Here's some recent pictures of graduation and Maggie.
So last post a year ago, but now that I am one of those stay-at-home-mommy-types, I supposedly have the time to do this stuff, right? HA! We'll see if I can get to another post before next year. Maggie is obviously asleep or this would not be happening.
I just want everyone to know that I have the best life ever! I am so happy! Both Brandon and I graduated with our Bachelor's Degrees in April, his in Business Management and mine in Health Science. We've moved to a beautiful house in Idaho Falls so that Brandon can finish off a second internship for the Idaho Falls Chuckars (the baseball team). He loves doing the business side of sports. Wouldn't you rather be marketing for something you love than some random product? He'll hopefully be able to use this extra experience in the field to score a job with a major league team some time this December when he attends the baseball Winter Meetings in Orlando.
Our house is AMAZING! We're the second house on this site. 1215 Alayssa Dr. It's 2 years old, 3 stories, with 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a large office, and great room over the 2 car garage, two big playsets and a fenced off garden in the backyard. The kitchen is HUGE and the cupboards are absolutely beautiful reddish stained knotty wood. This is seriously close to my dream house. We round about found this place through Brandon's second cousin. The people who own the house got a new job in Washington and had to move immediately. They are still trying to sell this house, so we are living in it, keeping up the lawn and such while keeping the house clean at all times in case any potential buyers want to come look at the house. So we're here until the house sells, which you think would be bad and annoying, but there are 30 houses in our neighborhood for sale, so we're not too worried. And this is super good practice for me, because I get in the habit of walking through the house in the morning cleaning everything as I go, so that it's all done by 10ish and I can do whatever the rest of the day! I hope I'll be able to make a habit of it and have a clean house the rest of my life.
I have the incredible joy of spending all day with my beautiful baby Maggie! She fills my whole heart with cuteness and smiles. For those who don't know, she has Bilateral Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. AKA her optic nerves never formed all the way. Dr says they are about 1/10th the width they should be. This translates into her not being able to focus on much and being at least legally blind. We know that she can see some, but are not sure if it's specific colors, or just peripheral, or if it's light/dark related. However, we won't know the extent of what she can of cannot see until she is about 3 or 4 and old enough to explain to us what she can see. Her brain will continue to learn to make accommodations for what is lacking in the information she is receiving. So she'll technically improve her sight until about 2 years old when they brain has pretty much done all it can to figure out how to best use it's resources. After that, there is no cure. Stem cell research is being done on nerve regeneration, but it's still just research. We continue to pray for those miracles.
Until that happens we just live life and love it! Maggie is almost 10 months now! She is a bit small for her age, but she's growing steadily just slowing. It just means she fits in my arms for more convenient cuddling and is easier to carry around. She sits up on her own, and searches around her for anything with in reach. Once she has hold of anything it goes right to her mouth. She loves rattles and is great at eating her baby food while getting it all over me, her chair, and in her hair. Maggie rolls over all over the place, trying to get who knows where. She doesn't crawl yet, mostly because a baby starts to crawl to get to something it can see that's out of reach, and since she doesn't focus on things for very long or if they are far away from her, she's still just aimlessly rolling. She is an amazing baby! We are SO blessed to have her.
We've also been lucky enough to receive two different therapists for her through the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind and the Infant Toddler Program of the State Health and Welfare Department. We've just started with these programs, but they have finished their evaluations and are starting with the therapy now. Maggie has gotten to borrow some toys that are very colorful and textured and make different noises to alert all of her senses as she plays. We have also received a book in braille, so when I read it to her I can just touch her fingers to the page and help her understand that she can feel a book to read it. I'm really excited to be able to continue with these programs.
So there's our beautiful and happy life! Hope yours is going as well as mine!
