Our New Temporary Life

We are slowly but surely adjusting to our new temporary life around here.

Troy is mostly off pain meds and rotating between his wheelchair, the couch and hobbling on crutches. In about six more weeks, he may be able to start putting 25% weight back on his leg, depending on how his X-ray looks. It will be a slow process for him to be able to fully walk again. The surgeon said he couldn't run for a year, so I'm thinking that wakeboarding, skiing and basketball are also off the table for a while.

Troy has been working from home which has worked out really well. We borrowed an extra monitor so he could have his two screen setup like he does at the office. Sometimes he has to take breaks to rest his leg from sitting in that wheelchair for hours on end, but overall, it is a great temporary arrangement. We are grateful that he has a job that he can perform from home. 

We're all actually loving having him around. The boys ask all the time if dad is going to be home again tomorrow. We always laugh and respond that he's going to be home for a looooong time. He enjoys seeing the boys in the mornings before school and having interactions with them other than that one stressful hour before bedtime. The relationship they've been building simply out of quality time spent together has been so endearing. And I am absolutely loving having him home all day. It is so nice to be able to talk to him whenever I want, even if he can't help me with any responsibilities. Just spending dinner together as a family every single night makes me so happy - it's a luxury that hasn't been apart of our lives for a very long time.

Troy has definitely had a little cabin fever. He's been out to church a few times, I took him to get his haircut, he's been to a few doctor's appointments, and we went to a movie, living it up in the handicap seating section. That's about it. I think he's ready for a change of scenery. We're trying to convince him to come down to Arizona with us for spring break. He can't really fend for himself for a week, and since he's working from home anyway, he could just bring his setup there. It's a choice between a week full of meals vs. living on toast and pancakes and dishes piling up everywhere. Plus, he is allowed to go in the pool since it's not weight bearing, so it seems like a no brainer to me. He's just worried about the drive.

We've hit a few bumps in the road. I came down with a painful bout of Strep again after 10 days of antibiotics not doing the trick the first time around. I couldn't bear another round of pills (I hate pills) so I opted for a massive shot in the rear to get it taken care of once and for all. I really don't know what I was thinking because I hate shots more than pills, and that shot was no joke. We made quite the duo at the lab. Troy, in a wheelchair, holding my hand while I breathed screamed my way through the longest injection I've ever had. I'm pretty sure we were the laughing stock of the day. I was sore for a week but at least it finally took care of the infection.

And then there was the week of technology issues. Troy's laptop got a virus that made it impossible for him to login to work. He had to completely wipe the laptop clean in order for it to function again. Which not only erased all of his files, but all of his software as well. And then the letter "z" stopped working on my laptop. It's not the end of the world to have to copy and paste a "z" when I need it, but not being able to use the keyboard shortcut to undo anything in my design work is driving me crazy. That issue was followed by my laptop not turning on altogether for an evening. Thankfully, I resolved that problem, but unless I replace my entire keyboard, I will be z-less from here on out. 

We also discovered that our hard drive that contained all of our kids' movies fried the same night a power outage corrupted our satellite box, despite being on a surge protector. We lost our entire collection of movies. All of these things are trivial first-world problems, I know, but on top of our growing list of challenges in 2014, we couldn't help but let the frustrations emerge. Technology issues sure can get your blood boiling.

All complaints aside, we continue to be amazed by the outpouring of love and service from those who surround us. My mom spent eight days with us and she was a Godsend. I desperately needed help that only a mom can give as we went went through an adjustment period. Friends from our neighborhood, friends from Michigan, and friends from our church congregation have checked in on us repeatedly, always always offering meals and help. We never expected anyone to care so much about our little family's hurdles in life. I keep being told that we need to allow others the opportunity to serve us, despite how guilty I feel that I can't pay anyone back. We feel so blessed to have amazingly thoughtful, caring, Christlike people in our lives.

I guess the only thing left to do is see who will walk first; Troy or Crew.

The race is on.