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Lake Family Memories 2012
2012 has brought The Lake family closer to one another by bonding us
together in times of trial. We have
truly witnessed miracles this past year including God’s faithfulness and
provisions, his peace that transcends all understanding, and the hope that comes
with believing in His will for our lives.
In January, we learned that I had been exposed to fifth disease, a
potentially harmful disease to a developing fetus and I was at the end of my
second trimester with our third child. Kaiser
began to monitor the fluid levels of the brain, heart and lungs of the baby
looking for any traces of anemia. In
February we packed our hospital bags and traveled to Roseville in the event of
either an emergency in-utteral blood transfusion or a possible C-section for a
premature infant. The Sunday before this
procedure was scheduled I prayed over at church and hands were laid on us in
good faith for God’s miraculous provisions, my bible study ladies also blessed
us with a Gift Shower in a basket in the event that we would be coming home
with a baby earlier than we anticipated.
The following Monday our baby was moving around inside the
womb-PERFECTLY HEALTHY! All traces of anemia subsiding and in good health. We were monitored bi-weekly until Tabitha
Rose Lake was born 6 days past her due date on April 11th, 2012. After three hours of induced labor, She made
her entrance into the world at a whopping 11 lbs and 21 ½ inches. She was perfectly healthy and the largest
baby ever delivered naturally at the Modesto hospital. She has since developed into the perfect
baby, hardly crying and always smiling. She
has 5 teeth, crawls quickly and says mama and papa. She adores her siblings as they are her best
source of entertainment. I was able to
stay home with all three kids nearly until summer, but had to return to work
for the last week.
Two weeks after Tabitha’s birth our oldest child, Hannah, turned three
years old. Hannah is in love with
everything horses. She occupies her time
at home playing with Barbies or dress-up, plays with, chases and yells at her
brother or entertains her sister in “bucket rides.” She happily talks the
family’s ears off about EVERYTHING and anything else with her extensive
vocabulary. Zechi turned two in July with
a zoo trip for celebrations and has also begun the art of talking, albeit in
encrypted code that even sometimes we parents cannot crack. But leave it to his sissy to save the day
nearly every time with an interpretation.
He has learned how to climb, swing, jump off and stands on just about
everything. We pray he makes it to age 5!. The only way to describe my little
Zechi is by saying he is “all boy!”
During our maternity leave, the Lake family made a trip to Oregon to play
and visit with the Smith family. It was
this trip that introduced Hannah to her new found love for horses. Upon our stay in Oregon we relaxed at, my Cousin,
Valerie’s house, went for walks around her beautiful neighborhood and even made
a day trip to Crater Lake so the kids could play in the snow. On our way home we made a 12 hour accidental
detour towards the coast and extended our trip by a day waking up in the
beachcomber motel to a beautiful ocean scene that of course, needed further
explorations. Shortly after our return
and at the beginning of summer vacation we took another family vacation to Lake
Tahoe to play, but we were interrupted by a freak out of season snow storm and
spend the majority of our trip inside the hotel room making family memories.
In June, Brandon was able to fulfill his dream of becoming a classic car
owner as our family purchased his 1974 Camaro.
He also partook in a mission trip to Haiti with our church. There he was able to tour the beautiful, yet poverty-stricken
country and witness first- hand the devastation of the 2010. The church assembled team stayed at the Hands
and Feet orphanage, in Jacmel, where they were put in charge of painting. In between shifts they played with the
orphans and each member of the mission team returned with a new heart fully
affected by God’s grace, love and power.
Just after Brandon’s return to the country, Tom, Brandon’s father,
decided that our growing family was expanding too quickly for our small home
and moved in with Rob and Tiffany (Brandon’s Brother and Girlfriend.)
Summer ensued with the traditional business including: Lowe’s build-
PeeWee Pony School, an additional Lake Tahoe trip with Ommie and Papa, Zechi’s birthday at the Oakland zoo, the
Berkeley kite festival (which shall become a new Sheffield Family tradition), multiple
5K’s, Vacation Bible School and a weekend away in Santa Cruz at with Brandon’s
step brother Jason.
I have continued my position at Mable Barron, this year leaving the
comfort of Jr. High and entering into the hormonal world of 6th
grade. Just before returning to work in
august Brandon was scheduled for his 6th surgery on his foot, in
hopes of helping to make his walking less painful. What occurred in the following 4 months was
nothing short of a medical nightmare.
The surgery was performed perfectly with clear hopes of a full
recovery. Brandon was sent home to be
monitored by a home health agency as there was much scar tissue in the operated
area from previous procedures and they wanted to keep the area sterile. A long story short, infection ensued and this
is where Brandon’s health took a scary and downward spiral. His 3 month recovery extended to 4 months
with conditions worsening as opposed to the desired walking abilities. The infection had burrowed into the bone, and
all hardware put in place from the original surgery had to be removed in
attempts to remove the bacteria. 17
surgeries later, a decision was made and a final surgery was performed and
Brandon’s right foot was amputated.
During these months I cannot begin to express the tremendous amount of love
and support our family received. Church
members and co-workers blessed us with meals nightly for over 3 months, people
volunteered childcare assistance so I could spend time with Brandon in the
hospitals on weekends and weekdays after work.
Grandma Jodie volunteered to watch the kids every Wednesday and my Dad
every other weekday until I got off of work.
People cleaned our home, grocery shopped for us, mowed our lawn! It
still brings tears to my eyes when looking back at them many people who came to
our assistance acting out Christ’s love.
To this day, I know I would never have gotten through this alone.
Brandon’s health has steadily improved and in the beginning of December
he was fitted with his first (of many) prosthetics. Within three short weeks he was able to begin
walking on it with limited assistance.
He has since learned to drive with his left foot, and we are adjusting
to the many other life-changes as a family.
And then, just as things began to settle down for us, we picked up and
moved to our new residence and bought our first home. We absolutely attribute
this home to God’s blessings as it is more than we could have ever dreamed of!
Once again, many came to our aide in helping us pick up and move across town
and we spent New Year’s Day of 2013 in our new home, new life, with new hopes
for our future.
This
letter is being sent out late due to my lame excuse of “lack of time,” but it
is sent with full appreciation to God and the many hands and feet of God that
came to our rescue in times of great need.
We praise God for his provisions in 2012, but look forward to a slightly
less stressful 2013!
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