We started this page to help keep people informed on how they can help. I have never had a serious health issue before. Navigating our needs and allowing people to serve us has been harder than I expected. This page will allow me to post specific needs for those living close to us like transportation needs and meals. It also allows for donations to ease the financial burdens of those located far from us. About us.... John and I have been married for 15 years. We met when we were 16 years old and dated before he left on his mission. I "dear John"ed him with 6 months of his mission left. I got married and had 5 kids. 10 years later, I found myself divorced. Through things like facebook and family we reconnected, dated and got married. We had 4 more kids together for a total of 9! 5 years into our marriage, my ex husband signed away his right and John adopted my 5 older kids. We have 6 out of the nine still living at home and 5 still in school. Our oldest is 24 and youngest is 9. We love baseball! Growing up in St. Louis, I became a huge Cardinals fan. John spent some of his childhood in Atlanta and loves the Braves. We love spending our days at the ballpark watching and coaching the boys over the years. While Will doesn't play anymore, we still have Thomas keeping us feeling young. We have spent years watching and supporting Madison and Kennedy through color guard, dance and gymnastics. Ellie was our drama queen, just kidding! She just loved performing in plays. Her art skills are amazing and life is less stressful when she is drawing, Alex and Luke are our quieter kids. They are happiest in their own worlds away from the daily chaos of our house. Charlotte loves to steal cuddles from John and is starting her color guard journey this year. Our favorite getaway is running to Logan and watching football. We love watching Utah State. I got an email informing me that tickets were on sale. I think not going this year to live games is one thing I didn't expect as a result of my health. We have spent many anniversaries and weekends cheering on the Aggies! I love to serve people. Saying no to being able to drive people places, move them out of their house and into a new one, helping clean, even going out to lunch with my friends has been hard. I hate feeling sick. I hate feeling useless. I want to help people. One of my favorite service I try to do is helping at church during funerals. I love serving the luncheon, decorating, making sure the people mourning have food. This summer, I have missed helping during 3 funerals. It was so hard to not put my name on the list. I have been involved as sports mom, PTA everything, helper in schools, etc. Resigning from those positions was tough. Lots of tears as I had to admit to more people, I didn't have the strength. The days I spend laying in bed with no alerts going off on my calendar or leaving the group text messages of all my volunteer groups. I do have several friends and family who call regularly and boost my spirits but its just different. I love being out and about. My sister once said, "You are the most away from home stay at home mom I know!" Being home is hard for me. I feel unproductive many days but know I am being productive for my body healing. The reality is I am home because it hurts to breathe, I can't walk around a grocery store and talk without having to stop and take some deep breaths. Walking around the block is hard. This "cyst" is pushing on my diaphragm and breathing is harder than it should be. Many times when I do go out, I'm often sending my family ahead of me because I have to go so slow. I have a hard time even talking on the phone. I can't chat forever without taking time for deep breaths and resting, The days of talking to my sister and cleaning my house are gone. We are grateful for all our friends and family near and far who have helped eased this trial. Please feel free to share our page, sign up for updates and listen to me.