11dp3dt Crisis, Culinary Excellence, and a side of Random Coincidence

After our last loss (the awful, empty uterus scan/ectopic), we were all left realing.  My momma came to that ultrasound, we were wide open about the whole cycle, friends, family, extented family everyone was praying and hoping and happy we finally got a positive.  Then all that joy dissapeared.  We were all left feeling like we couldn't trust ANYTHING ANYMORE.

My mom left my side, and went straight to my brother's bedside.  He is 34, has a significant cognitive/behavioral disability, and lives in a group home in clearwater.  He is one of the loves of my life. I had the miscarriage on the weekend and then headed to clearwater.  My brother was in CCU for 3 weeks.  I was by his side for two.

This particular hospitalization (there have been many) was the scariest one my family and I have ever been through. Each day the news was worse...kidney failure, congestive heart failure, ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome)...the list goes on and on.  The underlying infection was pneumonia.  It's four months later, and he is just now showing normal hemoglobin levels.  He came incredibly close to dying.  

God always surrounds us with angels during times like these.  One of the many angels who came and physically held us together was my Aunt Judy.  She made space for all of us to breathe, to eat, to sob, to feel our feelings.  She soothed me and my momma in ways neither of us understand.  We are so thankful.

My Aunt Judy got a really good look at me during this time. My mask of strength fell away some. She shared all that we were going through...the loss of the pregnancy, the real threat that Jake was going to die...with her wonderful husband, my Uncle Mark.  In the aftermath, when I finally went home, it felt like we all had PTSD.  We couldn't shake that feeling of crisis all around us, waiting around every corner. A few days later we got a big surprise in the mail...My Uncle Mark, who lives in Ohio, had researched great places to have an excellent culinary experience, and he sent us a very generious gift certificate.  He knew that we needed a night together, a night to remember we love each other, we have each other, and we can keep hoping together.

I don't have words for how good the food was.  My hubby loved the rissoto that came with my Osso Bucco so much that he ordered a second rissoto dinner for himself.  Then he ordered two desserts, pretended like I was going to eat one of them, and instead ate them both!  By the end of the meal he was in physical pain he ate so much.

There was another surprise in store for the two of us, across the restaurant, right around antipasto time as I was deeply enjoying both a sausage and pepper stuffed mushroom and the company of my handsome hubby, I noticed his eyes kept leaving mine and focusing on a table across the room.  Then he started giggling and said "Is that Dr. T".  Um, yes that's right, some how, with all the restaurants in Orlando, we ended up in the tiny one in WP that also happens to be our RE's fave.  The very same doc whose unique partnership with God has given us something to wonderful to celebrate.  The italian momma of the chef, who was hostessing, took great/loud delight in the coincidence.  We ended up sending over dessert to them.  They came over to greet us and thank us.  It was precious.  I do hope the next time I see him, in the ultrasound room, we are all in great spirits.  Only God knows.  And no matter what happens, it was nice to see this kind man as a real boy, out in the world, loving his wife on her birthday.