Happy New Year!

2011 all ready and we have just returned from a lovely new year in the borders with friends, one of whom reminded me to write on the blog, so here I am!
I have just realised we started this blog in Jan 2007 just after we had our scan and found out the news about Summer. Four years and another child later, I do not think I could have imagined how good life (and God) are to us.

Summer never fails to amaze me with how well she is doing. 2011 is the year she will start school, something she is very excitied about. I have spoken to the school we hope she will attend, it has a lovely attitude. She feels too young, but she keeps reminding me that she is allowed to grow up!

She is walking a little more with her splints and frame and she is a complete whizz in her wheelchair. We are about to look at getting a new chair. The NHS one on offer is rubbish, she can barely move it, so we will buy her one, finally using some money some lovely friends raised for us by running very long distances.

Another answer to prayer is that Social services have finally agreed that we do need some adaptations to the property, so we can start on them soon.

Summer and Katie are such a blessing to us, as are our friends, family and church family. Life as you can see from the photo is very normal, whatever normal is! I hope to write a little more often than every six months. Feel free to nag! Thank you for reading.

some photos and an update.

Summer is doing so well, growing up so quickly. we have moved her to a big girl bed as Katie is now far to big for her cot, so needs Summer's bed.

Summer is a complete wizz in her wheelchair, it is lovely to see her so independent. Only problem with her growing up is that we need to start shopping for a new wheelchair.

Thankfully we are not awaiting any operations at the moment and have reduced our hospital visits. She is developing really well and looking forward to starting school next year.
Praise God.

Happy third birthday Summer!

We have just finished celebrating Summers third birthday. She has had a party with 12 friends ( not at our house thankfully) and gone to bed full of chocolate cake and too many presents, just like any other three year old. Katie is also happily asleep hense writing this.

When we think back to the day of her birth and the few months that followed, I do not think we could have believed we would be able to have such a " normal" day as this.

I am reminded that it says that God can do much more than we can ever ask or imagine and its true.

An overdue update and prayer request.

The general con census of the last post is that there are some really faithful blog watchers out there, so I would love to give people an update.

Summer is now almost three...How did that happen? Katie is 15 months and walking about, which still amazes me.
Summer has moved nursery, as we needed a one to one worker, but this was not available where she was. This has been a really positive move and she is a lot more outgoing, has made some friends and its really close to home.

She has had quite a few urine infections recently which does seem to be an on going problem. Summer can now say Trimethroprine though!

Physically she has done a lot of developing this past year. She has her wheelchair which we mainly use outside and on Sundays, she is pretty skilled in using it.

Walking/standing has not been going quite as well. We are blessed with a great physiotherapist who is trying a number of things with Summer. We have looked at increasing the level of splinting, because her Right leg in particular is able to do very little in standing. I have found the last 6 months quite frustrating as we started quite well with the walking, but have had to go back to a standing frame and it feels like we are going backwards at times. Saying that, we tried her new splints and walked outside today and she did really well.

The other main news, and the main prayer point relates to her Surgeon looking at the possibility of surgery to try and stabilise her hips. Its quite major surgery involving muscle transfers and things and it is not very clear whether it will benefit her or not. If we do go ahead there are a lot of very practical implications as she will be in a full cast from waist down.

So if people could pray for real wisdom in which course of action to take and that the medical team may really guide us ( that is our physio, Orthopedic surgeon and Orthotist).

Finally we as a family are well, I will be starting a new job as an OT in a disabled childrens team, which is nearer to home and a new opportunity. Nic is well, ran the Leicester half marathon last year. We are off to camp at the France Spring Harvest site in June which we are looking forward too, oh and we have just been given a hand powered trike tonight, so Summer can try it in the morning.

If anyone is still reading this mammoth post, a big thank you for all your support and I will try and update on a monthly basis...no promises though. Kathy.

Is anyone still out there?

Just a quick post as I know we have not written for ages. Does anyone still attempt to read the blog and would they like some updated info? We are at a bit of a turning point with Summer again.

Send us a comment if you can.

Thank You.

Kathy, Nic Summer and Katie

When I am Three

I really struggle to write things on the blog at the moment, Life is just so full and I am really not a computer person.
Summer is doing really well, growing up so fast. She has been informing us of all the things she wants when she is "free", or three as I think she means.
She still has her walker, "spotty" as it is known and we try and practise with that every day. We are about to get a wheelchair assessment, so she can have another form of mobility!

We talk about a different life, but really this is our life and feels very normal to us. It has been a joy and shock at times to see how quickly Katie does things. she is all ready up and cruising along furniture getting into all kinds of mischief.

I am off to bed as my girls have not bothered with the clock change and choose to be up around 5 ish, which is just FAR to early.

Happy girls
Where the chooclit
Pretty girl
There were no steps nearby so we named this field "The Naughty field"