Ten Weeks and Ten Things

Ten weeks.  We have been home ten weeks.  I've written a lot about the hard in the last ten weeks.  It is good to write about the hard stuff; good for those yet to walk this road, and quite frankly, it is therapeutic and cathartic for me to write.  We aren't running a sprint.  The hard stuff is going to be ongoing.  This is a marathon and it will require ongoing cheers from the crowd.  Having the crowd behind you at the start of the race is sure nice, but man, as you approach the finish and your feet feel like lead and the legs are like rubber--that is when you need the cheerleaders to really kick in.  In this journey there is plenty of hard, but today?  Today I chose to be intentional about the good.  I decided to pray this morning for God to help me intentionally quickly see past the hard and forget about it, but to really take notice of the good and make mental markers of those good things, so I could come back to rely on them when the going got tough.  Know what?  God answered my prayer.  Yes, there was hard today and yes, I could spend this post talking about it, but mixed in with all of it, there was good stuff--good that I may have overlooked had God not so graciously honored my prayer.

So, here it is.  Home ten weeks today and ten good things.

1.) Today (and yesterday too!!) we were 100% cuss free!  No kidding!  Cuss free zone, y'all (we won't mention the lay on the floor kicking tantrums, 'cuz we were CUSS FREE!)!  This is a big day.  Oh, and I know she wanted to do it.  So bad.

2.) We started our day too early, but an early start lead us to a wonderful early morning 30 minute power nap to reset our outlook on things.  It was much needed and well received by all parties.

3.) Little Miss "I Hate Milk" actually drank milk.  I've started just serving it each day at breakfast and trying to get her to take a few sips before I switch it out to her water.  Most days it never makes it past her cleft lip lock down (Is that even possible?  Somehow it is.).  Today?  She drank way more than I expected and actually acted like she might be getting used to it.  Maybe?

4.) She played happily with legos throughout our entire school morning.  Hooray for a new table activity to grab her attention (and work that lazy little finger!).

5.) Two of her siblings sweetly sacrificed time riding their own bikes/scooters to push her around the garage on her tricycle (her legs just don't quite reach the pedals yet) so that I could finish fixing dinner.  She loved it and giggled the whole time.

6.)  Hannah got to spread dandelion seeds today with Grace.  She can't blow them off like Grace can, but she sure can smash them!

7.) She acted happy when Daddy came home from work tonight!  Praise!

8.) We got through two entire meals tantrum free today!

9.) She let me play "kiss monster" with her for a long time today.  Usually she doesn't tolerate games that involve prolonged physical contact or closeness for very long periods of time.  She will often quickly shake her head no and ask me to stop.  Today she giggled and giggled and let me carry on easily for a minute or two.

10.) We spoke to her surgeon today and officially scheduled her first surgery (more on that in another post).

....And I will throw in a bonus one...

11.)  She's just silly.  And cute. I adore her and I am so glad she is my daughter.

Ten things of good.  Ten weeks of pure privilege.