The Countdown Is On!

Just like most households this time of year, ours has been filled with holiday preparations of all kinds and the extra special  activities continue this week with a Christmas celebration with Rolf’s staff, two school band performances and Christmas caroling with the Girl Scouts!  🙂  In the midst of all the fun leading up to Christmas, we also received our hard travel dates and flight information from the Make A Wish Foundation.  We’ll be traveling to “Give Kids The World” on January 17th and returning to CA on the 25th!  Olivia promptly made a calendar to help us keep track of the number of days until we leave…and put it right next to our countdown to Christmas.  Ha Ha  This is truly a season of meaningful anticipation for our family as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ and anticipate this once-in-a-lifetime trip that we hope will be a profound shared experience filled with long lasting memories.  🙂

Some have asked if there is any new information about Rudy’s condition and I don’t have any specific updates…we don’t see Dr. Harake (cardiologist) until the week after Christmas and we don’t follow up with Dr. Shapiro (ENT) until after the new year…we’re supposed to see her in January but we may push that back to early February now that we have our travel dates for FL.  In general, though, Rudy is doing great.  His trach stoma is healing nicely but not completely closed as this could take several months.  He plays hard, sleeps hard and is generally happy as long as he doesn’t feel like he’s getting left behind when the rest of the household is buzzing to and from all their varied activities.  🙂  He seems to have developed a new fascination with the toilet which may be an indication he’s ready to start potty training!  He was quite proud of his new “big boy” toilet seat attachment and was happy to sit for awhile once he realized he could, indeed, balance there on his own.

Three days later he amazed us with his determination to carry, kick and throw THREE avocados while he bottom scooted from the kitchen to the kids’ bathroom in just one trip for some toilet fun!  ‘Looks like it’s time to keep the bathroom door closed!! Ha Ha

Rudy’s calendar was full this weekend with a variety of special events like his classroom party on Friday…

Happy to see Teacher Christy again who came for a special visit!

…cheering on Max’s hockey game at the championship game before it got rained out…

…decorating cookies with Olivia and friends…

…and, my personal favorite, Christmas at Stow House!

Of course, in the wake of Friday’s tragedy in CT and the loss of so many healthy, vibrant  young lives, we cherish and hold close these moments even more as well as pray with new vigor for those engaged in life and death battles around us.  Our hearts were deeply burdened to find out last night that our little friend Daisy has taken a turn for the worse in her battle against cancer…here’s the latest.  In addition, four of our dear friends who are a part of the Rudy’s Beat community are also in serious cancer battles and we  ask you to please stop for a moment and pray for Daisy, Bryan, Kenon, Bob and Jen – each one so dear to us and each one so full of faith and grace  in their journeys.  Rudy’s milestones are significant because they arise out of the pitched battle he is in.  Our hearts are intertwined with people engaged in similar struggles.  We hurt when they hurt, but our lives are richer because of their friendships…thank you, dear friends, for helping us envelop them in prayer!

God bless you friends…God bless the community of Newtown, CT…God bless those in a battle for health…God grant us all peace!