Something to Talk About...

This morning I awoke early and spent time in prayer on the back porch. I was in complete awe of everything that appeared before me. The day grew brighter and brighter as the dawn unfolded. The birds sang with gratitude, the flowers opened with praise, the clouds broke with anticipation of the glorious sun. I sat, a mere mortal, in a metal chair grieving that I so often fail to praise this miraculous event that has taken place morning after morning for thousands of dawns.

This afternoon, I was again in complete awe of the miracles of my heroes pictured above. Every day, they face new challenges with such strength, perseverance and patience. When they smile, joy immediately fills the room from corner to corner. On our simple daily walk hope is restored to the grumpy elderly man at the grocery, joy fills the heart of the man sitting alone in the corner at our favorite coffee joint, and the faithful workers at the American Red Cross are reminded why they remain faithful to what they do.

We had our six month evaluation with our developmental therapist today. I sat speechless with tears in my eyes as Emily asked the girls to do a particular skill and they did it with no hesitation. She went over how they are doing developmentally and my heart was overwhelmed. Nearly two years ago, the doctors and therapists told us about the multiple challenges the girls would face from their premature birth and their hearing loss.

Today, the girls are walking, they dance, they try singing, they sign over 100 words, and they speak over 40. Their favorite new phrases are "bye bye baby", "fall dow (fall down)", "no, no o-e (no sophi)", "no, no a-na"(no, no raena), "night night baby", "luv yew (love you), "be rye ba (be right back)", "e pease (eat please) and my not so favorite new Sophi phrase..."bye bye, Bicki". She stopped calling me mommy and has resorted to my first name! Unbelievable! Six months ago they scored at 10 months old on the language portion of the evaluation. Today, they scored at 24 months!

The girls love dancing together.

We even love kisses and hugs.

Big girls at their learning table.

Therapy time with daddy.

Bring on the social life!

With the lift of RSV season and the rapidly approaching magical second birthday that all of our neonatologists promised us would some day arrive, we're out finally enjoying the world!! Purell is still our closest friend, however, we face restaurant high chairs, slobbery plastic toys in play group and the ever forbidden nursery doors with great hope and excitement that the girls are strong enough to fight back! Thank you for your patience with our journey!

The girls are out and about and absolutely loving their social life. There are no shy bones in our family. We just went for ice cream tonight and the girls would say "hi" to everyone who came in and blew kisses. What personalities!

It's been birthday season and the girls are loving celebrating life with their friends. They recently went to My Gym for a birthday party for Kiera and Kasey. Are you seeing double?

Sophi takes a break at the gym from climbing...yes, I said climbing! Thanks Ericka for all of the physical therapy and Emily for all of the developmental therapy!



Raena enjoys being pulled through the parachute tunnel.

Just a side note...yes, we are spelling Raena's name differently. I guess I should have told everyone, but it started out as an experiment that kind of stuck. Everyone continues to call her "Ree-na" because that's how I spelled it. Give me a little slack, I had 24 hours to come up with two names while two little ones were doing somersaults in my belly and a nurse was sticking me with steriod shots! So, while their legal names remain Sophia and Rena (we don't want to spend the money to change social security cards, passports, etc. right now), we prefer to call them Sophi and Raena.

Sophi and Bailey play at Ethan's first birthday.

Sophi in her cool hat thanks to Grandma Janet!

The birthday boy with his mommy.

All the kiddos with their special hats. Happy birthday, Ethan!

Lions and tigers and elephants, oh my!

So, we've missed quite a lot of posting so I'm going to try to catch up with a myriad of photos and a few stories. In May, all of the G.O. staff was in from the Dominican and we enjoyed an afternoon at the zoo with Tim, Samira, Tony and Jen. In April, we received the all clear from RSV season meaning no more monthly painful shots for the girls!!! It also means we can come out of isolation. It has been a blast hanging out with friends, playing with other kids, and going to our first playground at the zoo! Bring on the germs...slowly!!

Rogers' and Krauss' with the baby elephant.

Tony finds a new friend.

Raena, the tour guide.

Daddy and Sophi hang with the birds.

Daddy walks through the zoo with his girls.