...Half Way Done - Cast Change Time! :)

At the start of this journey, I never thought that we would make it to this day ~ 6 weeks seemed like forever to us.  Well, we made it! :)  On Friday Lauren will be taken to the OR to have her body cast removed and a new spica cast put on.  This new cast however, will now only go to above her knees, I will finally get to see her little legs again!  Then, our new 6 week countdown will start!

Over the course of the past 6 weeks I have learnt so much about Lauren and even more so about myself.  As parents, we perceive things to be weighted more than they are ~ I felt that in the beginning Lauren took to this whole new situation far too easily and I needed to be the one to grieve the loss of her mobility for her.  It took about 2 weeks for me to get over the fact that this was happening and that really, it wasn't making much of a difference to her quality of life and that she was ok.  Lauren was still the happy go lucky little girl that wanted to be loved, played with and cuddled.  I had said from the start of this journey that as long as she was doing ok, I would be ok with everything going on, but I wasn't.  Why did my child have to be different than all of the other children?  Why can't she run and jump and play like the rest?  At the end of the day I needed to realize that this was more of a frustration to me and not her!  Lauren loves being carried around, watching and laughing when other kids are being silly and she really hasn't been too bothered that she can't run after anyone with her own two feet.  Even though I had been told many times that she was going to be fine throughout this process, I had to accept that all of this was ok, it isn't forever, it is just for a short period of time in our lives and that eventually we will go back to our old "normal".  And more importantly, we are doing this so that she can run around, jump all over the place and keep up with the other kids without pain in her hips, back or legs.  So, I now make sure that we focus on the positive, such as the things we can do together.  Lauren and I still twirl and dance together, we still sing goofy songs together, chat back and both like we both know what each other is saying, we belly laugh at each other while playing and I recognize that this is still the same little girl behind the fiberglass cast ~ she's still my little princess.  Finally getting to this place doesn't make this journey any shorter, it's still going to be a long one with windy roads; only now we make sure that each day is filled with fun activities, friends and family and lots of love and cuddles! :)

One big positive out of all of this is, since being casted, we have noticed that because Lauren isn't able to work on her gross motor skills, her fine motor skill and language have both developed quiet rapidly over the past few weeks.  She is now able to play and entertain herself for longer periods of time while sitting at her table, use a fork or spoon to feed herself and she can now count to 7 (with a little help)!!!  Her new favorite word Grandma taught her is "yellow" ~ she loves to say it with her little lips all squished together, it is too cute!

As a family and with the support of our extended family and friends, we are getting through this one day at a time!  Thanks to everyone who has supported us over the past 6 weeks!!