Beautiful day

such a pretty day outside just had to read about it and post this picture

Missed the follow-up on the last post.

In my last post we were 2 days away from a life changing surgery for my daughter. Tis little girl is the strongest person I know. On the day of her surgery she held it together and led her parents through what could have been possible one of the saddest days of my life.Instead she cracked jokes about what was going to happen and even settled down her Aunt and Uncle that came down to sit with us. Just the day after surgery she was already attempting the stairs. This took an awful lot of courage.

Now we are 4 months past surgery and she is moving around with little to no difficulty and we say to ourselves, "why did we not do this sooner?" We cannot wait until the snow is gone and we can get her outside for some running and other "kidlike" activities that have been closed to her for her entire lift to this point. Pictured below is a shot of her after meeting the Badger Womens Hockey Team. So very comfortable on her new leg. Life is starting to open up to her as she is planning on playing in the miracle league this summer.

T-Minus 2 Days

Here we sit 2 days before a major life changing event in our house not to mention Emma. So many emotions and fears racing through my head. Somewhat like buyers remorse, but before the purchase. I just need to keep focused on the reason for the surgery and how it will set her free.

Setting her free from the limits of a fragile leg must outweigh the fears I have as a parent. If her leg was good enough to keep she would have already played sports with the other kids,or gone sledding with her sisters. Putting this surgery behind us and getting through her recovery will ultimately make the sky her limit and not her leg. I have recently watched a couple things on TV about amputee's doing incredible things. The first was Terry Fox a 22 year old Canadian who after surviving bone cancer decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. What an inspiration to many that you cannot let a disABILITY stop you or knock you down. The other was a man who as a double amputee climbed to the summit of Mt Everest. He was a climber and lost his legs to frostbite, he never let that stop him from doing what he loved. I hope I can take their inspiration and transfer it to Emma who can and will do anything she wants with her disABILITY.

Really, April since I last posted!

I just made the realization that it has been a few months since I last posted. Life seems to be traveling by fast. So fast in fact that another summer has come to an end and winter will be upon us. We spent Labor Day weekend at a Brain Tumor Family camp. While I wasn't real crazy about using my last long weekend of the summer to a Family camp it proved to be quite a good weekend. Lots of families like ours all seeking support from others going through the same things.

Prior to Camp we had met with Emma's Doctors because she has been having trouble with her leg. She has Pseudoarthrosis of the tibia which is brought on by the NF. This in short is a bad bone that once broke will not heal back into a union. If it does heal it will most likely become deformed. The bone has been bowing for some time and has now caused much pain in the ankle and tenderness in the leg itself. So through much discussion we have decided to amputate her led below the knee. We are doing this not to call it quits on trying but to give the the life that every kid should have. To date she has never gone sledding or played on the playground equipment with her friends at school. Gym class was always a sit on the sidelines "activity."  She will now have that chance once we get through all the recovery and her new "fake leg" as she puts it.

Media Star

A big part of our spring has been following the LU Softball Team, this has been as rewarding for us as it seems to be for the team. A week ago there was a special game between our team and the University of Chicago. Chicago also adopted a girl with the same thing as Emma. This made for a fun but busy weekend for all involved. At game time both girls were given the honor of throwing the first pitch at the game. Later they were sitting along the third base line when a photographer from our local paper wanted to get some pics of them. I stood in the background and took pics of all of them. Here is what I took.

This Is the pic I took of the Photographer for the paper. See the article here.

The Girls walking with Coach to throw the first pitch.

High Fives after all the Team Introductions are made.

Encouragement

I have posted in the past about "Friends of Jaclyn" an organization putting children with brain tumors together with college sports teams. I cannot express how wonderful this program is, it has given Emma a sense of belonging to a group that she has not had at school. It has shown the team how special good health truly is. Many Team members draw inspiration from the children that they have adopted. This seems to be so with the Lawrence Vikings. Here is Emma giving them some encouragement while at the Midwest Conference tournament. This weekend proves to be a big one for the Vikings as they host another Team that has adopted another young lady. More pictures to come after the event.

Mama's Satisfaction

While down in Gulf Shores we went out to eat a a number of places. One of our most memorable came when we made a drive up to Mobile AL. Down on Dauphin Street there is a place called Mama's. Excellent food and Gumbo. Well this is our Mama feeling all content after having the best French Dip that she has ever had. I particularly like the look of satisfaction through that MonaLisa smile of hers.