Happy Mother's Day!

What a first year of being a mommy to Maggi - my first couple of years as celebrating was as stepmom to Zack and Michael. Last year the boys did not get to meet Maggi until she was about a month old because of being in NICU.

On Mother's Day, after church, I took some time to rest outside on the deck and looked up to the sky. Looking back on last year and how I sat out here in tears, crying to God to please take care of Maggi. It seemed like every waking moment we wondered if she would live.

A year ago we had no idea how sick Maggi really was. We didn't know she had any type of deformity, we had yet to see any specialists when we brought her home from NICU Mother's Day Weekend of 2005...we were mainly trying to keep her breathing and eating, on tons of meds and going on no sleep...then May 20th rolled around and we found out she had Craniosynostosis...then, June she almost died of a Reglan overdose...then, August with her surgery....the holidays came and we found out she had Scoliosis and a Tethered Spinal Cord...February she has surgery to release the cord...a few days later, back to Scottish where Maggi almost died of the Rota Virus. We can't count how many appointments she has had, we don't know how many emergency visits to Scottish there were...but we know this now: Maggi is a Miracle. God has taught us so much through the challenges and pain. It is amazing that she has handled everything so well, even better than us. We will continue to accept what comes next, will be patient to hear her speak, to see her sit up, crawl or walk...no matter how many years, we will be patient.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms and give your little ones a hug from me. Also, Happy Step Mother's Day to all of the stepmoms of the world...I have the best two step sons in the world. When I married Patrick I received two beautiful gifts, Michael and Zack...Happy Mother's to their mommy, too!

Much Love,
Donna