Uncle Scott saves the day (or week!)

There he is, my brother, Uncle Scott to the girls, the life saver (other than Jesus of course) during this Christmas.  Our original plan was to drive to Houston for Christmas to celebrate with my whole family.  Great plan until we realized I would be 24 weeks pregnant with twins : ) A car ride for a mere 18+ hours did not sound appealing in any way nor did I feel comfortable leaving my home turf (Winnie Palmer) in a high risk pregnancy.  So the decision was made a few months ago that we would stay put in Orlando.  Scott decided that he would come spend the holiday with us if we couldn't be there....YEA!

As the pregnancy progressed & became more & more high risk, we approached the week of my parents departure & Scott's arrival knowing that we could be told we needed to travel to Houston for an intervention with the boys. That is when we made the call to send Eloise home with Gaga & Paw Paw knowing we would either meet her there or that she could fly back with her beloved Uncle Scott.  Thankfully we had a decent report at the ultrasound that week & let Uncle Scott know to get his bag of tricks ready for an airplane ride with an 18 month old. He of course did it with ease even though it was late at night when they arrived & Eloise stayed awake the whole time. Apparently she just had a case of the wiggles which is better than a case of the poopie diaper explosion on an airplane ; ) 

Scott had called a few weeks ago to let me know that he wanted to take over the kitchen while he was in town. I thought about it for about a millionth of a second & said "SURE!" Both of my brothers are fantastic cooks & are both single, wink wink. A week later he sent me a list of recipes which I quickly approved & then salivated until his arrival.  We did some shopping the first day & he got to work! 

Here are pictures of the Beef Empanadas, beans & onions & then the Roasted Chicken with an amazing Lemon sauce. That was the girls favorite! He also made a delicious Chicken Noodle Soup, lots of lunches & snacks for the girls, washed about every dish in the house 8 times & rarely stopped smiling : ) 

There was a lot of playtime as it takes HOURS these days to wear the girlies out. I know Char was excited for Uncle Scott to play in the tunnel since I don't fit in there anymore. There was a lot of squealing & chasing going on! He forced me to lay on the couch & observe so I could receive an adequate amount of rest...so nice!

Remember how I said in the post about saying goodbye to Bennett that even in the midst of a difficult time we could clearly see God's mercy extended to us? God's mercy to us for 6 days was having Scott with us. He was amazing with the kitchen & with the girls but more amazing to just be present with us in our situation.

We three adults had more than a few very serious conversations over the course of his visit discussing the status of the twins & possibilities, caring for a sick dog & parenting a  3 year old & 1 year old when life seems to be too hard to handle. The girls were just out of sorts & there was a LOT of screaming coupled with a snotty attitude from the eldest child on occasion.

Here we are enjoying our lovely dinner Scott cooked....

and just in case you couldn't tell how sad she looked in the first picture.....

He also got to experience the split personalities of young children as this picture was taken about 10 seconds later....

We laughed a whole lot more over the week with Scott there than we would have alone.  All three of our brothers are capable of getting us to laugh hard very easily, we are thankful for that! Scott mentioned at one point that he felt like he had experienced some intense moments as he witnessed Rob & I in heated discussions about Bennett as we were both processing feeling uncertain & sad.  He also said while watching the girls freak out "is this the norm?" Haha! We decided that of any gift we could give Scott for Christmas, the best gift would be a clear picture of what married life with young children looks like in difficult times & that we did! I think I can be safe to say it was well received.  He loves us & said he wants to come back to visit : ) 

Praise God for providing for us in such a tangible way this past week.  We love you Scott!