ONE YEAR OLD!!!

Ok...I know I am a little behind on this post. Caydence turned the big ONE on the 19th of this month. I can't believe that it has already been a year since she was born. It is so crazy looking back on this last year and all we have been through with this little girl. All I can really say is that she is one tough cookie! She amazes me everyday! I really try not to think too much about all we had to go through this last year because it most definitely has been the hardest year of our lives. Never in a million years would I have imagined any of the things that we had to deal with. I can remember almost everyday like it was yesterday if I start thinking about it. I really try to just think about all the good days that we had during our almost 6months in the hospital. Even though this year has been so challenging, I can say a lot of good has come out of it. First of all, we have one amazing little girl that we know can make it through anything, we have a wonderful little boy who has handled all this almost better than us, we have seen what great nurses and doctors can do, we have seen how caring and generous people can be, we learned so much about everything, and we have made some lifelong friends that can relate to us in a way that even our closest family members can't. After finally getting out of that hospital and bringing Caydence home, things have still been super challenging but I'd say we are handling it pretty well. Our attitude toward our whole situation is that we do what we have to do to make sure our kids are taken care of  in the best possible way. Caydence has not had to be readmitted to the hospital for anything since we have been home which is great. She has progressed so much too. She is really starting to show her personality now, and she is such a spoiled little girl. She can sit up so good by herself now and she is working her legs out in her jumper everyday so hopefully she will be able to start standing and walking soon enough. We are even getting ready to take her on her very first vacation...Disneyland!!! We are meeting up with two of the families that we became friends with while in the hospital who also have one year olds and other kids. We can't wait to see them again since it has been a really long time and we all live pretty far away from each other. Caydence should have a great time, who doesn't love Disneyland?? I'm a little worried about Eric and I just for the reason that we will be having to split the nights watching Caydence so neither one of us will be getting much sleep. It's ok though, we are ready for it!  For Caydence's  birthday we had a nice party at a park by the river where we live and it turned out great. All our family and friends were there which meant a lot to us that they were able to share such a special day with us. To me, celebrating Caydence's birthday wasn't the only thing I was celebrating, Caydence turning one also meant that we made it one year as a complete family. We are so grateful that we have our kids and we are all doing well. We still have many challenges ahead of us but if we were able to make it through this last year then we can make it through anything!!