What a Journey...

Well here I am finally back from what it seems like an eternity. As some of you may know, I have been very busy trying to split my time between Jace and my job. To tell you the truth I am not quite sure where to begin... During the past four months, I have thought many times I should write about what Jace was going through, but I think unconsciously I knew it would be too hard and a few weeks ago I was finally faced with having to write a quick recap for an old friend that was unaware of the situation. It took me a while because as I wrote the words there was a weird reality that hit and I had to tell myself, "yes it is true, all of this has happened!" So here are the few sentences I wrote: "Jace got the surgery done in Mid August. He was discharged from the hospital about 8 days after the surgery, but a few days later he was having a very difficult time breathing, so we had to go back to MD Anderson. After a few days of waiting, testing, anxiety, and more difficulty breathing the doctors said that he had an infection in his one remaining lung. After many medications and lots of waiting, the breathing got progressively worse and he went into respiratory arrest so he had to be intubated and go into the intensive care unit. Things were definitely not pretty and he had many complications (fluid in lung, myasthenia gravis, blood clot, etc.) that have kept him in the hospital for 4 months, but now he is out of the woods. After, he became more stable he was transferred to a long term acute care hospital. He was on a respirator for about 3 months, but as of December 11th he is off the respirator. At the end of November he started the long road to recovery with rehabilitation for pretty much everything (walking, talking, swallowing, breathing). He has been able to make amazing improvements, but it has been slow.  It's been pretty hard on all of us, but we know that he is going to get better, that he will come home, and most importantly that he is still the Jace we all know."
I know this is probably not even half of what happened, but just writing this much was hard because it makes you face reality and sometimes reality is not pleasant. On the other side, writing about the experience made me realize something. God has truly been good to me this year! I was able to marry the man of my dreams and I was able to realize that life is a gift often overlooked.
I can't say these past few months have been easy, but I can confidently say I have never stopped believing Jace is going to be ok. And now that he has finally been home for over two weeks, I can see how happy we are to be together once again and I am so grateful because I am able to share my life with him.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days at home:

Christmas Day cooking for my family

My mom, Stewie, and Freud helping Jace with his physical therapy