not such a fan

i promise that i have some fun posts coming up soon, but for right now i'm feeling a little heavy hearted and figured what better way to vent.

the end of december was a bit rough for us valentine's with the economy the way it is and tulare county (my husband's employer) making massive cut backs and mass lay off's r has been on edge each day hoping that he has a job to return to.

we got a phone call dec 15th from jill's mom (my friend who's wedding i was in the last sept) saying that her new husband had been hurt at work. he has lost both hands and is currently home trying to recuperate. four days after the initial injury and multiple surgeries they found out jill is pregnant with their first. they are both incredibly excited and while this could be just the motivation and distraction they needed, jill is still a bit overwhelmed being newly pregnant and helping her new husband make a full recovery.

last sunday the 28th of dec my grandma judy was taken into the hospital with internal bleeding and discovered she had a bleeding tumor that is currently in-operable. there are more in her liver as well. her kidneys aren't functioning well so she's very yellow and is still losing a lot of blood. the prognosis isn't looking good and it's been quite painful on my grandpa and my dad. my dad just lost his aunt to cancer in October and now his step mom of over 30 years is suffering from the same thing.

last friday i got a call from monica saying that dennis maccallister's son, jerry was in a dirt bike accident and had broken his neck and was currently paralyzed from the neck down. he's thus far undergone two surgeries in attempts to repair the damaged vertebrae and stabilize him.

i've had two friends with parents recently diagnosed with very advanced cancer with very minimal prognosis. both of which who's health is declining rapidly and right before their eyes.

i am not telling you all of this to depress you all, but to make you aware of what's going on around us and remind us all that life is not forever. we need to be sure that we live for today and that we tell those around us each day what they mean to us. you don't know that your spouse, child, parent, grandparent etc will be there tomorrow and if they are, you don't know about the day after that. life is short. we can't take our money, our house, or our STUFF with us. i do know that ryan and i are fortunate to have had our grandparents for as long as we have. until just this year we both had all of our grandparents and two step grandparents (ryan's step grandma passed away this summer). there aren't many of our friends that can say the same. we also both of all of our parents in great health. we're fortunate to have each other and we try not to take that for granted. we're not parents so i can't even begin to think what dennis and katie must be going through with jerry, but i can tell you that it breaks my heart to think about the fear, anxiety, grief, and stress that they must be experiencing. i don't know that i've really processed any of the above until today when i tried to tell others all that's been going on and i think the more you talk about things, the more you process them yourself... so here you go. i'm processing by sharing with you.

please join me in prayer.

you can follow jerry maccallister's progress on a blog that has been set up to keep people posted. www.followingjerry.blogspot.com

they have also created a donation link on there where people can help them with the current cost of hotel and food for a family of 5 that are staying close by the hospital with him.

ok, i promise more uplifting posts to come...