Once upon a time, a boy asked a girl to Prom. The boy and the girl fell in love, got married, had four beautiful babies and they lived happily ever after. This was the plan I had for my life, but as many of you know life doesn?t always go the way we planned.
I scored in the husband department and I actually really did marry my high school Prom date. We have four beautiful babies who we absolutely adore! I love the life we have, but just like everyone else, we have had a few bumps along the way.
You see there are certain things we would never have dreamed of putting into our life plan, but they came anyway whether we wanted them or not. Things like? Broken bones, a miscarriage, pregnancy complications, stress tests, ultrasounds, a NICU stay, a life flight trip, an Infant Care Unit stay, Moebius Syndrome, Feeding tubes, NJ tube and GJ tube, a LADS procedure, 2 appendectomy?s, one knee surgery, dozens of swallow studies, ambulance rides, ER visits, hospital stays, Doctors and more Doctors, Kidney Stones, biopsy?s, needle aspirations, Cancer, Stage 3 Melanoma, so many surgeries, Brain Scans, CT Scans and MRI?s.
And the most unimaginable thing of all?losing a child.
His name was Tate and he was the most amazing boy ever! He was almost eighteen months when he passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. It was the worst day of our lives, our whole world shattered into a billion tiny pieces.
Tate had some health issues, but we were dealing with them and he was doing so well. He had so many challenges to deal with and he never complained once. He amazed doctors with the way he progressed in therapy and learned to say so many words at such a young age. Crawling was a challenge because he was missing his left hand, but he wouldn?t let that slow him down. Tate learned to scoot around on the floor while we chased closely behind him with his feeding pump. Tate’s syndrome made it physically impossible for him to smile, but his unforgettable giggle let you know that he was very happy in spite of everything he had to deal with physically. Such an awesome boy!
How could this have happened? This was definitely not in our plan.
The days, months and years that have followed losing Tate have been tough ones. We miss him every day. A little over a year after Tate passed away I was diagnosed with Cancer, Stage 3 Melanoma. It had been a rough couple of years and after my diagnosis, it felt like if something could go wrong in our life it would.
During this time people would come up to us and tell us how strong our family was and how amazing we were. But, the truth was the only reason we seemed that way was because of the family and friends who stood by us and held us up on the days we just felt like falling apart and giving up. Hope was not always easy for us to find and we were so thankful for the real-life angels that would come give us the hope and strength we needed to get through our struggles.
Welcome to Stuck With Us! A blog full of the good, the bad and the ugly. Read our stories, laugh with us, take a peek into my mom life that is powered by Diet Coke, find out why my husband hates Pinterest, shop some good deals with us and hopefully find some courage to face the tough stuff in your life.
Tate was small and he did not get to stay with us on earth very long, but he had a huge impact on everyone he met. He taught us how to have courage no matter what our circumstances are. He taught us to be brave and happy. We know that small things can make a huge impact and this is our hope for our little blog.
I always get a little sad when it?s time to leave the cemetery after visiting Tate, but my husband is quick to remind me that, ?Tate is coming with us?…our little guy is ?Stuck With Us?. Hope you get stuck with us too!
