Madison's 3rd Birthday Party & Appointment Updates

Sunday we celebrated Madison's 3rd birthday (even though her birthday is not until 6/18). We celebrated early so Mimi, Papa, and Cameron could be there. She picked out a Doc McStuffins theme. I was thinking all along she would want Minions, so I had to change my ideas, but I think it turned out really cute (thanks Party City & Pinterest)! We had a lot of family & friends there to celebrate, and she had a big time! The kids played in a bouncy house, played on the swing set, chased bubbles, and gave some toys check ups.

Later that night I had to take Madison to her third sleep study. It actually went pretty smoothly. She did great getting everything hooked up to her (it took over 20 minutes), and she slept from 9:30 until we got woken up about 5:15am. Early morning. After we left the sleep study we ate breakfast & then went to PT. We switched PT & OT to the Therapy Center in Hendersonville, and have been so pleased! Madison has done great with her new therapists & works the entire hour!

Monday afternoon we had a meeting with Sumner County schools to find out if Madison qualified for the developmental Pre-K. She does qualify & we got the school we wanted too! She will go
4 days a week for 3 hours a day. She also qualified for speech, OT & PT through the school system, but we will also be continuing private therapy in all those areas.

Tuesday morning we headed over to Vanderbilt for an 8am appointment for autism testing. We were there almost 4 hours. Long morning. But they do not think that Madison falls anywhere on the Autism spectrum. They said they think she has a Global Developmental Delay - which basically means she is delayed in all areas.

It's been a long week, but so far we have gotten pretty good news. Next up...

Friday - Madi will be getting ankle braces to help correct her toe walking & help with her ataxia. She will also wear a weighted compression vest a few hours a day to help with her walk & providing input for her.

July - Brain MRI to see if her Chiari malformation has changed

September - Surgery to repair her PDA. This will require an overnight hospital stay.

We appreciate all the thoughts & prayers this week. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we have several other things coming up this summer.

Richmond / DC Trip

Memorial Day weekend Jake, Madison & I went to Richmond, VA to visit my cousin Jessica and her husband, Jeremy. We were so excited to get to spend some time with them & to have a weekend away. I was unsure how the 9-10 hour drive in the car would go with an almost 3 year old, but Madison did really well!

We were spoiled, pampered & cooked for by our amazing hosts & we had a great time! We explored downtown Richmond one day and took a walk along the James River and the canal. Later that day we did some shopping, ate dinner, are were surprised with a couples' massage! The next day we drove up to Washington D.C. and walked around / explored the city. Madi (and Jake & I) had our first Metro ride. We went to the Museum of Natural History - Madi loved the big elephant that is in the lobby, but wasn't very impressed with anything else. We hit a lot of the major highlights like the Capitol (from a distance - it was under construction), the Holocaust Museum, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the White House and more! We walked about 8 miles that day!

Our last day in Richmond we just spent time with Jess & Jeremy and had a cookout. Madison got to play at the park & in a little swimming pool. We had a wonderful time & below are some of our pictures!

Freezer Meals

At First Baptist, we have a ministry called Caring Community Ministry. The purpose of this ministry is to support foster families that are a part of our church family, as well as to minister to foster families in the Portland area. A big part of this ministry so far has been helping with meals. I wanted to share a couple of ways that we have organized meals, because they are great things that I hadn't heard of (or thought of) previously. They can be applied to anyone you are organizing food for (new baby, illness, loss, or just to help out / show your love). 

One of the first tools we have used is www.takethemameal.com. This website is awesome! You can set up a meal schedule for someone & anyone you want to share it with can access it by entering in the recipient's last name & password you come up with. You enter the recipient's address, contact information, and the days you want the meals scheduled for. You can also add information on the number of people to prepare for, any allergies, special instructions, likes/dislikes, etc. It makes it so easy to organize meals & everyone can see what dates are taken or still open. You can also put in the food you are taking so the recipients don't get the same food over & over. 

One of the other things we have done is prepared freezer meals. These are meals you put together in a gallon ziploc bag, label with instructions, and put in the freezer. The day before you want to make the freezer meal, you put it in the fridge to thaw, and the morning of just throw everything in the crockpot. Super easy & convenient for those you are taking food for. See pictures below. Getting together with some of the women from my Sunday School class to put together these meals was a lot of fun. We spent time together, listened to worship music, and had so much joy in being able to prepare these meals for others. I'm also posting pictures below of the recipes we used. Enjoy!