Sometimes life is incredibly strange.
Let it be said on this the tenth anniversary of the birth of Lydia Beth Livesay: There is nothing stranger than stopping in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
At least not for our family.
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| October 4, 2007 - Lucky No. 7 joined us |
Let me take you back to the beginning.
In 2003 we were living in Zimmerman, MN. At the time Troy worked for the local phone company and I was mainly home with newly adopted Isaac and Hope. I worked a part time job managing a banquet facility a few evenings and weekends a month. We were waiting on the birth of Noah Livesay, our surprise after-adoption pregnancy.
In March of 2004 Noah made a huge deal of arriving while also simultaneously trying to die. His one minute APGAR score was a 1. If you have ever read this weblog before, you obviously know he made it and came home to Zimmerman to make us a five kid family.
Troy was 28 years old. I was 31 years old.
Troy **might** have had a total and complete hysterical meltdown over being the father of and/or responsible party for five children. I am not coming right out and SAYING he did. I am just saying it is POSSIBLE that he did. By "possible" I mean "probable" and by "probable" I mean, yes, 100% for sure. He was disoriented and freaking out about the financial responsibly and the cost of diapers alone for three children all in diapers at once. He had a few panic filled months from March to May 2004.
In June of 2004 Troy turned 29 years old. That month, when Noah was only three months old Troy announced that he was going to get a vasectomy. At first it seemed logical to me. Yes, of course, five kids is a lot. Do it. Never mind your age or our relative youthfulness. We cannot sustain this current circus so why risk more clowns on the tour. Chop that shit up and get us out of here alive, that’s all I ask.
Around the time that he went for his consult, I started to feel like it was not the right choice. I attempted to put the brakes on but Troy had long since advanced into the ‘no turning back’ zone and he wasn't willing to hear me out. We had three or four tense conversations about it and he was all, "Woman. You're not stopping me."
I ended up refusing to help him get to or from his appointment on the day of the procedure because I wasn’t at all on board and had failed at talking him into at least waiting a few months to think it over more seriously.
I have no idea who brought him or picked him up, but it wasn’t me. I was wicked ticked off and I’m not sure I even brought him frozen peas in the days after. I’m not big on sympathy for any variety of man physical pain anyway, but this was down right cold-heartedness on my part.
A few days after his procedure we had to drive to a Porter Family Reunion in Branson, MO and I was not nice about his discomfort on that ride either.
Life was happening at a furious pace in those days. I was home with two two-year olds and a newborn and training for my first half marathon and getting a high-school-aged kid to and from school and swim practice as well as delivering the 4th grader to another school each day. Even though I only worked part time at night or on weekends, it felt like chaos to both Troy and I. Keeping all the balls (DOH!) in the air in those days was pretty mind-numbing. With all that crazy-making the tiff about the severed vas deferens sort of faded into the background by the end of 2004.
Around June 2005, a year after Troy’s procedure, I started to be annoyed again and thought all sorts of super holy and self-righteous things. I actually said, “You did this and we never even prayed about it. What if we were not done with our family yet?!?” Troy listened at that point but he was like, “Yeah, well. What is done is done. So I guess we need to let that go.”
I agreed with him but in the way that you agree when you don’t agree. Within moments I marched to the computer to use internet explorer and see what a vasectomy reversal might cost or entail.
I found all sorts of wonky info, as one can often do when searching the world wide web. Mostly I found that we would need many thousand dollars to do it.
I put my name into some group about the blessed arrows - they firmly believed that birth control was always wrong and that limiting your fertility was like flipping God the bird. I did not think that was the case and I have no issues with birth control or limiting the size of your family by preventing pregnancy. I only had an issue with Troy and his decision and wanted to know what could be done if we desired to un-do the 2004 decision.
That research all happened in the same months of 2005 that we had started to strongly consider a move to Haiti. Isaac and Hope were both close to turning four and Noah was 16 months old. We had the big idea that we might want to move to Haiti, we just didn’t know when. We began to actively research what jobs were available in Haiti online that summer. We ended up visiting in September of 2005 to see the place we planned to move.
Things back in those early years of our marriage were always a little bit out of control. Whatever took normal people a few years to do, took us seventeen minutes. We bought a house fast, we bought new vehicles fast, we bought a boat (story of that purchase is excellent Troy mockery, saving for another day), we went from two manageable-aged children to five not-at-all-manageable kids in a matter of 18 months. We added a huge addition to the house.
In October 2005 we started planning to move to Haiti and within 58 days the funds we needed in order to move had been raised and our house had been rented for 18 months. Nothing was slow to happen. If people had not seen us in a year they were guaranteed to look at us like, “What is wrong with you people?” It was much. I see that now in hindsight.
In December of 2005 we were having Christmas in South Texas with my family. It was a big emotional deal and everybody was all stuck in feelings and drama because our tickets to move to Haiti were purchased for mid January. I was sitting outside in the backyard of my parents house when an email came in telling me that we had been selected by the Blessed Arrow group to receive a free vasectomy reversal. You get those emails too I'm sure.
The details were such that we could only do it if it worked to go to the Doctor offering it at his location in Oklahoma. It would only work in early January 2006.
I had never told Troy about the weird groups I had found. I never told him I put my name (his name) on any list for a reversal. I had only told him that we couldn’t financially swing the reversal.
I got Troy away from the family Christmas chaos and asked him if he wanted to have his sitch glued back together if it was free. Always the good sport he was like, “Wait wait wait now. WHAT are you asking me?”
We had to drive back to Minnesota to finish up details with our house renter and pack our belongings. We had already planned the road trip in early January to get home from the Christmas in South TX by vehicle. The mapped route did not include a stop in Muskogee, OK but we decided it could in fact be changed. Muskogee is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL in early January. Everyone knows that. PERFECT, RIGHT??
On a crisp day in January of 2006, Troy laid on a table in a outdated little strip mall in Muskogee, OK and Dr. W. showed me my husband's vas deferens and then proceeded to glue it back together. Appalachian bluegrass music played in the background. Because of course it did. After the procedure Troy was in much pain and he wailed about how bad his boys hurt. I put Brittany and 22 month old Noah on an airplane to Minnesota to make room in the Suburban for Troy’s giant swollen nuts to be as comfortable as possible. I drove the remaining many hours back to the Twin Cities while attempting to be nicer than ever about man’s physical pain.
Troy moved to Haiti ahead of the kids and I. He arrived in Haiti with drainage tubes coming out of his balls. It’s pretty memorable really.
It was not until we had lived in Haiti a year (February ’07) that we learned that we were expecting a baby.
Troy had gone to buy lumber and I was at home with the six kids. We had just taken Phoebe into our home only six weeks prior and we were already freaked out and getting used to having a baby again.
Phoebe had a rough first ten weeks of her life prior to coming to us. She was neglected in those weeks. There was a lot of work to be done helping her bond with us all. While Troy was out buying lumber I thought, “Why do I feel weird?” The possible answers were limitless really. I decided to rule out pregnancy as one of the reasons for my odd floaty sensations. It took three pregnancy tests in a row that were positive for me to sit with my hands shaking on the bathroom floor and say to myself, “Self. You are the one that went to Muskogee and just couldn’t pass up free. You did this. Also, pull yourself together!”
When Troy got home I said, “We need to talk.” We marched up some stairs on the back of the property where we lived and to this big goofy rock that they called the “prayer rock”. At the prayer rock I told Troy he better pray for a good sense of humor.
I handed Troy an envelope with my positive tests. He looked at it and started laughing hysterically. He laughed until he was basically sobbing. Tears ran down his face and he rolled around like a mad-man while he laughed and cried.
He was back to freaking out again - only this time he was 31 instead of 28 and it was about suddenly going from 5 to 7 kids in a few short weeks. Everyone in our close circle just shook their heads and said, “What the heck did they think would happen?” and “Idiots. Both of them.”
On October 4, 2017 our little Vasectomy reversal baby is turning TEN YEARS OLD.
I thought it was time you all knew that it is all because of a stop in Muskogee, Oklahoma - It made a vast (Vas) difference (deferens) in our lives.
The deferens is named Lydia Beth.
Happy Birthday Lou-Lou. Daddy says you are more than worth ALL that oddness and physical pain he endured and we have never been offered a free surgery prior to OR since this one so we think maybe you are supposed to be here with us. We are forever grateful for your life and the gift of you, #7.
