The day after

Its the day after Mother's day and I sit here thinking of the three amazing people I get to call my kids. I found myself staring at each of them for long moments all day yesterday and whispering prayers of thanksgiving for who they are. I am truly blessed to have them in my life. To gaze upon the face of our sweet Ashley and realize that she is still with us. Still living the life given to her is an incredible feeling. I watched her pedal her bike for hours and hours yesterday afternoon as I chased behind her and the smiles would overtake my face. I now sit a room away from Ashley Kate and I listen to her therapist encourage and praise her for cooperating. I can't tell you how rare that is. Not the encouraging therapist but the cooperation on sweet Ashley's part. My girl has a mind of her own! Some days she works hard and other days she works hard at not working. It all brings a smile to my face. Knowing she's in her special room here in our home learning and growing and becoming more independent(to the angst of some of her teachers!).

I spent yesterday at the ball park. It was Blake's first time to play in 4 weeks. What a blessing to see the smile return to his face. He's not yet catching, but had a great weekend at second base. The first time we saw him zip the ball over to first base for an out made us all gasp, but he was fine. No pain. None at all. I was so relieved. Soon after that play he made yet another one toward third base. Still not a grimace or anything. He really needed that and so did we. Assurance that his body did its work and healed the injury. What an amazing creation of our God. His arm is tired today. Not sore just tired from being weak. He still has some rehab to do and it may take a few more weeks to build it up to where it needs to be for him to catch, but we are all so encouraged by what we witnessed this weekend. I love my son and I love watching him back at playing what he loves so very much.

Tonight is Allison's athletic banquet at her school. I will be presenting the athletic awards for her basketball team. Some of them are obvious. Based solely on the stats. Highest points scored pretty much equals offensive player of the year, most rebounds equals the defensive players of the year, etc. etc. Then there are those awards for the most improved players that I truly believe only their coach would be able to see. Those players you watch as they get better and better with each practice and with each experience you give them on the court. We also award for outstanding spiritual leadership and those were really easy to choose as well. The two girls from each of my teams came to mind instantly when thinking of this award. Then I have two more awards to give. One for MVP ( I only choose one girl out of 14) and Rookie of the Year (who obviously has to be a sixth grader). I would have to say that these last two awards have me excited. Not hard to choose either of these. I looked at my list of players and their names literally jumped off the page. I'm pretty excited for each of these girls (and super excited for one of them=) she has no idea its coming!).

School is winding down( I'm smiling as I type that phrase). Two weeks for Allie, three for Blake and Ashley. Lazy days of no where to be are calling our names. I love having the kids hanging out all day long. I love having the house and the pool filled with their friends all week long. If Ashley could have her way she would spend every hour of the days in the pool. Unfortunately she can't. I only have so many ostomy bags a month and changing them every time she comes out of the pool is getting exhausting! I love the every day of nothing special to do that makes my life so special. I think I'm more excited about summer than the kids are!

So this week we have a couple of soccer practices, a couple of baseball practices, two nights of hitting lessons, a guest spot for Ashley to show off her Amtryke at the Ambucs meeting, 9 therapy sessions, a riding session at Windridge, the banquet, and a few other here and theres before Dave goes out of town for work over the weekend. Its 9:45am on Monday morning and I'm already tired just thinking of the week ahead! Life is busy, but even more than that its blessed. What a great season we find ourselves in.

Have a great week. Thank you for all the special Mother's day messages. My job is the best in the world and so are my kids!