The time has finally come

I know it has been several months since we have written but life has caught up with us..

Madeline had her second birthday and it went wonderful! She had such a great time-

She has been going to speech therapy regularly and developing her feeding skills.

She still does not eat enough to be considered a meal but we are making progress- She is especially fond of vinegar and condiments it seems- she always wants to eat pickles or the coleslaw mom makes that is heavy on the vinegar side.. or mustard or BBQ sauce.. go figure --she  also eats better for almost anyone but us :) but we keep trying

She has definitely hit the 'terrible two's' but we keep working on it - Overall she is well behaved

it is amazing how many words she is speaking and how smart she has become- she is working on full sentences, identification of letters, potty training and shapes and colors- she has finally grown to love reading books -especially Dr Seuss and often puts mom and dad in a tongue twist!

 About a month ago we noticed she was acting a little different (crabbier.sleeping more/etc) so we checked her labs and they were definitely different- She went from somewhere around 16% kidney functioning to about 13% kidney function -

Her nephrologist advised holding off two weeks and checking labs again at her next scheduled visit and see what we think -When we checked the labs again they were the same and the Nephrologist decided we would schedule the transplant..

We are set to move forward on October 8th -And we are busy getting ready-Lots of last minute appointments and testing to be done- and mom amidst a busy work season and Dad with a new business he is getting off the ground-planning is challenging for sure but we will endure and we are lucky to have such supportive friends, family co workers etc.

Truthfully, mom is relieved that we finally have a date and it is not this ambiguous idea hanging above our heads.. now we can plan.. and move forward..

Of course we are nervous about the surgery-Despite knowing that the Surgeon's have done so many of these surgeries our little family seems prone to the 'unexpected' and that is scary..we are working on a will for mom 'just in case' - and besides thats good to have anyways...

here's hoping for the best and trusting God throughout--

We know we have the support of him and those around us and for that we are so thankful ..

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and love for our family!!

Here are some new maddie pics and as usual I am going to try to be better about posting!!