April 2008 - Jason & Jenny

Dear Family,
We are so excited for the upcoming wedding and for Jenna to join our family (why not add another Jen)?! It has been fun to get to know her a little bit better and to see Hyrum so in love! What a fun time of life.

This month has been full of a lot of events, some painful and others quite miraculous. We felt so bad to see Mom Pitt suffering with her eye infection and to watch the whole process of recovery. She is one tough lady! It was quite humorous, however, to talk to her while she was drugged up and on Ambian! She told Jason that "sometimes life gets hard and we just need to put on her boots, even when they're full of jelly beans and start walking!" Classic.

My mom has also been in the hospital these past three weeks. She went in for a huge back surgery--they put two long metal rods and 16 screws in her back. It has been a really hard recovery, and she has experienced many set backs (infection, pain, falls, etc.) We are all trying to exercise our faith and hope for the best, but it is so hard to see my mom in such a tragic state. The most difficult part is to see how it has affected her emotionally. She is so depressed and negative--partly because of the heavy narcotics that she is on and partly because she hasn't seen any progress. She is usually so upbeat, affirming and a real fighter, and it has been so sad to see her spirits low and her will to get better diminish. My family would appreciate any prayers in her behalf.

My sister Catherine is pregnant with her 6th baby, but she has a blood disease that she got when she had a blood transfusion with an earlier baby. So now her blood is fighting against her baby within. She has to start getting blood transfusions through the umbilical cord, beginning this week. She is so scared because she is only 25 weeks and the procedure often induces labor. She will probably have to have about 5 transfusions. So pray for her too!

If that's not enough, my other sister Colleen learned last Monday that she has an aneurysm on the main artery of her brain. She was told that it is a "walking time bomb" and that if it were to rupture, she would be killed immediately. It was some pretty rough news. She has 6 kids and her baby is not even 2. So she spent the next few days looking at options, talking to doctors, and getting some tests done. The conclusion was that she had to have brain surgery within the week. The next day, her husband felt inspired to give her a blessing and to use anointed healing oil. That day she went in for an angiogram and the results were amazing. The brain surgeon came in with her husband (who is a physician) and they told her that the aneurism had moved! It moved 1/2 cm down under the dura layer of her skull and was in a safe, contained area! She was worried that it would perhaps move again, but the brain surgeon said, "Aneurysms don't move. This is miraculous." We feel so blessed and amazed at God's sweet act of mercy. This whole event has put life into perspective so quickly. All Colleen could say to me when she first learned that she had an aneurysm was: "All I want to do is raise my kids. That's all I want." I wish we could live each day with the correct perspective.

So, needless to say, this month has been pretty emotional. But we have seen the Lord's hand many times and feel His love. Jason is so sweet--I think he knew that I needed a break and so he surprised me and we flew down to San Diego for the weekend. We basically just hung out in the sun and relaxed. I love little trips with just the two of us--it is so good for our marriage! We love you all and hope to see you all soon.

Love, Jenny, Jason, Prest, Maddy, Kate and Tess