Friday, March 13, 2009

Milestones!

Day +309
Can you believe that number! It seems only weeks have passed since transplant, but the days have slipped by quicker than I could have imagined. We are so thankful to be so far out from transplant and sharing all of these wonderful days with our beautiful Peanut.

Gracie continues to do well and stay mostly healthy (knock on wood) these days. She is still quite the busy girl and she is into everything. She's picked up a few more words, but the most notable one is "no". She uses it a lot. I'm sure you can imagine how this new development is affecting life here in the White house. :) Her pronounciation does lend a bit of humor to it, despite the frequency. She says it like "naw". Its really cute.

In even more exciting news, Gracie is well on her way to walking! She took her first steps last Saturday, March 7th! She can take about 5-6 steps at a time and we're doing lots of practicing. We are so excited to see her finally reaching this momentous milestone and we're hoping to see her really master walking over the next month or so. Of course, we say that now, but we'll see how we feel once she has us chasing her all over the place, right? I hope to post a video of her first steps here soon.

Wednesday, March 11th marked Gracie's 20 month birthday, and on that same day we received a wonderful gift of a family portrait session from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. A local photographer invited us to her studio (on her beautiful farm) and we spent a lovely evening playing and taking pictures. We meet with her again on the 30th to see the proofs. We are so excited and we appreciate both Make-a-Wish and Chontelle Brown of Cotton Blossoms Photography for giving us such a wonderful gift. We really enjoyed the relaxed way that Chontelle works and our session was so much fun. Feel free to check out her site, she does very nice work.

So for now, we're just hanging out and having fun. Gracie is scheduled for her ear tubes to be replaced on the 23rd and she'll be having a skin biopsy on that day as well. We're hoping to confirm that her rash is not GVHD so that we can begin to wean her from her anti-rejection medication again. Please say a few prayers for us as we have high hopes to be off this medication soon and begin living a more normal life one we reach our 1-year post transplant anniversary!

4 comments:

L. Merrow said...

We will definitely pray the rash is not GVHD. It is nice to see Grace is doing so well. Keep up the good work, Grace.
Love, Lori Merrow www.isiahsangels.org

Uncle Mack said...

Awesome news! It's so nice to see happy postings about the peanut. I can't wait to see the photos. I love you guys so much and I miss you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sarah and Gracie, We to have been dealing with skin issues since transplant. Maddie is going to go see a Dermatolgist at the u of m on Tuesday. They keep saying its not GVHD. I just want to be free of these things also. Gracie you sure are getting to be a big girl. You will have to post a picture soon so we can see how big you are getting. Maddie wanted to say thank you so much for the things you sent to child life for her birthday wish. God Bless you all for that. Take care and hope we will be able someday to see you guys! Nancy and Maddie

Rylie Suzanna said...

Great update! I'm so proud of Gracie for taking her first steps. Looking forward to seeing you in May. Stay healthy, Gracie, and keep up the great work.