penny and ty

Today is our Penny's 4th birthday. I treasured her being a baby, considering she was our last. The last to have the newborn smell, the last to have the newborn cry, the last umbilical cord to have fall off. The last first steps to watch. Simply the last. It was so bitter sweet. A huge decision. Her delivery was the smoothest, considering that with her the epidural worked it's glorious magic and that i didn't have to wait to get it, 24 hours into labor. Two pushes and Penny was born. We had an idea for a name, but not until she was a few hours old did we actually agree. We both liked Penny, but to be honest I loved the name Ruby, and Clyde went through a Sophie phase (thanks to the DiVinci Code by Dan Brown). I thought about the name Royal for her middle name but again Clyde and I didn't agree. He said that Penny Royalty was a Nirvana song. Who would have known that? and when has that ever stopped him for his Nirvana kick?? So again, we agreed on Penny and Clyde liked the name Jill, keeping it soft and sweet, and very feminine. it stuck. we love our Penny Jill! All of the Wardlings loved to hold her. She was always so holdable, hug-a-bly soft. (The pregnant Ashley photo was taken 4 days before she was born.) We love our Penny! Happy 4th sugar plum!

Onto today...much happier than yesterday and it wasn't because it was my birthday. Yes- I turned 29, for the 4th time yesterday. However, a phone call @ 5am didn't seem to start my day out right. When the phone rang and awoke me from a deeply dreaming sleep, questions raced to my mind and I knew it couldn't be my brother calling to wish me happy birthday. Something was wrong. It turns out that my brother Ty and a good friend of his, H, were attacked by some random strangers @ the end of H's driveway. It happened around 2am and the fellas were outside chatting when a car drove by, then turned around and drove back by and when they came back by they threw something @ Ty and his buddy. Being boys they yelled @ them. The car then turned around again and jumped out of their car. One of the men, took his belt off, swung it and hit Ty across the ear, cutting him and the other man starting fighting H, Ty's friend. H, to his advantage was just released from a military tour and Navy Seal training in Italy, so he had his attacker, Ty on the other hand was caught off guard, due to the belt hitting him. Ty's attacker then rammed Ty and cheated...pulled out a knife and stabbed Ty twice in his side. Ty having 3 brothers and 2 sisters, who grew up with 4 brothers, made some nice counter moves and was able to get his attacker off of him. (However, when Ty and his attacker hit the ground, they rolled in briars, thorns, and thickets, getting mangled and cut in the process.) H got his attacker in a hold, was making him cry in pain and got Ty's attacker to run to his car. Once the 1st attacker was in the car he let the other one go. Ty came up to H, and noticed that he was bleeding and was quite mad that the man had cut his favorite fraternity shirt. H got Ty to the house and then got his Mom, where she insisted on going to the hospital. The gashes were deep, way deep, and there wasn't alot of blood. internal bleeding. H's mom got him to the hospital where he called my folks and it just so happened that my Dad couldn't sleep that night and had been awake to get the call. They of course rush to the hospital, where they talked to the Er Dr., that smartly required some CT scans, which showed all the internal bleeding and the gash in his spleen and they were told that Ty would lose his spleen. Ty was taken in for emergency surgery. My sister, her husband, and I were out the door and on the road, just 20 minutes after getting the phone call. We met up with my other family members in the surgery/family waiting room. After a few hours, Ty's Dr. came out to talk to us to tell us that they didn't have to remove his spleen, but were able to repair it. He stitched it, glued it, patched it, glued it, & patched it several times. He removed the 500 cc's worth of blood from his belly, due to the internal bleeding, as well as giving Ty 3 pints back in. It is now a waiting game. Ty is in the ICU. We are waiting to make sure that 1- his spleen resumes normal function while accepting the stitches etc, and b- to watch out for infection. It will be a very long recovery for him. I feel awful for him.

I cannot believe that this happened or that it happened to my baby brother. Of all the people to get hurt, he is hands down the least deserving. I absolutely hate this! The attackers did get away and H was horrified knowing that he let one of them go. On a side note, H's Dad grabbed his gun and headed to the street, stopping every car that passed by his house, even a State Trooper, who was looking for the same men. He is determined, as we all are, to catch those attackers, who did this. This is just terrible. Please say extra prayers for my baby brother. He can use all he can get.