We're OK, Things were Rough But We Made It

By Canadian Renegade

The other day, I realized it had been ages since I had checked Steemit. Even before my last few updates, life had been getting crazy for us and my posting had started to dwindle. When I checked in I noticed that some people were wondering how we were doing and I feel like the least I should do is give an update. I never intended to just abandon Steemit but 2020 has probably been the hardest year of my life.

I'm going to keep it brief as there is quite a bit to cover and some of it is rather personal. If I were to share all the details it would deserve a post or two all to itself. In the last update I made we were getting ready to move to the new house and I hoped to resume updates once we were settled. Unfortunately, that is when SHTF, for us anyway.

The timeline is a little blurry so might be off by a day or two here or there. We moved into the house about mid-March. The Covid hysteria was really ramping up and I was just glad that we were able to finish the move before any lock downs.

At the beginning of April, I was laid-off work. My boss basically said that new projects had dried up. Since everyone was unsure of how bad the pandemic would actually be they decided to wait for the lockdown to be lifted to proceed with projects. Without enough work for us he was basically just burning capital and needed to reduce expenses or risk bankrupting the company. I understood the reasons behind his move and had no hard feelings. I knew things would be tight but looked at the lay off as an opportunity to finish the house and get a bunch of the homesteading projects started.

If that sounds bad, we're just warming up. On April 9, shortly after we put the set of twins to bed Aimee went into premature labor with our second set of twins. That birth is a story all to itself and I am not sure if or when we will be comfortable telling all the details. Suffice to say, it was the scariest thing I have ever had to endure. I will say though that this was one of the few times I asked God for anything and he didn't let me down.

The next couple of months were absolutely crazy. Aimee was driving into the hospital almost daily and I was spending most of my time taking care of H and R. As you might imagine, some of the projects I had planned to tackle went by the way side. We basically just went into survival mode at this point.

After 53 long days, our second twins were strong enough to finally come home! While this was a big relief, and weight off our shoulders, it wasn't the end of our struggles. The babies had severe acid reflux which we were told is common for preemies. They wouldn't sleep, probably due to discomfort unless they were in a seated position but having sleeping infants in a seated position isn't considered safe. We ended up resorting to propping them up with pillows and blankets on the couch. Aimee and I would take shifts staying up at night to watch them and make sure that they were safe and didn't tip over and suffocate or fall off the couch.

This went on for several months. I even went back to work during this time, sometimes getting only 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night multiple days in a row. It wasn't any easier on Aimee either. There were several other issues we have had to deal with but they are also really their own topics which I won't cover in this post.

Truthfully, survival mode continued up until a couple months ago. The sleep situation started to improve and I feel like I sort of came out of a fog. While things are still hard they're more manageable and I have had the energy to focus on a few projects other than basic necessity.

So, that's it for now. Not nearly as brief as I wanted but it is a long story. I will probably be posting here again, as time permits, and I am glad to be back as part of the Steemit community.