Still Lurking....

 Christina's Story - Most of you know this story already but I promised the Lord I would speak of His Work, His Words and His Glory.  Over the next several days I am going to share what has become Christina's Testimony.  Glory be to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The next four months went quickly.  Between football, the holidays, family coming to visit, and my health the months passed by very quickly.
The enemy did not stop attacking.  There were moments of quietness but he was still lurking around.  I am blessed to have  awesome prayer warriors that constantly kept me and my daughter in their prayers.  As a matter of fact I know that you - DARLA, JAN, LINDA, MARSHA, JANINE, LAURA, MOM, GLORIA, LAURIE, TANYA, SANDY and others constantly lifted us up....and thank you doesn't seem to be enough.
I had good days and I had bad days.  There were days that I didn't get out of bed and days that I had lots of energy.  Toward the end of the pregnancy the preeclampsia symptoms started bringing me down.  When I made it to New Year's I felt like I had accomplished a major hurdle.  Then when we pre-registered the reality of having another child was really real.
The enemy showed up at the hospital with "guns a blazing".  he was ready to John 10:10 me & my entire family but he DID NOT succeed.  As I think about the three weeks AFTER I had Christina I can almost....almost laugh. 
I have almost no memory of the first two days after Christina's birth.  The last thing I remember on the day I had her was the anesthesiologist asking me if I felt him sticking my stomach before surgery.  
I remember Wednesday morning (the day after I had Christina) I was in really bad pain and had the worse headache of my life - I should mention that I am very experienced in headaches - migraines, tension, sinus, and stress headaches.  I honestly thought I was dying....my left side went numb and the pain was so intense I couldn't speak.  I heard the people in my room talking about a stroke and I needed a CT scan.  All I could think and what I remembered was praying and asking the Lord to "please take care of my babies, and let them know how much I loved them."  I don't know what happened or what they did but I didn't have a stroke - PRAISE the LORD. 
My next memory was Wednesday night...my sisters - my sisters are my actual sisters-in-law.  The Lord blessed me with four awesome sister-in-laws that I consider my sisters...anyway...my sisters were deciding who should stay the night with me.  I told them not to worry about staying with me...I was just going to sleep - there was no need for anyone to stay with me.  So everyone left.  About 9:15pm my sister Christi showed up.  I was confused because I thought we had decided no one would stay with me but she said she wanted to stay with me.  It warmed my heart but I didn't want to be a burden to her.  It was good to have her with me...we hardly ever have a chance to talk just the two of us without children or husbands around.  Unfortunately my head started hurting again so the nurse gave me some pain medicine and I insisted that Christi go home.  I told her the medicine would knock me out and I would be fine....plus Christina would be in the nursery all night.  So Christi went home.
About 11:30 that night I started having a reverse reaction to the pain medicine.  It felt like I was drowning and someone was sitting on my chest.  I called Christi and asked her to come back to the hospital because I was not doing good.  They immediately did an EKG, an X-Ray, and blood work.  I was having a reaction to the pain medicine and the magnesium sulfate medicine in my IV.  (The magnesium sulfate was to help with my blood pressure.)  After the nurse stopped the magnesium sulfate I started feeling somewhat better.  Christi and I continued to talk until almost 2:30 in the morning. 
Around 3am I needed the nurse to look at my incision so Christi stepped out of the room.  Christi had barely fallen asleep on the sofa & jumped up when the nurse came in the room.  The nurse was in my room less than 2 minutes and Christi was coming back into the room as the nurse was leaving.  As Christi entered the room she all of a sudden passed out. 
I mean she HIT THE FLOOR PASSED OUT! 
BAM!  
HIT THE FLOOR like a WET NOODLE! 
Christi COMPLETELY PASSED OUT! 
I started screaming...."my sister....my sister....someone HELP MY SISTER!"  I could not get out of bed....I had an IV, two blood pressure cuffs, oxygen monitor, oxygen and leg cuffs...I was restrained to my bed.  The nurse and several other nurses were trying to revive her but she wasn't coming around!! 
Then I heard them call the trauma team from the ER for help - EMERGENCY!  Christi was not coming around...and there was nothing I could do except lay in bed and watch!  Christi was out almost 5 full minutes....which seemed like hours.  When she finally came around she wanted to hop up but they wouldn't let her.  They immediately took her to the ER to be checked out.  i told her I would call Kelly (her husband) and she yelled at me NOT to call him.  All I could think was someone needed to be with her in the ER.  I called Randy...it was now almost 3:45 in the morning.  Our home phone rang busy....as if he took the phone off the hook and his cell phones were turned off.  (Aww....I was so MAD!  Here I was at the hospital having a baby...almost dying....and now his sister had a concussion and HE was at HOME sleeping so peacefully!  To say I was mad was an understatement!)  I then tried to call my parents and the same thing - their phone was busy!!  WHAT WAS GOING ON....well our phone company had problems so all the lines were down...which explains the busy signals!!  So I called my other sister to come help.  When she answered the phone panic was already in her voice.  All I said was "Get here - now!"...I am not sure what was said after that but Linda and Kevin were there before I knew it.  Christi was okay....except for the huge knot on her forehead.  She went to her regular doctor the next week and they are doing some further testing.
The next day (Thursday) was almost drama free and then I was discharged on Friday.  My blood pressure was still really high...it was averaging 185/110 but I desperately wanted to just go home.  Home we went. Randy was so wonderful, he took care of me, John, Christina, the house, the dogs, the shopping, the laundry, everthing...he is just amazing. Things seemed to be going great for a day but then my Mom got really sick on Saturday.  Then John started running a fever of 102+ on Sunday.  On Monday John was diagnosed with RSV - he was so very SICK.  Throwing up, spiking fever, no appetite, diarrhea, and an awful cough.  By Wednesday I started feeling sick.  Randy took John back to the doctor on Thursday and he now had a 2nd infection of bronchitis.  I went to the doctor on Friday morning....I had a sinus infection and RSV.  I took Christina to the doctor that afternoon and my 10 day old baby had RSV.  I had to take her back on Saturday morning and she seemed a little better.  She was still sick but things seemed okay until we took both kids back to the doctor on Tuesday January 25th for a re-check.  The doctor wanted Christina in the hospital.  So Christina and I spent the next 4 days & three nights in the hospital.  I should also mention that we had MAJOR plumbing issues.  All the water pipes behind my washer & dryer had to be replaced.  AGGGHHHH!!!!
As of today....my 39th birthday everyone except my Daddy is doing great and feeling better.  The "shaking" has seemed to ease up...and stopped for the moment.
I am thankful the Lord was with us and carried us through this trial.  Praise be to Jesus Christ.  He is the One that was with us and helped us to overcome all our hardships.
Linda recently shared with me that in life you are "about to go through a storm.... in the middle of a storm....or leaving a storm."  I am really praying & hoping we are walking out of a storm.
Thanks again for praying, listening, reading, supporting, and, loving me and my family.