What a Week!

Well it's obvious to all that I suck at blogging, just can't ever seem to find the time! So, a lot has happened since this summer and my last post. We had a great trip to Florida in August with family, Emmarie started crawling while we were there, which was a big milestone for her. We were initially worried that she would be somewhat weaker in her upper body, but she is crawling everywhere at warp speed now, so of course she's proved us wrong. Eli started back to pre-school in September after spending almost a week down at the farm with his Grandma and Grandpa Shafer. He's going two days a week this year since next year he will go everyday to pre-k, I can't believe it! He loves school and his brain is like a little sponge absorbing tons of new information everyday. I switched back to my fall schedule in mid-August, which I prefer so that I'm home every morning and early afternoon with the kids. Jason's business is going really well but he is always super busy. That "flexibility" we were hoping for just hasn't really happened yet, but he's enjoying what he's doing which is so important. I actually passed my real estate license exam a few weeks ago, so fortunately I am now able to refer any real estate business to our wonderful realtor Braxton Thomas and receive a part of the commission. At some point in the future I may decide to tackle more of the work and become more actively involved in the transactions, but right now referring business is the perfect situation for us. So, anyone out there looking to buy or sell let me know, Braxton is awesome! And the cool part is I'm allowed to go out and show properties so if anyone is looking for a low stress way to see houses, let me know. I guess that sums up the last few months, so now on to our latest visit to Shriner's hospital with Emmarie.

The big news is that she is scheduled for surgery on her left hand on February 2nd. We are so grateful for the Shriner's hospital as this is an answered prayer. My prayer everyday since she was born is that something will be able to be done to give her more normal appearance and more normal function. Well, that is exactly what the surgeon told us he was going to do. They will basically open the skin between the "thumb" and forefinger since they are somewhat webbed right now. Then they will remove part of the metacarpal bone in the thumb and move the other three bones down and reattach. This will give the digit a more thumblike appearance since now it will only have two phalanges instead of three. The third phalange will function as the metacarpal. They will also be able to rotate the thumb down 90 degrees which will help it function more as an opposable thumb. We were very impressed with Dr. Millstead. He is a very experienced hand surgeon and made us feel very comfortable. So, we will head down to Shreveport on Tuesday February 1s,t and Emmarie will check into the hospital, stay the night and have surgery the next day. Barring any complications she will probably go home on thursday. The recovery process will involve casting her arm for a good 6 to 8 weeks, which won't be fun, but the end result will be worth it I have no doubt. They will do surgery on the right hand eventually after the left one is completely healed up and functioning well. We have no date yet for that. Dr. Millstead doing surgery as soon as possible is best so that her brain can start re-learning how to use her hand properly as soon as possible. They like to wait until the child is at least a year just so the hand isn't so tiny and hard to work with. I'm very excited about the end result, but of course sad that Emmarie will have to endure a certain amount of pain and discomfort to get there. She is so strong-willed and determined I know she will bounce back quickly, but I still know it's going to be a tough couple of months. It's not great timing as meet season kicks into high gear in February-May, and I will have to be out of town a lot for work, but we are so blessed to have family to step in and help when I can't be here. About two weeks after the surgery we will have to go back to Shriner's for a check-up and then the rest of the healing process we should be able to stay here in Tulsa. It is a hard 7 hour drive for Emmarie, but she is trooper. Yesterday she was in the car for 11 total hours and overall did awesome. We're exhausted today and taking it easy, although I have about a million things to do to get ready for Paris. Yes Jason and I leave friday for Paris (France, not Texas:) We are so lucky that my aunt Kathy and Uncle Bruce are bringing us to Paris to visit them. They have been there for I think about 5 years and will be moving home soon so we didn't want to miss this opportunity. We are so excited but I know it's going to be tough to leave the kids for a week. Luckily they have the best babysitter ever! Aunt Alie! Aunt Alie is coming from Chicago to stay at our house and keep the kids in their routine while we are gone. I'm so grateful! Well it's noon and I'm still in my PJs and I need to get the kids lunch and get ready for work:) I will try and get back on here to post some more recent pics.