Friends, whom we hadn't talked to in years, reached out to us through email last February. The last update they'd had on our family was when I, Jacqui, was still pregnant with Hannah, who will turn 14 next month. This was what I said...
A LOT has changed since that email. Two weeks after sending that email, on Leap Day, Hannah arrived. We stayed in Lexington another two years. Josh graduated during that time with his Master's from Asbury and started working for the community college system in KY. That led to us spending a year living with his parents further south in KY while he worked full-time at the local community college and searched for a permanent position. Four months after moving in with them, I had our second child, Kaitlyn on the last day of August (2010). The permanent position ended up being at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, which we had visited shortly after being married as it's my mom's alma mater. We spent a year in the campus' temporary housing before finding a home just north of the town square. We had our third child, Abigail, the following April (2013), and our fourth and last child, Gabriel 3 years in June 2016. Josh started out as an IT tech and is now an Assistant Director, overseeing the campus' help desk, switchboard, and sound teams. As for teaching, Josh continued to remotely teach until they terminated all part-time professors. His team includes upwards of 20 students, so he regularly utilizes his counseling skills in his relationships with them. His depression has grown again due to the pandemic and other stresses. He has been seen regularly to regulate his medication. The pandemic threw counseling into virtual sessions, which he felt did not help, but we just learned they've reopened in-person sessions.
I kept working as a contractor for Focus on the Family until after our second was born. I found it too difficult trying to juggle working from home with 2 littles to continue. With one it was very manageable, but two changed things, plus I had trained on-site employees and they had started picking the bulk of the work so I wasn't getting many requests. Since then, I have stayed home, homeschooling our crazies, which unofficially started with Hannah about age 2. I was babysitting too, but those families moved out of state. I had wanted to start again with the pandemic forcing so many families into situations needing help, but my asthma has been to rough. My allergies have gotten progressively worse in the 9 years we've lived in Ohio. Allergies plus reflux have lead to uncontrolled asthma. I'm currently on every category of asthma medication, plus extras in 2 categories. So I have a surgery to repair a hiatal hernia and a slipped Nissen wrap (wrap is supposed to prevent reflux) on the 11th. That'll be my 4th surgery. The first two were in December 2018, the original Nissen fundoplication then a total thyroidectomy (thyroid cancer and they determined I have Hashimoto's). The 3rd surgery was in June to fix and help some outstanding gynecological issues.
With the pandemic, we have mostly stayed isolated from friends and family due to my being considered high-risk due to asthma and other autoimmune issues. Otherwise, we've spent time with grandparents and occasionally socialized with two families, but even so it's been once or twice a month in total, with the exception of some outdoor playdates. But with my asthma kicking into even higher gear this winter, we only spent New Year's Eve with the one family and haven't otherwise spent time with either since October.
As for the kids, Hannah finally had her 3rd actual birthday this past year. Luckily it was before the pandemic shut down our world, so she had a blast celebrating 12 years with her friends at a Harry Potter themed party. Her favorite past-time is LEGOS, she spends hours constructing and deconstructing various ideas. She and Kaitlyn have really stepped up when it comes to helping entertain and mediate with our youngest two, which has been a tremendous blessing with my breathing issues. Kaitlyn celebrated her 10th birthday with the family at the end of August, we are hoping her next birthday will get to include friends. Her favorite past-time is reading; she loves the Archie comics and is currently reading the Harry Potter series. The oldest girls are best friends and share a bedroom, until Hannah's 12th birthday, all 4 were in one bedroom, albeit an extremely large bedroom. Abigail celebrated her 7th birthday at the height of lockdown, so we delayed much of her actual celebrations until we could be with the grandparents. She's still at the stage where playing is her favorite past-time, so she varies as to what one finds her actually doing. Gabriel celebrated his 4th birthday by sharing McDs with two friends at a playground, although not much food was eaten as they were so excited to be together and play. He's very much all about play, and is actually very good at entertaining himself, however, he does often prefer to be in the same room as others, even if he's playing independently. The littles love each other, but tend to butt heads often. The pandemic has brought them all closer to one another, and the battles between them have lessened, especially between Abigail and Kaitlyn.
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