A bittersweet evening....

First of all, thank you all for your kind and meaningful comments, as well as your emails - they meant the world to us, and will certainly mean the world to Matthew as well. We do plan on putting the blog into a book for him one day.....today was such a special day and brought us so many reflections on the past year.

Many have asked what we were going to do today to celebrate our Forever Family Day first anniversary, and we had to hold off on our little special evening with Matthew until Friday night for 2 reasons. First of all, he had his therapy tonight with Miss Sue, his teacher of the deaf, and we are so glad that he had therapy tonight, even though we kind of forgot she was coming tonight....(oops!) Matthew did SO WELL and we feel like we definitely got some measureable responses to sound which is a HUGE answered prayer. We go to CHOP next Monday for new auditory mapping, so we were hoping to show them progress that they can measure and Chris and I think they will surely see progress! We also found out today that Matthew is having his testing Friday afternoon for his entry into the preschool for the deaf and hard of hearing AND that our early intervention services will pay for him to start there ASAP even before his 3rd birthday at the end of March! We are so excited about that because that will be an incredible environment for him to learn in. They will use auditory and signing to help build his language, and he will go there four 1/2 days a week. This is HUGE!!!

Our other reason for postponing is that I have my second procedure tomorrow to try and fix my stricture, and I have had to "prep" since Sunday. Bowel preps are no fun at all, especially when things don't work right. I have been a good amount of pain the past 2 days, and I feel like a huge marshmallow. Please pray for this next dilatation to work tomorrow, and help me feel better. The GI doctor also mentioned the possibility of trying a stent if things continue the way they are - so pray for me to have open ears tomorrow and to stay calm again. The good thing is I will be out completely this time under general anesthesia instead of the nightmare of being awake and feeling everything 11 days ago :( I am very nervous, as the risks are all the same again this time, and I am trying not to let that overcome me. My Mom will be with me again tomorrow since Chris cannot be there due to work - let's pray the snow doesn't keep her from getting here on time tomorrow....no one should drive in snow, but at least I don't have to be there until noon for a 1pm procedure.

Thanks for thinking of me tomorrow as I undergo this next bowel dilatation. Enjoy the picture of my 2 favorite boys konked out on the couch as I sit here and type this.....and, I promise there will be pictures of our Forever Family celebration soon! Believe me, this no eating thing for 4 days every other week stinks, and we have some major things to be thankful for this week-end!!!!