The Barnett's Battle : Coming Home

The Saturday Layne came home was the same weekend as Magrath Days. In Layne's home town every summer they have a weekend of celebration. There is a parade and fire works and tons of activities. Layne's favourite thing of the weekend is the family softball tournament. All of his extended family was here and we made it to the softball finals this year. Layne was discharged from the hospital a few hours before the final game. His mom and Rusty came to pick him up while I spent some time with the boys and watched the parade with them. He felt good enough to watch the game and we won this year. It was a great welcome home.

Cheering us on from the hospital

On his way home!

Watching the game

Softball champs!

It is nice to have Layne home. It was good to have all our family together. While he was in the hospital it was very difficult to manage my time. I felt like I needed to be with him but I also felt I needed to be a good mom and spend time with the boys. It was a relief to all be in the same house. It's now been a month since he got out of the hospital. He has his good days and his bad days but over all is getting better. He has a long road to recovery. Unfortunately he was supposed to start his last semester of school today but we are having to put that off for a year. The university is being very good about it and is letting him postpone his practicum. He also was taking a summer course at the time he was admitted to the hospital and even though he wasn't able to finish the class they passed him. It was definitely a relief as it was his very last university class before his practicum.

We own a house in Lethbridge but decided it was in our best interest to move into Layne's mom's house for the year. Funny thing is we have been wanting to move out here for a while and thought this would be the year we could move out here because Layne would be done in four months. We looked at houses to buy and houses that we could rent. I even signed Blake up for preschool because we were certain things would work out... but we never felt good about anything. We finally settled with the idea that we would wait until next summer to consider moving again. When all of this happened we realized why we weren't feeling good about anything. If we bought a house or rented out in Magrath we finically would not have been okay this year. Living with his mom we will be able to get the help we need this year. Especially with a baby on the way while Layne will be going through chemo. We were able to rent out our house to my brother and 5 other roommates. We are so grateful for all our family and everything they are doing for us. We were able to move out here a few weeks ago while the boy's were down in Montana with the rest of Layne's family. We are so grateful for everyone in Lethbridge and Magrath who helped with the move and getting our house ready for renters. We couldn't have done this all without you. It feels nice to be settled before Layne starts chemo. Two days until we find out his treatment plan!

I am just going to post a few more pictures that I was sent from his sister of him at the hospital...