Permanence

Adele's big 1st birthday was this weekend.  It's been a mixed bag of emotions for me.

Something that I've come to terms with recently, is that up until Adele's diagnosis, anytime a conflict or difficult situation has come up in my life, it has resolved. In the case of Adele's needs, they will not.

It is a constant struggle for my brain to wrap itself around permanence. Through my best efforts within my time and space, I have not been able to get myself to a place of balance. I am setting myself up with a very local therapist in hopes that I can come up with some effective coping mechanisms.

I am asking my audience a favor as a whole, with the understanding that many of you do this already..... Please check in with me from time to time on how I'm doing. I don't always have the forethought to express my need for help. Also, I am doing the best I can with my girls and thank goodness, I have a kick-ass husband as co-pilot.

On a side note, I took a million birthday pictures of my babe on her birthday, and will share them soon.

Reflection

In honor of those affected by The Boston Marathon, I wanted to share a few photos and highlights from The Shamrock Shuffle and challenge myself to a new goal.  

The day started out at 4:45 A.M. on Sunday. Lucky for me, but not so much for my hardworking dad, I was able to grab a ride from him to McCormick Place since he was on his way to work that morning. Once at the hotel, I met my friends who spent the night. We took awhile to joke about how early it was and attempt to eek out a few more minutes of charge on our cell phones until we had to catch the trolley to Grant Park.  Once there, we were met with this sight

and with the goal in mind.

We had about an hour and half to kill since wave 2 started at 9:15. Within that time, we also located the bathrooms and had some cute group shots taken by spectators.

Three of us deliberately placed ourselves in the last corral of the entire race. This worked out well for our pacing but not so much for the waiting around business. By the time we crossed the start line, it was about 10:00, however, Corral K is where the magic happens :-)

Just about 19,000 people ahead of us, but who cares, look where we get to run!! LOVE my city!!!! Race time begins and we manage to keep ourselves entertained with lovely conversation despite losing battery power to our phones. My friend and I mentioned that the energy was amazing. Music was playing at mile markers and starting at mile 3, people where cheering like crazy! The last mile, our trio decided to split up and finish at our best. I came in just over an hour for 5 miles having NEVER run 5 miles in my life.. I'd say I did pretty good. After the race, we decided to meet up at the infamous banana stands for a celebratory banana and beer!

I was inspired by others posts about what they did to honor those affected. My goal was to sprint a mile. I came in at 10:02 which is my fastest mile run!  I'm insisting on 11:00 mile averages for 5k races. Let's see what happens on May 11th.

Ultimate Blog Party Post

Blogging is new to me and was born out of the need to communicate information on my blossoming family; and to help others with special needs children to relate and gain a better sense of identity through the blog community.

I am a teacher and mom of a 2.5 year old daughter and an 11 month daughter who was diagnosed with 18q- syndrome (1 in 40,000).