I was born in Iowa and grew up in Minnesota. I went to school at St. Scholastica in Duluth. While I was in Duluth I made some really good, lifelong friends and met my best friend, Dave. After a few bumps in the road, we finally figured things out and started dating in 2004. I graduated with a nursing degree in 2005. Dave and I moved back down to the cities and started working.
I was lucky enough to get my dream job right out of school. I began working on a pediatric oncology/ hematology floor at the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. I truly loved my job. I met amazing, heroic children and families and worked with kind, caring and hilarious people. Little did I know how much this job was preparing me for what was to come in my personal life...
Dave and I got married in June of 2006 and bought our first house in Feb. 2007. Next up- babies. That didn't really go as planned. After months and months of infertility treatments, we found out we were finally pregnant! Max was born in October 2008. Endometriosis doesn't wait for anyone, so we started more treatment when Max was still young. We had Ellie in Jan. 2010. I was lucky enough to get to stay home, full-time, with our babies.
Life was pretty freakin' awesome until October 2010. Then things started going downhill, fast. Within in a couple weeks, Max started his initial autism assessments and our beautiful, beautiful baby girl, Ellie was suddenly taken from us due to an undiagnosed spleen problem and bacterial infection. Since then, nothing has been the same. Nothing seems right and nothing makes sense. I am just doing my best to keep going. And keep fighting for my children. Now I feel like it's my duty to not only fight to provide Max with the best opportunity to function at his highest ability but to keep Ellie's memory alive.
I titled my blog The Broken Road based on the Rascal Flatts song. This was our wedding song. And I feel like it's a very fitting song for our life in general. I may not have gotten to certain destinations the way I planned. At times the road was definitely broken. But that broken road let me straight to my kind, caring and funny (or at least he thinks so :)...) husband and Max and Ellie. I didn't pick to be apart of certain clubs I now have permanent memberships to- infertility, autism and babyloss. But it's what I got. Now, I think it's about learning how to best navigate this broken road and hope that in the end, our kids are proud of us.
"Our lives are made in these small hours. These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate."
- Rob Thomas
