Long weekend!

Friends/family,


Hello! I'm sorry I haven't posted for a few days, we were trying to have a "normal" 4th of July weekend. I've been encouraging Brent to start updating the blog now as well. :)


Brent is recovering very well - I have been able to take him out on some short errands with me in a wheelchair, which is nice. He has been taking 3 walks/day and has had no complications so far! After his last surgery, around week 2 was when he got sick. We're 12 days post-op and no problems thus far! He's been sleeping about 6 hours/night and hasn't had as many nightmares as in the past. He had his blood levels drawn on Thursday and again today and everything is normal. Overall, I think he's doing great!


I think I am still experiencing what it's like to have an infant - my sleep schedule is still regulated by his, lots of laundry, I clean the house daily to help ward off infection, help him with bathing/dressing, feed him, etc. I will be most excited when Brent can pour his own water again and put on a shirt by himself. :) I spent a lot of time filling up his water bottle and dressing him. Thank God people are bringing us food because by evening time, I have no energy left to cook and then do all dishes. I miss Brent being able to help out with the dishes!


So Thursday, we went and had Brent's labs drawn, took pictures of tons of furniture we need to sell, and went and looked at new couches. We are hoping to buy a new couch with the money we make from selling old furniture. Brent has to sit on a couch for 8 weeks and mine is horribly uncomfortable. Since neither of us are currently receiving income, we have to sell a ton of furniture before buying anything new. I think we both had fun wheeling him around and getting out of the house for a bit. Thursday night, some wonderful friends' of ours brought us over sushi from our favorite sushi place and fro-yo for dessert! It was SO nice of them and we had so much fun hanging out and catching up. Brent and I are such social people - we have really appreciated all of the visits from our friends both in San Diego and at the hospital! The same couple also brought us lunch on Friday - which was amazing. :)


Friday was an exciting day - even though we spent most of the day at home - because our awesome dogsitter/close friend brought Sadie home to us! The best part is she took her to get a bath first and then brought her home. Sadie was nice and clean and so happy to see us. Now we call her the "recovery dog" because Brent is so happy around her. It's also more fun taking the daily Brent walks with our dog. She just makes us smile and keeps us happy. It was nice to hang out with our friend on Friday during the day too - she took such great care of Sadie, we were so appreciative! It was such a relief in the hospital to not have to worry about Sadie - and she even would send us pictures of Sadie every once in while to keep our spirits up. Having a dogsitter that loves your dog as much as you do is amazing.


Friday evening, we ordered pizza and had another visit from a great friend - and she brought us yummy popsicles! We are so appreciative of people bringing us food/treats. I have no desire to cook right now or go to the grocery store - taking care of Brent is more than enough to wear me out. :) We hung out Friday for a little bit and then Brent went to bed, but my friend stayed and we ended up talking for hours. It was very therapeutic and wonderful to have some girl time. I really needed some friend time on Friday and it was so nice to talk with all of our visitors.

So for the 4th of July, we mostly hung out at home and watched movies/tv all day. It was good to rest and relax all day, but we're both already getting pretty bored at home. We're such an active couple; it's so hard to sit at home all the time - but we've gotta get used to it! I'm a little curious how God is going to use Brent's time over the next 8 weeks. After his last surgery, he planned a softball tournament that raised over $10,000 for the Adult Congenital Heart Association! On Saturday night, we actually grilled out and then I put Brent in the wheelchair and wheeled him about half a mile down to our friends' condo to watch the fireworks. Our friends live in an amazing condo with a great view of all of the fireworks over the bay of San Diego. It was so nice to be able to get out and socialize and feel somewhat normal on the 4th! I was so glad they invited us over. It was a good day, but of course we were wishing we could've gone to the beach and spent the day outside. It's been so gorgeous in San Diego lately - the weather definitely wasn't this nice in June when Brent was ok. Hopefully the nice weather will continue into the fall and we can have fun at the beach then.


Sunday and Monday has been more of the same, running a few errands and mostly hanging out at home, sleeping and staring at the TV. We have already sold a lot of furniture, so that's exciting - we're one step closer to our new couch! Sadie is back to her old routine - but I think she loves having us around all the time. She's lucky because Brent will be home with her for quite some time - poor dog will be in shock when he goes back to work in late August. :)


As far as the wedding, it's been a topic of much discussion the past few days. I think it's a depressing topic for both of us - and likely why I haven't posted in a few days - which is not how weddings should be. This is supposed to be a happy, exciting time - and it's been hard to smile! The truth is, we never imagined we'd be changing our wedding date after all of the hard work. I have put a lot of effort into planning our wedding and I am just kind of in shock and depressed I have to re-plan everything. I spent 3 weeks and at least 150 hours hand-making our wedding invitations - I can't believe all of my endless cutting, printing, gluing, tying, arranging - all 170 invitations went out with a date that's not our wedding date - a date that will now be a sad day. There are countless other things we've discussed that have "our" date on them that isn't now our wedding date. It's just so disappointing for both of us. Luckily, Brent will definitely be helping me more this time around since he'll be at home while I am working. :) We need to make the final decision about the date and I think both of us are having a very hard time just making that final decision and moving forward. We're very upset about "losing" so many guests that won't be able to make our wedding with a new date and also feel horrible for our friends that have to change their plane tickets and pay extraordinary change fees. We're really going to put some of our friends in a bad financial situation and we feel so guilty about that. It's an extremely tough decision - but Brent simply won't be recovered enough in 4 weeks to enjoy our wedding and honeymoon. We keep saying "tomorrow we'll start making arrangements" - but we keep putting it off. So maybe tomorrow, we really will start moving forward...


One of the most depressing things about putting the wedding off is that I will have to take the fall semester off from grad school. I've spent the past 2 years working so hard with being a full-time grad school student and working 2 jobs - there have been countless nights when I only got a few hours of sleep because school was so overwhelming and 24 hours just wasn't enough time in one day. I am SO close to being done - I've spent so much money on grad school and now I have to put school on hold and we don't know for how long. I have started looking into transferring with not much luck, but we'll see what happens. Maybe some school, somewhere in the country will give me a break. I don't know if there will be a "slot" for me in the spring to continue at my current school and as time goes on, if you don't finish, you start losing credits. What we're going through is not fun, but I keep trying to remind myself I have the rest of my life to finish school - even if I have to completely start over and have to take out more student loans - and we only get one wedding/honeymoon.


Please continue to pray for Brent's recovery. I truly believe he's doing so well because of all of the prayers. It's crazy to think he had open-heart surgery just 12 days ago. Please don't "forget' about us either. We still need help, support, and prayers. I think we're struggling a bit now with all of the hard decisions we have to make about the wedding and our future. We both tend to get upset at night and it makes it hard to face the next day. We're trying to keep our spirits up, but it has been harder lately - now the adrenaline is all gone and we're back to facing life and the changes we face after his open-heart surgery. Please continue to pray for strength for us both, healing for Brent, and that God will really show us His will for our lives and our future.


We really appreciate the continued support and we're praying simply for happiness and normalcy now.


God bless,
~Rachel