A virtual Christmas with Daddy.

So, this was Christmas with Daddy on Skype. We opened presents and played while Daddy watched.

Sick and cold

Today, I’m at work and I feel just terrible. I am trying to keep the cough down but the bronchitis is not going away despite all the medicine. I’m on prednisone and cough suppressant. The cough medicine shouldn't be used beyond 24 hours but I’ve been taking it since last Wednesday. I feel completely loopy and almost unable to concentrate.

The terrible weather has added to my current misery. Any time I have to go outside I cough till my sides ache and my head feels like it will explode. But I have to go outside. I have to go to work and now that the temps have hit the -20 F range at night my car won’t start and I have to spend even more time outside. At first it helped to put the battery charger on the car, giving it some extra incentive to start. However, at -20, it’s a lost cause. So I’ve resorted to taking the bus. I take it in to work anyway after I drive the girls to daycare. However, now today, I will have to get the girls from daycare and put them on the bus, while it is 0 F outside. I don’t think they will do too well with that. They don't like the cold. They cry when they have to walk in the cold for even short distances. How to do it, kept me awake last night. And I rarely worry about small things. There is the 2 blocks I will try to persuade them to walk in the cold, from daycare to the bus stop. Then I have to get them off to walk 2 blocks to another stop, in order to ride for 2 more blocks then get off and walk for 3 more blocks before arriving home.

I'm worried that perhaps I'll have a coughing spell and pass out on the sidewalk, while two little girls stand and look at me. Perhaps, it will be too cold for them. News has been warning people of frostbite to any skin exposed for 15 minutes.

Today, I wish I could just stay home.

Alone, and half-dead, while everything rests on my head.

I’ve joined a few facebook Mom’s groups. They were especially helpful when I was too tired to think for myself. There were questions I had in the moment that needed to be answered right now. I would have called and asked my mom but it seems I remember more about my mom’s pregnancies than she does these days. After the seizure episodes, diagnosis and medication, she’s forgotten a lot of things.

Since there’s always new Moms on the group a repeat question comes up, whenever a Mom is about to be left alone with her twins for the first time. That moment leaves most with anxiety and many with outright panic. I too remember too well the “go home” date on my hospital board being repeatedly changed to the following date. I was admitted for a C-section on a Tuesday and released the following Monday. I was coached through the hospital birth by a good friend, Maureen, who had been my prayer partner and companion on a spiritual journey for a couple years prior to my marriage. She kept tabs on the babies along with my sister Kim, while I spent time in surgery and the recovery room.

I spent a week in the hospital while my babies stayed in the special care nursery. We stayed at the hospital so long because of me not because of their pre-maturity. First, there was the C-section, then the huge blood loss. Then there was the HELLP syndrome (skyrocketing high blood pressure) to deal with. I was on Mg for about a week. Then there was complete constipation induced by the pain meds which left me in horrendous pain for 3 days. I hadn’t eaten for 2 days and was trying to function, while on Mg and while in horrendous pain. I didn’t succeed in feeding my babies every 3 hours and a few nurses were cross with me for not keeping up. I was easily confused by the bad charting of the feedings and mostly felt lost and neglected by the staff.

Sunday night or Monday night I knew I was being discharged the next day. I was quite frightened inside but too sick to make much of a fuss about it. A few friends and relatives were lined up to come over and help arrange the house and bring food. One friend spent the night with me, for the first night. After that, things went silent at my house. I slept in the couch and put the twins in the crib my friend donated to me. I got up to breast feed, then laid back down to rest. Everything was quite a blur. I didn’t even care that the crib still had the unwashed sheet that came with it from my friend’s storage unit. I had two preemie outfits on the babies and they wore them constantly. I didn’t give them baths. I had tunnel vision toward fulfilling absolute needs. Baths were unnecessary because unbathed babies don’t die. Unfed babies die.

After the first day of stop-ins and moving home from the hospital, things fell silent till the first weekend. The 4 hour feeding rotation stretched on and on broken only by the heavy truck movement outside in the morning and the hour or two in the evening when people stopped by here and there, after work. There was a lot of alone time. The house seemed to go completely silent. My computer didn’t work, so there was no distraction from the large silence. But with the silence came a song of comfort. It was an old hymn we used to sing at church, “God will take care of you. Through every day, ‘or all the way. He will take care of you. God will take care of you.” If it were not a song that came from the Spirit and spoke to the depths of my soul, it would have been the words of a trite excuse, from some stingy soul, for withholding a gift that would have ministered to a desperate need.

In the silence, I heard a song, a song that the Lord spoke to me. I was in no position to proclaim to everyone the goodness of God. I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Some may have described this as the low point in my spiritual life because I didn’t read the Bible, nor did I make any effort to seek out God. All I did was lay on the couch and sleep and feed my babies, while listening to the song and the vast silence of the Spirit, which enveloped me. There was a peace and a calm that stilled the worry. There was a quiet decision about what I would attempt to accomplish and I did only that.

House Projects Update

So, before all this snow arrived and somewhere close to a month ago, I decided to be the early bird one Saturday. I woke up with the sun an began my sidewalk crack-sealing project outside, while the twins slept. I bought this compound that consisted of tar and other chemicals that smelled like a newly paved road. You were supposed to melt it on an campstove and pour it in the cracks. Just my luck the campstove ran out of fuel so I brought the pail inside and put it on the kitchen gas stove. Then I went outside and in my sleepy stupor I stayed outside too long. I got occupied with the stuff I was working on.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that the strange noise I was hearing was the fire-alarm inside my house. I ran inside. The house was full of smoke and the fire alarms were wailing away. Coughing, I ran to the stove turned it off and began opening windows. The can on the stove was still on fire. I didn't quite know what to do to extinguish the fire, so I just grabbed the can with a hot pad and threw it out the open window, where it landed in a brush-pile and started it on fire. The alarms continued to wail as I ran around coughing and setting up in-and-outs for air movement. Then my babies began to wake up and wail. The door to their bedroom was closed so they weren't breathing the fumes like I was. I went in to hold them and soothe them and get out of the smoke. Eventually, the fire-alarms quieted and the smoke cleared but the stench remained.

To this day, the soot remains. I've not had time to attack it and I've been trying to finish the last project. However, as I considered the horrendous soot that first week. It was everywhere! I resign myself to call the insurance company for assistance in the damage clean-up. It's taken a month for everyone to do their numbers but finally, I think this week will be the week the cleaners come out and clean everything. I just have to pull all the stuff out.

I guess this goes to show how stretched I've become. These kinds of accidents don't happen to well rested people. I guess nearly burning down my house has become a blessing in disguise. I've needed the help for quite some time. Now, I'm getting it in a way I hadn't expected.

Immigration: an ongoing case.

Mom of 3 pending deportation.

I was directed to an article today. A mom of 3 is ordered to leave the country.

A number of issues are involved in this case. Naturally, the broken immigration system is an issue. Second, is the issue of slavery/prostitution/exploitation and trafficking of women as sex slaves. Third, is the IJ's, ignorance--as representative of the population--of the previous issue as being a legitimate issue.

A few comments:

1. The comments to the article are always appalling and representative of the common ignorance to immigration issues and other horrendous living conditions that exist across the globe.

2. People repeatedly refer to the other illegal immigrants out there getting away with being illegal. Often reference is made to how come all the hispanics are not being deported. This only goes to prove my previous comment. Anyone how makes this comment, has never known or been close to this "typical hispanic immigrant."

The logistical reason why illegal Hispanic immigrants are able to stay is that they have purchased a new identity--the identity of someone who sold his identity on the black market. That identity, a ss#, is used by the "illegal immigrant" for work and for staying purposes. Taxes are collected off of it. Social Security tax in particular. Generally, when an "illegal immigrant" uses this ss# they have to use it in a particular way because if it is used in such a way to attract attention such as an accounting issue, it could be discovered that the ss# is with the wrong person. So, as it works with any business, there is no issue with regular deposits. The Social Security Administration, for example, has no reason to scrutinize, incoming funds. They would rather scrutinize out-going funds and therefore to avoid even the smallest chance of that, the "illegal immigrant" holding a valid U.S. identity does not collect social security or often they don't collect tax refunds. So really the people who are mad about "illegal immigrants" not paying taxes don't know what they are talking about.

What this Mom does not have is a fake ID. She has her real ID and a denied petition for asylum. That is why she cannot stay and all those "illegal immigrants" can.

3. No matter how heartbreaking this case is...ICE, Immigration and the IJ do not care. Politicians in Washington cannot do anything unless the law is changed to provide a permit for people to stay or a path toward citizenship. Families are torn apart every day on account of immigration laws. Numerous "illegal immigrants" get deported their children get processed through CPS and are adopted out to American families. Citizens are the only ones who can use their representative power to urge their representatives to vote and put new laws in place, and to repeal old laws that don't work. Here is a list of repealed laws. However, most citizens have turned their power of representation over to the law as it is and becomes, and large companies and those who hold large dollars dictate any new laws.

A Paid Vacation

How marvelous! I received two days of paid vacation. I finally feel human again.

After 3 years of working for every hour of payment received and sometimes not working for a paycheck at all, I finally have made it into the paid vacation club. It's a very exclusive club. I even left a better job, just for the added benefit of getting one or two more paid vacations more than I would have otherwise, for the next two months. On Black Friday, I dropped my twins off at daycare and came back to the house with hopes of tackling a project. However, I was so exhausted and with the weight of constant responsibility lifted off my head, I collapsed onto the couch and slept for 5 hours. I'd been struggling with a cold and other sickness since the beginning of the month. Finally, I was able to catch enough of a break to do some damage to the grip of illness on my body.

Today, Sunday, I have finally reached the end of washing clothes and cooking and cleaning out the things growing in the fridge. Everything is washed. The floor is cleaned. The toys are put away and the dishes are caught up. Rarely, is this all accomplished at once.

I never thought this would ever happen to me but housecleaning is the last thing on my to-do list these days. I keep my job, first. Second, I work on resting so that I can keep my job. I then wash clothes. After that it is a toss up between making food and washing dishes. Everything else gets neglected. I've even at times neglected bathing the babies because it was too much work. I certainly have neglected bathing myself. I don't even have the presence of mind to remember my longest stint of not bathing.

If you see me on my couch too often for too long--I am resting. Interestingly enough, I have also been recovering for much longer than I realized. It was a bit deceiving when I went to my ob for a 3 week post par-tum check-up and my ob said, "Clean bill of health!" At the time it didn't ring true in any shape or form but I thought to myself, "I must be well because she says I'm well." Then I tried very hard to be well. But I did notice how I did not feel like doing anything. I felt very lethargic. I just sat on the couch. I remembered that I had preemie clothes for my babies at the bottom of the steps but could not conceive of putting forth the effort to go down to get them.

Then I got better and better. And I thought, "huh, it feels like I can climb a ladder now." And it feels like I can maneuver this power tool." This has been more recent than I care to admit. Last year a friend invited me to Zumba, I couldn't conceive of it. Now, it doesn't feel like such a mental block.

I am still recovering it feels. Just doing so in bits and pieces as I can.

Suddenly, they speak.

Two weeks ago I had the girls evaluated because they were not speaking. Two ladies from St. Paul Public Schools came out to evaluate. The twins did really well with their motor abilities but not so much with the speaking. They are 21 months and they really should be calling me Mama and be verbal in other ways.

Yet it seems the holiday weekend was their breakthrough. Today, at nap time I asked them if they wanted to go night-night. They both said, "No," repeatedly and plainly. I then asked them if they wanted to eat. "Eat they repeated and went running to the kitchen. "What shall we eat?" I asked. "Apple," they replied.

No issues in comprehension there.

Today, Glory was exercising her climbing ability. I was in the other room when I hear something that sounded like what I've said to her repeatedly, "Get down." I hear it again and I go to inspect what is going on. There she is climbing onto the couch arm and up the shelving unit, saying to herself, "Get down." It was my turn to say, "Get down."