RickandSusanna

Sometime on Thursday Amelia should be discharged to come home. We’ll still have a long road ahead though. Tube feeding will continue from home for a few months, we will have lots of follow up doctor visits, early intervention therapy from home, feeding therapy, etc. But we are very thankful that we can all be [...]

Here are some pictures of our make-shift Christmas. Christmas morning we brought the Challies traditional Christmas breakfast and stockings to the hospital. The nurses looked after Amelia so Susanna could come back home for a couple hours of opening gifts and eating Christmas dinner. It wasn’t what we envisioned, but it all worked out to [...]

Some of you know what is going on, others are wondering what is going on from Facebook hints. This is to update everyone about the events of the past few days. Our Amelia has always been small, she’s tracked at about the fifth percentile since being born. But this isn’t unusual if you’ve seen us [...]

Are you who you want to be?  “No, Switchfoot, not even close,” I thought yesterday as I listened to this song.  I am worrying constantly about the well being of my youngest child and the delay of certain gross motor skills and instead of praying, I fret and live in disbelief of God’s plan.  Though I’ve come a [...]

Last night was Micah’s school Christmas performance.   I looked at Micah and saw my eldest but also saw my baby.  I saw the boy so tiny and swaddled in a blanket and then the big boy in front of me…not so helpless but yet thankfully, still so in need of his mama’s care!  Emotions…pride, love, [...]

One of my treats in life is a 30 minute commute by foot, in which I enjoy the exercise and listen to podcasts. I feel it contributes greatly to my happiness and allows me to stay informed on topics of interest. Today I listened to an interesting discussion on measuring happiness. The experiment is simple: [...]

  I used to be a great many things or so it seemed at the time.  I was a student, part of a choir, working with special needs kids, running competitively, playing instruments, seen as creative and more heavily involved in different aspects of church community.  So many things to take up my time and to [...]

There are 4 steps to making it a successful Christmas season in our household!  Here they are: 1.  Making a gingerbread house 2.  Cutting down a tree 3.  Decorating 4.  Making Christmas cookies   Now, if I can only finish making my Christmas cards…my sister’s inspired me to try handmade but it is time consuming!  [...]

After much deliberating, we bought Micah and Ellie bunk beds and put them in the same room for the first time Friday night (what was Micah’s own room)!  This was a huge change for Ellie on many fronts.  Not only was it the first time she had ever slept in a “big girl” bed, but it [...]

What would I do with out sisters?  It occurred to me recently that I would likely be completely sunk if it were not for the two girls God ordained to be my sisters!  After all, they’re not simply my sisters…they are two people I know I can always call up and they’ll be ready to talk.  [...]