Wow 2020 has been quite a year. We went into this year with high hopes. 2019 had been hard in several ways. We had experienced our hardest adoption and had spent a lot of time adjusting to unexpected conditions and determining what we needed to do to take care of our child and help her to prosper.
Well 2020 made 2019 look so easy and it started off very early in the year.
On January 2nd Robin had her annual physical. A few days later they called and advised that they saw something in a test and wanted to run another test. On January 9th I was out of town and she got the call that it was CANCER. Her doctor did not waste any time and had her to a surgeon in 2 hours flat. That was a hard day, not being here with her and hearing her voice when she called me. I wanted to be here and it moved so fast I could not get back fast enough. She immediately begin more tests and preparation for the next steps.
On February 10th she had surgery to remove the cancer. Thankfully it went well and radiation was the only treatment needed. After about 2 weeks of recovery she was back to almost normal. I cant say enough how thankful I am for our older sons and our kids at home. Stephen jumped in and helped with school pickups etc. Andrew flew home for a week to help out, Aaron was our encourager and prayer warrior. Everyone jumped in and did what was needed to keep things running. Our life group from church brought food and helped in many ways. I told Robin that it took me and 3 teenage girls to just attempt to do all that she does in a typical day and not have the wheels fall off.
In March COVID had started becoming an issue and it was also time to start treatments. One blessing was that the day radiation started was my first day working from home. This allowed me to be here to see Robin off every morning to treatments and to be here to check on her when she got home. It kept me home where I needed to be to encourage her and help her. With everything grinding to a stop we spent a lot of time as a family.
By April treatments were over and life was returning to as normal as it could be with COVID. We got into a new routine and now that radiation was done we could be a little less concerned about Robin getting it. I continued to work at home until June and then returned to the office and began to travel a little for work.
We got through the summer and in August took a vacation to the mountains. We were blessed to have our oldest son and his family there and our third son and his wife also came along too. We had a wonderful time and the kids loved seeing their oldest brother and his family. We had some time to spoil the grand kids a bit. It was so much fun seeing so many of our kids together.
Two of the girls got their drivers permits and it has been fun (NOT) teaching kids to drive again. I refer to one as wrong way and the other as whiplash. These two also got their first jobs and love working and making money.
Fall rolled along and was OK, work continued to be very busy. Then my brother who had been fighting cancer was back into the battle. Just before Thanksgiving we lost him to Cancer. Then 2 weeks later his wife passed away from COPD so a very hard blow on the entire family. It is strange to loose a sibling and leaves a hole that is hard to explain.
Hannah continued to adjust and make slow progress but will require a lot of special care for a long time. The other kids are doing great. We have grand child number 4 on the way in May and are excited about that. Robin just had her check up with the cancer doctor and is doing great. She is having trouble with her knee and will need surgery on it at some point.
So all in all we are truly blessed. Blessed that Robin's cancer was caught early and surgery and treatments were very effective. Blessed that Hannah has a great attitude most of the time and is happy. I am thankful to know I will see my brother again beyond this life. We are blessed to be able to spend time with all of our adult kids from time to time. We are blessed to be a big family and have each other. We have been blessed by our church family and could not imagine going through a year like this without God and with other Christians to pray for us and be there for us in any way needed. I am blessed to have a good job and to be in an industry that is growing and has not seen any negative impact from the pandemic.
So here's to moving on to 2021 and praying that it is a better year and that we never take God's blessings for granted.
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