It's been forever!

I quit writing because I wasn't getting any new members or feedback on what I had written, so I just stuck to facebook where the majority of people who keep up with Vance look for updates daily.  It's funny if I am not on there at least every day I get comments asking if every thing is ok with us.  Here I could go months without a comment, but Vu asked the other day why I hadn't blogged in a while, so I figured at least one person is interested. I wonder how some moms with special needs kids manage to do this daily.  It's all I can do to change my one or two sentence facebook status every other day. I always thought that if I stayed home I would have so much time on my hands to do things I enjoyed or just relax, but it seems the opposite.  The work is NEVER done when you are a stay home mom of a special needs child. Not that I am not content. I think I'm finally there.  It was very tough giving up my career and devoting myself to a thankless job no one notices but me.  But love is about sacrifice and that is just one of the MANY lessons I've learned since having Vance.  I never thought my testimony could be stronger, but my love for God has grown deeper and my understanding multiplied.  I can't begin to tell you what my little man has taught me about the gospel, about Christ, about our Heavenly Father. Well, I could start, but I'd never finish.   On to the purpose for being here~ VANCE.  We've had nearly 2 years with him now.  In that time, he's had 2 heart surgeries, a stroke (TIA) affecting the left side of his brain, hundreds of hours of therapy, a few bumps and bruises and probably a million calories. :)  He finally weighs 22 lbs. Still has 6 teeth. And signs at least 60 difference signs. Pretty awesome especially since he was only signing about 10 in April. He started sitting up at 8 months, standing at around a year and was 19-20 months when he started walking.  Now he's working on running.  He walks backwards but still has trouble stepping over things. He loves to swing or slide.  He throws things which is nice when it's a ball but bad when it's an open cup or when he only holds it for a few seconds and we're doing therapy.  He is super independent now.  Too many hands on him for therapy so now he hates that. He also hates getting dressed or diapering. :( that's a major challenge!  He had his circumcision last December without any complications.  Glad we were able to get it when we did because medicaid stopped paying for them in January.  This December he will have his adenoids removed along with tear duct unblocking (not sure what the actual name of that is) and possibly ear tubes.   We will look at new heart cath once he gains another 10 lbs.  It feels like that could be forever.  He only gained 4 lbs in 6 months and is projected to slow down even more. This momma has to work on bulkin this boy up! So that's Vance at the moment. Hopefully I'll be better at this, but I always promise that and never live up to it.  All I can do is try though.  Something is better than nothing, :)