Our new year begins tomorrow...

Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Taylor and I will be on our way to St. Mark's Hospital in SLC.  He will go into surgery sometime after arriving and then he'll begin his journey to being healthy again.

I almost can't believe the day is about here.

We're nervous.  Well, very nervous.  Removing a Colon is a pretty big deal.

I think I'm almost as nervous about taking Taylor home when he's completed his hospital stay.  For me, it's kind of like when you're a first-time parent and you're taking your brand new baby home for the first time.  I just hope I can care for him the best that I can.

Thankfully the surgery WON'T be "old school" and it'll be done laparoscopically so his incisions will be smaller than they could be, but he'll still have a lot of healing to do internally and externally.  So really, that part will not be fun.

This week is the first week in over two years that Taylor is not longer taking immunosuppressants.  Up until several weeks ago he was taking three different immune suppressing drugs.  Some of the nasty side effects from those drugs are already beginning to subside.  I'm so relieved.

I'm sort of a fanatic when it comes to planning and preparing for events and I tend to make multiple lists to organize myself.  I started a packing list for the Hospital about a week ago and after that I began to make a list of things I needed to get done within the week before leaving.  My "Day before leaving" list is as follows:

"Take out garbage
Clean out fridge
Finish/put away laundry
Return Redboxes
Buy wipes
Clean out fish bowl
Print photos and write letters
Wash bedding
Clean
Pack
Wrap Jonathan and B.J.'s present"

Half way there!

I don't know what we would do/have done without all of the help of family and loving friends.  My mom will have Mercedes while we're gone, which makes living in their basement very convenient for the situation.  We are so grateful for the help of my family, and Taylor's family.  We're so grateful for friends, ward members, and neighbors.  We couldn't have done all this without all of you.

Today my amazing Visiting Teachers brought us a Hospital Care Package, complete with a design magazine for me, gun magazine for Taylor, games, chocolate, and a coloring book and crayons for Mercedes.  It's things like that that make hard things a little easier to bare.

I'm actually really looking forward to the time I get to spend with Taylor at the hospital.  I will be able to focus 100% on him when he'll need it most.  But it will also be hard.  My heart feels torn because I always miss Mercedes so much when I'm staying at the hospital.  She is a strong girl though and will have so much fun with Grandma Jenne that she'll probably hardly notice we're gone.

I can't really find the words when I want to describe how I admire Taylor.  He is so strong.  I look up to him so much (not just literally) and I often can't believe that he chose ME to be his wife.  He is the love of my life and i am so excited for him to be well again.  I feel like the luckiest girl.

Looking forward to 2014!