have demanded an Epidural on the spot. As it was I though maybe I could manage these ones. I forgot to say that at 9:30 the doctor checked and I was dilated to a three. At around 11 I told the nurse I was feeling a lot of pressure so a midwife came in to check and I was now dilated to a nine. Within about twenty minutes I was ready to push. I told the nurse and she looked like she didn't quite think it was that time but she called in the midwife and sure enough it was time.

11:40 am Cooper Jay Ellis made his way into the world. Jason and I opted to not find out the gender of the baby so when he came out he was a total surprise! We fell instantly in love with this perfect stranger.

One year later Cooper has blended seamlessly into our family. He makes us laugh every day and even Quincy, who at first struggled with sharing the attention, loves when he can make Cooper giggle uncontrollably. We have been blessed with two amazing boys that bring immeasurable joy to our lives. I love living in the present but sometimes I can't help but look forward to the future with this amazing family.