The Fey Family

It is Sunday night. I have dinner heating on the stove, thanks to a friend from church. My kids are out playing in mud, dug up courtesy of Nala, put somewhat back in place today by me and Jori. I went to see Darin this afternoon. I think finally knowing the results of the scan have relieved a lot of stress from him. We are so thankful there is NO sign of bleeding anywhere, not even any of the blood from the first scan. He is still experiencing head pain, which is worse with loud, or even semi loud noise, light, and movement, but no blood is still great news. We are hopeful he will be able to come home on Tuesday. When we first heard he would be released Tuesday, I think both of us thought "Good, and then it will be life as usual", but we have quickly realized that it is going to take a little while for things to get back to normal. Darin is tired. He is able to get up and walk around a bit, but the effort wears him out. We managed a bath this afternoon, hauling hot water fr...

Saturday Early Evening: Today was the Fun Run. Jori had a good time running the 5k. I even managed to get a couple pictures. Will they ever be posted...time will tell! They had some fun activities for the kids as well, so they enjoyed spending their early birthday money. After being home for about an hour, we headed to the hospital so the kids could see their dad! I think that their expectations and the reality were two totally different things. Tyson said "Dad, you don't lo ok the same". Jori just hugged her daddy's shoulder. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well and needed to lay down, so after just a couple minutes, I went back to his room with him (kids can't be in the room because of risk of infection to them, so Darin had to come to the waiting area on the ward). We talked for a bit, him with his eyes closed just to keep the head pain from worsening. We did talk to one of the nurses as Darin hadn't had any news about the CT scan (oh yes, it fin...

Friday afternoon: no news. That's good news, right?  Darin  is really tired. He sleeps in about 15-20 minute stretches all night, which means he is also sleeping in 15-20 minute stretches all day. Talking and being on his phone makes his head a bit sore, so when his worried wife leaves him yet another message saying "how are you?!?!?!" she just might get kind of a terse reply from her main man,who will remain her main man in sickness and health, crabbiness and happiness. I ask ed him if Sunday night was a 10 on the pain scale and your normal self is a 1, where are you at now. The answer is 3 1/2 folks!! So that is positive, but there are times when the head pain starts up again. He is also sore from laying in bed, sore from being in a hospital bed, sore from not being in a normal routine, so it is hard to judge how much of the pain and discomfort is from what happened and how much is just from not sleeping and being in a hospital and not home. Tyson is not feeling t...

So, some of you already know from Facebook and the Dutch underground (if you know about it, you are in it), that Darin is in the hospital. He went in late Sunday night with a severe headache or sudden onset. After a couple scans, it was determined he had some bleeding in/on the brain. He had an angiogram sometime on Monday and they could not find a spot to fix, no aneurysm or burst vessel, just blood. So we are praising God that no surgery is needed at this time. It is now Thursday afternoon. Darin is waiting to go in for another scan as he started having more pain in his head today and sensitivity to light. I am assuming he is getting the scan now as I can't get through on his phone. My friends, the waiting is hard. Keeping my mind from the what ifs is hard. So many people are praying, for Darin, for me, for the kids and we thank you. Please don't stop. Darin will be in hospital until at least Tuesday, so we have a few more days of waiting and wondering and what ifs ahea...

Sometimes I feel like I am juggling so many different things that I might have forgotten about a few of them. I go through my days juggling away, but am waiting for one or two of the forgotten “balls” to come down and hit me on the head. Did I remember to sign my kids up for holiday club? Does Tyson need immunizations this year? Did I set up an eye appointment to replace my very scratched glasses? Did I tell that child they could have a sleepover this weekend? Did I tell that person to come and collect food, applications, clothes, etc. from the distribution centre today? Did I let Ivy know they are coming or was I supposed to be there? I sent that company a thank-you letter for their donation, right? And the little boy who is waiting to go to crèche, do I have the banking details necessary to make that happen? Have I planned supper and do I even have groceries in the house to make something palatable? Were we supposed to have Nala spayed in April or May? Can we put it off til June? W...

So, it has been over a month since my last post. Ok, two months. I think that my blog used to be my only outlet for putting words on paper, but now a lot of the work I am doing with Take Action involves writing letters, posting interesting tidbits on Facebook, sending out updates and invitations; putting a lot of words on paper! I guess even my wordiness has limits. We have been keeping busy, as always. Darin’s mom left mid February and my parents arrived at the beginning of March. My dad was busy with training for Timothy Leadership for the first 3 weeks of their visit, but we kept busy with Gram. It was really nice having my mom around to help with the kids and the house and the cooking as March was a busy month for Take Action. We interviewed and hired a driver and an administrator for the Distribution Centre. These two people have freed up a lot of Darin’s time and mine as well. We also made site visits to all of the community partners TA is working with. We had Amo a couple t...

I feel like I have been writing a lot about our new house and moving and cleaning and remodeling, but not a whole lot about anything else! Here is a recap of the last 6 weeks, the details culled from What’s App chats and my trusty calendar: Week One: We moved in on Saturday, 9 January and hosted our first Take Action meeting at our new place on the morning of the 11 th . On the night of the 12 th , Darin’s mom and Oara’s adoptive family arrived. On the 13 th , Tyson and Jori started a new school year- 7 th and 5 th grade- and I went to a parent meeting that night. Darin got the stove hooked up and the sink! The next day Oara’s speech therapist came out to meet with her new parents and Darin was at a meeting in Pretoria. The kids opened presents from the Fey side and Huismans at night. They were thrilled. MacGyver quickly became one of their favorite TV shows/characters. The 15 th the physio therapist came out. The morning of the 16 th our fam and Grandma Karen headed to the Di...