Happy Birthday Hallie!

Can you believe Miss Hallie is 4? I feel like she should be about 24 and me about 60, with what we have fit into the last 4 years. Despite all of her medical problems, this little girl of mine cracks me up. We flew to Cincinnati the day after her birthday. We traveled all day and were on 3 different flights and Hallie would get so wrapped up in her own little world that I would look across the aisle to find Derrick with his headphones on and Hallie singing very loudly, "what time is it? It's ssssummertime!" She did that for about 10 minutes before I finally had to poke Derrick to get him to quiet her down. The last few days she has woken up in the funniest moods. She is just goofy. Normally, she is my first one up and not usually very happy about it, which makes me not so happy. She has just woken up laughing and gigglin, putting appendages in the wrong parts of her clothing and thinking life is just great. She even put her coat on backwards yesterday and thought she was hysterical. What a child.

Saturday, we took Hallie to Boomtown with a few of her friends. It has a family fun center there and she had a great time. I will post pictures as soon as I find what suitcase I put the camera cable in. She was on the carousel and saw Santa Claus sitting, waiting for kids. She is sure that he came just for her birthday party. They let her get in a wind tunnel and gather tickets. She got to choose a friend to go with her and I prepped them on how to get the most tickets. We even watched another kid do it. Derrick took some video, so I will post it, but it was so funny! She would gather arm loads of tickets and shove them down her shirt and then they would promptly fall out the bottom. Or she and her friend would grab a bunch and literally let them go and watch them fall. It was pretty funny.

Sunday was her actual birthday and she was so excited to go to church. They sang to her in primary and she just beamed. She thought it was so cool! Then she got to go to the bishop's office and he gave her some cookies, which was awesome in her book. I got a few phone calls last week from some young women that our in our church-- not necessarily our congregation, but LDS. The first one was a junior in high school and had heard about Hallie through some of her friends that helped out at our yard sale. She was so touched by Hallie's story that she made an I spy quilt for her to entertain her in the hospital. It has a bunch of different fabrics and a list of things to find in them. Wendy brought it to her before church and Hallie thought that she was pretty special. We of course had to bring it on the trip with us and she is planning on taking it to the hospital with her.

Anne is in our ward and she is 15. She wrote and illustrated this book for Hallie. It is called Hallie the Great. She brought it over Sunday night and it is pretty incredible. How would it be to have so much talent! It is all about Hallie's life and different things that they have heard Hallie say or do that impressed them. It capped off a great birthday.

I am continually amazed at Hallie. There is so much about her that I take for granted because I deal with it every day. Yesterday, my mother-in-law and I took Hallie with us to run a few errands. As we were driving, Hallie told me that she was going to throw up. I scrambled and came up with a shopping bag and shoved it at her. Hallie proceeded to throw up (she hadn't pooped all day, so everything had no where to go), I cleaned her up (she got just a little bit on her sweater) and went to get out of the car. Vicki looked at me and asked what we did now. I told her that Hallie was good to go now and would be feeling much better and we could continue. 20 minutes later, Hallie was back up to full speed and hasn't slowed down since. Vicki was very traumatized and won't take Hallie anywhere on her own now. Derrick is with the two of them grabbing the last few things for dinner tomorrow. Hallie throws up 2-3 times a week, so I just take it for granted how fast she bounces back. She loves to be involved in her medicine and wants to push the plunger on the syringes and empty her albuterol into her nebulizer (she has RSV, but is doing great with it-- I think we might avoid a hospitalization for it!). We have been out and about at night a few times since we got here, so we have mixed up her TPN early and just hooked her up while we were out. She pauses long enough for us to get her hooked up, grabs her back pack and takes off running.

Hallie is the first to say thank you, the first to say I love you, the first to kiss you if you are sad. She told my mom that all of her Christmas presents were just wonderful. She takes life in stride and I have to remind myself that I need to do the same. She kept asking if she was going to get a wheelchair at the airport and eveyone just looked at her funny. I laughed and told her not on the way out, but maybe on the way home, since she will have just gotten out of the hospital. She is thrilled with the concept. If only we could all be so happy with the challenges life brings our way!

4 years ago, my world fell apart. I had no clue that anything was wrong with my baby and when she was born, our lives were changed forever. It has been the hardest 4 years of my life. I am physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted each and every day. But the joy that she brings into our lives far out weighs the hardships. I love you, Miss Hallie! Thank you for teaching me how to be a better person!