3 years ago today...

We moved into our brand new home!

I can't believe it has been 3 years! This move forever changed our family's lives...

I don't know if many of you know, but our last home, which was our 1st home, made our family sick. Very sick. It was a lovely older home in American Fork. We LOVED it! It had a great covered front porch with a swing! It had original wood floors and was completely re-done inside. It was LOVELY! And cozy! And well... it was home!

The problem was... the kids started getting sick... a lot! Emma was the 1st. She started with a cold the weekend of my only sister's wedding and within hours of the ceremony we had to have her admitted to the hospital because she was turning blue and couldn't breathe! So the flower girl was not there and the Matron Of Honor was torn between two places she really needed to be! LOL It was a mess!

In the months and years that followed we had kids admitted to the hospital over and over and over again. Asthma turned into pneumonia. Collapsed lungs. Every cold, flu, cat or hairy dog would trigger a endless array of breathing treatments, steriods, Dr. visits and hospitalizations. All in all between the 3 older kids they have been admitted to the hospital and stayed more than 3 days over 15 times.

Shortly after Cam was born we had one 14 day period where we had BOTH Emma and Cody in the hospital at once! They were so little that they shared the top of the bed while baby Cameron and I snuggled at the bottom of the bed at night, while Jess worked hard trying to keep things going at home and at work. Those were some really dark times for our family. We felt as though we walked on egg shells, never knowing what would set them off this time. Cam was only 9 months old when he started his bi-monthly hospitilaztions... and there were many visits when his lungs would collapse and we would wonder if this was his time to go home to our Heavenly Father or if he would pull through. Many times his only saving grace were priesthood blessings. It was one of my hardest trials. As the mom, you just want to be able to fix it for your kids... and there was nothing I could do but pray and pray and pray!

During this same time frame, Jestin was laid off multiple times - we are talking 11 months out of 20 with 4 different jobs in between. It was post 9/11 and the economy was bad for electricians. He worked handyman jobs, odd jobs and we even sold almost all we owned in multiple yard sales to make ends meet and to pay for the crushing medical bills. But we always paid our tithing, and our fast offerings, and somehow we made all the payments. Somehow they were never late. Somehow we made it through.... but only with our faith and God's help.

After about a year of the kids in and out of the hospital, we noticed some strange substance on the kids bedroom wall. It was black mold. When we tore out the sheetrock we found there had been a hole in the foundation which the people who re-modeled it (flipped it) filled with bathtub chalk. It was bad. Add that to the fact we learned that our home used to be a meth house and we were 2 for 2! We had to stay because of our financial situation and felt so trapped and uncertain!

For months we prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted. We HAD to move! Our kids lives were on the line! After another year and half it finally worked out and after looking at over 100 exisiting homes we realized our only safe option was to build.

Thank heavens for our new home!! Our children's health has improved by leaps and bounds! Cam has only been hospitalized ONCE since we moved here! Emma still gets pneumonia often, but we can manage it at home and Cody's asthma is almost non-existant! Our greatest blessing is that Caleb has no signs of lung damage. He survived his 12 months in that home with no adverse effects!

It was SUCH an exciting time for us to be building! We moved into an apartment while it was being built and EVERYDAY we came to check on the progress!! It was so fun!!

Our first night owning the new house - the night before we moved in - we ate dinner on the kitchen floor. We ordered Pizza and laughed and talked and could barely sleep that night! We had a new, clean, safe place to bring our babies!

We love our new home! We love our neighborhood and neighbors. We are so thankful for miracles such as these in our life! We know this home was an answer to earnest prayers... and we thank our Heavenly Father everyday for this gift!