Houston, Keyla, Lucy & Zoe.

This weekend was a quick trip to Houston to see our old au pair Keyla who lived with us in 2015. I went to her wedding in the spring of 2021 in Denver and now they’ve relocated to Houston with two kids!

We had a snowstorm on Thursday night which closed schools on Friday – I was almost certain our Friday morning flight would be cancelled or horribly delayed, but neither happened. We left a little delayed because we needed to be de-iced, but made up enough time for most folks to make their connections in Houston.

Keyla’s youngest daughter, Zoe, is 8 months old and they found out around September that she has this. Zoe was hospitalized for two months while they were figuring out the diagnosis and trying to stabilize her. She came home early December with a ventilator and all the accessories needed for her care. I had talked to Keyla a number of times briefly during the hospitalization and I was heartbroken and worried about her and her family; I wanted to lay my own eyes on the family and the baby.

And I found a very happy and content baby – growing and smiling and learning. Keyla and Mark don’t have a lot of family around, but they do have nursing care for 16 hours of the day which helps a lot, but it’s still a lot a lot. Keyla is amazing and calm and such a good mom.

I got to hold all the babies! I read to Zoe and I painted faces and played Peppa Pig with Lucy.

Jeremy and Edda both came also and it was, actually, a very nice break for all of us. Jeremy cooked dinner both nights and also helped fix plumbing issues. This pipe was overflowing with water and had flooded the backyard. I turned off the water, but had never seen this type of structure before. Jeremy and Mark used the internet to figure out what it was, how to fix it, order the part for delivery and within 12 hours of discovering the leak, it was fixed.

It was cold, cold, cold and that is why the plumbing was broken, it froze and burst. We managed to go to a park on Sunday morning and then head to the airport, where our flight, again was delayed, but not cancelled and we made it back home by 9 pm.