The Hagerty House Just Got Bigger: God is Faithful

Hey Everyone!
So it has been quite sometime since I last blogged. A lot has happened. The kids started their second school year here. Erika is now in 3rd grade so she moved up to the new elementary school for 3-6 graders. Maylee is in 2nd and Jhon is in 1st. They are all doing well in school. Beau decided to homeschool for the 1st semester of 7th grade. She still was involved in cheerleading, piano and gymnastics. I am a senior and so excited to be done! I take some pretty challenging classes and it will be nice to get to college...finally! :) I graduate in 122 days and turn 18 in 105 days. I have been counting since the first day of school. haha.

Well Mandy graduated in May and Zac is finishing online. They both moved up here in August and lived with us for about a month before they found and apartment in Anchorage. They are expecting a baby on July 9. We are so excited for them :). I can't wait to become an aunt! My cousin, George, my mom's nephew, moved up here from Louisiana in August as well. He is 16 so he attended Palmer High School with me and got to play football. He went home after the 1st semester.

And here comes the fun part! haha. A couple of weeks before Halloween my mom woke up with crick in her neck. After going to the chiropractor and doctor a few times and worse results she went to a spinal specialists. She ruptured a disk in her neck and it was jabbing her spinal cord and pinching a nerve. She is a nurse at the hospital so she has good insurance. They scheduled a surgery to replace the disk which is a newer procedure. The common one is the fusion but it is much more intense. Well she is getting ready for surgery and the insurance company refused to pay for that type of procedure. That was extremely stressful because by this time it was the week before Thanksgiving and my mom couldn't do anything except lay on the couch. My Grandma, Grammy Jo, my mom's mom came up to help us out while my mom was sick. I was really glad because i had been missing school to help out with my siblings and getting them to school and such. Plus she cooks way better then me :). Well they finally go the insurance company to agree and my mom was able to have the surgery a week later, the Monday before Thanksgiving. She was the first person to get that type of surgery under this insurance company. She stayed in the hospital a few days and got out the night before Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, we celebrated our first Gotcha Day, November 20, and the kid's first Family Anniversary, November 7. Every year we go out to eat and celebrate being a family. Mom and Dad look all year for ornaments for each of us. We write the kid's name and the year so every year when we decorate the tree we get to see them all. Well this year we went to Applebees' thanks to some unexpected gift cards, which were such a blessing, and all got an ornament. It was very sweet when we explained it the kids. Maylee cried when she got her first ornament. Poor Mom was still hurt and in a sling. We still had fun as a family. To be completely honest i hardly remember Gotcha Day. Things were quite crazy! But we did go to Sears and take pictures of the kids. One of each of us individually and one of all of us kids. It didn't matter what we did. We were just happy to be a family.

Mandy's younger sister, Holly, came up for Thanksgiving. We went snowboarding with her which was fun despite my miner concussion, haha. Our house was certainly full for Thanksgiving with us, Zac and Mandy, Grammy Jo, George, Holly and Zac's friend Steven. And poor mom was just out of the hospital with a lot of pain. The recovery has been very slow. It took a while before my mom was able to drive or move really. Physically and emotionally it was hard on our whole family. She was not able to work during this time but her co workers have been pulling together to give her their paid time off so that she can keep her insurance. And her boss has let her keep her job but she has not had to go back to work yet. A local church where a lot of my friends go as well as the Spanish teacher and nurse at the kids' school came together to volunteer to make us meals every night. For 2 weeks! And they brought us a hot meal, a salad, a bread product and a dessert. These people didn't even know who we were and they helped us out so much. They were such a huge blessing. City Church in Anchorage also cooked us some meals and Wasilla Assembly helped us gets tons of food and groceries from the food bank. One of the biggest blessings was from the hospital. Every year they adopt one family for Christmas gifts. So they chose us. We all turned in Christmas gifts! Christmas was huge! Absolutely huge! They did an amazing job for our family. We are so truly blessed. I cried and cried on Christmas morning!

A few more things that happened during this time. haha a lot happened. Dad and his team did a really good job at work and as a reward type of thing they gave my parents a gift card to Bailey's Furniture to buy new furniture. They were able to get furniture for both of the living rooms and a new flat screen! God was blessing us so much during this difficult time. And on December 22 we went to court before the judge and got officially approved in the United States. The kids were nervous at first that they might have to go back but they were very reassured. They also got their Alaskan birth certificates. That was a fun day.

Well Christmas was such a a huge blessing on our family and we all had an amazing time! Over break we got to take the kids sledding and swimming a lot and build snowman. Everything was easier this year having been a family for a year. We also went to the Colony Christmas. It is a local mini fair put on by Palmer. It has free kids games and horse rides as well as craft shops, a parade and fireworks. The kids enjoyed it despite it being FREEZING! George went home the last day of the semester but Grammy Jo was able to stay with us. Mom was very happy to have her around and the kids had never met her before so we all enjoyed her being with us. Mom was going to physical therapy and doing much better. She kept getting sick and in fact had a flare up of a reaction to the parasite she got in Colombia and has been sick for about 5 weeks now on top of recovery from a big injury and a pretty big surgery.

Things were finally starting to get better until about 3 days after Christmas. My dad lost his job and is currently unemployed. That was a huge blow on our family, especially my mom. Neither of them are working right now and money was tight before so things are stressful but God has been so faithful to us. He has provided for us and I have complete peace that everything will be just fine. We have had to cut back, including texting which I was not to thrilled about but i totally understand. The whole thing has been difficult for us but God will certainly get us through. I figured I should apply to college now because I will qualify for all sorts of financial aid hahaha.

Dad has really enjoyed the time off and has a strong lead at a job much closer to home which we all wanted. Mom has still not returned to work but is doing much. much better and feels she will be able to in about 3-4 weeks. God's faithfulness and peace have certainly been shown in this situation. Just a few days before he lost his job my parents got prophesied over at church that they were like Joseph and God's promise would be coming true. I feel closer to God now then I have in months. The kids are healthy and strong. Beau returned to school and I am still in it. Grammy Jo is leaving tomorrow, January 12 but we have had a wonderful time with her here. We have continued to get groceries from the food bank and now qualify for free lunches at school, which will also pay for my IB (international version of AP- Advanced Placement) test fees which is a huge blessing. God is certainly going to see us through. Please keep our family in your prayers. I'll add more Christmas pictures on another one :)

Hope