Moriah LIVE

Two new videos I just took of Moriah tonight. One is of her moving and laughing...I love her new laugh, it sounds like a cough and just cracks me up. The other is of her rolling...I caught it on film. She's rolling frequently and easily now, and (as you can see) is doing really well at holding up her head while on her belly.

You'll notice Moriah looks really big in these videos. The steroids have caused her to gain some weight and have inflated her face--she has "steroid cheeks," as we call them. It's not your imagination if she seems much bigger than before (she's well over 18 pounds now). You may still be able to see some of her head-marks healing from the brain leads, and the scratches on her nose are her typical my-nose-is-no-match-for-my-grip scratches. We, though, are admiring the new hair bow that arrived in the mail for her this week (thanks, Jill!). And loving her smile, of course. Now that she's started her steroid wean, she's begun sleeping more and smiling more in the last 24 hours. We're so happy to see her return, bit by bit. And so far, we've seen no seizures...we continue to pray they'll stay at bay and she can be both steroid- and seizure-free.

new house tomorrow

Finally, finally, we are here! Tomorrow at 11 a.m. we sign papers on our house!

We moved to West Bridgewater over Thanksgiving believing we were only three weeks away from signing on a (different) house. Our in-laws graciously allowed us to move in...as long as we were only staying "a few weeks." I think they were cautiously worried and optimistic about whether a family of five could live with their family of three without causing some serious conflict.

Nearly three months later, we have lived. Without too much conflict. Still in love with each other, after all. And for the umpteenth time in the last week, Dad Winchell keeps asking us to stay. And he's pretty serious about it.

But we are moving on. We need our space, our stuff (I'm really getting tired of the few outfits I packed for our supposed three-week stay!), and mostly, our own routine and rhythm to life. I think we'll always remember these three months, though, with a lot of fondness--it has been a poignant time for us, and honestly, I'm pretty sure I would have been MUCH more depressed/overwhelmed/frustrated/stressed had we lived on our own from the start. My in-laws' help, laughter, morning breakfasts, willingness to hold Moriah...these have been saving graces.

Yesterday was one of those days. I simply wiped out. Left to get the boys from school and couldn't make it up the street in the minivan, I was that exhausted and overwhelmed. Thankfully, my mom-in-law stepped in until Jason could get home, picking up the boys, getting them a snack, and keeping Moriah happy...and I slept. For the entire afternoon. Into the evening. And all night. Yesterday, I was really glad we were living here, and I wasn't alone.

But the time is coming, and we are excited. Our new house is not the house we were going to buy three months ago...it's smaller, and brighter, and newer, and better for us. A wiser financial choice, and completely redone, even though we've had to wait longer than we thought.

Tomorrow it will be ours. We'll do some moving-in this week (hanging blinds and that sort of thing), but we're saving our big "moving day" for a week from Saturday, the start of the school vacation. And we're definitely looking for help, if you're available and can lend us some strong arms.

This has seriously been one of the hardest week of my life, made exhausting by Moriah's steroid-crazed inability to sleep and moodiness. So appropriate that it's ending with good news, and the opportunity to keep moving forward. The end of a long period of waiting, and a new start. We're praying for the energy to begin again and to walk our children through yet another transition. Thank you, friends, for praying with us.