Thankful

We are in the home stretch to Christmas and I am having so much fun with the two of you. Lily, you are crawling all over the place with a tendency to go where you aren't supposed to be so I am really glad that we didn't get a tree because I can only imagine the fun we would have keeping you out from under it. You sit up on your knees but haven't gotten yourself fully upright yet, although I'm sure that isn't far away. You are starting to say "mama" and "dada" and we think you are actually saying it to / at us. The other night it sounded like you were saying "dog" when Thumper was in front of you. You also shake your head NO quite often!

Julie, you are amazing and I can't believe the difference between who you were this time last year and who you are now. One of my favorite things is how you are now reading your name on all of the gift tags and are keeping track of which presents are for you! I really think this Christmas will be fun and I am excited to see you open your presents as well as see the excitement when you give people their presents. I also love that when people ask you if you are excited for Christmas your response is "yes, 5 days until Christmas and I get to take a plane to Grandma and Grandpa's" Your countdown all along has been as much about when we leave for Wyoming as it has been when Santa comes.

I started this post tonight because I am overwhelmed with a sense of helplessness as I watch a couple of families we know whose children have medical problems and I can't express enough how thankful I am for the healthy, beautiful little girls I have been blessed with. I think I wrote earlier about Sam, the son of Marty who dad teaches with who had a liver transplant this fall. He is still in the hospital and they hope that he can go home this week which is two months after his surgery (average recovery is only 2.5 weeks in the hospital following transplant). I work with a woman, Carrie, whose little girl Avery is 4 months old and had heart surgery a couple of weeks ago. She isn't recovering as well as they would like and her second surgery was scheduled for today, however, she got a blood infection over the weekend so they are unable to do her surgery until that clears up. Over these last few weeks Carrie has not been able to hold Avery and my heart breaks at the thought of that. I remember my frustration when Lily was in the nursery, not even the NICU, and we were able to hold her but she had the IV in her arm. I can't imagine weeks going by without being able to hold your child.

So, my angels, I am so incredibly proud of the two of you and can not wait to celebrate the holidays with all of our family. The two of you are the most amazing gifts I could have ever asked for and I can't wait to share all of the joy, humor, smiles and frustration that you bring with the rest of the family!