2014 A summary

Ok so this post has taken me two weeks to get up mainly due to charming wifi or should I say lack thereof at our rental and having a newborn and a toddler not at school (more to follow on that after this). So without further adieu…..2014

There is no way to sugar coat it…..2014 has been a hard year!!!

As 2014 rolled in the new year just blended with 2013 as both Rich and I hardly had any leave, me due to work not shutting down and Rich not having many days due to him.

We did take the odd day here and there, one in January to celebrate our wedding anniversary, married 5 years. Then we also took Valentines days to head up to JHB for a good friend Mark’s 50th birthday.

That weekend was a disaster! It started with a brow wax gone really wrong and I walked around with a super roasty on my brow looking like id been given a swift slap to the face. Daniel had not been feeling well and regressed superbly on the drive up resulting in temperatures of over 40 deg and a trip to the ER. Fortunately we were in our old hometown so at least knew where to go….

Prior to that tho we’d been pulled thru the ringer as a family as my dad had a kidney stone op and ended up with septicemia and nearly died! Basically they told us he was in heart failure and it was a matter of time! But somehow by the grace of God he survived.

Then in March we were told that our long term rental wasn’t going to be so long term and that we had to move again and find a short term rental…. So I began packing boxes….making that move 12 in the last decade.

In March we finally submitted our plans to municipality and the house dream seemed to become a reality.

We also had a super weekend at Oribi gorge with my folks over the pubic holiday in March. Little did we know that this would be one of the last weekends with my dad the way we will remember him.

In April we headed to East London for Easter. It was an exciting weekend as we found out we were expecting our second child who we affectionately called Ablet as we didn’t find out the sex.

31st May marked a year of us being in Ballito and I can finally say in many ways we are settled. Being in a rental doesn’t help the settling so looking forward to being in our new home.

In June we had our early commencement for the build and had our meeting with our builder. We were excited because it still looked possible we were going to be finished in time for Christmas.

That’s when the year turned super kak….

On the 16th June my father had a TIA ( small stroke) he seemed do to be fine and on the 23rd my mom arrived to fetch him to find his room empty. She called us sobbing and said he’d had a massive stroke and was in ICU.

What followed was months of physical therapy speech therapy and rehab centers. I truly believed my dad would make a full recovery but in October following test results that showed my dad’s carotid artery is completely damaged making recovery impossible and coupled with regression in his speech we made the decision to stop all therapy and to keep dad comfortable.

So in October we had to adjust to the new norm in our family which is one that is vastly different. The life and soul of the party is present but completely mute. We no longer understand what he says and it’s now about enjoying the time we have with my dad.

For me it selfishly became about him meeting my unborn child and being able to hold him/her. Which he got to do first ….and I got to see and that will forever be etched in my memory.

We did also get away for two weekends to the Drakensberg which was good for us as a family as many weekends had been spent with me at the hospital and Daddy Abs looking after the ginger.

All the while in the background the build that was due to start in June only began October due to fights with the neighbours and retaining walls taking two months to complete. So sadly we didn’t make it in for Christmas which in retrospect when you’re having a baby is not such a bad thing.

In October we headed up to the bush for the weekend to celebrate Daddy Abs’ s birthday with good friends of ours…. Weekend was a disaster from a service perspective but was out right by the hotel who has offered us a weekend away all expenses paid in Feb.

So yah not a pretty year for us but most certainly ended on a high with us welcoming our beautiful Daughter Katherine Marie Abdo into the world.

She’s just perfect and when I look at her the year doesn’t seem so bad and I’m renewed with hope for a 2015.

And isn’t that what it’s about? It’s not about how many times you fall it’s about picking yourself up, dusting off and starting again.

So I choose for it to be a GOOD year!
We are moving into our beautiful home in 8 weeks, our ginger will start big school in 2 and we get to experience the first year of a little person’s life, first smile, first giggle, first steps….. Now that’s pretty awesome.

My prayer for you is that 2015 rocks your world and is filled with blessings no matter how big or small.

Much love
Lol x

Advertisement