Still waiting...

....but doing much better!  I don't think I ever mentioned this on my blog but I ended up having to have surgery on Aug 18th.  Remember all this.  The middle of 2011 was definitely a struggle, to say the least, but the last 2-3 weeks I have been really starting to feel like I can get back to life .  After I saw the ENT he said my Eustachian tube was totally blocked in my left ear and it was being sucked in and causing lots of pain and blood to pool behind my ear.  OUCH!  That also was causing all my dizziness, nausea, & swooshing sound in my ear.  So, to figure out why this was being caused he looked at my nose and found my terbinates were so enlarged, also causing all the sinus pain I had been feeling, and then from my sinus scan it showed my adenoids were so enlarged.  The terbinates are on one side of the Eustachian tube and the adenoids are on the other so you get the problem.  So I had surgery to remove my adenoids and terbinates.  Unfortunately this is a very slow healing process that takes 4-6 weeks.  My nose and sinus pressure seemed so much better after about 2 weeks but my ear has taken longer.  I still have days it hurts but the pain is mild compared to before.  I had my follow up appointment at 4 weeks out and my hearing and ear still don't show it is responding correctly, actually showed worse in the hearing, so I go back again on Oct 31 for a recheck.  I just hope I don't have permanent hearing damage.  At least it  does not seem bad enough to where I feel like I am having trouble hearing.  Then I go to the eye doctor on Oct 25th and hopefully I can get that figured out and will be able to wear contacts again.  At least when wearing my glasses I don't feel like my eyes bother me as much since all the sinus pressure around my eye has gone away.  God has definitely been working in me through all this and has reminded me to trust in Him even when I don't understand it.  I find it is so easy to trust in God when things are going well, but when things get difficult I tend to find myself in worry and questioning things like, "why do I just keep feeling this miserable" and "why am I not getting better" and my favorite that I found myself saying all the time is "Is it really possible to feel this bad EVERY DAY?  Yup, I guess so." , instead of just giving Him my worries and realizing that He has a reason for what is going on in my life even though I don't understand it right now.  I will always be a work in progress but I am really trying to give Him my worries, and not continue fall into the anxiety/worry trap that something way worse must be going on with how bad I feel, and just pray for strength to keep going.  I have found it amazing how God can change your attitude.  Jeremiah 29:11 states, "For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future of hope."  And thanks to Jesus we can have that future of hope in spite of how crummy things are sometimes. 
So that is where I have been lately, and of course just being super busy with Kaylee in school and how crazy life seems to have become this fall.  I feel like I have a million posts to catch up on and will try to tackle those soon.  But of course I could not leave you hanging without showing any pictures, especially if you are actually still reading this post with all my boring health drama.  So here are a few cute pictures of the girls.

Alexa on her way to dance a few weeks ago:

 And our own personal Statue of Liberty!