A New Direction

Raise your hand if you're sick of checking the blog only to see that I STILL haven't posted in two months. (I'm raising my hand, too).

I promise I'm not going to apologize for not posting, overload you with a bunch of updates, and then disappear for two more months.

The truth is, when I started this blog I was in a different frame of mind than I am now. I was just reaching a point of acceptance in terms of Tennyson's cerebral palsy, her birth and the extreme guilt that I felt over it, and finally feeling ready to share about it all. I can honestly say back then, "special needs" felt like the focus of our time and lives. That's just not the case anymore.

We're just not feeling "special" anymore. And that's a good thing.

Therapies and doctors appointments are a weekly occurrence for us, and that's just our normal. It's not going to change anytime soon, and that's okay.

I also have a little secret I've been keeping.

Last August, just as I finished up my first trimester of my pregnancy, Tennyson's Dad was deployed. This is no secret if you know us personally, but I chose not to share it on the blog for a number of reasons. It's been hard for all of us to have him gone. That's why Aunt T moved in with us.

Aunt T and Tenn on a walk

 

Being a military family on top of having a child with special needs and a newborn is no walk in the park. This is our third deployment, but my first one with children. And there is already another deployment in the distance.

But we're about to get Dad back! We can't wait! He was able to come home briefly for Harlynn's birth, but had to leave when she was two weeks old. He's missed some cute firsts (smiles, laughs, rolling, cooing). He's ready to finally get to know her adorable personality, and to be reunited with Tennyson. We're ready to see what being a family of four is really like.

Harlynn is 3 months old already!

So, you can see that our family is in a different place than we were when we started the blog. The blog will still be focused around Tennyson, but will not focus so much on her special needs. We've evolved and the blog will also. Hopefully I can share with you how we adapt our activities, vacations, and everyday life to include Tennyson completely. She is more work, but she is not hard work. It is not hard to love her or hard to do things with her. She takes more time, but it is most definitely time well spent. We're learning to balance these two worlds of typical and "special needs"; teaching Tennyson to cheer for Harlynn when she does something new, and teaching Harlynn to cheer for Tennyson when she is working hard to learn something new.

We are working on new therapies and assistive technology for Tennyson. We have chosen some new equipment for her, and most recently we have had to fight a few battles to keep her respite nursing care. We are also preparing for a trip to Europe with both the girls. We've been busy!

So don't give up on us - I will be sharing more regularly. Promise!

My sweet, happy girls