Proud as a Peacock...OUR Army Retirement Ceremony

After 27 years of Honorable Service to our Country, My husband retires.  He loved every second of it, and I know he will miss it.
I want you to know, Honey, I’m retiring from the Army, too. Today, I want you to recognize the accomplishments, the friendship, the humor we had that made your career, our marriage, and our life possible.

We dedicated ourselves to the Army and to our family. We socialized with the best, the average, and the worst of people.

We adjusted to deployments and homecomings. We raised our children to be responsible, loving, and caring individuals who are very uniquely different but very much the same.

We struggled, prospered, and educated ourselves to provide a stable environment for our family.

We adjusted to the military life. We moved, traveled, and started over, many times.

 

 

There were no mountains high enough to stop us from climbing.

 

 

 

The kids & I watched you grow, advance, and share knowledge with those around you. There were reviews, midnight calls, & unexpected deployments. We watched you develop and then develop others.

We instilled values, morals and ethics in our children. We created traditions, experienced vacations, and we loved and cherished one another.

We did not go through life, we lived it, and we grew from it, and experienced it. The military made many things possible. The Army taught us unity. We embraced it and had FUN doing it.

 

 

 

Going forward, I want you to cherish all of those memories.

Remember the good times; do not focus on the negative. Remember what the military instilled in you, the respect you give others, the work ethics embedded, and give credit where credit is due. Take that with you in whatever you do.

It’s not what you GO through, It’s what you GROW through.

I know you will achieve whatever you put your mind to. Know that I am proud of you. Know that I want the best for you. Just like you, the Army, our life together, our family, is all I know. Change is good. Embrace it.

On your day, my day, & our children’s day, I want you to remember.

Remember we stood together as a family, as one. We stuck together through good & bad times. We supported one another & were happy. It was your passion, drive, and dedication encompassed with the support of your family that made your career a success.

Today, your retirement is about US. We together accomplished this as a family. Recognize it, own it, and give credit to the ones who loved, supported, and stood by you while you provided the very freedom we have today.

Together WE will retire. I want you to relish this moment, to feel honorable, a sense of accomplishment, to reflect back and remember and then I want you to exhale.

I want you to enjoy your day, our day. Congratulations!!!! You deserve it, so do we.

I truly am so happy for you and I will always love you.



 

Remember this guy, who showed up at the Ceremony

 

I am Proud as a Peacock, of You!

 

How Alsaiah's 45 minute Inguinal Surgery turned into a 2 Day Hospital Admission

 Daddy taking the monitors off before we get to go home.

 In the waiting room! 

Meeting the Dr.

 Ok, touching base. What follows will be my worst nightmare. 

We took Alsaiah in at about 8AM, after doing all the prestuff and giving him giggle juice, they took him from me bout 10. They updated the waiting room screen about 1103 started Anesthesia. I was told it would be about 15-30 min surgery, it was 1233 and finally after no updates, they said anestesia was stopped on the screen.

The dr came in and told us Alsaiah was fine, that surgery went well, and he only had to repair the right side, the left was normal. What he said next is a blur. I think my heart stopped. 

He said when he started to wake up, and they began to remove his breathing tube, he had a bronchospasm and his airway constricted. The irritation made His lungs fill with mucus and blood. He stopped breathing. They had to do CPR to revive him. Guess it was sort of like asthma? So they removed the tube when he started breathing again and he spewed blood and mucus. 

They did a chest xray on him, but that came back normal. He was still breathing really loudly. He was all congested. So the dr wanted to keep him overnight to observe him in the PICU.

I was able to stay. He was so cranky and fussy, he wanted to get out of the crib and take the tubes and IV and wires off. So after a very restless night, most of which I spent on my feet at the side of his crib, we were able to leave around 2pm on Thursday.

Alsaiah is back to normal. The scar is pencil thin, its about an inch maybe a little longer. They dermabonded it, so its perfect. He is playful, still coughing a bit. And I am thankful he will never remember this.

I am more aware of how blessed I am. I am so grateful for friends and family. I am so appreciative of my children and their health. Which I often take for granted. He was in great hands. Clear Lake Regional has some awesome people, in every department we met over the 2 days. Medical personnel are pretty special people, especially those that work with kids. I knew he was in loving hands. There are some wonderful nurses, my favorite nurse was Trish in the Pedi-ICU. She totally took care of my boy, and I.

Thank you so much for caring about us, thank you for your prayers. God listened and gave my boy back to me.

Alsaiah was Not Playing with her! 

 My last hug before I gave him to the Nurses

 Giggle Juice, - Happy Gas

Daddy kissing Baby boy.  He was scared.

 His Med List for 2 days

Feeling a little better..

snoozing

 Daddy Dr.

My sweet Boy...

 A few wires for monitoring.

 This was our set up for over 55 hours.

The Beginning of a Journey Thru Blog

The Francis Family - 2013

Pearland Texas

This is the beginning of a venture for me, I am not really savvy at posting and writing and sharing.  But I want to capture memories and have some way of looking back in one location. 

 

We have 6 lovely children and our grandson is on his way October 3rd is his due date. 

 

 

Will come back soon and post some news.