Whew!

Well folks, we made it. It's always such a relief to make it through the first year. I remember thinking while Ava was hospitalized, "I really just don't feel like 'doing this and feeling like that' again."

It sucks, but here we are One year and 3 days later. It's amazing to me how I felt like I could exhale after Eric's 1st anniversary. I feel the same after Ava's. It seems we all do.

So now we are in the home stretch for Christmas. Talk about gear switching. The big bugs were so motivated to have less school work this week they sped through their last 5 math lessons in their first work book. So now we do fun stuff for the week. I think we are all excited about it.

Today, while Emily was trying to finish her last lesson she was becoming fatigued. Suddenly there was no way she could possibly know what came after 37. I was trying to probe her memory, "thirty seven......" I led, hoping she'd get it. Suddenly I hear a little voice from one who is laying upside down in my lap "38". Em and I just looked at Lain, who continued to try and put her feet on my face. (Such a fun game, for me I tell you.)

Next, Emily can't be bothered to remember what comes after 44. So I said " forty-four...dead pan...forty.......????" Lain, still upside down, shoves 5 fingers in Emily's face. And suddenly she makes no sense pretending that she can't count to 3.

One of these days when that bug chooses to let us know all she's hiding, I think we will be amazed. Recently she decided to let us know that yes, she can write her name. (Of course we knew this because she was doing it even better than she is now in August). However since then she decided that she can't be bothered with it. This way she can get her sisters to wait on her. We are going to Dutch Wonderland over Christmas Break. We told Little Miss Bug that she couldn't go unless she could write her name. Oh look, there it was.

I get the "How do you move onto Christmas" after all we have just before it. My answer- see above, we focus on all we have, remember all we lost and rejoice in the grace God gives us to continue on, one day at a time.