Baby Norman!

Baby Norman's here! He was 18.5" long and weighed 6.13 lbs at birth and who knows how long he is now. He was born at 7:30 a.m. exactly. It was a fun all nighter. I did take a small nap but it was Sarah who was the real champ! Didn't even take a nap once. Dad slept a lot and mom said that she wanted to punch him in the face. So that was funny. 

I helped catch baby Norman. I feel like I participated more in his birth than any of the others. Watching my siblings be born really has been an amazing experience. It's very emotional and spiritual and probably just good for the soul. I've been to 5 now and it's amazing how each one is different. I'm a little sad that mom's done having kids but I guess 9 is a good number to stop at. Anyway here's some cute baby pictures because I'm sure that's all you people really care about. 

   He definitely has the Judd nose. It's not as bad as Jane's though. So lucky him. 

 He's pretty dang adorable.

 He loves to sleep like this and it's the warmest comfiest thing ever.

 And today he was really contemplative about life. 

And now that the baby is here the next step is for mom to get her cancer treated. That's going to be hard but my grandma is coming out in a week to help with all of us youngins. Hopefully mom will only be in the hospital for a week and that's it. Mom has a CT scan Wednesday to see if it's spread anywhere else. Please pray for us that it hasn't. I'm pretty confident it hasn't but prayers are always good. I'd like to thank all those who've prayed and fasted so far for me mum and also to all those who've brought us food the past couple weeks. It makes everyone's life easier and it's a comforting feeling knowing that tons of people are praying for your fam. 

Meanwhile as I've been enjoying this baby and contemplating mom's cancerous life I've been trying to figure out what to do with my life. I've applied to a couple other Au Pair jobs in France, Greece, U.K., and Finland but we'll see if any of those get back to me. There's always the school option but idk I'm not really feeling it. If mom is better by March I think I'll still head to Utah for a couple months. I guess we'll see where life takes me! Well till next time! 

The Adventure Never Ends

The adventure never really ends. I came back to America and have been experiencing kind of a lull in my life. Nothing extremely exciting to look forward to and a lot of uncertainty of what I should do with my life. Well guess what guys! My mom has cancer! It's Choroidal Melanoma, a form of skin cancer, in the back of her left eye. It's a very rare form of cancer. Apparently only 6 in a million get it. Good news though is that it's highly treatable and there's a 97% chance that they can get rid of it entirely. That bit of news is probably one of the main reasons I'm not freaking out and crying in a ball on the floor. 

In all honesty though yesterday was a bit tearful for pretty much everyone in my house. As much as we know that she'll be fine and recover and still be our loving and amazing mother it's still stressful. She'll probably have to be induced and have the baby early in the hospital and then I'll be in charge of baby Norman for 5-7 days while mom has radiation treatment. I think that's the hardest part for mom and me. She'll be away from her newborn babe and I'll be in full responsibility of that babe. Luckily our friend Sarah will be out here and be able to help us and after that my grandma is going to come and help while mom recovers. 

And as much as we've had a difficult 24 hours so many people have reached out to me, mom, and dad with love and promises of prayer and fasting and offers to help with anything we need. It's truly a blessing and I know my parents may have already said it a little bit but thank you people for all of your love and support. It's amazing to be reminded of how many people love and care for my family and specifically my mother. 

Anyway let's move away from this depressing topic and onto something a little more cheerful. 

Monday the day before we found out about mom and her diseased eyeball we had a family fast and made the spontaneous decision to take a family day trip to Philadelphia. 

 So we did just that. We got there around dinner time so we headed to Reading Market for dinner.

And after that we visited the temple grounds of the Philadelphia temple. Even though it was just the grounds of the temple I love the peace and comfort the temple brings. It's a wonderful place.

So we drove 6 hours to spend maybe 3 hours in a different state. We're the pro day trippers. You may think we're kind of crazy to do that but we tend to do it quite often. It's fun.

With mom having cancer I've been a little uncertain of what I should do with my life. I feel if I left in March like my original plan I might feel guilty for leaving people. But you know I think the lord works in mysterious ways, as all the scriptures say. Meaning it's a good thing that I didn't get my visa. If I had I'd still be in Spain while my family was going through all of this. Instead I get to be with my family. As much as mom having a baby and has to be treated for cancel immediately afterwards is stressful, she should recover quickly. If we're lucky we'll hopefully be able to return to our normal every day lives fairly quickly. I'll still be able to go out and live on my own but still be able to support and be with my family when they need me. It's just amazing how everything works out. At least that's what I'm telling myself to keep myself happy for the time being. Anyway sorry for this really bummer blog post. I'm applying to be a traveling nanny with this family who is traveling the world for a year starting in July. I don't think I'll be chosen considering they probably have hundreds of people applying already but you never know where the world may take me! It sure would be an amazing experience! I have no doubt about that! 

Well next time I post I'll probably have a new baby brother. Till next time!