Announcement

So we've just entered a whole new realm of recovery. It's called Will takes over all the tasks and meals of the day while I try to keep from loosing my second lunch. As you've guessed, Will is going to be a father! I've moved through a hundred different phases since we learned the news January 17th. I vacillate between "Yippee" and "Holy cow-- I'm gonna be a mom." The next paragraph is Will's blurp on the baby news- On my side I have to tell you I am thrilled. Becoming a mother has always been a life time dream of mine and I keep pinching myself just to make sure it is real. I thank heaven everyday that Will is the one who will bring balance to the force-- I always worried that my children would never know how to sit still and be calm. I now have a little hope for my offspring. I'll finish the blog with the specifics to the baby timeline, but for now know that this baby is a new and very strong motivating factor in Will's life. He is really on fire lately with his efforts to return to "normalcy" he is up on his own every morning, studying and preparing and exercising for the day. He is applying for jobs part of the week and volunteering the other half the week. OK-- so I'm giving the keyboard over to Will now...

Well, that was quite the introduction. I do have to say though that I am very excited and hope to be a good father. I'm sure it will take a little bit of learning (probably a whole lot), but I hope that not to many mistakes are made along the way. Anyway, we are through the first trimester and Summer is having a little bit of an easier time now. We hope that continues. We have a biking trip to Colorado planned for next week and hope that turns out well.

OK it is Summer again-- so the baby details--- We got our first ultra sound (below) at 8 1/2 weeks. The baby's head was the same size as the body and in all the baby was three quarters of an inch long. Our next appointment was a week and a half ago. We were about 13 weeks along and we heard the heartbeat. The baby has fingers, toes, lungs, eyes, lips, and all the other parts that baby's have at 13 weeks. Currently the baby is about an inch and a half long, and the size of a small orange. We are due Sept. 28, 2010 and will find out in the next month and a half whether it is a boy or girl. I will attempt not to turn this into a "baby blog" but will probably mention our little blueberry often in the posts. Because of the latest news our focus is on getting Will a job with benefits. I am not working-- but I have been writing for newspapers and doing a bunch of contract work at home. I have to say-- getting a guy with a doctorate's degree a more entry level job is practically impossible-- darn doctorate degree getting in the way ;) He is still studying for the Boards and hopes to take them this summer and reapply for residency this fall -- keep your fingers crossed and your prayers going!

Summer & Will

ps The last picture is of Will building a garden box with my dad. Since living here we couldn't help but hop on the garden train. This year we have planted potatoes and want to plant carrots and squash when the weather warms.

Ice Castles

I just finished watching a movie, "Ice Castles," about a skater who makes it to nationals than is injured and goes blind. In an instant everything is taken away from her. Now a little background on me. I don't cry during movies, but I fought back tears the entire show. In the movie the girl skates at nationals and no one finds out she is blind until after. It is not a true story and it was not something that really happened. But the tears still stung as I watched. I could only think of Will. How much he had. How much sacrifice he had made to get to where he was. President Bill Clinton was at his Graduation to congratulate him and his fellow Graduates on their hard work and accomplishment. I can tell you in Will's recovery- the pain of wanting to be back to where he was-- of him wanting to be a doctor does not dull. Will wants to practice medicine. He was born to serve and watch over people. I have always known this. It is one of the traits about him that I fell in love with instantly. He is compassionate and would never dream of hurting someone. What a true doctor should be. Why so much has been taken away from him - still causes tears to fall. So as this is his recovery blog I will let you in on the secret... that it is still hard. But watching Will weep over his misgivings and then stand to fight another day makes be believe it is not over yet.

Unlike the movie, Will and I are doing the real life thing. The how do we get him back where he can perform. What do we do with the entirely overwhelming medical school debt, my mortgage and our wanting a family. This is reality. I have decided the real heros aren't just the ones who rise after they fall, but it is the ones who rise after they fall again and again. Watching Will rise makes me fall in love with him all over again each day. I am truly the luckiest girl in the world. Such character is really the end all be all. The secret and meaning to everything we do here on earth. I return to invite you to not buckle, to be valiant in your values. No matter what the world throws at you-- don't throw it back. Give em back something better.

As for what we've been up to, Will has and continues to make some real strides. He has his "part time" job at Lingustica. He is at the Maliheh Free Clinic volunteering almost everyday. He continues to attend morning rounds. He is studying more than ever. And he continues his church service, two weeks ago he taught a lesson in Elders Quorum. It took him half the time it usually does to prepare and he delivered it beautifully to the class. This week he is giving a "speech" to his fellow toastmasters in his toastmasters class. As a side note Will's father attends this class with him every week and the two are working to improve their presentation skills. It is great to have Will's dad helping out in this area. As for the minor stuff you might not want to do summersaults over but I do- are his waking up without my prompting at 5:30 am to get to morning report on time. And his ability to recall what he learns there. OK, I am sure this entry is long enough. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Keep praying and keep watching.


Summer Blackhurst

ps I don't have a lot of pictures for you this week. The one I've posted is typical Will, paying attention to our nieces and nephews-- he sure is a big deal to them :)

Linguistica

Well I thought I would fill you in a little today on my work situation. As you can probably guess its not very helpful in an interview to say that you recently had a stroke. But I am progressing to the point where it matters less. Its just more important to focus on the positives.

The stroke has to be mentioned, but not a lot of time has to be spent on it. Well anyway, I am currently doing some part-time work for a company called Linguistica International. I'm one of their translators and as such I am occasionally called by them to go translate for a patient at a hospital or clinic. Well I should say I have translated once. It was pretty okay, but I wish I new Spanish a little better. Anyway, I've only just begun and hopefully I will get more work later. I also interviewed for the same type of job at Primary Children's, but I won't hear from them for several weeks.

Besides that I've kept pretty busy with the continuing home improvement projects. One of the things I've done was clean the top of the oven. The layers of cooked food were pretty intense to remove, but three hours into the project it was clean.

Stroke Anniversary, Valentines Day

Today I'm going to blog about two appropriate topics for this time of the year. The first is applicable to Will and I and immediate family and friends, the second to the masses. Will's stroke. This past week we hit our "two year anniversary" of the stroke. Will has mentioned to me that it isn't something he thinks we should celebrate but February 1st is a day we should remember. For me the jury is still out on whether or not we "celebrate" that day. It was the day that Will was almost lost. That I almost had to miss out on having him as a life-long companion. The realities of that day have echoed through our everyday life for the past two years- and I imagine they will for much longer. The pain and heartache of that day, however, have begun to fade. And our love and gratitude only grows brighter. Admittedly the "heartache" or in other words deficits left behind from Will's stroke still have us in a holding pattern, but the reality is that there is much more to life than just Will's profession and this makes the hardships easier to bear.

To keep with tradition in sharing Will's progress, I will tell you of an experience we had last year. One that illustrates "more emotional healing" rather than the later (physical healing). About a year ago Will went to bed and had a feeling/thought that it would be his last night on earth. That he would not wake in the morning. Even though I scold him for not having told me til morning of his aboding vision, I guess I am grateful -- for I don't think I would have slept a wink. I can't tell you how hard it was to feel as if Will was ticking bomb, and that any moment could be his last... the fear at times was paralyzing. The emotional healing has been that instead of fear we feel a hope and faith that was not there before. A surety that the relationship we've formed will last forever. That good things have and will come to us, no matter our difficulties. We stand united in a hope that Will is going to practice medicine, that his aliments will only be "for a moment" and that we will rise again to live the life we have both dreamed of. But if not-- we still have more than we ever would have had, if he not had not had the stroke.

OK-- so as to keep the second portion of this blog shorter-- I will refer you to a clip below, taken from our wedding video and I will give you the topic. Valentines Day. Will is the love of my life. One thing I didn't expect, in my cynical perception of matrimony, is that "marriage gets better." I have never been so excited as I am now to have him as my eternal companion. I hope you plan something special for the love of your life this year. Make sure you tell them how much they mean to you!

Car replacement

So today I want to talk about cars! I say that because as you probably know I had to replace my old car recently. Just to remind you why I had to do this I will just briefly tell you what happened to the old standby. We were driving back to Utah from our trip to the East when, in Gary, Indiana, my car decided to blow a piston or something like that. Anyway, we took it to the shop and were told that it could be fixed for a lot of money, but that it would probable break down again soon. So we decided to cut our losses and just rent a car to get back to Utah.

Now its two months later and we've decided that it has been long enough with just Summer's old standby. So we went car shopping. Thankfully I married Summer and she was able to do some sleuthing on the internet. She found a great car with only 35k miles on it. We took it for a spin and checked it out on Carfax.com. It check out so we bought the thing and now its sitting in our driveway. I think its a pretty neat little car.

Also, just as a side note, we recently went up to Logan and did a double date with Summer's sister and her husband. Part of the activity was bowling so I've posted a few pictures of the event.

Back to the News

So I think we've deviated from the blog subject a little the last few post. The subject being my hubby and his recovery. I assure you the deviation was not intended. My man is making amazing steps in recovery. For anyone out there who has dealt with a "long-term disability" I imagine your smile grows deeper at every little change and improvement. So right now, I have lots of reason to smile. Will's ability to retrieve large amounts of knowledge at the blink of an eye is returning. I am not longer the smarty pants out of the two of us. He can retrieve information from the precincts of his mind that I couldn't retrieve even if I learned it 100 times!

I have been so focused on other things returning I forgot that the memory piece needs to be just as pristine as the rest of his abilities-- watch out Ken Jennings ;) (ps why is it that all the smart people come from Utah.... just kidding out of state folks :).

So Will has blogged briefly about things that should be shouted on the roof tops. His volunteer work at a free clinic, his joining a toastmaster's club, his church talk, the lesson he gave in a sunday school class, his attendance at two to three morning reports a week, his new goal to take step 3 in a number of months and his chart to study a 100 hours so we can reward ourselves with a trip or something neat like that. The list goes on (actually I am keeping one cat in the bag because we don't know how it will turn out-- so keep your eye out for more developments-- i hope i hope).

I will add a couple of details to the afore mentioned activities. The clinic: many volunteers are behind the desks and counters organizing and doing paper work...my husband does that but he also gets pulled from that position several times throughout the day to translate for the doctors-- better than shadowing participating.... so cool! Will's sunday school lesson: teaching is much different than presenting. He prepared his lesson and discussion points and was able to lead the class in a discussion about the topic. I hear he did great (I couldn't go cause it was Elders Quorum-- the third of three meetings in our church -- the last meeting is the one where the guys separate from the girls). His talk: Well I have to say I was the first to talk and he was the second. I stuttered through my discourse and forgot to end with the answer to the question I presented at the first. My hubby and I then performed a musical number (him on the piano me on the violin) then he got up and took no time at all to let the congregation know my little missed detail (the entire conclusion to my talk ;). He often catches me when I fall and I am soo grateful for that. His 100 hour chart: Ok I admit it was my idea. But heck any reason to go on a vacation is a great reason for me ;)

To end I tell you Will is getting there. He isn't all the way back but he is still recovering. He is still going. And in the meantime we are having the time of our lives

Keep watching and praying,

Summer

ps The above photos are my little niece playing in our apartment-- we have a toy box and treats to persuade our nieces and nephews to come down whenever they visit the parents. The other pictures are of Will Skiing and me snowboarding. On this particular ski day we taught two nieces and my sister(for her birthday) to ski. My two brother-in-laws also came--It was a great!

pps Below is more of Will's photography genius-- two of our cute nieces and my sister and her husband.

New Year

Well, its the new year and a time for new beginnings. This year one of my new beginnings is being a member of toastmasters which is a club designed to help its members with public speaking. I've already given a talk in church and I think being a member of the club will help me give better ones in the future.

Another new beginning is living in our downstairs apartment. We've done a lot of remodeling of it and I think it looks pretty nice. If I do say so myself. In any event I'm sure I will have lots of similar projects throughout the coming year.

Also, with the new year, comes Summer and my anniversary. I love Summer and hope to make this year the best one I've spent with her yet. That isn't to say that next year won't even be better, but I think you get the picture.

In any event, its now a new year and I hope that it is good for all of us. We each have our personal struggles, and at times the future looks bleak, but I think those are just short moments and if we endure them well I believe we will be blessed.