Bacon and Eggs and Memorial Day

This morning I decided to cook breakfast ... bacon and eggs ... always a fan favorite in the Davis household. It's Memorial Day after all, and we're all home so bacon and eggs it is. But it's not lost on me that we're all home on this Memorial Day because of the thousands that never came home. Every freedom, including the simplest of all freedoms, cooking breakfast for our families, we take for granted in this country has been paid for with a heavy price. The heaviest price. These men and women didn't just give their time or their effort. They laid down their lives. And their families, the moms and dads, the sisters and brothers, the husbands and wives, the daughters and sons ... they laid down a huge piece of themselves as well.

Lots of fun will be had today. There will be barbecues and river floats and long naps taken, and I don't think that anyone begrudges anyone a little fun, but be sensitive to the fact that for some this day is incredibly hard. Take the the time to remember and honor that, and don't take for granted the price paid for our freedom.

Family Photos 2017

A few weeks ago, we ventured out on a Saturday morning to take family photos. Anna, in true toddler form, wasn't having it. She was really mad at me because I tried to take away a magnifying glass she was holding. All I succeeded in doing was royally ticking her off right before we started. But because we have a wonderful (and exceptionally patient) photographer, the photos still turned out great!

Field Trippin'

Last Friday, Anna had her first field trip to a theme park in San Antonio called Morgan's Wonderland. Morgan's Wonderland is an all inclusive theme park that was built to accommodate special needs kids as easily as kids without any special needs. It is an amazing place for all kids, and we definitely plan on returning with both kids.

I was initially very nervous about Anna going. One of the requirements of going on a school sponsored field trip is that all students ride the bus to the field trip location. Parents must follow the buses. Anna hates buses. She hates low, rumbling, vibrating, bass-y type noises. I could see no way this wasn't going to be disastrous. But after a lot of prayer and reassurances from her teacher, we put her on that bus. And she rocked it. She was nervous at first, but then settled down. She even asked to ride the bus home.

I also wasn't sure how she would react to the park. Although, it's sensory friendly compared to most theme parks, it's also very noisy and busy. But once again, she was a rockstar. She even rode the train willingly and enjoyed it. Trains are also on the list of things she hates. Not to mention she had to wait in line for quite a while for the train. And cool side story, there was a dad and son in front of us from another school. Turns out the little boy was adopted from the Ukraine so we spent a few minutes talking adoption.

After lunch, Anna was a little fussy on the last couple rides, but we did get a few smiles out of her. I would say her first field trip was an smashing success!

Get ready for picture overload. You can tell that about the time we hit the merry go round, Anna was pretty wiped out. But in the very last picture she is not upset. That's her silly face.

Riding the bus for the first time!

 

 

 

Anna's 4th Bday

I know. I am desperately behind on blog posts. Between school (the Davis family is ready for summer!), and building our house (yay!), and packing (yuck!), and getting the house ready to put on the market, I'm happy to get one post done a month. But I definitely wanted to let everyone know how Anna's birthday went. Last year she had only been home a few months when she turned three, and she just wasn't ready to party so we kept it very low key. This year, we didn't go overboard (okay, maybe a little), but we sure did have a big family party, and the birthday girl had a great time. Her big gift was a kitchen set . . . which took me approximately 4 hours to put together. It probably would've taken longer, but Patrick came to my rescue about halfway through. Miss Anna also got an entire summer wardrobe from her grandparents and great-grandparents, great aunt, and aunts, uncles, and cousins. Overall, she had a fantastic birthday!

These first four photos are from the morning of Anna's birthday. As you can see, it was super early (still dark out), and we're not exactly morning people around these parts. But we wanted her to get her gifts before she went to school for the morning so not so bright and early it was!

All of these are from Anna's birthday party. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful girl!

Her serious, mean face ... she thinks it's really funny.

Do you see all those clothes on the table? She is the best dressed girl in Texas.

My wonderful grandmothers.

I tried and tried to get a picture of the three of them together, but they wouldn't all look at the camera at the same time. Still, I thought this one was sweet.

After cake, and presents, and playing, Miss Anna went into her room and got in her rocking chair and covered up. She was exhausted and done with the whole party thing.

These past 17 months have been a time of amazing growth and bonding and change. They have stretched all of us in no small way. We've learned to trust in God more than ever. Sometimes people (doctors, therapists, social workers) remind me (usually in their evaluations) of the fact that Anna is, as one person put it, "significantly delayed", but I'll be completely honest, I no longer look at that. I no longer see that. Because you have to realize that this little girl is not the same terrified, hungry, infantile little girl we brought home. Maybe she is "significantly delayed" in the eyes of the world, but I like to stop and remind people of all she's done and learned since coming home. She's physically caught up in both height, weight, and developmental ability . . . she could hardly walk at pick up. She understands everything you say and if she has the mind, can follow directions quite well. She also has close to 100 words in her vocabulary, is trying to put two words together, knows almost all animals and the sounds they make, knows all her colors, numbers 1-10, shapes, and most of the alphabet, and can pick up and remember almost any song she hears. She has an amazing ear for music, and that's not just the mom in me talking. This is the same little girl that was completely nonverbal at pick up . . . not even a babble could be heard out of her. There are things we are working through. Obviously, therapy and school will continue on, and she also struggles with hypersensitivity to certain kinds of noises. But as I said before, all of us, are working with her to be able to overcome the things that currently slow her down (and it's not much).

As always, I would be remiss to not thank everyone who has walked this road and prayed for and supported us. And also as always, your prayers continue to be coveted. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!