nick and deb sorensen

Hello Family,

This week has been a long and hard one for me, and probably for Nick, too.

My schedule is this:

Mondays---kid day only! until 5:30. then I go to work as soon as Nick gets home
Tuesdays---I teach voice lessons from 2pm (kids down for naps) until 6:30, then Nick goes to YM
Wednesdays---I teach from 1030 (claire goes to play group with a mom in my ward) to 1200 and then from 4 to 730
Thursdays---I teach on campus from 330-700 (claire goes to a babysitter in our ward and matthew is pawned off to who ever I feel like I can ask that week)
Friday---kids only all day until 5:30, then I go to work
Saturday---Nick works yard jobs till dark
Sunday---church and attempts at relaxing ;)

This Friday (the 5th?) I headed down to Mom's house and went to a very....hmmmm...a play with Mom. charter school production of Cats. Hmmmm is all I can say. Dad watched the kids.

Friday night I put the kids to bed and finally go to bed myself at about 1100ish. I wake up to Matthew having a croup attack. Mom helped me a ton bringing him in and out of the shower and cold. I get back into bed at about 2:30ish. I'm not asleep yet, but Claire and I are sharing a bed. She rolls over and barfs right into my hair! I then rotated between caring for one child or the other all night. Mom came down and helped hold my girl and then Matthew.

Didn't really know what to do, but Mom looked after the kids while I took a nap before driving home.

I get to Bountiful and Matthew has another attack. I call Nick, who calls the doctor, and we decide we need to take matthew in asap. I stop at an Instacare in Bountiful and they totally freak me out and make Matthew ride to Primary Children's in an ambulance. Apparently when babies have such a hard time breaking for such a long time, the second they feel like they can relax, they will just stop breathing altogether. I have the only car, so Nick is trying to find a ride down from Logan to help out. I can't get a hold of Mom (Dad offered to come with before I even left their house. but what did Little Miss Independent say to her dotting father? "No, but thanks dad. I'll be alright"---I digress). Anyway, it was a hellacious day. Test results showed that Matthew has croup with broncialitis and possible tracheal miajia (you better believe that I don't know how to spell this). which means he has croup with RSV with a possible genetic tightening of the trachea that will require surgery to fix.

Sunday, I went to church and nick stayed home with kids because I was in charge of singing time in primary. Nick had to leave his yard job on Sat in a rush and didn't finish. He went back after church to finish. stayed till 2 hours after dark and still wasn't done.

Needless to say...I'm exhausted, the kids are exhausted, nick is exhausted and sore...but we are so blessed! I have a great Mom that helps me with my kids all night long, a dad that would drive with me up to Logan just to make sure everything goes okay. He'd probably even stay if I asked him to, I have health insurance for my kids, great health care providers with exhausting resources, a reliable car, and a husband that would do anything to get to his kids.

Well, we love you all so much. Thanks for keeping this up. It means so much to me.

-deb