Friday, January 2, 2015

Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas


merry synonyms:cheerfulcheery, in high spirits, high-spirited, brightsunny, smiling, lightheartedbuoyantlivelycarefree, without a care in the world, joyfuljoyousjollyconvivialfestivemirthfulgleefulhappyglad, laughing

Our holidays were truly unbelievable. Truly. 

Here is a picure I took of K on December 23rd. In my head, it meant, "Here goes nothing. This may be the last you see of me with a smile for a while."
Bring on the Christmas mayhem 
Boy was I wrong. And I couldn't be more pleased. The festivities started with a dinner party with friends on the 23rd and kept going and going and going. Not only did Keira attend every party, 

Anything for Daddy
not only did she stay relaxed through every get together,

Christmas dress
not only did Keira ENJOY every family gathering, 

Look what I can do, Grama!
she showed off all of her skills and her effervescence AND continued on each and every day. 
Eating chili. You know, like you do. 
Every evening, I thought, "wow, she's really gone all out today. Tomorrow will be the day she starts to regress." And every day I was wrong. 
Presents! Her favorites were Grandma Janie's bells and the big pink wagon (though she doesn't know it yet) from Grandma Sharyn and Grandpa Ron
Look closer. She's in there. 
This felt like such a gift. Such a wonderful gift. It's only by luck of the draw, it seems, that we had such an epic holiday with friends and family. As I follow my Facebook CMV community, one of our friends was hospitalized on Christmas for RSV. Another died the day after Christmas (presumably due to an infection in her brain that was secondary to her choclear implants). I believe that it just as easily could have been Keira. 

I feel so overwhelmed. So blessed. I'm a little embarrassed, actually, to explain to you the fullness of this Christmas, but in order for you to understand its awesomeness, I will divulge a couple of secrets:

First, Uncle Dan presented us with a book (A book!) that he wrote this year about the kids. It is a wild and adventurous fantasy tale about Liam and Ronin and their search for Keira's "happy." Dan is quite the author and hopes to publish this book one day. And don't you worry, I'll keep you posted about that. The dedication reads, "To Jeff and Bekah for their steadfast faith within their own unexpected journey. To Liam ad Ronin who are more than heroes; they are brothers. To Keira, who unknowingly inspired this book, and transpired the thoughts, minds, and lives of so many." We love you, Dan. 

Second, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) of the State of Tennessee (Yes, the STATE of Tennessee) adopted our family for Christmas. Amidst several very thoughtful, very nice gifts (the boys love their Predators shirts and proved at a post-Christmas ice-skating venture that ice hockey may not be as easy as it looks), they provided us with the opportunity to have Keira's portrait taken. As many of you may disagree, given the volume of photos I post on Facebook, K is pretty tough to take good pictures of. 

One story...As I talked with the photographer about ideas for photographs, she kept being pretty pushy about this vision she had of putting Keira in this fluffy, colored tutu for a particular "look." You might be surprised, given the title of this blog and all, but I was skeptical, thinking that the tutu thing is kind of overdone these days, and worrying that K may just look like an overgrown newborn. For whatever reason, I reluctantly caved, bought Keira a little black leotard and took it along to the "shoot." Oh. My. Gosh. Like every stereotype you hear about little girls, she just ate it up! We started the shoot with a few photos in a regular outfit (sweatshirt and leggings, #leggingsforlife) but when I put the tutu on her, she knew! She smiled. And she laughed. And she kicked her legs. She worked it for the camera, I tell you. The pictures will be shared as soon as I have them in hand! We love you Shelly, et. al.! 


Jeff and I feel undeserving of all this attention. My heart feels so full that it could burst, thinking about how much love and support there is around us. I find so much gratification in the knowledge that Keira's life has touched so many people in so many different ways. That's all I wanted; all I wanted, when I first learned how sick she was. "Please love my baby," I begged the world silently. And just 2 years in, my wish has surely come true. Thank you all. 

Happy in the BRRR freezing cold doing the Hot Chocolate 5K
I've got to give a shout out to these two cuties. To Liam, who comes running from the next room when he hears Keira cry and who is so mature about all things Keira-related, and who's never, not even for a day, blamed Keira for taking away his parents' time. To Ronin, who runs in with Keira's special language learning toy every time he hears her start to talk and who will watch Annie with me and like it, even if he doesn't understand why they are singing. You two are amazing. I wish I could keep you in a jar.
Ro, Age 6almost7

Liam, Age 9 (#oldenoughforMagic)
Yes. In our minds 2014 was a tough year. But like any year, we put one foot in one foot in front of the other. We don't presume to be anything special (well, maybe Jeff does just a little). If anything sets us apart, I think, it's a belief in God; a faith that there is a bigger picture than we can see. We stumbled across a motto for ourselves this year: "Everything is going to be okay. Even if it isn't." We hope you can believe that to be true in your own life. Happy New Year.