My Village

As the old African quote states, "It takes a village to raise a child". Or children, in my case.

When I scheduled a date for my knee surgery, the whirlwind that circulated my brain nearly sent me into a spiral. I learned that I would be incapacitated for quite some time. Laid up and on pains meds for at least the first weekend, no driving for six weeks and physical therapy for five months.

As I learned over the six weeks prior to my surgery, from when I was injured..a leg injury is a real pain in the ass! When you cannot walk or apply any type of pressure on that leg, it really limits your activity. When you add crutches to the mix, you do not have the use of your arms or hands to do things like cook, clean, carry groceries..or even a purse. In the grand scheme of things, it's only a knee, it was to be repaired and I had to find some light on the brightside. (Like buying an office chair on wheels to get around my house so that things like meals, laundry and caring for my kids could be done!)

Before my brain spiraling could even settle, there was no need for me to wrap my mind around a game plan. That is because my sister took hold of my family and figured it all out for me. What on Earth would I have done without her? She had my girls over for sleepovers, cheered them on at their running club race that I couldn't go to, made sure they were still having fun amidst the downer their mother was, and showered me with more love and support than she will ever realize.
She put together a meal train and sent an email out to my friends, who fed us three nights a week for three weeks!
My neighborhood friends John and Erik worked out a school pick-up schedule for days that they knew Conal couldn't make it to the school on time to get the girls.
Besides the fact that my parents took the girls the night before my surgery on a Wednesday and took them to the cabin for the entire weekend so I could recover after my surgery on Thursday, (which was ugly..really, really ugly!) they were truly Godsends. In every aspect of the word. They worked out an amazing system between the two of them to get my girls up, ready and out the door to school each and every morning. My mom temporarily adjusted her work hours for days that she needed to come over in the morning, or leave early to help me with afternoon appointments, dance lessons, running club races, etc. She helped me prep meals the week before my surgery, so we could just grab from the freezer when needed. My dad came over almost every morning during those months to take care of the morning duty. More mornings then not he'd show up with breakfast for the girls and coffee for me. There were days that my mom would just pick the girls up after school and take them home, help with homework, feed them dinner and return them bathed and ready for bed.
Pam, Lisa and my dad hauled my butt to and from rehab on alternating days over the course of 7+ weeks, ran me on errands and made sure I was eating on the days I was under their care.
Amy helped take me to doctors appointments, Costco, grocery shopping, had my kids over for countless hours while I was at said appointments and was my therapist. Shannon loaned me crutches, a shower chair, candy bars ;) and movies.
Truly, I can't even find the right words to describe my love and appreciation for these people. MY family. MY friends.

MY VILLAGE.

Me and my dad, June 2012

Mom and me, March 2012

Sisters, March 2012

Conal and Erik, May 2012

Lisa, Shannon, Amy and Aaron; May, 2012.