Oh, California

Lately, I've been pretty bummed about living in California. We've had a mountain of obstacles thrown at us, and it's been hard to not have the support of a family down the street. As you know, baby 2 was born. He turned out to be a SHE, and I couldn't have been happier! We kept the name Elliot and will call her Ellie. Upon her arrival, we noticed that she had a toe that was a little crazy, so naturally, we asked the pediatrician about it. After a few extra doctors appointments and a visit with a pediatric surgeon, we learned she will have to have a series of surgeries from the age of 1 until the age of 12 to fix it. Our dilemma here is that we are nearly 3000 miles from home, and we live in the middle of NOWHERE. The nearest pediatric surgeon is an hour and a half a way, and surgery on a tiny little one means at least one night in the hospital. This would be fine if we only had Ellie, but we have Emma as well! If you know me, you know I trust no one with my children. (Ok, I really need to do better about the anxiety.) This is a problem because now Emma and Aaron will have to be home while Ellie and I are at a hospital over an hour away. The Air Force won't move us because they say that we have adequate care here even though it's not convenient. This is our major struggle at this point. We have no chance of getting orders out of this place until Aaron is eligible for Base of Preference (BOP), which is January 2015! Emma will be FOUR! Yowza. That seems like such a long time to be here, but we will make it! I will know more about Elliot's surgeries once we meet with the new surgeon at Shriner's hospital. That appointment should be within the next month, and I will update then!