Merry Christmas from Our Family

Between dance and getting sick, we were pretty worn out.  We decided that we’d have a quiet and peaceful Christmas and did just that.  In fact, we kept the entire week after Christmas quiet too.  We slept in, took time off homeschooling, and spent our time at home.  It was pretty perfect.  We also celebrated David’s birthday and Deena’s  6th adoption day, so we had plenty of fun and things to keep us busy in there.  We hope you all had a peaceful a Christmas too.

Our Newest Family Photos

Our new family photos are here and they are perfect!  They came out just how we wanted.  You may notice a "new" addition to our photos; Kyla.  Kyla is actually not new to our family and has been "family" for years.  She was a neighbor who has been in our lives since our kiddos were little. She even lived with us for a year while she finished high school, before Ramya and Deena came home.  She's been close for many years, and has been in Tucson close by while she goes to college to be a Vet Tech.  She's over every day and is our unofficial family, so it was about time she joined us in our family photos.  

A big "thank you" to Katie Reich Photography for the amazing photos.  Enjoy!

Love Makes a Family

As I sit here going through my photos to attempt and catch up on posts (which I never seem to do), one thing stands out above the rest.  Life is messy, sometimes logistic are tricky, and nothing is perfect. Behind the smiles are sometimes struggles unseen. We don't let anything slow us down, though, and we make sure to live life to it's fullest. We try to make each day filled with joy and adventure, even when it's messy. We are so blessed to be going through this journey together. No matter what happens, we always have each other, and it's life's greatest gift! 

Our Latest Wheelchair Decorations

The girls are loving keeping their wheelchairs decorated, so we've been trying to keep them up.  Here are our last two decorations; Spring Flowers and Fourth of July. The girls are very proud of them!

Spring....

Fourth of July...

Deena's New Adaptive Bike

Deena was granted her very own adaptive, hand-pedaled bike through Athletes Helping Athletes and Roadunner Sports.  She was SO excited to be able to ride with her sisters and have independence.  Anyone who knows Deena also knows she's a bit of a daredevil and she LOVES to go fast.  After talking in length to her physical therapist and her orthopedic surgeon, we decided to go with a hand-pedaled bike.  Though her rods have made her legs beautifully straight and so much stronger, we know that more breaks are in her future.  Since most of her breaks are in her legs, a hand-pedale bike will give her the freedom to ride even if she's in a cast.  We also liked the tricycle type wheel style for added stability and safety, so we ended up with an Invacare bike, just like her sisters have.

Deena's bike came the day before her last rodding surgery, and she couldn't wait to heal enough for a ride.  Between the heat and vacation it took a bit to get her out and on the road, but we've been out for a few rides now and she really is loving it.  It's such an enormous blessing to be able to have ALL of our children out, riding together, and just being kids!

We just want to say a HUGE "thank you" to Roadrunner Sports, their Athletes Helping Athletes foundation, and everyone who donates to their fundraisers.  You have impacted our children's lives immensely and we are SO thankful!

We're on the Move Again

Due to an unplanned series of events, it looks like we are moving!  We didn't think it would be this soon, but here we are.  We are excited to settle down (again); this time in a place of our own. 

We have found old leaks and mold in our rental house multiple times (4 now??), and the house is currently getting remediated.  Though we have a lease through December, the owners are really wanting to sell the house and be done with it.  We've been living out of half of the house for a while now because of all the issues, so we are ready to move on as well.  We've been crazy busy, looking at houses any free moment we had. 

It was very difficult to find a house that would work for us because we have so many limitations due to area, house size, needing a flat street, etc....  Tucson is very hilly, and most houses have multiple steps and/or steep driveways.  We finally found a house that we think will work out great for us.  It's 3 stories, but has a residential elevator.  It's in a small gated patio-home type community, but still offers a lot of privacy and great views.  They yard is small, but there's also plenty of side and front yard, all that is private and not shared.  The roads outside are completely flat and great for walks and bike riding.  It backs up to the river walk and (about 25 miles of paved, flat biking roads), and has two private entrances.  The path is amazing for the kiddos to bike on and is going to be great for us.  There's also a community park, two dog parks, and a pool.  The downsides are how close together all of the houses are, the fact that my van won't fit in the garage, and the fact that we really need that elevator working.  Residential elevators tend to go down often, so we will need to be careful to get it serviced often since we will use it so much.  We may also get a chair lift from the first floor to the second floor, just for a back-up plan. 

We have a 45 day closing so it looks like we will be moving in May.  The next 45 days are going to be filled with packing, packing, and more packing.  If you are close by and want to help us fill some boxes, we will be very grateful! 

In other news, we are getting a puppy!  My sister-in-law's sister just bred goldendoodles and momma pooch is due any day.  We didn't think it would work out because it was looking like we wouldn't be able to find a house in time, but now the timing looks just about perfect.  The kids are on cloud 9 and can't wait to have a dog again.  We hope to work on training it to be a service dog for the girls as well so that he/she can come with us wherever we go.  I need to find a company here to help us still, but we have some time before we need to have one.  Here's a picture of the dad and mom...

Other than that, life has been chugging along.  We spent a long weekend with David's parents in California and had a lot of fun. 

Deena has had her cast off for a bit and her leg is healing well after her rodding surgery.  Dr. Vincent took it off about 3 1/2 weeks post-op after she gave her word to take it easy, since technically it was still broken from surgery.  She kept her word and has been doing well.  He just said she can work on weigh-bearing now and she is very excited.  The girls are playing on an adaptive baseball team and are proud to be MuckDogs. 

Ramya turned 10 at the beginning of March.  She requested a movie and cake with family, so we went to see Rock Dog with mine and David's family, then went to lunch at Smashburger and had cake.  It was a simple party, but she really enjoyed it.  We love celebrating her!

Other than that, life has been chugging along.  We will keep everyone updated on our big move.  Please be praying for a quick close and for Ramya, as she does not do well with change and is already having a lot of regression and big behaviors as we prepare to move.  Thank you!

Races with Hope Kids

(As you guessed, I'm still catching up)



A few weekends back we went to the car races at Tucson Speedway with Hope Kids.  It was the first car race the kids had been to and they really enjoyed it.  Madi was hoping to have someone to cheer for and met a man before the race that was standing by his truck.  She decided she wanted to cheer him on.  She took her job very seriously and cheered her heart out.   Later he found her and gave her a hat.  It was really sweet. 

We are SO excited that Hope Kids has started offering more events in Tucson.  If you are looking for an amazing organization to donate to, please consider Hope Kids.  They really touch so many lives!