Moving Confessions...

Moving boxes, packing paper, bleach ... oh my!:)

I do believe that we have become professional movers. The only proof of this is when you look in your mom's address book and your address has been crossed out five times. Yes, we have been married seven years and have moved six times:) I can't blame all of these moves on the military. It's our fault. We just love to move I guess (totally joking of course and just threw up in my mouth). We are moving this time for better school systems, better location, more room in the house, and to be closer to our church friends. So, it's worth it:) We are now in Virginia Beach in a beautiful home with tons of space, a play room for Bells, and a great backyard with a porch swing! I kinda feel like I'm living in someone else's house it's so nice:) I praise God for this place, it was made for us. Oh, we are just renting by the way, so we really are in someone else's house;)

Bella has taken to the new house like a trooper. She has learned to say "outside" because she loves the backyard so much:) This makes me happy! We've already locked ourselves out of the house one time (with Bella in the house)....hey, it's a great way to meet neighbors. We've also found Bella running naked around the house chewing on a razor. I want to explain this but it is so much more dramatic when I just leave it at that! (She's fine, razor top was on) :) Sometimes I think I'm overdramatic, ok I know I am.... but life is so much more fun like that (and so much funnier).

My husband lifted boxes as though he was Fabio when we moved in.... Yes, long hair blowing in the wind (wait, Josh doesn't have long hair)....carrying boxes with his fingertips. I'm not sure why I typed this because Fabio is not handsome, and my husband is....basically, I was saying he's like a moving pro, he can lift ten boxes with ten fingers and also find time to look cute. I wonder if my husband ever reads this blog and wonders what happened to it? Remember when Josh used to post, yes... the Chaplain! I'll have to pressure him to post by typing this:) He's got such amazing things to say... more interesting than Fabio, I assure you:) Me, well.... my mind is full of garbage:) Good garbage of course and you come here and read it so it's your fault!

Prayer: We took Bella to the doctor and they are referring us back to the neurologist to check on some "rolling of the eyes" and "spontaneous laughing"-- I know this sounds really random but they want to do an EEG to make sure she's not experiencing mini seizures. Sometimes when I leave the doctors, I feel defeated but I am glad the doctors are so careful with my heart, my Bells. Hoping this is nothing and just extra careful precaution on the doctor's part.

Until I get our house unpacked, I will leave you with a few good unpacking tunes (from Josh's playlist and mine):

Josh's (Arcade Fire):


Mine (Sia) *has more good songs beyond this one of course:

My sweet joy...

My beautiful. My Bella.

Oh how I love you. Today she smiled at me and looked right in my eyes with a heart full of joy. Those are the moments I live for, I never take a smile for granted. Josh and I have decided that we've moved past the "grieving" stage of autism. I read, in the numerous books I find myself peeling through, that it's normal to go through these feelings when your child is diagnosed with something that has a "life-long" prognosis. Yes, she will always be different, but honestly.... I love her for that. I love that she is so different. Today she was outside on her swingset and I know most kids love swings but Bella, she closes her eyes ... lays her head back... and is in pure bliss. Watching the wind blow through her beautiful strawberry blonde hair brings tears to my eyes. Her sweet face shines in the sun and fills my soul with feelings so deep.

Therapy is going well. Some weeks I feel like we take leaps forward in progress, others... well are a little less promising. The fact is, this is a LIFELONG journey. We will be fighting for and with Bella to experience small and big successes all of the time. I love how graceful her daddy is with her. Josh adores Bella. She grabs hold of his heart so tight I feel like they are one:)

Lately Bella has tried communicating more. She's said: "up swing" (when she wanted to swing...mostly repeated after me when I said it like 10 times..but still awesome to hear), "horse", "SuperWhy" (she loves that show). Those are the new additions. Some words come and go (we hear them once in a blue moon). She hasn't been banging her head as much which is great but lately she's been hitting her mouth in frustration a little bit. She always says "please" when she wants food but getting her to name the food is hard "apple" is easiest. She said "nana" (banana) the other day but I haven't heard it since. The crazy part is that she understands virtually EVERYTHING we say. It's just hit or miss as to how long it takes for her to care to respond. One word that always gets a response is "bath" :)

We are moving next week and I'm praying that the change is easy on Bells.

These verses touched my heart the other day...Matthew 18: 10-14

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my [5] Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

First of all, the fact that God loves little ones so much puts a smile on my face. Also, when speaking of little ones, God says that "their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven"---in my Bella the Father is seen. The Father cares more about the "lost sheep" than the rest of the pack. I love this... praise God for his loving mercy on my girl.

Bella's mom.

Where Dreams Come True:)

Deep sigh*

Hello bloggy friends. It has been a while since I last posted and for good reason....

Josh and I were in Orlando, Florida at Disney World! Yes, we are children at heart. We have been planning for years (and I mean three) to take a trip together in celebration of the three anniversaries we've spent apart:( This was it! We flew Nanny Earls out to hang out with Bells and took off. I make it sound as if it was easy to leave Bella, it was not. I did write out three pages of instructions, laid out outfits, anything to make sure Nanny had "resources".

Our trip started on Wednesday when we flew out. I have never left Bella for so long so walking through the airport without her was weird. It was also so quiet. We both read books, drank coffee....we felt so civilized. Like real people, not frazzled parents;) We got in before dinner, checked into Shades of Green (Disney has a resort that is for Dept. of Defense only...can't beat $70 a night and free Disney transportation)! We had dinner in Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe and just hung out!

Thursday morning was cold and rainy, nevertheless we headed to Hollywood Studios (one of the four parks on our "park-hopper" pass). My friend Kori works there so she put us on the VIP for the shows and took us on all of the awesome rides they had. It was unfortunate that it was sooo stinkin' cold but luckily they had churros. You may wonder how coldness and churros correspond with one another.... they don't. I just love churros a LOT. Like I'm pretty sure I had seven in five days. Favorite ride at Hollywood was the Rock'n Roller-coaster. Totally dark, neon lights, Aerosmith....better than Space Mountain for sure. Oh and yes, I got pulled on stage for the Indiana Jones stunt show....and yes, as per usually made a fool of myself.

Friday was the Magic Kingdom. It was cold again:( No sun. Good thing I got a spray tan. My neck looked good at least. We road all of the good rides, even some of the kid ones.... my favorite: Peter Pan. We ate at Liberty Tree Tavern in the George Washington room because my husband is a history major:) We thought that a few of the rides were better at DisneyLAND (such as Pirates and Space Mountain). We had a great time though and finished up the day at Epcot. Best ride there was Test Track (a ride where you are supposed to be a crash test dummy). Food at Epcot was the best of all of the parks. Oh and we saw Cirque Du Soleil this night---wow!

Saturday we headed to the Animal Kingdom. I loved this park because of all of the animals, of course. Just because I gave my cats away on Craigslist, doesn't make me an animal hater I promise. Yes, I did it. But, they found a good family. Ok, back to the parks....They have some great rides at this park (Expedition Everest, Dinosaur... and the Safari).

Sunday....
We were looking forward to Sunday because we headed to Islands of Adventure which has lots of big coaster's. It also has....duh-duh-dahh (horns blowing).... The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. What? Don't judge. Yes, we have read the books, and own the movies. No, we are not 14. Any other questions? Thought so. This place was amazing. Totally felt like we were in Hogsmead/Hogwarts. My friend Kori came along with us (also an Potter fan)---we were like little school boys prancing about. Ok, school girls. Unfortunately, Josh's true colors came out .... I'm saddened to inform you all of this but, he's a Slytherin. Yes, it's true. We cannot be together, or so we were told by some of the wizards at the park.

Well, we ARE still together despite his "dark side" :)

We had dinner Sunday night at Epcot (in France)....you have to try the bakery in France as well--yummers.

Overall, AMAZING trip. We missed Bella so much it hurt. We were thankful for Carol who watched her, did therapy with her, and loved on her in our place. We are glad to be home and back to normalcy. By no means was this a "relaxing trip" but, it was excitingly rejuvenating for our souls:)