Life On Lisburn

On Sunday we decided to make a trip over to Hershey Park and cool off at the water park.  Jer and Anna headed straight to the Reese's Cup ride to give that a whirl - proud to say our girl rocked the second highest score out of the four riders in the car (and no Jamesey and I weren't the other two in the car).  Little man and I headed on over to the Boardwalk to cool off and wait for them.  While we were there I was watching the crowd and had an unexpected encounter.  I noticed a girl who was sitting nearby and I was pretty sure that she had a cochlear implant.  Jamesey was asleep in the carrier   and so we ventured over to introduce ourselves.  We got to meet her mom and dad and learned that she was implanted at age 2.  She spoke so articulately - and is actually headed out to college in the fall and will be playing lacrosse! It was a wonderful encounter. The last couple of days have been such a mix of emotion as we face August 8 and Little Man'...

Wednesday was wonderful.  We celebrated the first anniversary of James' arrival into our lives - his birthday that is :) It was bittersweet - but mostly sweet.  There was a very real fear in my heart that it would be hard to celebrate knowing all that was behind us but looking at all that is before us overwhelmed it (in a good way). Little man thought that an early morning would be a good reminder - he was born at 5:52 am and wouldn't you know we were awake together yesterday morning at that time.  He's such a sweet little man - and his big sister loves him so tenderly (at least tenderly in her heart but she can be a little rough sometimes) - it's beautiful.  At Target on Tuesday Anna had decided she needed to pick out a birthday present and yesterday morning she gleefully shoved a green, squishy toy into his face and excitedly announced Happy Birthday. The pictures don't do it justice but I'll post those - needless to say - Jamesey wasn't nea...

One year ago we were a family of three - hours away from becoming a family of four.  We knew that little man was due any day - we had his name all picked out, his nursery ready (well the essentials were ready because it's hard to get everything ready with a busy two year old 'helping'), bags were packed and it was just a matter of when he would choose to arrive.  We knew life was about to change in a big way but really had no idea just what the next year would hold.   Many of you know the roller coaster that began soon after.  Our first day with little man was magical - love at first sight and even Anna adored him (let's be honest - who wouldn't love that cutie).  The next day was his newborn hearing screening.  When they gave the test the first time - he didn't pass.  They gave the test a second time - he still didn't pass.  We thought nothing of it and neither did the staff, they gave us a date and time to come back to the hospital for a ...