Looking back and seeing things again!

29^th October 2015

Day+ 1 year and ½ a month!

(I wrote this back in October and didn't get around to posting but I still wanted it included - hence the funny date!)

On this date one year ago we began the long journey home and I still remember it so well.

I was so excited to be coming home to Belle and Seb, it had been so hard to be away from them for 5 long weeks.  Even though being in Moscow and going through treatment was an amazing and life changing experience, it was excruciating being away from the kids.

I was so excited, so excited...  I kept counting down the hours... every time I finished food, finished a movie, finished a little sleep, went to the toilet, changed planes I would look at my watch and calculate how long to go.  And then we finally touched down in Brisbane and I had tears of excitement until that was taken away.  The reserved wheelchairs had been snapped up by other passengers so myself and another lady had to wait what seemed like forever for them to bring a couple.  I remember Paul kept looking at me to check if I was okay, I was not okay but as always my pretend face kicked in and determination not to fall kept me going and then we were on our way.

But then it took what seemed like forever again to get out bags and through customs, longest wait we’d had at any airport to Moscow and back.  Then finally through and their faces waiting with mum & dad, I was so happy to be home.

Then there was the flipside of being excited to see the kids, I was terrified of leaving the hospital.  I’d gotten through treatment with not to many hiccups and had been so very happy with the care by Dr Fedorenko, Anastasia, the nurses and all the other staff.  I really didn’t want to leave my safe bubble.  I really didn’t want to go out and deal with the germs of the world that for sure!!

Roll on 12 months now and here I am, here I stand, here I walk so well and feel so much better than I have for years.  The world is brighter, there is light in my eyes again (so Paul tells me).  Life is amazing!!

Here in Brisbane we have Jacaranda trees and they only bloom once a year.  They are these beautiful purple flowers and they really don’t stay on the tree very long and make a mess of the yard and roads but they are so beautiful that you can forgive the mess they eventually make.  Anyway point of my story is they are flowering now so they will remind me each year of my “new life”.  Not quite the purple iris that is the symbol on our pin but beautiful all the same.  I’ve also found and I may have said this before that I feel like I’m seeing things for the first time.  We’ve lived here for 4 years now and I’ve noticed the Jacaranda in our next door neighbours yard but I’ve never appreciated its beauty or how many there are around the city – I’m just loving looking everywhere again!