Annabelle Week 10 – The Snow Globe

Normal is a fantasy.

I don’t think there is any such thing anymore. My sister and I were talking on the phone today, and I was telling her the latest Annabelle saga, and she sighed and said, “I don’t think I like this. I just want it to be normal again and everything to be okay.”

ME TOO!!! Normal seems so… wierd… right now. Like it’s this far off thing that would be so nice to have but is unattainable.

Then, I remember a saying I used to say all the time. It was: Who wants to be normal? Normal is boring!

So I like at my very not normal life right now and I can honestly say that I was right. I am totally NOT bored!

I, too, have to realize that things probably won’t ever be normal anymore. And they probably never really was, because normal is all relative. Even when things start to settle out here at the hospital, I start to get used to the setting and Annabelle’s status, something happens to jerk everything around. Desatting, temperatures, room changes, coding. It’s like a big snowglobe that gets shaken up a few times a day and everything settles down in different spots.

I’ve been telling you we were waiting on Annabelle’s stomach surgery for this week. In fact, I already had a post mostly written telling you all about it, that they scheduled it for wednesday or thursday. But yesterday, the globe was shaken again. They are now discussing putting the surgery off until after her Glenn (her 2nd heart surgery) and doing the Glenn earlier than normal. She may have her heart cath in the next week or 2, and her surgery as early 3 months old (which is in like THREE weeks!)

Now, all this is tentative and nothing is firmed up, and I’m not counting on anything until the day is actually here.

But at the same time, I am scared and excited. Scared because her surgery is closer than we anticipated, but excited because once she gets past it, she can come home! This means there is a possibility that she MIGHT be home by Thanksgiving! My prayer has been for a while that she will be home by Christmas at the lastest, but I’ve been telling God that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have her home for Thanksgiving! Besides her health and well-being, it is my deepest prayer at the moment.

That said, I don’t want them to hurry on account of this. If she’s not ready and needs to be in the hospital, I’ll accept that. But wow. I’d appreciate your prayers on that end! I’m also very concerned about holding off on the stomach surgery, which she really does need.

Other prayer requests:

• She needs to gain weight! She’s lost weight in the last week or 2… need to flip that and get her gaining again! This is crutial, as she needs to be as strong and big as possible before they do her next heart surgery.
• She threw up 3 times this morning. Uck! The stomach surgery will fix this… whenever we can do it!
• They were weaning her Vapotherm machine, but she desatted again this morning, so we are back on full pressure (still the less-invasive machine though!)

Other FUN news! Annabelle had her first professional photo session today! My cousin’s wife Kelly does pictures and along with my sister-in-law, so graciously agreed to come and photograph my little one in the hospital! We had a ton of fun, although it wasn’t easy working with a slightly fussy baby and a whole lot of cords and tubes! I’m so excited to see how they turned out though!

Discussion: I haven’t had a discussion question in quite a long time, and since I’m trying to capture some sense of the old “normalcy” I thought I’d give it a whirl again! So, has God taken your snowglobe of life lately and shaken it up? If so, care to share?? Did you learn anything new, or see things from a different perspective?