April

I am not doing the best job at keeping up with this blog. Since we got the good news we have just been enjoying life for a little while. It has been nice. I have truly enjoyed my sweet baby girl for the first time since she was born. I finally look at her and feel pure joy instead of sadness and hurt. She has turned into the smilingest (not a word, I know), happiest baby ever. You just look at her and she turns inside out she smiles so big. I cannot even begin to describe how much it melts my heart. She is so freaking cute! Everywhere we take her people freak out over her and then she smiles at them so big and they just melt. She has this ability to make people feel so special. Everybody thinks she loves them the most because she looks at people with the most loving eyes. I don't tell them that she looks at a lot of people like that. :)

We started taking Kallan to the Smith's Family Chiropractic about three weeks ago and it has been so amazing! She is a changed baby! We started taking her because the Chiropractor Ben goes to told Ben he knew he had heard of TSC before and then showed him a video of a 10 year old boy with a severe case of TSC. He could not walk or talk and was having seizures all day long. He started going to the chiropractor and is now walking, talking and seizure free. He is doing so good that he actually lead the TSC Walk for the Cure in his town a few weeks ago. I was so excited about this story! It is such a amazing success story and to be able to be proactive in a natural way for Kallan's TSC makes me feel so good and gives me hope that we can prevent some struggles. I am all for trying natural remedies and avoiding drugs if at all possible. I was really nervous on our first visit, but Kallan loved it! She smiled and gooed at the doctor the entire time. He just puts light pressure on her spine and makes sure everything is in alignment so her nervous system can function properly. Kensley and I are being treated as well and we both love it! Since we started our adjustments Kallan has started sleeping through the night, has a lot less gas and fussy spells and has become the happiest most chilled out baby. I am hooked!!! I would highly recommend it to parents with normal babies to try. It is so good for them. I am so hoping that Kallan can have huge success with this and can become an advocate for chiropractic care for other kids with TSC.

Also, in April we had a really great Easter. We had a crappy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years because we were so worried about our baby, so we decided we were really going to enjoy and celebrate Easter. My best friend, Jess came in town with her boyfriend Patrick. We took Kensley to the aquarium for the first time with Jess's sister Jennifer and her son. They had the best time. Then the next day there was a big Easter party/birthday party for Jennifer's twins. It was so much fun! Jess got to meet Kallan for the first time. Kensley had the best time on her Easter egg hunt. That night Ben and I met Jess, Patrick and some friends from high school and is was the most I have let loose and laughed in a long time. It was great therapy! Jess and I only get to see each other a couple of times a year, but when we do it's like we never missed a day. Two degrees, a lot of crappy boyfriends, several moves, many jobs, a marriage, kids, etc.. later we are still the same two crazy girls we were when we met in the 5th grade! We bring out the best......or maybe the worst in each other!

Right now we are in Lake Havasu, Arizona visiting my Aunt and Grandmother. It is a 12 hour day of traveling. It is not an easy trip alone and then adding two kids to the picture really makes it challenging! But, my kids were absolute angels! Kallan slept the entire flight to Vegas and Kensley just sat there and watched a movie and talked to us. I could not believe how good they were. Let's hope for a repeat on the way home! Then we had a two and a half hour car ride from Vegas to Lake Havasu and they both did great on that. Kensley slept, but Kallan was getting over the whole traveling thing and cried a bit, but not too bad. When we got to Aunt Jackie's I gave the girls a bath and went to find their jammies and realized I left their suitcase with all their clothes at home. Oops!!! I swear I am loosing my mind! No worries, we took a trip to Dillards and got the girls some clothes! Luckily we are good shoppers. Kensley and Kallan included. We are having a good time here just relaxing and spending time with family. Kensley LOVES my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Tom and Kallan is LOVING her Gigi (my 92 year old grandmother)She gives her the biggest smiles you have ever seen. It is so fun for me to get to bring Kallan out to meet them.

We are getting ready to go back to Cincinnati on the 12th of May for another MRI. I am so nervous about it. I just don't want our good news to be taken away. When Kallan had her first MRI she was only 1 day old and babies have a lot of water on the brain when they are that little, so it makes the MRI hard to read. I am so worried more tumors are going to show up on the new MRI. Even though the doctor was confident that if more did show up and they probably would, it would not be many and she would still be considered a mild case. I just really don't want there to be any more and I hope that the big one has not grown any. Please pray for no new tumors, or very few and that the Sega has not grown. I think that if I can make it through this MRI and we get no new bad news I will be able to really relax for a while. We have been on such a roller coaster of emotions so if things go like they have been we are due for some bad news. Let's hope that cycle is broken and we are on a good news streak! I feel deep down like it is. I just have to be cautiously optimistic.

I promise to update the blog right after Cincinnati this time and not wait two weeks to do it. I feel like our life is going to settle down a little bit after that. Ha!!! We will see!

We are getting very close to the date of the walk and so excited about all the people who are coming out to walk with us. We have a long ways to go in our fundraising, so please help if you can. No donation is too small. We decided we are going to have to extend our fundraising efforts beyond the walk because we just ran out of time with things being so crazy lately. We continue to be so touched by peoples acts of kindness in helping us with our journey to find a cure and we are so thankful for all the support we have received from friends and family.