Moments of Gratitude

2, 102, 400 minutes. That is how many minutes are in 4 years. That is how many minutes that I have been grateful for the additional time with my dad.

Four years ago today we gave him over to our Father in Heaven, letting His will be done. I will always always ALWAYS be grateful that He spared my dad, but even if He didn't, I would still be grateful. Because just as God has kept healing my heart since that time WITHOUT taking away my dad's life, I know God would keep healing my heart if He had.

My sister and I were talking the other day about how this experience changed us. Our different filters of perspective pushed us to deal with this experience in different ways. I was affected in my return missionary-finishing college way. Kelsey was experiencing it as a missionary-on-the-other-side-of-the-world way. Devin was experiencing it as guy-with-a-job-and-family way. Brittni as a mom-and-pregnant-with-another way. Jamiin as a mother-who-is-healing way. And my Mom...his wife...in a -watching-her-sweetheart-and-protector-struggle way. We all experienced different things, but we were all bound by one thing: love and trust in the Savior.

4 years have gone by and all of us have continued to live our lives. If someone told me during this trial that I would one day move across the country with my family I wouldn't have believed it. How could I ever let go of being with my dad? How could I ever not be nearby if he ever took a turn for the worse? Through the enabling power of the Atonement, Christ healed my heart, took my hand and truly enabled me to walk forward to where I needed to be.

As I look back on all that we have passed through in these 4 years, I am just overwhelmingly filled with gratitude. God is so good, and I just wanted to share. :)

We love all of you and are grateful for helping us along this journey.

Love,
Aubs

There's no place like home

Hi all. We apologize for the delay in updates. Thanks for being patient with us. Y'all get the privilege of reading some words from Mama Baer today:

We got the final and specific diagnosis for Mike: Acute bacterial pneumonia. This means that he is still in the thick of it. Pun intended. Then came the good news. We were able to bring Mike home yesterday evening so he could receive his care in a place away from all of the sicknesses that you find in the hospital. We have all of the equipment and care necessary to take care of him as he heals. The past few hours have been wonderful...it has been perfect and quiet being able to deal with this in our own home.
Because Mike is battling this infection, we ask that we keep visits to a minimum, especially if you or someone you've been in contact with has been ill. Mike needs a lot of rest, but we want all of you to know that we are so grateful for the prayers offered in our behalf. We know that the Lord took such good care of us, as is evidenced by us being able to return home.
Please feel free to text Mike and I, we appreciate your thoughts and your love!

Lori

So that's the latest y'all! Payton and I are happy to be here and visiting grandpa at home and NOT in the hospital. (but seriously you guys....such a blessing!) We love you all and will keep you updated if anything changes.

Com amor,
Aubrey

Anyone? Anyone?

You know the scene from Ferris Bueller's day off when the economics teacher asks like a billion questions and goes "anyone? anyone" after each one and it shows a bunch of students just staring at him with their mouths open?

That pretty much sums up our family's experience with my dad's health. The current update is this: the doctors just aren't sure what is going on. They know he has a mass of some sort in his lung, but they aren't convinced it is pneumonia. They are calling it that for the sake of calling it something. They are running more tests today to try and decipher what it really is. In the mean time, they do know that his white blood cell count has gone up since he has been there so we know there is an infection SOMEWHERE.

But it is like...does anyone know what is actually going on? Anyone? Anyone?

In other news,  Payton and I will be flying out to Utah tomorrow to help out my mom. We gotta get that poor lady some sleep!

Thanks for praying for us.  Keem 'em coming!


Aubrey

What a wild coincidence!

So it has been three years (and two days) since Papa Baer came home from the hospital. In these three years Papa has never been admitted into the hospital even once...until tonight. The past couple of days have been a bit of a rollercoaster, but because we now know what is going on we felt that now is the time to share.

Papa has pneumonia. We took him to get checked out yesterday and unfortunately they weren't able to discover anything. (story of our lives though, AMIRIGHT!?) Today he presented even more symptoms of something and we brought him back to the UVRMC ER. They did some lab tests and some x-rays where they discovered that his right lung has pneumonia. That is all we know for now. We don't know if it has passed into his blood, how long he will be in the hospital or much of anything else at this point. Heck we don't even have his room number yet. (SORRY!) 

But there ya have it. He is good and being taking care of. Mom is there with him. Please send some prayers our way....Papa's health has a way of going from totally fine to totally not fine pretty suddenly. 

Oh and he hopes that pats win the Super Bowl.

Com amor,

The Baers