An Anniversary and 3 States in 3 Days

Blog Post About July 2021

After the trips to see grandparents, we returned to our Texas base for two days before moving on. 

While there, on the morning of my 25th anniversary, I headed over to a friend's house. 

When my time with my friend was coming to a close, I got a message from Doug (late at night back in the Middle East) saying that I should go to a certain parking lot in the city where I was.

I texted him when I got there, and he told me to go to James Avery and pick up an order for Doug Taylor.

When I went in, there were two pairs of silver earrings for me to pick up, bought and paid for.

Happy Silver Anniversary to us!

That night, Doug also had three friends take me out to dinner. 

It was fun, but it would have been a lot more fun if Doug had been there.

Thanks Doug!

The day after our anniversary, Keira and I flew to Nashville. 

The first airport we went to cancelled our flight because of lightening. A sweet friend picked us up and drove us an hour and a half to another airport so we could catch another flight. We were constantly blessed by amazing friends!

We arrived late at night, but Kylie was still happy to come get us.

The next day, we looked at some possible houses for Kylie to move into, and then when Kylie had classes, Keira and I did a little sightseeing at the Opryland Hotel and Mall.

Covid made it kind of empty

A large Hungry Hippos game

Riding a ride with a new friend.

When Kylie got out of class at 5pm, we headed to Jackson, Mississippi, with a 6 hour drive in front of us!

The next morning, in Mississippi, Kylie had a follow up appointment with the doctor that did surgery on her knee. Later that night, we went to see Karis dance in her first ballet performance of the summer (she's in the front row, on the right)

Again, kneeling in the front, right.

It was good for all of us girls to be together.

Karis always has a good time at dance camp. 

This year, she stayed for four weeks with a fun roommate.

So many girls got Covid, and many were sent home, but thankfully, Karis made it all summer without being sent home.

Timon and Pumba at camp, ready to do some calisthenics.

Correction on the Bone

 I made an error reporting in Kylie's surgery results.

The part of the bone that came off at the time of her injury was her femur, not her patella.

Big difference!

A Surprise Surgery (that we were SO grateful for)

Blog Post About Summer 2020

In the last post I mentioned the Godwin's. Seeing them was a divine meeting.

C, the husband, asked Kylie how her knee was doing, and she told him it still wasn't well, and she didn't know what else she could do for it.

We had dinner with them on July 15th.

C made a phone call, and the next Monday, July 20th, he scheduled us to see an orthopedic doctor who not only saw Kylie, but scheduled her for an MRI and an X-ray that same day, and then after seeing the results, scheduled her for a surgery two days later!

As I prayed for Kylie before going into surgery, she teared up, and I asked if she was afraid, but she said, "No, I'm just so happy to be getting my knee fixed."

July 22, 2020

October 1, 2018, when Kylie's injury occurred in ballet, we were told that her patella had been knocked out of place, and an MRI confirmed it had gone back into place. 

We got some instructions on some physical therapy Kylie could do on her own, so we signed her up for a gym membership, and she started doing some small things to help; however, even though she gained a little strength, she still wasn't getting better.

It turns out that when her patella WAS knocked out of place, it knocked a part of her femur bone off!

The surgeon did say that the way it healed (interpretation: *the way God healed it) was much better than he could have done.

The doctor cleaned out all the floating bone fragments, including this large piece, and he took a tendon from a cadaver and gave her a stronger tendon to hold her patella in place since the other was "stretched out" (in layman's terms).

July 24, 2020

Our plans got a little skewed, and we had to cancel on the Manuel's and Reed's, but we were so glad to get answers and solutions for Kylie's knee. 

The Slay's and the Pettus' gave Kylie a place to rest during the day hours while we continued to make visits, and then two days after her surgery, on Friday, July 24, 2020, Kylie hobbled out in the rain to watch her sister dance at the gala.

Those two years between injury and surgery were long, and even though her knee bothered her nearly every day, she never complained, even though I know (and she knew) that if we had been in America, we could have gotten more help.