Going on hiatus..

Well to get right to the point, I will not be blogging for a while and this is why:

Joseph and I paid a visit to the ophthalmologist (eye specialist) on Tuesday. Joe was diagnosed with partial blindness, or visual impairment, due to nerve damage, and probably caused by his MS. Since it is nerve damage it is medically irreversible. This new diagnosis has been a shock and been pretty devastating for the both of us. As of yesterday he is no longer able to work at Toyota. We are seeking out help and resources from Blindness centers and vision rehabilitation services, also unemployment and we already have an appointment for disablilty.

So I will be leaving my morning job (keeping my teaching job if possible) for something more full-time while we work things out for Joe. We have already hit the phone lines hard talking to state foundations for the blind and we will be in touch with a vocational and rehabilitation counselor, from the Department of services for the Blind, soon after Christmas.

Joseph and I have already received priesthood blessings from my grandfather and from the sounds of it he will not be regaining his vision, but things will somehow work out. We were comforted by the blessings but that does not take away the hurt or difficulty of the situation we are now in. We have also been fortunate enough to be able to visit with our wonderful bishop last night and he is on board and ready to help with whatever we need. He has been a great support for us.

The timing is awful but good at the same time, I am on Christmas Vacation from both from my jobs and so I have the time to dedicate to contacting everyone we need to, and accessing the help we know we need.

**Disclaimer*** we are not looking for pity, or unsolicited advice, however we are looking for prayers and words of comfort from our family and friends during this difficult time. Thank you for understanding.

After a long absence...

...it's time to explain. Coming from the notion "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." My blog went silent. I didn't really have much to say that would be uplifting to you readers. While I don't mind blogging about most aspects of our life, it's during the hard times, times when we are struggling that I choose not to spend my time on the blog. Now I don't want the blog to be full of fluff, I'd rather keep it real. And in keeping it real, life is hard. And lately we've been having a hard time. Joseph has MS, this fact isn't new to the blog or to people who know us. But MS is hard. Hard on Joseph BIG TIME. Hard on me to know how to help him, and hard to watch. It's hard to be a poor young couple dealing with MS, medical bills from infertility, and Adoption Paperwork.

Having a husband with MS is hard. MS is an expensive disease.

The MRI's = $$$

Neurology Visits = $$

Treatments = $$

Blood work =$

A Husband who is healthy and happy =

worth more than all the $$$$$ in the world.

We are extremely blessed to find Dr Cooke (special thanks to Gma W and Sheila) He has opened doors for us we may not have been able to find ourselves. Dr Cooke is a member of the MS Society which helps him keep up with the latest in treatments and such, as well as keeping him in contact with other neurologists that specialize in MS. He helped us find MSAA, who sent Joe his cooling system, who is paying for his MRI on Tues (and spine MRI next year). He showed us how to get Joe's (future) medication for little or no cost (hopefully happening really quickly after his MRI on Tues.) MS is still really hard, but Dr. Cooke has already been a HUGE blessing to us, and we are so lucky he is only 2 hours away!!

So what has kept us away? Paperwork! Yup. Basically we were swimming in mud grasping at straws to get out. Lots of paperwork, lots of things to make sure you have done perfectly, lots to communicate to insurance, lots of frustrating phone calls to the Imaging place (who refused to talk to me, and would never call when Joe was home to talk to them!!- stupid HIPPA. We took care of that) 5 or more phone calls to the Clinic to make them understand that the Imaging center needed a new MRI order BEFORE we could make Joe's appointment because the original was 30 days old (yes, the paperwork took that long) and we'd need a new one. All while making sure that we could schedule his Physical therapy for the same day and not conflict. As you see this all finally came together. We go to Spokane on Tues. We are going to try to have a date or something afterwards, because Physical Therapy and MRI's aren't really fun. But Totally necessary.

So after being so tired my eye twitches, a month of paperwork, late night talks, the flu (Joe) extra cuddles, mucho phone calls, playing phone tag, a few tears and chocolate. Things are looking up. Hopefully things will move faster.

-S

What else?!?! seriously!

Our car Suzy.. she's hurt. It happened almost a couple weeks ago. It was freaky, I was driving to the store with Joe to buy shoes he desperately needed. We were stuck and completely relied on others for help. SOoo many blessings connected to that...but still it's a really crappy situation Luckily:Joe was with me, I got scared with the first noise, signaled and started to pull over, then it got loud and sounded like it was scrapping then something dropped as I was slowing down. Thankfully my Mom had her phone with her, she wasn't biking right then, they were close to home, our lovely neighbors were home and had their flat bed trailer empty,the cop that pulled over was nice. Thankfully Suzy (our car) is in my parents driveway being pulled apart so we can figure out what we need to do to fix it. We've made good progress with it considering all that is going on. So far it looks like we will have to replace the front differential and both drive axles... ugh. It's been one of those weeks (a couple actually) when it's makes you feel completely beaten down.

In other news: My brother is graduating high school tomorrow. My cousin Dexter graduated today. My little sister Alisha is expecting :) and hopefully things go through so they can buy the little house they are trying to. I got a new brother. A pregnant cousin of mine is getting married tomorrow. My great-aunt and uncle both passed away last week (within two days of eachother) it's really sweet actually and I am happy they aren't sick and hurting anymore.