I almost forgot

I won't say it is because I am a bad mom, I won't say I am negligent. I will say that it no longer rules our life, and we are very blessed to be where we are.

Four years ago tonight, Brian and I sat in a pediatric ICU room holding the hand of our 3 yo Blondie, amazed at the gift of stillness. Rasmussen's had wrecked our lives for too long. That night we knew our life had veered a bit off the original track, but we were thankful for the ability of Dr. Park and Dr. Lee to give our daughter a new "normal."

Now, she rides a bike (with training wheels), roller skates, is learning to play tennis, knows how to swim, is in a regular first grade class, annoys her sisters, gets time outs, hates to clean her room, sneaks off to watch too much tv, is very silly, and eats anything loaded with sugar. This week she celebrates her 7th birthday - and unlike the picture above from her 3rd birthday in the hospital, this one will be happy, and giggly.

Now, the everyday, "regular" things take up our time, and we

only think about how to do things differently (adapt) when we need to do so. We don't worry about seizures, we don't worry about if she falls, we let her try anything she wants to do. We all live our lives, we don't live with Rasmussens.