For once

For once, I feel like spring has not passed us by.  By "us," I mean the South.  Now, granted, that also means that some vicious tornadoes came through and heartbreakingly tore apart some cities and families.  As for here in Greenville, we have had some amazing spring weather without all the scary and sad stuff.  Today the Young family has been taking advantage of the beautiful day and getting lots accomplished.  We helped out with Hands on Greenville this morning and volunteered with Russell's company doing some yardwork at a nursing home in Easley.  They didn't have a lot for us to do, so we have been catching up on all kinds of other stuff.  Russell has laid out new grass seed in our back yard while I have been doing odds and ends of things inside.  With the windows open.  Gorgeous.  Lola and Emma love to have the windows open, too.

Emma has a swallow study coming up this Thursday so that we have a benchmark for her swallowing ability before she begins her VitalStim therapy.  That therapy will start week after next.  I'm really excited about it, and we need desperate prayers that it will work.  In addition, we need desperate prayers that it works so that the hospital will invest more time and money into the therapy for more kids who need it.  I'm still working on my campaign to make this therapy available to more kids.  After Emma's been doing it for about 5 weeks, I'll get back in touch with a few people to talk to them about the next step.  They're not getting rid of me that easily.

I have quite a bit of catching up to do at looking back at last year.  Those of you reading the blog probably could care less to read those old blog posts, but it's been very therapeutic for me personally.  It's amazing to see how far we've come.  But also kind of disappointing.  At this point in time last year, we had no idea how dire Emma's situation really was.

April 27, 2010

April 28, 2010

April 29, 2010

April 30, 2010

Exciting news!  As I've been typing this blog, Emma has realized that I have the computer on the floor with me.  And her.  So she rolled and rolled until she got just beyond an arm's length of the computer.  And then she army-crawled!  Emma started figuring out how to army crawl this week.  Each and every day she gets a little bit better at it.  Now don't be fooled - she's not going that far or that fast.  But she's pulling her knees under her a little, too, so regular crawling won't be far.  Yay!  I know most parents get a little exasperated when their kids start crawling because they're suddenly mobile and into everything.  I welcome mobility!  Not just because it's major progress for a child with spina bifida but also because we don't have to constantly keep Emma entertained in one spot.  She will be her own entertainment!  Yes, she will get into things, and yes, we will have to watch her more closely, but we're ready for it.  And thrilled about this exciting new blessing that seems to be just around the corner...