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For some much needed positive news!

My sister had her baby last Wednesday, almost exactly one month after the boys were born, and she is beautiful!!!! Everything went well and my sister is doing fine. I was well enough to visit her and the baby in the hospital last week, and last night she brought the baby to my parent's house so all three babies were together. What a zoo! We got some fun pictures and enjoyed the symphony of baby cries (for the most part :)

While I'm on positive thoughts, I want to note some of the wonderful things that have come out of my almost dying. (Yesterday I had 3 separate doctors tell me how they can't believe I survived, so it's kinda funny that I can now say I almost died and know that I'm not just being my usual melodramatic self.)

1. A big source of pain in my life is that I've never heard my mom tell me that she loves me. She had never said the words to me. I've always felt that she much preferred my sister to me. Well, my mom was an amazing caregiver to me in the hospital. She sat with me for hours while I slept, spoon-fed me food when I couldn't do more than open my mouth, and countless other things. She soothed me when I had panic attacks. Most importantly, she told me how much she loved me for the first time. Even though her actions already showed all that love and I knew that she loved me, it was really something to hear it.

2. A cousin of mine (my dad's sister's son) has not spoken to my parents or me and my sister in 7 years; it's a long story. Well, when his mom, my aunt, told him what happened, he called her every day for updates on me. Finally he wrote my dad, and apologized for all the years of silence, and asked that he and my dad could talk in order to put the past behind and be family again. My dad, who never had any issues with him in the first place and had hoped for years that he would come around, immediately embraced this chance to talk to him. This reunion has been wanted for so very, very long by us.

3. There are other relatives that have been somewhat estranged, and they have all reached out to put differences behind and move forward.