A Year In Review

I was thinking of doing a Christmas card letter... but I'm thinking that I'm just lucky I got my act together enough to mail some cards, let alone type-format-print-cut-stuff letters into them. I figure, this might be an easier way to update the friends and family far away, to our adventures.

This year has been great and really seemed to go by quickly!
Jason continues to love his job. He works hard and loves his work. He'll be teaching a class for the undergrad computer degree next semester. He did it last year and is really looking forward to doing it again. He continues to sing at church every Sunday in the choir and helps to lead music whenever given the chance. His new obsession this year has been to listen to audiobooks. I have to say, that I love this new hobby. He loves to listen to his Civil War books while doing dishes, vacuuming, taking out the trash, etc... You can tell by the state of the kitchen, if he's found a book he likes or not :0)

Darby is as sweet as can be. He's made a lot of progress this year. Christmas 2010 was the first time he'd pulled himself up to standing. Now he is walking with one hand held and can be consistently tricked into taking almost 20 steps independently. He's able to go from sitting to standing up completely unaided in the middle of the room. He's eating regular foods and learning to drink from cups with straws. He has over 50 words in sign language, but still has a hard time communicating. He doesn't really have many verbal words/sounds yet. But he's learned to shake his head yes or no, and that is a huge blessing to us, believe me! We had a successful trip to Disneyland this year! Darb was able to go on some of the outdoor rides and did one indoor ride without a hitch! He seemed to love the tea cups the best :0) He turned 3 in November and we established his IEP and preschool situation. One of our therapists attended the meeting and said she'd never seen an IEP go so well before! We got everything we possibly wanted for Darby. He goes to preschool, thru the special education program, 5 days a week, all morning. He's loved it since day one. We've seen some big improvements in him since he started school... his babbling has gotten louder, he wants to help us when we undress/dress him, he's been climbing into the car more independently, he's been crying less for bath time, he's acknowledging other kids being around and playing near him, he's playing with toys more appropriately (doing what they are meant to do), and just being a smidgen more adventurous. Medically, he did have a rough spot this year. He did have shunt failure in October. He had a seizure in September that really woke us up to the fact that he wasn't completely medically stable. 3 weeks later, he had shunt failure. His doctor operated on him less than 24 hours after getting into the ER. He found that both of the tubes in the shunt had blockages and had to fix them both. Darb bounced back quickly and we were able to leave the hospital 1 day after the surgery.  He's been having some scattered sick moments recently that almost look like shunt failure, but he seems to snap out of them. We're starting to wonder if he's suffering a migraine of sorts... the biggest problem is that we honestly have no way of knowing. He just can't tell us. You can definitely be praying that we can figure those things out. We are still hopeful for our sweet boy... so hopeful that he will walk and talk and grow up to be a wonderful man. Those are our prayers everyday.

I am staying busy, like normal. We bought a house... forgot to tell you that. It happened the same week darby had brain surgery... yes, we signed our escrow final papers in the hospital lobby. Jason and I both look back at that moment and laugh. We were so crazy busy we wanted to laugh and cry constantly. God's grace got us through it, somehow! I'm absolutely relishing our new home. We have a washer and dryer inside- wow, love that. I have a loft devoted purely to my business- lena lime studio. We have a guest bedroom for when the Grandmas come to stay! We just love it. Now that Darby is in school, my life has really settled down. Everyday used to be different than the next and chaotic at best. Now things are more of a routine and I'm kind of loving the extra 4 hours in the morning to work on my business while Darby is away LOVING school. He actually cried last week when his teacher told him it was time to pack up and go home... yikes. I still navigate the waters of medical insurance, state funds, and opportunities for Darby all the time. I love that I'm able to stay home and have a schedule that's free to cart him around to therapies, school, and even fun things too like Sea World :)

We are really looking forward to the next year. We love our family, friends, church, jobs, home... just everything. We're thankful for each day that God gives us. We've been more blessed this year than we could have imagined. We're just looking forward to what God has in store for us for 2012 :0)