top secret birthday surprise

hi everyone! have you met my husband, wayne? he's an incredible human. lemme explain.

when he was 10 years old he diagnosed with crohns disease. 10 years old! that started years and years of hour long IV medicines, bowel rest, tons of pain, weight gain, weight loss, butt scopes, steroids, giving himself shots, lots of missed school and work, loss of jobs, and lots and lots of debt.

on our first date he picked me up for brunch the french toast he ordered was the first solid food he had eaten in 2 weeks. he didn't tell me that until about a year later. when we started spending nights together he would get up multiple times to use the bathroom and come back to bed a curl up in pain. 6 weeks into dating i took him to his colonoscopy appointment. while wayne was still in unconscious the nurse showed me the photos they took of the inside of his very sick colon. i had no idea what he was going through until that moment.

in march of 2015 he made the tough decision to have his colon removed and live with an ostomy. (an ostomy is when a small part your small intestine is on the outside of your belly and your poop goes in a bag that is stuck to your skin with adhesive) we didn't know if his ostomy was permanant or temporary. while his colon was being removed the surgeon nicked his kidney ureters!! which caused one of his kidneys to fail. so he had to have another surgery to put stents in his ureters. 6 months after his colon was removed he needed another surgery to build his j-pouch. THEN! a month after his j-pouch surgery, while riding his motorcycle on the highway, a driver changed lanes without looking, wayne got knocked off his motorcycle and rolled across 2 lanes into the grass. the driver never stopped and the car had fictitious plates. wayne broke both of his wrists and wrecked his motorcycle. one of wrists needed surgery. yes, *another* painful surgery. all this time he couldn't work. he was living off a small disability check and credit cards. and after all that he still needed one more surgery on his belly so he wouldn't need an ostomy anymore.

a week after his final surgery we found out i was pregnant with wyatt. SURPRISE! i knew i wanted to take 12 weeks off work for maternity leave but i also knew that there was no way we could afford that. so we moved into our friends basement to save money. halfway through my pregnancy we decided that buying a house would be best for our family. all the money we saved for my maternity leave, we used as a down payment on our house. 2 months after we moved into our house i gave birth to our amazing son. the 12 weeks i took off work were funded using credit cards. WOMP.

but now wayne is healthy and out of pain. and wyatt is smart and amazing.

wayne is my super hero. he works so hard. he stepped away from a very easy, comfortable job to a new job that helps him better take care of us and our home. he works 12 hour days sometimes. but he always makes sure he's home to say goodnight to wyatt. right now, as i am typing this he is cleaning our kitchen while i sit on the couch in my pajamas.

on january 6th 2019 wayne is turning 30. wayne has never been on a plane. he's never been very far from home. he's always been too sick. or too broke. i'm going to surprise him with a trip to LA. we're gonna rent a car and drive the PCH, go the beach, eat seafood, hike in joshua tree, spend a day at disneyland, eat at In-n-Out, maybe meet up with some west coast pals. (i'm putting this all on a credit card that opened specially for this trip) we didn't have a wedding because we'd never be able to afford one. so of course we didn't have a honeymoon either. wayne deserves this so much.

if you want to help me give wayne a much deserved amazing birthday present please do! even a small amount for a drink or some snacks would be perfect but you can give him as much as you want! help me give wayne the best birthday he's ever had.