Wow! I knew I hadn't blogged in a long time, but I didn't realize exactly HOW long it had been! Almost a month now! The past 30 days have been nothing short of hectic. Last I had posted, Tia was due for another surgery. Well on the day she had surgery, Jonah was set up to spend the night with Noni (my grandmother, his great-grandmother), and the two girls would be with us. Jonah had a fever on Monday, but one thing you learn with having children is that they get sick. A LOT. We didnt' think much of it.
Tuesday morning, I got a call from my mom. She had gone to drop clothes off for Jonah and knew immediately that something was wrong. He couldn't walk. He couldn't stand or speak. Something was very wrong. They took him to the emergency room and it was determined that he had ataxia of the limbs and most often, this was due to an infection or swelling on the brain. This would also explain his speech being effected.
Over the next few days, with Tia trying to recover in the hospital, unable to be with her baby boy, Jonah underwent mulitple tests including a spinal tap, an MRI, and a CAT scan. No cause was ever fully determined, although the tests did reveal that there was no swelling on the brain, which can lead to really severe defects. He spent almost a full week in the hospital, and was released when he was able to keep food down. Tia, upon being released from her stay in the hospital, went straight to where Jonah was being kept and spent the remainder of his stay there with him and Dave. What a trooper - but really, wouldn't you do the same? What has been amazing, though, has been his speedy recovery. The doctors had warned that this could take up to a year to clear itself up. Jonah could barely walk and sit up. He could only speak a little and still had to eat laying down.
Within a week of being home, he had practically done a 180 degree turn! He was sitting up, walking with help, talking, and had the appetite of a horse! He has since continued to improve and is almost back to complete "normal". We all know that the Lord has had his hands around little Jonah and his entire family, and its nothing short of amazing what the power of prayer and the blessings of Savior can accomplish. We do like to joke, though, that given Jonah's genetics, we're aren't surprised with the speed of his recovery. A baby that crawled too early, walked too early, talked too early - did everything far too early - and is clearly a genius, would only be expected to make this kind of headway. Tia chalks it up to Dave's "crazy genes". We really are grateful that the Lord has put the sparkle back into Jonah's eyes.
As for a wedding update, the latest thing I've accomplished is getting the invitations out. FINALLY. It took over 50 hours of work - with the help of my nephew, Jonathan, and my niece, Jessica, and the design genius of my sister, Tia. Here are some pictures of how they turned out:
The outside cover
Close-up of the monogram
The open invitation
Wording....I loooove the font our names are in!
The invitation and inserts.
All in all, I am super happy with the way they turned out. I didn't know that the black from the envelope would bleed onto the white paper and was dissappointed to find out the hard way that this happened. I've e-mailed the company and haven't heard anything back yet. I don't know what they could do, really, but we'll see. My next big project is completing 16 108" table runners!
