The Owl

OK---for those of you who know me pretty well, this is going to be the post that makes you think I have finally lost it. But, an owl has appeared outside our house. He perches on top of the church across the street every night and every morning and hoots away. I have learned from a book that my Mom gave me (and NO it wasn't a Harry Potter book) that owls bring messages. So I have been trying to figure out the message. I mean we have lived here over 5 years and we've never had an owl before....Now, of course, I realize that there are maybe dozens of people that can hear the owl at night, so I am not sure why I am convinced that she has a message for ME or for US.....maybe it is because I want a message from Sophie so bad. Maybe the fact that she is perched atop a church means Sophie is telling us she is in heaven, and it is alright. I've been thinking maybe it is a message from me to lower the stress level and get in shape so I don't subject Annie and Mike to the horror of losing a loved one again.....that's what I'm going to take it as...a message from Sophie telling me to get my shit together.....I guess it could just mean there a a lot of mice in the neighborhood...but what fun is that. Any thoughts? Please don't tell met that the owl is trying to tell me to go into that church...if that is the message I am pretty sure it is for someone else :O)

3 Seconds

I was combing through computer files on one of my always fruitless searches for pictures of Sophie I haven't seen before (or at least since she dies) and I came across this 3 second video of her climbing on Mike.... I know it is only 3 seconds, but it is 3 seconds of seeing her move, or hearing her....it totally made my day...I keep hoping family and friends who have pictures or videos of Sophie will send them, but I haven't asked anyone yet. I guess I should.

So much has happened since I last posted...Annie's blood work on the antibody titers came back and showed she had a very strong immune response to the vaccinations, especially the pneumococcus. Even though Dr. Evil insists that that doesn't tell us anything...it tells us that her immune system is stong...no, it doesn't guarantee us that she is never going to get hit by a bus (which is the crazy thing he kept trying to tell us, that this test wouldn't guarantee us that she would never die...what an imbicline.....) Anyway, that is really good news.

Mike and I have been doing really well since we got back from Mexico, busy, but good. We are preparing for the upcoming "anniversary" if you will...(what is the proper term? death day? ...any thoughts?) We've decided to get a bunch of friends together and do the Cherry Creek Sneak, which is a fun race that happens to be held on April 27, So we'll get out of the house early in the morning and be surrounded all day by friends and family, outside in hopefully nice weather. I think we're going to do Team Sophie T-shirts..and if I can make the time to get the asplenia website up and running by then it might be a step in the awareness direction.

Speaking of which, boy have I dropped the ball there. I feel guilty, like I am not living up to my promise to Sophie, to raise awareness and to stop this happening again. I am having more energy now, so I am planning to take some baby steps forward. I just got tired of the fight for a while, all the research, lettersl stress....I need to find out more about the fliter paper test, to see if there is anyway a filter paper blood sample can be used to screen for aspleina (congenital or functional). If it can, then we have a pretty good chance of adding the condition to the newborn screening program...it will be a haul, but aspleina meets all of the criteria--except that it is so rare, but it is less rare than some of the other diseases they screen for...so maybe.

Last, who woulda thunk Valentine's Day would be so hard, but Mike, Annie and I were sad last night and again today....I guess maybe we could have guessed, because, well Halloween...I did to hold a 15 month old little girl at Annie's preschool yesterday, and let me tell you, it felt amazing...she was just the size my arms remembered Sophie being....which is another weird thing, that's how I will always remember Sophie...15 months...but she would be so much bigger now. Well, the tears are flowing, so it's time to go....