Wrapped in Love

What does this

Plus this

Plus this

Equal?

(yes, I borrowed my kids' crayons to color this and they were missing some colors, but it gives the general idea)

 This.  Project Wrap Sophia in Love.  I will be making this quilt for Megan to take to Sophia on one of her trips and to put on her bed when she is finally home where she belongs.  But it will take more than just Megan's love to get her daughter home.  It will take the love of every one of us who think she deserves a loving home and mother, family and friends.  So will you join me and put your name on her quilt of love?  We want to fill every leaf and square on this quilt with names and messages of love to a lonely little girl across the ocean.  And we want to raise the rest of the money to bring her to this  side of the ocean where she belongs. If you want to join me in this special project make a donation to Megan's chip-in (on my side-bar) or her Reece's Rainbow FSP (tax deductable, also on my side-bar) and leave a comment letting me know which kind of patch you want.  A donation gets your name on the quilt. A $15 donation will get your name on one of the leaves.  $25 will get you a block that you can sign/design yourself (sent to you with return postage).  And either one will get Sophia one piece closer to being wrapped in the love of those who know its our job to defend the orphans.  This project will run until we fill all the pieces with love and I will be updating the progress with pictures as we go.

Back to Normal

When I look back to a year ago I wonder how I got anything done....oh wait, I'm not sure I did. :)  With Reagan going into heart failure and having frequent doctor visits for her heart and her weight loss and being hospitalized for RSV and therapy and pumping and feeding.....I'm surprised we survived!  Now all of that is in the past and I have actually started taking for granted how normal life is.  Scratch that.  I was taking it for granted.  Until I decided to have surgery on my foot between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It needed to be done, but what a crazy time to do it!  I did a lot of online shopping for Christmas.  And I learned to crochet.  And I learned to not take for granted the ability to WALK.  It is very humbling to have to allow others to do everything; feed my kids, do my dishes, drive me to church.  So I am relishing the luxury now of wearing (boring comfortable) shoes and enjoying the lovely California winter (80 degrees) while walking (slowly) to the park.
Reagan has had a cardiology visit too.  We received the expected but none the less sweet news that her heart is functioning normally and her echo looked great.  Next visit in a year (that is a far cry from the every two weeks we were doing last year!).  She also had a follow up visit for her ear tubes.  Her ears look good and she can obviously hear better than she could.  She still needs to do a hearing test to confirm there is no other hearing loss, but the tubes were good for her.  Apparently she has extra tiny ears though.  They tried to fit her for ear plugs for bathing and the smallest size of tiny was too big. :)
So Reagan's health is normal.  My foot is starting to feel better than it has in years.  Whatever shall I do with my time? :)  Actually I do have a project...wanna hear about it?

One Year

Wow!  I started this little blog one year ago with the New Year's resolution to share Reagan with the world.  I managed to keep at it fairly well and even blogged every single day in October.  Then I rested.  And life happened.  And, well, my poor little blog has been very neglected.  But on this anniversary I looked back at the very first post.  And then started scrolling through the journey of the last year.  What an amazing journey it has been too.  We have changed from being newbies in the Down syndrome world and facing the scary road of heart failure and heart surgery to old pros with a normal, stable life dedicating extra time to helping bring home Sophia and Autumn.  No wonder I got off track writing, I needed to re-direct. :)  I realize that there are many things to update and I don't think I can do it all at once so this is just a quick Happy and Blessed New Year post to everyone who has joined me this past year.  I'll be back tomorrow with more news.

P.S. if there is still anyone out there reading...I'd love to hear what you liked most about Reagan's blog in the last year.