A Little out of Touch...

I have certainly been out of touch, but our family is entering cyberspace a bit lately :)  You can follow Ellery's life journey at www.Elleryslife.com  She is full steam ahead in chasing down her dreams.  It's pretty fun to watch as a mother, and exciting to support a child who is so driven.  She was scouted to be a model by an amazing child model photographer a couple months ago.  That led to a lot of work with the clothing brand Persnickety.  As they got to know Ellery, and her story, they fell in love with her.  In just a couple weeks, in their upcoming magazine, and online, they are doing an entire feature on Ellery.  She is the Persnickety girl of the year.  She is so excited for this opportunity.  Her health has been in a bit of a decline again, unfortunately.  As well as our sweet little Emmett.  We are fighting and doing treatments like crazy to keep these kiddos out of the hospital and off IV's.  But that just might not be possible.  We feel so grateful Ellery has so much positive attention right now.  She has a real reason to stay very strong, through the difficult times that could be ahead.

She's working on recording songs, music videos, ballroom dance team, and still doing flute and piano!  We try to squeeze some math and writing in along with all the fun stuff ;)

My schedules continue to be so complicated I have to take a picture of my spreadsheet and keep it on my phone!  I never fully figured out the summer.

I've learned so much the last year.  I feel like a different person in so many ways.  With all certainty I know that life can change in an instant.

Ellery wrote this poem when she was sick last year and it just sums it up perfectly.

The Flower

by Ellery

A flower dies fast and grows back slowly.

Hard things come fast and are recovered from slowly.

At the time they might seem out of order.

You may be feeling depression, pain or hurt.

But through time they always come back.

Stronger than before.

If Ellery tells me she wants to write music and try to make it big.  I'm not going to stop her.  In fact, I'm even going way out of my comfort zone and putting myself on facebook and instagram to do everything I can to help her.

My other children are still finding their ways.  Callista is the best friend I've ever met.  She has a way of winning hearts that is just amazing.  We put that little girl in any situation and she thrives.  Emmett is still my angel with his perfect temperament and curls.  He has also turned into quite the gymnastics star.  My little Berkeley is just about as sweet as they come as well.  I just want to eat her up.  For the complicated things 3 of my 4 kids were born with, I think somehow God compensated by just making them nearly perfect in every other way.

The reality of last year has kept a heavy weight on Brent's and my heart.  While in some ways we have healed, we can never be the same again.  That is an okay thing.  In Ellery's words, we are stronger than before.  But I know the disease that seemed to just lie quietly rears its head in very real ways now.  The reality of a progressive disease is never fun.

But all that being said, we are attacking life with a vigor you would not believe!!

Keep an eye on the Persnickety Website and hop on and order their catalogue if  you have a chance!