We have been in Texas now for 4 months! That seems crazy. It is crazy because it has felt like so much longer. In these past 4 months so much life has happened, yet it seems like almost nothing has changed. Honestly, moving to Texas sort of felt like moving to Mars. The morning we pulled away from our home in Kansas City it was about 50 degrees. We drove for 12 hours and all the sudden it was 95 degrees! We moved from renting an 850ish square foot townhome to a 4 bedroom 3 bath home that we own. We went from having no back yard to a wonderful tree filled yard for our pups to play and run around in for hours every day.
Kevin’s work started much more quickly than we though it would. He immediately started in early June with a month of orientation and then had two months of a rotation in July and August in which he worked 12+ hours almost every day. Most of his weeks were 6-7 day weeks, and he had a two day weekend just one time each month. Needless to say, it has been an adjustment!(Just as we knew it would be). The really good news is that he absolutely LOVES what he is doing and feels confident he went into the right field. We know it will continue to be long hours and lots of hard work, but we are both happy that Kevin is so satisfied with his chosen career.
Also in those first 2 months(July and August) we had originally planned on seeking out fertility treatments to finally start our family after 3 years of infertility. Sadly, once we arrived my legs started experiencing issues….again. Anyone who has followed our story up to this point knows I had been diagnosed with Chronic Exhertional Compartment Syndrome and had already had 2 surgeries (the 2nd much more extreme than the first, which had failed) The good news is the symptoms that reemerged were not quite the same as before. The tightness in my calves was gone and only the pain remained. This lead me down a different path and ultimately I ended up being diagnosed with nerve entrapment which runs together with CECS frequently). The bad news: this will require additional surgery. The good news: this surgery is INCREDIBLY sucessful nearly every single time. Therefore after these 2 surgeries (the surgeon only wants to do 1 leg at a time) I should have my life back! The CECS will be gone and the nerve entrapment will be gone! The 2 conditions together are what caused me such grief for the past 5 years! I have talked to a lot of people who had these conditions together and once they fixed the nerve issues it was resolved!
In fact one thing they do to diagnose this condition is similar to a nerve block and simulates what would happen post surgery. They inject the muscles that are compressing the nerves with a medication that causes the nerve to become temporarily free (that’s my understanding at least). That was CRAZY because it worked so well and for 4 days I had 1 leg that had terrible issues and the other leg was completely normal, something I have not experienced in 5 years! So the first surgery will be in a few weeks…I am excited.
So obviously with all of that going on we have not had the ability to start those fertility treatments. We had also begun to look into fostering again. Here in Texas the need is incredibly high, especially for infant placements. The rate of adoption is also significantly higher than the rates in Missouri, therefore we had a pretty good chance of fostering to adopt a baby here. That was exciting, until we found out that we will not qualify for daycare assistance here in TX!
You see for the past few years (since student teaching) I have wanted to pursue my Master’s degree in Social Work. I want to become a counselor and work with families who are adopting, birth mothers placing their children for adoption, or some sort of crisis pregnancy counseling. In the past year I have also added counseling infertile couples to that list. Therefore, I decided once we got settled into residency I would apply to start school, which will be full time for 2.5 years. So with Kevin working up to 80 hours a week and me being in school full time we would need our fosters to be able to go to daycare some days. Texas has a law that you can only receive full time daycare for foster kids if both parents work full time, and in TX full time graduate school (or school in general) doesn’t count as a job. Therefore we would have to cover daycare costs out of pocket…which is simply not an option right now. In Missouri they had part time daycare for part time working families…which they don’t have here either. We are going to keep trying and hope to find a way to be able to foster here in TX, eventually.
All of these things bring me to my next story and the next event that has occurred in our lives. As some of you have seen Kevin and I have recently opened our home to a newborn foster puppy through the humane society. When hurricane Harvey hit and Houston was underwater the shelters here went and rescued TONS of pets; therefore, they needed foster homes. The area we live (I am not being specific for privacy sake) stepped up and met the need for foster families, and they didn’t need us at that time. But, the shelter here asked up to consider becoming a foster family for non hurricane pets because there was a pretty consistent shortage. We agreed and heard nothing for almost a month.
So the other night I was pretty irritated. I was talking to God and telling Him how frustrated I had become here in TX. I don’t have a job (because of the 2 leg surgeries coming up and grad school) I have not started school yet because the program I am hoping to go to doesn’t start until the fall (there is a chance it will start in the spring…so fingers crossed). We haven’t been able to have a baby or start fertility treatments and anytime we get close something comes up and it gets delayed. We cannot foster children or babies right now…overall we are pretty stuck waiting. I told Him I was so tired of waiting, I was tired of having nothing to do and feeling like I had no purpose right now. I told Him I needed Him to give me a baby, a little girl to love and to nurture. I obviously have prayed this prayer well over 100 times in the past 3+ years of trying to have a baby….the answer has been a resounding no every single time….I have prayed for a son too, that doesn’t change the answer either ;).
To my surprise the next morning I woke up to a phone call from the humane society. They told me there was a newborn puppy at the shelter that had been rejected by its mother. Originally they told me the puppy was a boy. They told me he had an abscess on his foot that caused him to look deformed and his mother kept trying to smother him. They asked me if I would be willing to foster the puppy who needed around the clock care and to be bottle fed every 2 hours. I told them no…that was just too much work.
About an hour after I hung up the phone I remembered the prayer I prayed the night before. I remembered telling God I wanted a baby to love and care for. Surely this couldn’t be His answer…He wouldn’t be that ironic right? I talked to Kevin and told him I would call the shelter at 3 o’clock and if they hadn’t found a home (which I thought for sure they would) then we would take the puppy.
When I called back, they told me they hadn’t found a home for the puppy….a girl. We agreed to pick her up the next morning. We have now had Minnie (aka “mouse”) for a week and every single second has been an absolute gift. She weighed 0.6 pounds when we got her and now she weighs 1.2 pounds. She should be opening her eyes here in the next few days and we cannot wait! Harvey absolutely loves her and has earned the nick name "Momma Harvey." Gracie is still not too sure about having a baby sister around, but she is warming up a bit more each day. Who knew Jesus could answer such a specific prayer in such an ironic fashion. We agreed to keep her for 1-3 weeks…but we will probably end up keeping her a lot longer.
I wanted to share that story with you because it was an answer to prayer. It may not have been the answer I was looking for, but I am so thankful that Jesus gave us the opportunity to save the life of one of His precious little creatures.
So there you have it, an update on our lives! We are hanging out here in TX. We are settling in and have finally connected with a solid church, we have made a few great friends, and have been working really hard on adjusting to the heat….which apparently never goes away, but hey, at least it is only 88 degrees today!
Thanks for reading!
Anna and Kevin
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