Blessings

WOW. I have the best parents. As I look back now through the eyes of a mother to three children, I can say that and mean it whole heatedly. As I mentored teen Moms a couple of years ago, I started to really realized how lucky I was. My Mom and Dad always provided a loving and safe place for me to lay my head...even through the dreaded teen years and even through my own teen pregnancy, no matter what the circumstance I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my parents would always be there for me. I didn't know that everyone did not have that same blessing, I didn't know that there was sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and physical abuse. I didn't know that some parents cared more about there own needs and not the needs of their children, I didn't know that some kids came home to empty dirty homes with no food...I just didn't know. I hope that some day my kids will be able to look back and say that they too always had a safe and loving home to lay their head each night, and that no matter what we would always be there for them too. So, yes, I have been richly blessed to be born into my family! Over the past two years my parents continue to provide for me...when I was too sick to be by Dane's side in the NICU, they were there. When Dane came home, they (mostly Mom) bravely learned how to operate his monitors and deal with his oxygen requirements and home health care nurses. They learned all of Dane's exercises and helped with his physical therapy. They provide us a safe place to go during flu season and they have always made sure that during the last two years that Gage and Katie never felt less important. They have baby sat on a regular basis so I could continue to work since Dane could not be in day care. Recently they have given us yet another HUGE blessing...they gave us their van. Now they could have and probably should have used it as a down payment for their new van, but instead offered it to us. This enabled us to give my car to Gage and for me to have my a vehicle to drive...not only did they joyfully give it to us, but gave it to us with a full tank!!!! It's just too much, Chad and I don't have words to say how thankful we are so we will once again say "Thank you for everything!"



Thank you Lord for all of our many blessings, we have had some doozies this year!

The Holidays

We had a very nice Christmas, unfortunately I was very sick and to prove how sick I was I didn't even take any pictures! Dane was more interested in boxes and wrapping paper but he did have a great time. New Years Eve was spent with my friend Jill and her family, we played games and hung out...we were home by midnight because we are big nerds! Dane rang in the New Year sleeping at Pap Pap and Grandma's then Mom and Dad came over for dinner on New Years Day, it was nice and quiet and I loved it! Before I start telling you about Dane's milestones, our family celebrated another milestone with Gage's 18th birthday! This is a picture of him, and yes, that is his cutey girlfriend sitting next to him!
It was surprise party and I think that he had a great time! Happy Birthday Gage!

Dane's language continues to take off! He is doing a great job with speech...as a matter of fact his speech therapist has discharged him from speech! Wow! Way to go Dane! We had another evaluation with Phx Childrens and she scored him age appropriate for ALL areas! She was very impressed with how well he continues to do and now he can be followed by the developmental pediatrician if my insurance will pay for it. We have bumped up his physical therapy to twice a month, when Miss M was here last week she noticed some left side weakness and she feels that with his age and ability to follow simple directions he will allow her to get some good exercises in to help strengthen his left side. I am waiting to get a referral to go back to the Neurologist to discuss getting Dane's MRI done, now that he is bigger I feel more comfortable with the thoughts of him going under anesthesia. Though he is doing really good, if the scan shows something then we can have a diagnosis of mild cerebral palsy which would qualify him for more services. Not that that is what we want, but the reality is that once he is out of the states birth to three program we won't qualify for the states help...unless we have some sort of diagnosis. We don't want him to start to struggle with his fine motor skills when he is like 4 or 5 and not have the help available to him. What we are hoping for is that the scan shows nothing (which would be yet another miracle...but hey, my God is in that business) then we just go about raising our little blessing like any other little one...except no matter what happens I'll know the truth of how blessed he has been!
We are going to continue feeding therapy, he eats like a champ but still has choking episodes. He an episode this morning and ended up vomiting...no fun for anyone involved. He seems to choke mostly on saliva, but hopefully she can give us insight. She comes this Thursday so we will see how it goes.

I love this picture, I know for those of you that aren't in family you can not fully appreciate this raised eyebrow look...but it cracks me up! He looks like my brother David in this picture!

There is my happy boy!

This was Dane running laps around our kitchen island! Before he could maybe run two laps before the coughing and wheezing, but now he can run for about five minutes before we have to have him take a rest. He is only doing one breathing treatment a day, and we haven't had to give him the albuterol treatment in months...those little lungs are starting to toughen up! We are entering into the bad part of RSV season, so please pray that he stays healthy!

We are gearing up for the big March of Dimes walk coming up in April, we are hoping to have an even bigger team than last year! Details to come...