Ethan

Surgery is in 5 days.

Eeek.

Surgery is on Wednesday, September 24th. I should be in the hospital for about a week.

Which means I am coming home on Wednesday, October 1st.

My amazing brother and sister-in-law have invited my twins to go up to my sister-in-law's family's ranch for Fall Break. We have been to this ranch before and had such a fun time! They will be heading up there on Friday, October 3rd which means I will just have a day with my kids before they leave for a fun filled, fabulous trip. I'm so grateful to my family for giving my twins a fun trip and for helping me with my kids but I have been putting off talking to the twins about it because I know it would be the best thing for them but sad for me because I'll really miss them.

When I told Kate about it (my 9 year old - one of the twins) she literally started jumping up and down. She gave me a hug and told me she would miss me but that she is so excited and can't wait to go! Seeing her be so excited brought me a lot of joy.

Tonight I pulled Ethan aside (Kate's 9 year old twin brother) and told him all about the fun trip. I was expecting him to react the same exact way his sister did but he did not. And I have to write it down on here because it is the sweetest thing ever and I don't ever want to forget it. Ethan is one amazing kid.

Ethan: "So wait, you will get home on Wednesday, after being gone all week, and then I will leave on Friday?"
Me: "Yes but it's ok because I'm not going to be feeling good and you will get to have so much fun with Uncle Matt and Aunt Melissa!"
Ethan: "But that means I won't see you for more than two weeks?"
Me: "Well yes but you will have so much fun with your cousins!"

At this point, he got a little emotional and says, "Mom, is it ok if I don't want to go?"

Well this caught me totally off guard. I was really expecting him to be so happy to go to the ranch, but I told him he doesn't have to go.

Ethan, acting a bit relieved says, "Ok good. I don't want to go Mom. I want to stay here and help you. If me and Katie go, there will be no one here to help you with Griff."

That really touched my heart but I was still unsure of his motives, haha! "Ethan, Dad will be here helping me and Nana too. Also, most of your friends are going to be gone so you will have no one to play with. It's going to be a super boring Fall Break, we are not going to be able to do anything fun at all because I'm still not going to be feeling very well."

He shakes his head and says, "I don't care. As long as I can help you, I'll do it."