For the Love of Ivey

Well, I have officially started running again-not just the ‘Oh, I’ll do it when I get a chance, but the ‘I have to do it today if it kills me’. The latter may prevail in the end. Up at 5:00 a.m. driving to the gym to run on a machine is definitely not my idea of a relaxing run, but I have to start somewhere and it’s better than nowhere. What is it about tread mills that makes two miles feel like five miles? Anyway, the decision to finally get back to it has nothing to do with the New Year or resolutions; it is just TIME! Like I said a few days ago, we have nestled into a comfortable place. And as I was writing those words and re-reading those old posts of a year ago, my own words started swirling around in my head. I re-read the post about running early mornings with a group of friends and how much I missed it then and found my jaw hitting the floor that an entire year had passed since then. Not only are things becoming comfortable, they are becoming complacent. How did that happen? I...

Merry Christmas

Walker's class We are finally in a place that I don’t think I believed we would ever truly find. Maybe it was possible, I held out hope and to a fine thread of faith that it could exist, but I can’t say if I really truly believed that it would ever happen. It has though. We are here… a comfortable…and more importantly….a very happy place. There are no unexpected obstacles, and even those things that have seemed so trivial about our daily life have become routine and dare I say, easy. I think this comfortable place is finding us at the right time. Last year we had such an unusual and hard holiday season while Ivey was in the hospital in Atlanta and then the chaos of her coming home days before Christmas sent us into semi turmoil. Reading back over posts from this time last year really made my heart ache for our family. HERE is a link to last year. We have all, not just Ivey, come along way. I wish that I could go to that girl from a year ago and tell her ‘It will be okay’. She proba...

Often I am asked 'How are the boys with her'? They are big brothers. She is just a little sister. They make each other smile. Sorry the video is dark, but they were playing in the bunk beds in the shadows. You can't even see Walker, but he's in there too. It may be hard to see their faces, but you can hear it - their smiles - in their voices! For some reason the video keeps stopping. If the video stops, just tap the little button that slides and it will keep moving. Oh, well.

I am adding two pictures to this post. These are the new Christmas stockings. The red dots above their names are their names in BRAILLE . This is our Elf on the Shelf 'Tinko'. If you don't have one, I seriously suggest you look in to them. Now let's move on to my sweet girl and her beads..... Just wanted you all to see how well Ivey's motor skills are developing. She is gaining such coordination. We have attached several objects to Ivey's carrier for her to play with. We have been doing this for sometime, but she has really started showing preferences over certain toys. She is into ribbon right now, maybe it's the silky feel. We attach objects, mainly household objects, with various textures to the ribbon. Without a doubt, her favorite object is her blue beads. It amazes me at her dexterity to shuffle through the web of handing objects and ribbons to find her blue beads. (I guess it is not much different than any of us shuffling through the dark abyss of ou...

Here she is loving cranberries! Ivey has really been working hard the past few weeks. Pushing-up takes alot of practice. She plugs right along with a smile on her face. Yet another task accomplished that most of us do every day without notice. Pretty amazing!