The Hubers - dad raises 5 kids on 2k - final

ciane · May 2023

So this was it – the new home. Really just a fenced in garden area and a root cellar, but… the hospital counselor assured me it had electricity and plumbing. AND, with the two thousand raised by hospital staff in a fund raiser for us, we’d have just enough for the essentials – bedding for all of us, as well as a toilet and shower, and a crib and potty chair for Hannah, who was finally released from supervised care – no more oxygen at night, no more worrying about weight gain or lung infections! I could even own the land in ten years, as long as I showed steady improvement to the plot and self-sustainability.

You might wonder what led to this – moving the family HERE! My wife and I were blessed with two sets of twins. The eldest set are the spitting image of their late mama - Callie (like the lily) and Carmen (and, no, not from the opera, the video games, the cartoons OR the famous dancer, model, or actress!) Carmen means garden or orchard, and that’s exactly what we are hoping to have here. The gals are both artistic souls. Carmen has stepped in as a nurturing sister to her siblings, and Callie plans to focus on growing the food that will nurture our bodies.

The boys, who take after me with their blonde hair, are both so brave, facing life without their mama! Stephan, fortunately, is very friendly, much as I am, and adapts well enough to change. Sebastian is more of an animal lover; but still, as long as you have someone (sim or animal) to interact with, life can be filled with smiles and happy times too.

It’s the last set of twins – Hannah and Heather – that led us here. My wife, so loved, so important to our family, so much the glue that held us together – she developed complications: high blood pressure, excessive weight gain, seizures. She expelled her uterus after delivering the girls. She lost so much blood – too much! They couldn’t save her. We lost her in the delivery room. On a much more esoteric level, I can see the good she brought to others – kidneys, heart, liver, spleen – so many lives were touched and helped while our lives fell apart.

Heather needed immediate surgery. We really hoped that God had taken all he would from us that day, but no! Heather went to join her mother. I really can’t be, deep down, at odds with the fact that my wife got to keep one of her little ones with her. Can I??? That’s the way I try, every day, to convince myself that everything happens for a reason.

Hannah struggled. No mom. No twin. I know she felt abandoned by her womb mate and womb provider. Who was I to her? A voice that talked to her, a hand that was laid upon her… Not the same. Not nearly the same. But, I could become an anchor. I could let her little hand squeeze my finger. I could let her see that a sim could cry and carry on.

All my savings quickly drained. Hospitals are so expensive, and there were operations and expensive breathing machines, and tests! Always, more tests!

So, you see how we ended up: leaving behind our old lives, coming here flat broke, and, still, hoping to make it one step at a time, one breath at a time, holding on to the moment, just this one moment in time. This one breath, followed by another – that’s all I have to face right now, all I can face right now.

I know that my wife is holding Heather and watching us with all the love she always had shining in her eyes. I just can’t see them right now through the blur that films over my eyes so frequently.

Anyway, that’s the past – a still raw past that is too fresh to close a door on - but, we are moving forward, (crawling maybe, like Hannah,) but still forward. We are going to grow some fruit and vegetables. (I’m vegetarian, by the way. Not that it matters much to you, but it might help you see the way I see things just a bit more. It might help you see the bond between love of animals and eco-friendly tendencies and family-oriented traits that we share amongst ourselves.)

So, it’s the first day of the rest of our lives – how cliché, right? Yet, how apropos, as well. Here we are, facing the unknown, but knowing that we have each other and knowing that each one of us can, and will, make a difference. We must believe that we are here (in this world that offers hope and love as well as challenges that can bring a sim to his knees) for a reason, for a purpose that is greater than ourselves.

What is my purpose? To raise loving, caring sims? To bring food from the soil to the plates of many? To show love to those who need it? One foot in front of the other, one breath at a time.

Update: https://cianesays.wordpress.com/stories/h/h1

http://cianesays.wordpress.com/stories/h/h2/

http://cianesays.wordpress.com/stories/h/h3/

https://cianesays.wordpress.com/stories/h/h4/