Expect the Unexpected

     When I first started teaching at Cornerstone and the charter school way was new to me, a lot of things I had to learn how to handle without a program administrator or someone downtown telling me what to do. The best advice I got from our director was to expect the unexpected and things would seem a little easier. From that day on and each new school year I expected the unexpected so that I wouldn't get bogged down with all the chaos that a new school year brings. 

    At the beginning of this school year, I learned that Evey would need another open heart surgery. I was not expecting that to be told to us. Her doctors weren't expecting it either. I went into a whirlwind of emotions. I started the school year off with a negative attitude. I didn't want to be there. I couldn't handle putting Evey to sleep because the long nights at the hospital and after her first heart surgery  crept back in. There were many nights I cried because I just wanted to stay at home with Evey and put her in this bubble with me. Then school started.

    After hearing a few sermons at church, podcasts and a conversation I had with the director that woke me up, I decided that I would take each day as it comes. There was no point thinking about the future because if I did, negative thoughts would come back and it would just send me in another whirlwind of emotions. I couldn't worry about future doctor appointments, the nursing company that could care less about their nurses or their clients because it didn't matter. What mattered was us focusing on the day to day functions for our family. I wanted to enjoy Ty's stories that he had from his first days of kindergarten, the rides home where everyone falls asleep because school tired them out and everything in between!

    After Evey's cardiologist appointment in August, we were expecting them to call and set up the heart surgery in September but September came and we had another cardiologist appoint and at that one she said we will see you have surgery. They called and set it up for October 14th. We were prepared! Each September since Evey has been born she has had to go to the hospital. 2023- Aspiration; 2024- seizure like activity; 2025- turning purple and not being able to calm down. I should have expected to unexpected!

    September 19th I came home after work and the nurse had Evey in her arms and she said she thought she was having a tet spell, her oxygen was fine but her heart rate was elevated. She left and the kids and I tried to get her calmed down. Nothing was working and she continued to get more purple and her skin was mottling a deeper purple than it had before. I was a little panicky and my spirit told me something was not right. I tried to call her cardiologist but they had closed at 4:30 so I just ended up calling 911. Fire fighters came and gave her some oxygen and that seemed to calm her down a little through her sobs. We had to wait until the EMTs got there to see what to do next. They saw her and said lets go. So we went to Cone and waited to see what Duke wanted us to do. They ended up wanting us to come over. We had to sleep at Cone all night and then we were transferred to Duke. At Duke, they asked about what happened and they wanted us to try out a medicine to keep her heart rate down. They ran a viral scan so that if we needed to do her heart surgery sooner we could. Well, the viral scan came back positive for Covid. We had no idea she had it. She was super asymptomatic. The nurses and doctors were shocked themselves because she was always smiling and happy when they saw her, so we had to delay her heart surgery! We were discharged on Sunday, the 21st and school was closed the next day due to a fire alarm malfunction so we were all able to get much needed rest. Our church, family and friends all prayed for her and we felt the prayers working! Thankfully we got a new date: HALLOWEEN!

    After she got home, she began crawling on all fours instead of her boot scooting. It was like she needed that rest to gain energy to crawl. She is now crawling into the kitchen from the living room and into the hallway. She is beginning to eye the stairs so we will be working with her to figure out how to climb the stairs safely! She is so proud of herself when she gets to her destination.

     Her appetite came back and she is eating well! She was put on a thyroid medicine since it was determined she has hypothyroidism. It isn't the autoimmune variant so that is good! We are working on her transitioning to whole milk and she is getting better and better at using utensils. Her favorites at the moment are pop tarts, donuts, green bean fries, pirate booty, and Fritos. She still likes her waffles, goldfish, apple slices and her meat. She LOVES meat!

    She is beginning to show her personality more and more. She has this little laugh that she makes when she is proud of herself, she sings while she plays and she is beginning to do a little dance. When she hears a phone ringing or she picks up her play phone she holds it up to her face and says hey. She even giggles when I call Joshua from the van and she hears it ringing.  It's the cutest thing!

    I'm pretty sure when she gets to kindergarten she is going to be stubborn. She is going to show her teachers that she can do a task but it is not going to be the way they have taught her. She will do it out of order but will eventually do the skills her way. Everything has been done her way and she has proven to us and her doctors that she is strong and determined! Once she is shown how to do something she will do it for a hot second, then do it her way and then back to the correct way. She is the definition of expect the unexpected! 

Be like a bee-hardworking, wise and delicate!