January

This month has been packed with back to school for me and Ains, work and other fun! Here are some highlights! 

Ains got new glasses!!

So much love for this girl! I’m so proud of her for how hard she works at school and her creative spirit!

Ains helped me put some school supplies out in our campus food pantry!

Ains had a sleepover with one of her BFFs! So thankful for her sweet friends! I prayed when she was little for great friends for Ains and I’m so thankful!

Celebrated 18 years of marriage this month! So thankful for Ryan’s kind heart, encouraging me follow my dreams and go back to school this year and his kindhearted outlook which is a great balance to my type A! He is an encouraging dad to Ainsley and I’m very thankful to be on this journey with him! 

I went on a quick trip to Ohio State with these great colleagues to learn more about their student success work! So fun to travel with great colleagues and learn best practices for serving our students!

My sweet family!

Ains was so excited to see ice last Sunday!

Thankful for a church that is engaged in our community! We have a new lead pastor that starts next week and we can’t wait!

Ains gets board with her spelling practice so we got some shaving cream and she practiced spelling words with that and loved it!!

Ains announced she is over dressed and skirts! So when she wears leggings and doesn’t have a long enough shirt she rocks and 80s look!

She also has been wearing my winter accessories to school! When did she grow up on me? Feels like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital!

Ains had a Miracle Match fun run on Saturday! So thankful Ryan was once a runner! When the race started Ainsley took off sprinting like she was running a 100 meter dash with a friend and I did my best to keep up! Thankfully Ryan stayed right beside her the whole way!

So thankful she tried this new goal! This was her last mile of a marathon she’s been working on since late November!

We do not have a happy end of race picture because Ains fell toward the end and was devastated. We had to really push her to finish and then talked through a lot of tears. The past semester has been tough physically. She doesn’t know why her body works differently than other kids and ours. No new set backs physically, she just had a greater awareness. I reached out a few weeks ago to a researcher in TX who leads a motor development lab at her university. Since Ainsley’s muscle MRI was normal in November that is leading us down this final path of determining if the motor delays are because she has brain to body signal concerns. When I reached out to this faculty member I cited some research where girls are under diagnosed with this condition and that can lead to greater rates of depression and anxiety because kids can’t name and understand their condition. She got back to me quickly and said she wanted so see Ainsley and do some assessments in her clinic to understand what may be going on. We will see her on February 8th. I’ll have to explain more later about this connection, but I’m thankful that God hears my pleas for answers and has connected us to this new researcher that can hopefully shed light on what’s happening.

Ryan and Ainsley post race!

Thankfully for a yummy breakfast after the race! Can’t believe February starts on Friday!!