My Foolish Decision Blessed My Life

    When I think of Haley I instantly think of what an adventure her life has been. I had no idea what a crazy ride it was going to be for her or for me as her mother. This is how it all started:

     I found out I was pregnant with my 5^th child and I was excited but I was also a little scared. My first 4 pregnancies were not much fun. I threw up constantly and only gained 4 to 5 pounds instead of the customary 30. I would end up very thin and I would pass out sometimes. I also had a tipped uterus so the weight of the baby put a lot of pain and pressure on my right leg. As my family can attest I was always fixing dinner with my right leg up on the counter. It was either that or no dinner. The pressure and pain got too bad when my leg was down. The blood vessels in my right leg swelled up. This time around I was sent to a vein specialist because I had some veins that were swollen up like balloons ready to pop. The vein specialist sat me down and told me he couldn't do anything for me while I was pregnant. He chewed me out for getting pregnant, telling me that four children should have been plenty with the problems that I have, that I was foolish to be having another baby. This doctor was brutal. I left his office and cried all the way home. It was a rough pregnancy but I delivered a healthy baby girl and we named her Haley. She was beautiful and I loved her instantly. I had several blood vessels rupture and I was doubled over in pain for a few weeks after delivery. The doctor wanted to do surgery. I had Winn give me a priesthood blessing and the pain went away. I looked at Haley and I knew she was well worth it. I knew she was meant to be a part of our family. This foolish decision the doctor said I made turned out to be one of my greatest blessings in life.

The whole family loved Haley

    Haley was my hardest baby out of my six children. She would cry all night and half the day. I finally discovered that rocking, car rides and the swing, which would put the other kids to sleep, made Haley feel sick. She had a lot of trouble with motion sickness. If we went on long car rides she would cry the whole trip and keep throwing up all over me, her and the car. We would always travel with our car and us smelling very bad. It was hard to deal with this on a 10 hour car ride. It got a little better as she got older when she could throw up in a bucket instead of without warning all over us and the car. I spent a lot of hours scrubbing throw up out of carpet, off walls and washing clothes and bedding with her. She threw up constantly when she was sick too. She would even count the times when she got older and tell us she had thrown up 12 times that day. She was well worth every sleepless night, and change of clothes. We all loved her and she was a lot of fun. The other kids loved her and always let her join in their fun.

Haley loved the hideout the kids made on the stairs and the kids loved her

     My other challenge with Haley was that she was a climber and would push chairs over and climb up onto places like the table and the counter. She loved to stand in the middle of the kitchen table and shake the light pretty violently. She was always getting into trouble. She once got into the refrigerator,  got the eggs and butter out and I found her breaking eggs and finger painting with the buttery gooey mess in the carpet. My biggest job became keeping a close eye on her and keeping her safe and out of trouble.

She was always climbing. I'm surprised she didn't become an avid mountain climber.

She loved to unload the dishwasher all over the floor

And empty all the cupboards

and put herself in the dishwasher

and climb in the cupboards and throw everything out

Cory was always telling her to get down and not to break the light.

Better to be on the table than in a chair, the higher the better

The last thing Haley needed was to learn how to light things on fire from Katie

She also played in the dryer a lot

She didn't even want to climb stairs in the conventional way.

When she got a little bigger all of her dolls ended up in the dryer with her. She loved playing in the dryer

    When Haley was a toddle she would also keep putting handfuls of dirt from the house plants into her mouth until it was packed so tight I could hardly get it out. Once I also found a caterpillar in her mouth. I had to give away all of my plants. I took her for a checkup at the doctor's office. I told the doctor she kept putting everything in her mouth and I was finding everything from newspaper to small objects in her diaper when I changed her. The doctor had me practice Heimlich for small children at the office. The very next day Haley found a ball of foil one of the kids had made and got it stuck in her throat. She turned blue pretty fast and couldn't breath. I grabbed her and did what the doctor had just showed me the day before and the foil ball popped out across the floor. Phew! What a blessing. Another time she pulled the whole Christmas tree down on her. We took the tree down early that year because she kept trying to climb it. She got hurt quite a bit being so adventurous and from playing too rough with her brothers, but nothing too serious. I had feared she would break a lot of bones and get a lot of stitches like Brett had done but she was lucky and she didn't. Maybe she was saving up because some big trials for her were yet to come.

She colored her hands and face with red magic marker. She looked in the mirror and thought she was bleeding and put band-aids on her face.

She cut her hair herself once and then she cried because she didn't have long hair anymore. She wore nightgowns and towels on her head for months so she would have long hair.

She even figured out how to get her own drinks of water. I was amazed at her method.

She was easy to love but hard to keep safe

She loved dolls and stuffed animals and spent hours taking care of them.

She also loved to dress up, smile and laugh

She always had us laughing

      She was so fast we also had a few scary times when we couldn't find her. Once the kids and I  were playing at a huge park. I told the older kids to watch her close while I nursed her little brother in the car. They were old enough to be good babysitters but when I came back to where they were playing Haley was nowhere to be found. This park was very big and surrounded by busy streets and she was just a toddler. I was very scared when none of us could find her. Then one of her big brothers suggested we kneel down and pray. We all knelt down in the grass and prayed for her. I stood up and I instantly had a vision of where she was in my head. I ran, what was a long way for a little girl to have gone, and found her with the pay phone in her hand in the center of the park. She didn't know how to call but she wanted to call for help because she knew she was lost. Another day she disappeared like a flash in a busy store when I turned to grab one of the other kids and again we couldn't find her. Scared again, I prayed again. I found her sitting under one of the unused cash registers unwrapping a pile of candy and gum. Both times I thanked my Heavenly Father for keeping her safe.

     Haley had four brothers and wanted to do what they did. She was always very competitive and often forgot she was younger than they were. She got hurt more times than I can count from striving to climb higher and play harder. She got a lot of bruises scraps and cuts. She cut open the back on her head once and bled all over and here are just a few pictures from playing with her brothers.

This happened playing with her baby brother

This happened compliments of her brother Cory and a stick he was playing with.

Haley didn't want to go to school because she thought she was too ugly.

Haley drew this picture of herself holding a washcloth on her eye to make it feel better

     The things I was most grateful for while Haley was growing up was that my prayers for her safety were so often answered. I was also thankful I had her in my life when doctors told me not to have any more children. She has brightened every day she has been in my life. At this point in her life I didn't know some of the big trials she would have to endure or just how deeply she would touch my heart with her amazing fighting spirit and her depth of character.

I love these girls!