11 months

Sophie is 11 months old today.  It's hard to believe that in one month we will be celebrating her first birthday.  In some ways this year seems to have flown by and at the same time dragged on.  She is such joy in our lives.  I have truly never seen such a content, happy baby.  She is so good at entertaining herself and also loves to be played with.  Kayla and Madelyn love to play with her and make her laugh.  She wants sooooo bad to crawl and is making progress with rocking on her knees, but I think it will be awhile before she's mobile.  Her physical therapist has us working to build muscle tone in her hips so she'll have the strength to move those legs and get where she wants to go!  For now she sits happily, turns in a complete circle, and scoots where she wants to go.  In some ways it is a blessing for me b/c as soon as she is mobile my life will change with having to chase her around!

We are spending this week at the Outer Banks with my family.  My mom and stepdad rented a beautiful oceanfront house for all of us.  It's wonderful being with everyone and the kids are having a great time, as are we.  I remember last fall when my mom told me she was booking this trip and in the midst of Sophie's health issues I told her "There is no way we will be able to go.  We won't be able to do things like that anymore."  My mom insisted that we would be able to go, but I didn't believe her a all.  I was foreseeing a future of constant doctors and ER visits as Sophie was having daily seizures that we couldn't get under control.  It's amazing how God has led us through this past year.  Sophie is doing fantastic and we would've never imagined that we'd be here at the beach just relaxing and having a great time when we were going through all of that last year.  My mom was right though and it is a blessing to spend this week with my family. 

Tonight I'll be making cornbread (a favorite of ours) to celebrate and Friday is a big deal for us too.  That will be Sophie's last dose of Phenobarbital which is a seizure medicine she has been on every day of her life.  We will have successfully weaned her off of two seizure medicines and if all continues well then we'll start weaning her off the last one on November.  God is good!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." -James 1:17