Thursday, January 24, 2008, 4:52 a.m., C.S.T., Nashville, TN~

Dear Journal~

Woke up this morning with something heavy on my heart. Can't fall back to sleep. Might as well stay up; have to get ready, leave for work in a little over an  hour from now.

I am praying that Naomi and Susie both get through their scheduled surgeries. Naomi is having some type of surgery that may bring movement back to her arms, and Susie Jackson-Callaway is having some sort of spinal fusion surgery; her spinal column is collapsing within itself, causing serious breathing problems for her.

I don't know what the outcomes will be; but I pray that they make it through these risky procedures.

Both Susie and Naomi have been through more than anyone has a right to go through; it doesn't seem fair!!

I also found out the other day that little Perfecto Jiminez, the little boy who had terminal cancer, has died. I knew the end was coming for him; yet it still doesn't make it any easier.

It's especially hard when it's a child I happen to know--or (God forbid) one of my own children. When they get sick, end up in the hospital, it seems everything else around me stops. 

Anyone who dies or is battling for their life somehow affects the mood of the nursing staff; when it is a child or an infant, it is ten times worse. The nurses have all been in a blue funk, especially those who were taking care of Perfecto.

I feel so bad for his parents. They just arrived here to this country not so long ago from Mexico; both are working low-paying jobs to try to make a living in their new homeland, and both speak very little in the way of English, so communicating with them is difficult at best.

Thank God I know enough Spanish to communicate with people like Rico and Maria Jiminez!! If I didn't, I'd be lost! LOL

Yet Spanish-speaking people laugh at me; they say I speak Spanish with a French accent, which sounds interesting. And it is. LOL Sorry, Charlie; can't help it. LOL I'm a Cajun; can't help the way I speak! LOL

I know bits and pieces of several languages; had to learn bits of pieces of different languages when I got some of my foreign-born children, so I could be able to talk to them during those difficult first days in a new family, in a new country.

I speak in addition to French, Spanish, English (of course!), German, Dutch, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Hindi, Finnish, Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, and a few others. I am very multi-cultural. :)

The weather outside is cloudy, cold--the usual winter conditions. Snow on the ground, may get some more by the weekend. May even have an ice storm here. Hope not; it's not fun driving around those skating rinks disguised as roads!! Yikes!! NOT fun!!

I've been up since two o'clock; babies woke me up to be fed. Breakfast time for the little nippers!

Seems I get one fed, the other guy starts hollering: "FEED ME!!" Couldn't go back to sleep; plus I have had this heaviness on my heart regarding the surgeries for Susie and Naomi. So there you go. One reason why I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed just after five in the morning! :)

Life is never dull around "Camp Sandusky"! LOL

Well, I am going to get myself something to eat; stomach really talkin' up a storm. I will then head out to the saltmines, go to work, face another day. Hopefully the mood with my nursing staff has brightened considerably; I can't handle this sadness too much longer!

Take care and God bless!

(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tennessee, Louisiana Mayrah. :(