Avery is receiving her Pamidronate treatments every two months. She has still had breaks, like we would expect, but we can't imagine how much more she would break without this miracle medicine. She no longer cries all the time in pain, she's much happier, eats better, sleeps better - she's a completely different baby!
Our family is finally at Travis Air Force Base in beautiful Fairfield, California. It's absolutely beautiful here and everyone is adjusting beautifully. Madi misses her friends from North Dakota and talks about them every single day but she is happy going to the park and playing with her sister. Kailee is so full of …well, spunk… it's incredible. She's 3 years old now and is just like me when I was a kid. She looks just like me, acts just like me. Boy, are we in trouble!
On our travels to California I finally got to meet a beautiful, amazing, inspiring woman. She is one of the very first women who said "I'm here for you." when we began our nightmarish journey last year. She stood up for me, stood in for me, stood by me and held my hand - all without ever meeting me. It was something that I could only have dreamed about. Her name is Shari. Her family are people that I consider family to me. We finally got to meet and it was exactly what I imagined it would be! Avery got to meet her future husband (haha!) Blake. It was incredible to see the difference in size even though Avery is older than Blake! Madi and Kailee got to enjoy the company of Jordyn - who is just the absolute most adorable, sweet and charming girl! And Colin, Shari's husband, was hilarious and also a joy to meet. All in all, our trip through the desolate west wouldn't have been 1/8th as enjoyable without taking the day to meet them. Thank you, Shari, Colin, Jordyn and Blake. It was incredible!!
Last year, Christmas wasn't the same. It was stripped of a lot of the joy, the beauty and the magic. It was very dark and hard. We couldn't breathe. We couldn't sleep. We couldn't eat. This year, even without our family and amazing friends, our support system, we had a beautiful Christmas. We had a family. Something we weren't sure we were going to have last year.
Sometimes, I still think about those dark days - and it's hard - really hard. We should've been enjoying those moments with our new baby - not worrying about whether we were able to take her home, keep her home, enjoy her life. It's hard not to cry when I look back at those times and know that after fighting so hard in the NICU and struggling emotionally there - we lost her again to a dark hole that has become those months we were in an investigation. But, we're recovering and moving forward.
Life is beautiful right now. And those moments are the moments that count.
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