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Dear God,

Thank you for this day!

Love,

Shauna, Manny, Gabe, and Christian

What a big day! It was Christian's very 1st birthday and we are so thankful that we made it here. I'm so proud of how far he has come. He blows me away every day. But the day didn't come without tears and reflection about the past year. I see him and I wonder what he'd be doing if the accident hadn't happened. I wonder how much fun he would have had diving into his first cake. But I have to go back to what is now. And what is now is a little boy who struggled to get where he is and who is still fighting to make sense of everything and heal. A little bit more of him comes back everyday. And I know in my heart there will be a birthday, maybe even the next one, that he will be diving into a cake and running around with his Converse high tops.

Manny and Gabe came to Phoenix today and it was so great to see them that I didn't want them to go. Manny brought a birthday cake for Christian and they both brought Spongebob Squarepants cards (that was the theme of the cake, by the way). Gabe wrote, "Keep Fighting!" in his and I lost it right then and there. That, on top of Manny's card to his son...I couldn't hold it in anymore. Being a part from them is hard. We aren't a family that does a whole lot separately. But while they were here we watched Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Farris Beuhler's Day Off. Gabe had never seen Farris Beuhler so we had to watch it. And the Respiratory Therapist came in while we were watching it and asked if the movie was any good and if it's new. What!?!?! Are you from Mars, lady? It's a classic! Then we played a long game of Uno, which I won. That's right! We sang happy birthday to Christian and had cake. It was a nice time. But I still didn't want them to go.

Christian in his "Birthday Boy" shirt!

Asleep after all the birthday madness.

After they left, Christian and I did some stretching and joint compression. I sat him up for a while and laid him against me on his tummy, which he relaxes right into. He even fell asleep while laying on me. All the stretching and range of motion activities usually tires him out so he's sleeping peacefully right now. We got a TON of toys to hang all over the walls and crib that will wake his senses up. So he's had a busy day. A big day.

Mommy loving all over Christian. I can't get enough of this kid!

I didn't really watch all of Series of Unfortunate Events, which is a movie I love, but I woke up at the end just in time to hear a message. The very last lines of the movie, and I can't quote exactly, but they hit home. It goes something like this: A series of what seems like unfortunate events may be just the beginning of a journey...and no matter where we are as long as we have each other, we have our family and we are home. Today we were home.