Christmas 2016

January 05, 2018

Christmas 2016

The 2016 Holiday Season was a fairly challenging one for all five of us. Fortunately, a supportive school environment, family counselors, and our Catholic faith got us through some very rough weeks last year.

In addition, Chris' mom (Grandma Kueter) was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in late 2015 after some serious incidents which involved memory lapse, driving, and Iowa. Yes...my mother-in-law actually drove from Kansas City to the Iowa border...without knowing it. She failed to show up to babysit my nephew at three in the afternoon, and was missing for close to 24-hours. Police refused to issue a silver alert because at the time she had no medical diagnosis and could have left on her own accord. We were able to track her whereabouts by use of her ATM card which showed her filling up her tank at various gas stations between Kansas City and Des Moines. Very traumatic.

A few weeks later, she was involved in a not-so-minor car accident which looked like her driving on the railroad tracks thinking she was going down a side-street. Fortunately, a train going the opposite direction on parallel tracks saw her vehicle headlights and radioed in that a car was riding the rails. BNSF Railway (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) was contacted and traffic stopped....a true tragedy was averted. (When she realized that she was driving on railroad tracks, she put the car in reverse and got stuck on the rails.) My ex-husband's family immediately took away her car and keys and within a matter of months, she was moved to an assisted living facility. She is not quite at the level of needing memory care...and Alzheimer meds have significantly slowed her rapid decline...but nursing care is necessary.

This picture is of Thanksgiving Weekend 2016 when I took the kids to see their grandmother. Luke was rather frightened by her change in appearance and new surroundings, but my older two did well given that my own grandmother was in nursing care in St. Louis.

Christmas 2016 was meager in the way of gifts, but fortunately my kiddos have hearts of gold. They were so appreciative of the little that I could provide for them. In addition, I was having a hard time finding my Christmas joy. As you can see in the background...I could hardly bring myself to decorate...yet I knew that I needed to for the sake of my kids. The following pictures were snapped the night of their St. Paul School Christmas program. (I think I got the tree finally decorated on Christmas Eve...I tried to play it off as intentional, but it was really depression.)

So, it's really important that I share these photos because when I look at Christmas 2017, I can see the personal growth that all four of us have experienced! Growth is good...and so is God!