Day 10

This is the day we have been waiting for....DAY 10!

Her doctor said he would look at upgrading her at day 10 but that didn't happen. Still 50/50.

Nicole just came back from her 3rd surgery. The doctors graphed both hands and her whole right arm. They took what skin was left on her legs which wasn't too much but it did go pretty far. 2 more transfusions for her. She is breathing better and some breathing is on her own. We are grateful for that!

Flashback: You know the movie, "A Christmas Story"? Christmas morning 1990. John and I are in the bathroom getting ready for the day. Nicole and Christian are donning their new Christmas pajamas made by grandma. We can hear them giggling in the other room, waiting, wondering what Santa has brought for them, trying to be patient.

All of the sudden we hear screaming. Both children screaming,

HELP, HELP, HELP!

We dash into the kitchen(that is where the screams are coming from). There they both are, standing on a chair, with the fridge open and their tongues stuck to the freezer. We started laughing, trying to find the camera. We did get them unstuck with no damage to themselves. We had to rent A Christmas Story a show them that it isn't just them who got stuck either.

The only place I can touch Nicole is the toes on her left foot. I rub them several times a day.

Earlier today before surgery she had a choking spell. Fear raised in my heart. I got a nurse who came in and suctioned her. Her secretions are very thick and she needs to be suctioned quite often. That helped but my heart raced for a while. Either that had not happened before or I was just not there when it had. Either way I was not prepared for that. I am not afraid of water but I have a fear of drowning and I liken thick stuff in the throat to where you can't breath to drowning.

I am a little anxious today. It is hard to concentrate and hard to focus. My mind flits from one thing to another so fast that I can hardly keep up. Little saying she says, sweet things she does, all the memories. There is hardly a memory of Nicole that it doesn't involve Christian. Two peas in a pod they were when they were younger. Christian even saved her life one day.

They were fishing at Thomas Park in Carrollton, TX. It had rained quite a bit the day before in our area but what I didn't know was that up North it had rained a lot. All that rain had filled the rivers in our area. If you don't know much about rushing rivers, they eat away at the banks as they rush by. You can't really tell because the top is left undisturbed. There they were, Christian, Nicole and Katie (their friend) fishing. Nicole was standing on a place that had no soil under her to support her weight. Not long after moving to that spot the ground gave was and she was thrust into the river. Christian yells to Katie to run to our house to get me. She takes off running while he is running along the river calling to her and looking for a long stick or something. Christian is seeing his sister bobbing up and down and sees nothing that he can get to her for her to hang on to. Running far ahead he gets to a near by bridge where he jumps in and holds onto the steel part of the bridge. As she comes toward him he pushes his legs out to grab her or have her grab him. It works. She is able to grab his pant leg. Just as I pull up in the car with Katie, there they are struggling to get out of the water. As the fear in me starts to subside I am in awe of the selfless act Christian performed. He didn't see it that way. He just didn't want me to be mad they both were all wet.

It has been 18 months since our last family picture. It was Christmas time and I wanted to have our pictures done. Alicia (our niece) is a great photographer. She met us one early morning a couple of days after Christmas. We went to Lagoon walk. It is a trail next to Lagoon amusement park. So beautiful. It had snowed and the walk ways were untrodden. The light was amazing. It is my favorite time of year for pictures. I love the way snow looks in photos. When it was all done the kids both asked that the next time we have family photos taken can it PLEASE be in the summer. I was planning on asking her to do them again this summer at our family reunion in Antimony, UT. Now I wish I had asked to do it last month.