Thankful A-Z: Zealous

This past year I feel like I have become a more zealous person in many areas of my life. Of course, the most obvious is taking care of Liliana's needs and realizing that I am her #1 advocate. If I don't speak up for her no one will. She depends on me for so many things. Her day to day care, her medications, her feedings, her doctor appointments, I could go on and on. I have to be on top of my game or else everything will fall apart in an instant. Bill has been a zealous daddy too! He is such a support to both Lily and me. We could not make it without him. It hasn't been easy to become a more zealous person at times but God is showing me that my diligence and perseverance will pay off. Oh, and for the most part I have been a zealous blogger for over a year now and I am pretty proud of that. Well, hope you have enjoyed my thankful A-Z posts and honestly I am ready to just blog about whatever I feel like blogging about for the day. God Bless!

Thankful A-Z: X and Y

Hi everyone! Sorry I did not post yesterday but I had a birthday party at my house for my niece that just turned one and by the time I could sit down to post I was exhausted. So I have to make up for lost time and I am doing the letters X and Y.

X is not an easy one so the only words I could think of were x-rays and xerox. X-rays absolutely have been a God send in Liliana's life. I remember the early morning when she was sent back from the step-down unit at the Cleveland Clinic to the PICU and how sick she was. We almost lost her. I remember one of the docs there that I really liked, pulling us out into the hallway to look at the x-rays they had taken of her lungs after she had aspirated. It was obvious that she had a lot of junk in there because you could see the spots all over her lungs. Getting x-rays while she was in the hospital was a regular thing for her. I am so thankful that we have had the use of x-rays in our lives because without it I believe our Lily would not be here.

Y is for year! I am thankful that even though 2009 started out a little rocky for us, with Lily still in the hospital recovering from her third OHS and all, we still made it through that chapter of our lives and we are much stronger people for it. God has a way of using our circumstances and people around us to make us stronger and show us how much he loves us. I thank God every day for this past year and I look forward with hope, and love, and joy to what 2010 will bring. We are absolutely enjoying every single minute with our Lily and we can't wait to see all the new challenges she will overcome. Thank you Lord for a wonderful 2009!

Thankful A-Z: Wild Weather!

Yes, Cleveland is a very interesting place to live. We get a lot of different kinds of weather here and I am very thankful for that. I love the change of seasons here because we know that we will see sun, heat, rain, freezing rain, and even snow! Yes, I said the "S" word! We don't have a really long summer so we cherish every minute of the 80 degree temperatures we get while they last! Spring....hmmm spring here is sometimes very short or it sometimes seems like we didn't even have one. Fall here is probably one of my favorite times of year! This fall the weather was unusually gorgeous! The leaves were just fantastic with all their beautiful colors. Winter is always long and living by the big Lake Erie snow making machine can cause some pretty treacherous situations. All in all we love our Cleveland weather and though it's fun to visit other warm tropical places we still love to come back home.

Thankful A-Z: Happy Thanksgiving! Vacation Time!

First let me start by saying, "Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!" We had a wonderful meal tonight at my in-laws and I am stuffed! Poor Lily... I think she may have caught some stomach virus because she started throwing up today. It started out slow and then as the day went on she got worse. She can't keep anything down. We didn't even give her her last feed of the night and we are afraid to run her continuous night time feed because it probably won't stay down. So we are just going to let her sleep and hope that she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night starving.

Anyways, that said I am very, very thankful for vacations! I love vacation time and even though I enjoy going places away from home I am also thankful for the times when we spend vacation at home such as right now for Thanksgiving. Bill took Wednesday off and then he was off today, Friday and the weekend. It's always nice to have some extra family time together during vacation whether it is on the road or at home. Our next away from home vacation will be the first week of February when we go to Disney World! We can't wait!

Thankful A-Z: Unity and Uncles

I am so thankful that as a family we have created such a bond of unity over the past year. Having a child with Ds can do that for a family. We have been through so much between Lily's surgeries and her everyday needs and it has helped bring our family closer together unified. I thank the Lord for that when there are so many families out there that are breaking up because of a child with a disability. We are becoming stronger because of our sweet Liliana. She means the world to us and we couldn't imagine our family without her.

I am also thankful for all the uncles that my kids have. Each of them is unique in his own way and we love them for that. My kids also have several great uncles which I think is very cool! They even have two Uncle David's. So I want to give a shout out to all my kids awesome uncles! Uncle Dave (my brother), Uncle David (Bill's brother), Uncle Ron (Bill's sister Annette's husband), Uncle Kelli (Bill's sister Traci's husband), Uncle Wayne (great uncle), Uncle Harlow (great uncle), Uncle Andy (great uncle), and Uncle Chuck (great uncle)! We love all of you!

Thankful A-Z: Television

Yes, I admit it. I have certain t.v. shows I watch religiously every week. After 8 pm at night I usually sit down and watch some t.v. show just about every night. It's my way of unwinding after putting in a full day of being a mommy, a counselor, a nurse, and basically jack of all trades. I'm usually exhausted and so some "me" time is always definitely in order. It's not the only way that I unwind and relieve stress but it is one of the main ways. Some of my favorite shows are "How I Met Your Mother", "Two and a Half Men", "The Biggest Loser", "Survivor", and "The Amazing Race"! Thank you Lord for television!

Thankful A-Z: School

In September Gwynny started going to preschool 5 days a week and I feel now that it was one of the best things we did for her. She is finally starting to learn and remember her letters and some of her numbers. She is making connections between things and recognizes print everywhere we go. She sings songs and tells me lots of stories about what she did or learned at school. She has made new friends and is learning how to get along and play with others. Maturity wise she still has a ways to go but I can definitely see improvement in Gwynny academically. The social part of things combined with the maturity part will also come together I'm sure as she gets older and spends more time in a classroom situation. Overall, I am very proud of her! She got a fairly good progress report this time around and I expect an even better one in May! I am very, very, very thankful for Gwynny's school! Oh, and did I mention it gives me a little break every morning for about 2 1/2 hours so I can spend time alone with Liliana! Yeah!