An Awesome Opportunity!

Our family was so honored to represent the Ronald McDonald House of Baltimore last night at the lighting of the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon! Along with the mayor of Baltimore and Steve Smith Sr. of the Baltimore Ravens, we lit the monument and officially kicked off the holiday season! This is a HUGE deal in Baltimore and there were an estimated 20,000 people there last night! Incredible!!

Abby was the "official" lighter with a magic wand that caused the monument to light up. She loved it and proudly held her wand up high in the air! Caleb actually got to push one of the buttons with the mayor and Steve Smith Sr. to make it happen, so he was thrilled!

We were interviewed by two Baltimore TV stations!

Here's one:

http://www.wbaltv.com/article/crowd-gathers-for-annual-washington-monument-holiday-lighting-event/8457145

I can't find the other one online, but a friend taped it from her TV with her phone and shared it on my Facebook page. :)

Abby got a light-up wand to do her magic, and the 6 year old daughter of one of the people running it heard about Abby and made her some pixie dust to help with the magic. Of course, she loved it!!!

What Baltimore celebration is complete without Natty Boh?!

Thank you to our wonderful friend, Sandy Pagnotti, who is the director of our Baltimore RMH. She is so fantastic and we are grateful that she asked us to be a part of this!

The fire chief of Baltimore asked to come meet Abby :)

Reagan and Katie Rose of Mixed 106.5 were the MCs of the night, and the kids had fun being silly with them! They did a great job of sharing Abby's story. Reagan dramatically said, "The doctors said she would never see. Well guess what?! She sees!!!" And the crowd cheered. He did that for seeing, hearing, talking, and walking, and the cheered got louder each time, then erupted when she actually walked across the stage. They started cheering, "Abby! Abby! Abby!" which was surreal to me, but a little too much for her and she covered her ears. :) They interviewed us on the stage and we got to share about how important The Ronald McDonald House is to us. We love any opportunity to talk about our Baltimore home!

When the big moment came, we got on stage with the major and Steve Smith Sr. Abby's hidden, but you can see her wand!

We lit up the sky!

It was seriously one of the coolest experiences ever! We are so grateful to the Ronald McDonald House and love to have any opportunity to spread the RMH love!

Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome

If you happen to pick up the latest Reader's Digest, there is an article in there about Piper Breinholt , a four year old with CCMS. If you've been around here a while, you'll remember wayyyyyy back when we first received Abby's diagnosis that I was able to speak to Piper's mom, Reagan. The article is more about their story and not as much about the ins and outs of CCMS, but I think it's probably enough to get some people googling it and I'm hoping a few will end up here. Every once in a while, I give a blog post the title of Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome so that it would show up in Google. My ever-present hope is that people will stumble across my blog and 1) be encouraged by the hope we have in Christ, 2) feel a connection with someone in a similar situation as them, or 3) get excited over the miracles that have been performed in Abby's life!! (a combination of all 3 is great too!) :) Notice that it's not to get famous and it ...

Bath Time Photos!!

As promised, here are lots of photos of Abby's first bath. Caleb was supposed to be in bed, but the bathroom is right next to his room... "I'm not too sure about this..." Once she learned how to splash, she was all smiles! Her first good hair wash! Gotta protect the trach! She really liked getting water poured on her head. It was cute! Smiley (and bubbly) for Daddy while he dried her off. All clean!! (Note the Lysol wipes in that last picture. They are NEVER far away!)

Imagination Movers Photo Recap

Seriously, The Imagination Movers were so much fun! They played lots of their own music, with some classic rock mixed in for the adults. There were also quite a few jokes and references to Baltimore, which was kind of fun. The whole night centered around this robot named Rock-o-Matic, or "Rocko." This is Mover Scott, and he wears Wobble Goggles that help him see new ideas. Caleb and Abby have a pair of goggles too. :) There are 4 main Movers that are part of the TV show, but they have 2 extra movers to play instruments and do back-up vocals in their live tour. Abby finished up her feed before the show started so that she would be free to dance! My dancing queen did NOT want to sit in my lap. The row in front of us was empty, and that is where she stood almost the entire show--dancing the night away. My Imagination Movers Caleb did his share of singing and dancing too. He knows m...

Life as a Leach

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