Darin and I split up for Valentines weekend. This may seem really unromantic, but it was a mutual decision. I could stay until Monday with my family {celebrating Mark's 22 birthday} if Darin didn't come, and he is trying to get his kayak finished for a birthday launching. So, we headed in to our opposite destinations on Friday to beat the storm coming on Valentines day.
Although the weekend was to celebrate with Mark, we didn't see much of him. He had dates 2 out of the 3 nights I was there {including Valentines night...ooh la la} and his birthday dinner didn't pan out. The only picture I had of him from the weekend is the one above, Miriam took it and he was being silly for her. Julia, Jared, Sarah and I did get to take him out to buy some birthday clothes. He is fun to dress up, so easy to please.
Sunday morning, the day we were going to have the birthday dinner, we got a call from Julia saying she had fallen down the front steps {with Tatum in her arms, and she is 8 months pregnant} Jared had gone to church earlier because of his calling so she was alone. My dad and I rushed over to find her laying right inside her front door, luckily Jared's cell phone was on the coffee table so she didn't have to crawl all over the house. Her voice quivered a bit as she explained what happened but she never cried. Her ankle was a huge bulging ball that I couldn't even look out without feeling light headed and sick to my stomach. My dad carried her to the car and drove to the hospital while I stayed with Tatum. Sarah had gone to get Jared out of church so he met Julia and my dad at the hospital. We found out after church that Julia had broken her ankle in 3 places, and a chunk of her bone had broken off. The doctor said she probably broke it so severely because she was trying to protect both Tatum and her unborn baby from the fall. Basically, her ankle took the fall for all of them. Julia cried twice during the whole experience, once when she realized the accident would probably interfere with Mark's dinner, and then when the doctor told her she needed surgery immediately, and would have 8 {I believe} pins in her ankle. She started crying and said "but I am a dance teacher!" to which the doctor replied "I know, that's why we have to do surgery".
Julia can't put any weight on her ankle for 2 weeks, and will be on crutches for weeks and weeks after that and then need another surgery to take out a few of the pins. Her little family has moved in with my mom and dad for the next 2 weeks, and then they will need to figure out what to do next. Getting through these next few months will take so much sacrifice from everyone, there is a baby to be born, dance competitions, a dance recital, and my Mom and Sarah both have jobs. Here I sit, 2 hours away praying for them all but feeling useless otherwise.
Sometimes it feels like life is one crisis after another, but another way to look at it is one opportunity to show love after another. Boy Howdy does life give my family the opportunity to serve. This love, service, and support is rubbing off on the cousins who love each other dearly....as Miriam says "cousins are even better than best friends!". I say cousins are great, but brothers and sisters are even better and parents? Well....they are priceless.So, there was a bunch of lovey dovey stuff this weekend after all, just not between Darin and I. Don't worry about us, we have plans to celebrate as well, I just need to get the kids and I over this blasted cold we picked up over the weekend.
