Thank you all for the notes to Craig and I that you sent over the last month, I know Craig has been touched by the uplifting words. We had a bustling busy but very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I hope all of you did as well.
Here is a picture of little Sophie sitting and clapping as she watched the train go round the tree, it was the first time watching this year and she was delighted. Then she took it a step further and would become like Godzilla (and for those of you who have spent any time with her she certainly makes the right sound effects) and every time Craig would run it she would knock the train off the tracks or just pick up a section of track, it was as if you could hear the tiny passengers screaming...
The girls with Santa - I was just relieved to get a shot before her lip started quivering as she is very attached to her parents these days and a little anxious with strangers - even jolly bearded present delivering ones!
Here she is on Christmas morning - she never really got the hang of opening presents, I think she was really just too overwhelmed, her big sister was more than happy to help her.
Sophie is doing quite well, we were able to arrange Sophie's first injection day to be next Monday on Martin Luther King Jr Day which GRPS takes off so Craig is able to go with me which is crucial as I know it will definitely be a team effort to do the injections this time around with our wiggly one year old. Here she is getting wild climbing into the pots and pans cupboard!
One of her ports has become pink this weekend and we are keeping a cautious eye on it. I feel as though it is a little late for it to be any sort of infection and it is not what Dr. Mann has taught us to identify as "angry red" so we are waiting to see.
I wanted to send a link to a hospital magazine from Chicago where Dr. Bauer works (he is the Nevus guru and our surgeons former mentor during his fellowship there) and the article features a girl named Allie whose parents are a part of my online support group. As Allie is a little older I believe she had had surgery early on as a baby and had a face full of scars as a result and it wasn't till much later where her parents heard of Dr. Bauer and tissue expansion which they used in I think 5 rounds of expansion to remove both nevus and scars from previous surgeries. Anyways I thought it was a nice article and I would share if you were interested. Again it makes me very glad that Sophie is able to go through all of this fairly early on. If we can get the majority of it done before she reaches school age I will be a very happy Momma.
I am feeling full of hope as we start the new year. Last year literally all my dreams/goal/aspirations seemed to freeze in time as I started out on this journey and in the last few months I have caught myself thinking so many times Wow I can't believe we have been at this over a year already. I now need to find a balance. Yes my girls are my priority even above myself but I am not giving up on the ways I know God wants me to grow individually as a person just because I have this new challenging circumstance to face. He carries me through all the rough patches and I am so thankful to have such a loving Lord and Savior. I hope you all feel his love at the start of this new year even in the midst of your battles, with hard times all around us in the economy, losing loved ones and jobs, and countless other trials that rock our world, my prayer for myself and hope for you as well is that we prioritize our lives to love and serve God first, our families second and our world in anyway we can. God Bless, Amanda
