I Need A Hug

Last week was really hard. Just when I think I have it all together...our calendar works, I'm reconciled with our life, I'm fairly sane, I'm happy, the kids are happy...something(s) comes up to throw a kink in everything. I won't go into ALL the details, but I really thought last week I couldn't do it anymore. I knew that if another person said to me "God doesn't give us more than we can handle", I was going to go to say a really bad word and kick them in the shin. (That's about as mean as I get) I'm better now (out of the depths but still pretty low) and the prayers at my house have been flying.

God, you have brought me to my knees. Please help me keep it all together.

"for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:11-13

Tulsa Time

We went to Tulsa this weekend for my nieces' 9th birthday extravaganza (their parties are infamous). We all had a great time! The kids played with their cousins, went swimming, and destroyed my sister's house (sorry Shelly). Here are a few photos (hey Neville please send me photos at the birthday so I can share...thanks!)

Grace's Testing

We had Grace's PPCD (Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities) evaluation Wednesday morning with Dallas Public Schools. I was so proud of Grace. She behaved very well as 3 strangers put her through various tests. The evaluation was conducted to determine what type of services Grace would be eligible for through the public schools. Well, basically she doesn't qualify for the traditional PPCD program. This is great!! The various specialists determined that she is at the appropriate cognitive and speech level....basically, she's one smart cookie :) The speech therapist said that Grace was the first child she has reviewed that upon entering the room announced "I want a book". So, as planned Grace will attend preschool with Mack and Sophie 3 days a week starting in September. We will most like utilized the Occupational Therapists through the PPCD program to ensure that Grace is able to work functionally in the class room setting. I'm so grateful for the way things are falling into playce for Grace and that everyone is being so flexible with how we go about setting up preschool and ALL the other services for Grace. Gosh, we are so blessed.

Grace's CE Class Photo

This photo was taken the last day of Grace's April/May Conductive Education camp. These are some great kids! I've loved getting to know their families and can't wait to see everyone again at the July camp.

Love

Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love's touch. Goodness is loves' character. Faithfulness if love's habit. Gentleness is love's self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reigns.
-Donald Barnhouse

Mack and the Police

The Dallas Police were at the Arboretum yesterday. The kids got to walk through the police bus (boring) and sit in the police car. Because I wasn't paying attention, Mack and Sophie started pushing buttons in the car and set off the siren. It was quite exciting.

Dear God,
If Mack is ever in a police car again, please let it always be in the front seat.
Amen

IKEA Wonderland

I have been lead to the promise land...IKEA!! Thursday after dropping Grace off at Conductive Education, one of the other CE mom's announces in triumph "I'm going to IKEA!". At first I wasn't interested in driving all the way to Oklahoma (okay, it's really in Frisco but feels like Oklahoma), then a few other moms decided to go and from everyone's excitement I felt like I had to go just for the experience. I don't get out much.

When we first got there we had breakfast for $.99!! Yes that's right...eggs, bacon, potatoes, French toast and pancakes for 99 cents! I love eggs and bacon and I rarely have them. Who doesn't love bacon?! If you say you don't, then you are a liar or have an unhealthy attachment to Babe.

Next we shopped. I bought a cutting board, milk frother, timer (for time-outs), a can opener and 3 pairs of scissors for $11!! All that for $11!!

Thanks Jess, for introducing me to a new venue for retail therapy!!!

Springtime Blues

Today was beautiful! Abe played with the kids outside most of the day while I tried to organize our lives and then some friends came over for a cookout. We sat outside and talked about summer...swimming, playing outside, etc. I thought about soccer, gymnastics, playgrounds. It made me melancholy. What will summer look like for Grace? As she grows her differences and limitations are only more apparent. A mother in my cpmoms group sent this out on Mother's Day. I had to read it again today. I'm not saying I'm a wonder, I'm saying I'm different and today I have the blues.

Happy Mother's Day
By Lori Borgman (Lori Borgman is a syndicated columnist and author
of All Stressed Up and No Place To Go, her latest humor book now
available wherever books are sold.)

Expectant mothers waiting for a newborn's arrival say they don't care what sex the baby is. They just want to have ten fingers and ten toes. Mothers lie. Every mother wants so much more. She wants a perfectly healthy baby with a round head, rosebud lips, button nose, beautiful eyes and satin skin. She wants a baby so gorgeous that people will pity the Gerber baby for being flat-out ugly. She wants a baby that will roll over, sit up and take those first steps right on schedule (according to the baby development chart on page 57, column two). Every mother wants a baby that can see, hear, run, jump and fire neurons by the billions. She wants a kid that can smack the ball out of the park and do toe points that are the envy of the entire ballet class. Call it greed if you want, but a mother wants what a mother wants. Some mothers get babies with something more. Maybe you're one who got a baby with a condition you couldn't pronounce, a spine that didn't fuse, a missing chromosome or a palate that didn't close. The doctor's words took your breath away. It was just like the time at recess in the fourth grade when you didn't see the kick ball coming, and it knocked the wind right out of you. Some of you left the hospital with a healthy bundle, then, months, even years later, took him in for a routine visit, or scheduled him for a checkup, and crashed head first into a brick wall as you bore the brunt of devastating news. It didn't seem possible. That didn't run in your family. Could this really be happening in your lifetime? There' s no such thing as a perfect body. Everybody will bear something at some time or another. Maybe the affliction will be apparent to curious eyes, or maybe it will be unseen, quietly treated with trips to the doctor, therapy or surgery. Mothers of children with disabilities live the limitations with them. Frankly, I don't know how you do it. Sometimes you mothers scare me. How you lift that kid in and out of the wheelchair twenty times a day. How you monitor tests, track medications, and serve as the gatekeeper to a hundred specialists yammering in your ear. I wonder how you endure the cliches and the platitudes, the well-intentioned souls explaining how God is at work when you've occasionally questioned if God is on strike. I even wonder how you endure schmaltzy essays like this one - saluting you, painting you as hero and saint, when you know you're ordinary. You snap, you bark, you bite. You didn't volunteer for this, you didn't jump up and down in the motherhood line yelling, "Choose me, God. Choose me! I've got what it takes." You're a woman who doesn't have time to step back and put things in perspective, so let me do it for you. From where I sit, you're way ahead of the pack. You've developed the strength of the draft horse while holding on to the delicacy of a daffodil. You have a heart that melts like chocolate in a glove box in July, counter- balanced against the stubbornness of an Ozark mule. You are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability. You're a neighbor, a friend, a woman I pass at church and my sister-in-law. You're a wonder.

Out of Comission

Sorry I am behind on our blog but something is wrong with our camera and we may have to get a new one. I think I probably have just worn our camera out. I do like to take pictures of my adorable trio.

Today was Grace's last day of this Conductive Education camp. She will be attending another 4 week camp in July. She is getting much better at crawling. She is still commando crawling but is now pulling up on all fours and can crawl that way with a little help. During this camp, Grace proved to be a little more contrary or difficult to deal with. There were a few days when asked to do a task or skill, she would do the opposite and then proclaim "I funny...I funny!!!". She was certainly the class clown. I was asking Abe where she might have gotten the whole "I funny" thing and he says that I say it all the time. I DO NOT!...but I AM funny ;)

Here is a short video of Grace crawling that was taken last week before the camera gave out (obviously). Do you know how difficult and how much strength it takes to commando crawl? Try it sometime. She is doing great!

I Want Book(s)

"I want book" is said only a few hundred time a day (well, feels like it) by Grace. She loves to read books and now magazines..."I read magazine". Here she has taken every book out of the basket sitting beside her, "reads" it, and then wants more. She is just like her mommy...you should see the stack of books on my bedside table I'm reading. I think she is calling her daddy in this photo to tell him that I won't bring every book out of her room to her.

Walls and Halls of Hope

Grace, Mack and Sophie were photographed recently by Kimberly Wylie to be included in/on the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas' "Walls and Halls of Hope". The photographs were unveiled last night at a party at Presby. It was a very emotional time for us as we re-entered the Presby NICU for the first time in 2 1/2 years to view the photos of our trio. All those memories came flooding back from the 3 months our babies were hanging on to life. We were at the NICU everyday hoping for good news and sometimes hearing bad, always praying our babies would come home. Well, they made it and they're beautiful!! Check out some photos of the photos.
You can also take a look at the proofs here...password lieck...while they are still available.





btw...We were chosen by Presbyterian and Kimberly Wiley to be a part of a segment about the project which we will aired on Monday (May 12) at 7:35 am on Channel 4 FOX News Good Day. It will be our 5 minutes of fame, so watch if you can and please remember...the camera adds 10 lbs :)

Flower Parts

When I hear the song Flower Parts by Bob Schneider, I think of my husband Abe. Not only because Bob Schneider is Abe's man crush ;), but because I love the lyrics of this song. I wish I could put it on my Playlist but it is not on "their list" and I can't figure out how to import it from iTunes, so go to iTunes and listen!! Anyway, the song is about my husband...the words describe him perfectly... he's not just good, he's a great man. Happy Anniversary Abe!

Tell me how do you make a superman?
With courage and a steady hand,
Conviction and a damn good attitude,
Spiritual and moral fortitude?

But don’t forget the flowerparts…
A soft touch and an open heart.
A rainbow and some empathy.
Compassion and sympathy.

Don’t forget the, ‘I love you’s,
Oh, and, ‘I forgive you’s too.
It’s the little things that separate
The good from the great.

So tell me how do you make a superman?
With honesty, and discipline,
Endurance and stamina,
An icy stare, a steely jaw?

Don’t forget the flowerparts,
A soft touch and a bleeding heart,
A rainbow and some empathy,
Compassion and sympathy.

Don’t forget the, ‘I love you’s,
Oh, and, ‘I forgive you’s too.
It’s the little things that separate
The good from the great.