Kari

With today being the day after Mother's Day I just want to write a few lines about my amazing wife and Dax's wonderful mother.

First of all she truly is amazing.  She is everything to our family and does nearly everything for us.  While I have been finishing school she's been the breadwinner, the mom, the wife, the housekeeper, the cook, and she even tries to get me to let her do some of my homework.  She truly is exceptional and does her best to make sure we are living a good, comfortable life right now.  I thank her for that and am so grateful for all she does, especially to pick up where I lack.  One of the amazing things is how she does it all on a very small amount of sleep because she works nights.  She is such a great mother to Dax and makes sure he is growing up right.

In my last post I hinted that I would write about something else that happened on our trip to Ohio.  This adventure once again speaks to how strong and wonderful Kari is.  We were in Ohio from Friday to Wednesday.  On Sunday night Dax was having a really bad ear infection so we got a hold of our Dr. in St. George and he called in an antibiotic to a 24-hour pharmacy in Canton.  While I was picking it up I grabbed a pregnancy test because we had been trying to get pregnant and Kari was a few weeks late but wasn't getting a positive test.  That night she took the test and it came back positive.  We were really excited and looking forward to the day when we would get to welcome another one of Heavenly Father's children into our family.  The next morning however, Kari started cramping really bad and bleeding.  She hurt most of the day so we pretty much just did and saw stuff from the car so she could sit.  That night was when we met with a bunch of people Kari grew close to around Cleveland and she did her best to put on a happy face but she was hurting and so she wasn't quite her normal self.  The next day we started thinking maybe it was a miscarriage and contacted our Dr. again.  He told us that's likely what it was and that we should do two rounds of lab tests on Thursday and Saturday when we got back.  The problem was that on Tuesday she was in so much pain she could barely walk.  She had started looking up the symptoms she was having and they were consistent with either a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy.  That night we were staying at the Titera's and Bro. Titera and myself gave Kari a blessing that she would be able to travel the next day (carrying luggage and Dax through three airports) without any problems.  She was a trooper to be sure.  She did great the entire time and is incredibly strong.  She did hurt most of the day, but the really bad pain didn't come until about the time we got in our car to drive from Las Vegas to St. George.  The Lord truly answers prayers and blessed her on that day.  The next day she went in and got her first round of tests done and felt OK on Thursday and Friday.  Friday night was a different story though.  She was in pain most of the night and didn't sleep.  When we were getting ready to go take her second set of labs I got in the shower and while I was in there she came in to the bathroom and said, "Robert, I'm going to pass out."  Startled I quickly jumped out to make sure she didn't fall and hit her head or anything, but she did pass out and didn't know what was going on or remember telling me she was going to pass out.  When that happened I insisted that we go to the emergency room and her sister and brother-in-law Kellie and Matt met us at the hospital to take Dax.  We owe a big thank you to them for all they did and do to help us.  We were there for two hours before they finally came in and told us that the ultrasounds confirmed an ectopic pregnancy.  For those of you who don't know, it is a tubal pregnancy and as the fetus grows inside the fallopian tube there isn't room causing the tube to rupture if you don't catch it in time.  Well we didn't catch it in time and they said that when she passed out was likely when it ruptured.  Our Dr. also mentioned that the tube likely should have burst days before.  The fact that it didn't we once again credit Heavenly Father and the power of priesthood blessings for that.  Once they confirmed that it had burst they had to do emergency surgery.  When the surgeon came out and told me how it went he said the surgery went good but that she had lost 2 liters of blood, nearly half, and it was all in her stomach.  He said it took longer to suck the blood out then it did to perform the surgery.  Because she is young they didn't put any blood in her and just wanted to let her body regenerate it, that caused her to be really tired and lack energy the next few weeks while her body was trying to get back to normal.  The surgery itself went well and she is doing better now.  The physical toll was enough to have to bare, but she also had the emotional toll to deal with, which might have been worse.  She is now constantly concerned about the chance that she won't be able to have kids again because they had to remove one of her fallopian tubes.  But through it all she has been absolutely amazing and has shown strength and courage.  Her family did so much to help out during these last couple of months and for that we are forever grateful and we are once again so grateful to our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ for Kari's health and safety during it and for truly everything.  We are a blessed family.  Happy Mother's Day Kari and to my mom and mother-in-law.