HAPPY REBIRTHDAY!!!!!

The happiest of rebirthdays to my fabulous Selene!!!

I thought I would have so many beautiful words to express my joy, but I'm coming up with nothing. We prayed, you prayed, and this year has been an absolute miracle.  I feel completely unworthy of God's grace through the past year.  It's humbling to know that while he carried us on our road to joy, that He was comforting someone else's path of sorrow.  We'll never know why we are given the blessings that we are, but I do know that I will thank Him every day for the health of my girls.

We are also so thankful for our amazing family and friends.  I even feel that in some respects that this year was almost easy...easier than I ever imagined it would be. Can I say that? That it felt easy? Sure, the hospital was scary and we went through some hard times. But the packages and letters brought excitement to Selene's day and the prayers filled my soul with peace.

All year long our friends juggled supporting us while adhering to our rules of no shoes, insane hand washing, wearing masks that get all hot and sweaty within 3 seconds and just basically accepting us disappearing for a few months because it was too complicated to arrange visits.

We are overjoyed that the next year will be filled with our families being together, seeing friends, play dates, celebrating friends' weddings and babies, vacations to San Francisco, the beach and ultimately a Wish Trip to Disney early next year. We are living a Blessed life.

I needed a little project to reminisce over those big moments in the past two years, so hopefully you enjoy this not so short video I put together.

Selene's video

Truly, here's to 2016!

Starting the day with waffles!

"I want syrup in each gem." Anything for you today kiddo!

When you wish upon a star...

A few weeks ago we found out some special news. Selene is being granted a wish by Make a Wish! We are truly humbled at this amazing opportunity and gift. It's hard to feel deserving of such generosity but at the same time we are excited for her to have the chance to be treated like royalty, along with Ainsley whose been such a champ over the past year. And Kalina gets to go along for the ride.

We started talking to Selene about how she will be able to choose to go somewhere, meet someone, become something, etc. We didn't want to put any ideas in her head just generally explain the process. Today Susan and Michelle, Wish Volunteers, came to see us bearing a bag of princess toys for the girls. They asked lots of questions about all her favorite things and when they asked where she would want to go she said "A princess castle!" She then proceeded to tell them all about how she wants to play dress up and some other things about sleeping in a bed, kids are weird and I have no idea what she meant.

So we will be off to Disney World to dress up like Princesses! And if Ainsley has her way, a nice day at Diagon Alley and Hogwarts!

For as quirky and delightful as Selene is, she's super shy and rarely opens up to strangers. They must know how to find the most special volunteers because she talked, answered their questions, and drew lots of pictures for them to take.

If you know me at all, you'll know that I'm obsessive with planning and researching everything. So when we found out about Make A Wish I started reading stories. I cried for two days. I cried at the happy, celebratory stories. I cried at the sad, final memories stories. I'm so grateful that we will be celebrating on our trip!

Selene and Susan discussing all their big princess plans!

Writing with their fancy pens.

Kalina is excited to be included in the big girls'' fun.

They really loved Susan!

"I love Chop."

Receptionists hang children's coloring pages all over the walls of the check in desks at Children's Hospital. As I admired them while checking into Cardio I saw this cute little Minion page with a big "I Love CHOP" written on it. I sing their praises all the time, but kids tell it like it is.  Selene has loved her trips to the "hostital." She loves their snacks, the stickers and the fabulous nurses and doctors. I guess it's good then that we still get to go back ;-) I thought we only had to go back at 6 months, but apparently its now every 3 months for the next year.

Anyway. The appointment was great! Dan and I got to go together while Nana managed Ainsley and Kalina. After the obvious drive through Starbucks (tried the mobile order for the first time! I ordered while putting shoes on and packing my bag and was in and out in 30 seconds!) we were on the way. Selene was pretty uninterested in us and preferred looking out the window. Thankfully the city guy was driving because he managed to use all his shortcuts around the ugly traffic and we made it on time (despite leaving over an hour to get there, I hate morning traffic!).

Thursdays are waaaay chiller than Tuesday clinic. But we still had to ask the lovely nurse to get the lab moving since we had an 11:00 appointment in Cardio.  They took us back to the lab (the new lab in Buerger is AMAZING) and Selene made a request for a tv show. Because clearly that's more important than the needle and 12 vials sitting on the table.  After an uneventful blood draw we got to see Ellen and the team. Sadly doctor Olson wasn't there, they said he was sad to miss Selene :-) But we were basically given the all clear to live our lives! We do have to wait for the results to come back on whether we can get her vaccinated. They say it's not uncommon to need to wait a little longer since they want her little immune system all set to pump out those titers.

After that fun appointment, that involved way more laughing, giggling and tickling than you would expect from a scary hospital we bounced over to Cardio for her EKG and Echo to make sure her heart is in tip top shape.

Our final stop (well, before Jimmy Johns because JJ is the best) was to say hello and thank you at the BMT unit. Luckily some of our favorite nurses were meeting in the front hall way. We got to say hi, give hugs and give them some snacks we made for them as a thank you.

By then Selene was whooped. So Dan carried her back to the car (after our JJ stop, I was famished, no way were we going without my Turkey Tom!) Where she had plenty of energy to eat her sandwich and then the cookie.  She also proved that she has a great grasp of bigger and smaller. Because when I asked for half her cookie and she broke it she almost handed me the big piece but promptly switched the piece she offered me after a quick size assessment. Thanks Kid. But hey, at least she gave me more than the usual crumb. She must have been in a great mood.

Overall it was a little anticlimactic. I'm not sure what I expected. Balloons and confetti maybe but overall I feel joy and relief at this huge milestone! Next big moment on deck-March 9!

There was a ton of giggling and kicking going on here.