Emma

Emma is so much fun! Granted, I have always LOVED being her Mom. I feel so blessed to have been chosen to have her as my daughter. I have found though....the older she gets the funnier she becomes. Maybe it is the fact that I can understand a little better what is going on in her head. But, as I watch her I am in awe at the things that she is picking up from her world. I needed to document some of these things so that I can look back and see where she was during this moment in time.

*Emma LOVES to get herself completely dressed. She is beginning to want to pick out her own clothes (YIKES!). I am very very much a control FREAK about Emma's clothes matching and her hairtie matching, and I am SO not ready for this new milestone in her life. I have been picking out 2 outfits and letting her chose between the 2, and so far she is OK with that??? Hopefully, it will last:). I am however THRILLED that she is wanting to branch out and independently dress herself.

*Emma LOVES to read....and she will tell you that she is a "professional reader" (and yes she does use those words, and no I do not know where she has heard them). I love that she thinks she is a great reader. As a teacher I know that that is 1/2 the battle to getting a child to read....confidence.....she's got that....now we just have to continue to work on letter recognition, sounds, sight word recognition....and the list goes on and on....but, we are ON THE ROAD to reading....and that is HUGE!

*Emma knows words that are not appropriate to use (insert stupid, dumb, other words...not that I say them:), and she will promptly tell you upon hearing one, "Don't say that word....say OH MAN". She truly thinks that Oh man can be inserted for any inappropriate word combination:).

*BIG NEWS!!!!! EMMA IS AN INDEPENDENT SKIER!!! This is HUGE for Emma and it is AWESOME for our family. Our school went skiing again last Friday, and Emma is able to ski completely on her own!!! Tim and I have always loved to ski, but since the birth of Emma we have been very few times. So, the plan is to ski with Em this year and teach Owen next year....then, we will be a skiing family:). YEAH! I'm so excited to be able to do something that we have always loved as a family:). (pictures will be posted SOON)

*Emma is exactly 36 inches tall and she weighs 35 lbs. She is currently wearing a size 8 shoe:). She's our little peanut with an ENORMOUS spirit!

That's all for Emma news for now:). So much more to tell, but I have a little man (Owen) who is not a happy camper and he needs his Mama:).

Full Circle

When Emma was born 6 1/2 years ago I will admit that everything was a blur. I often describe it as an out of body experience. People will ask, "How did you get through it?". The truth is I don't know how I got through it? Some days I'm still not sure how I get through it....I just do.

However, thinking back to 6 years ago at this time has always been painful. It was an extremely difficult time, and it angers me that I have very few memories of Emma's first year of life. The memories that I do have are blurred by medical terms, medical equipment, and stressful situations. The truth is that Emma's life truly began on March 19, 2004...the day that she received a new liver.

This past week that precious day (the day we "got the call" that there was a liver waiting to save our baby girl's life) came full circle.

First of all, let me explain the day that we got "the call".....I had just arrived at our small ski resort with our school. I teach at a rural school (30 kids grades Kdg.-5th), and we ski every Friday during the winter. We had just arrived when someone came to find me to say that I had a phone call. At that moment I KNEW!! I went and took the call, and I cried and cried and cried ALL the way to my car. Luckily my sister was there to take me back to town.

Ironically, Emma's liver came from a beautiful 17 year old girl who had the misfortune of a ski accident in Colorado. She was not wearing a helmet and suffered a fatal head injury.

Fast forward to 6 years later. Our ski resort has not been operational since March 19, 2004...the exact day that we "got the call" was the LAST day that it was open. Fortunately, someone new purchased it, and it re-opened this year. Last Friday, our little school returned to the ski resort......with Emma PARTICIPATING!!!

A TRUE MIRACLE in every sense of the word!! Luckily, her Dad was able to join us. The 3 of us spent the entire day together. All of the kids had fun, but Emma was just glowing (and so were her parents). I don't think anyone truly understood the impact that it had on us that day.

It had come full circle! It was a day of understanding....a day of joy.....a day of memories.... a wonderful day where new memories were created. We felt so blessed to be able to have her there with us! Truly miraculous!

(OH! And I made SURE that every child in our school had a helmet to wear on the slopes!! Isn't it ironic the lessons that life teaches us?)








Can you see how happy she was?