Heartwarming

Today I went on my front porch and found that a package had been delivered.  It was a big Starbucks box.  My first thought was who sent me Starbucks??  Then I looked at it was addressed to Madison (and only Madison).  I brought the package inside and told her something had come for her.  Her eyes lit up and she carefully checked to make sure that it was just for her.  It was sent from one of my oldest high school friends.  Inside was a beautifully written letter that told her what an amazing big sister she is and how it must be hard sometimes for Nathan to receive all the mail.  She thought it would be nice if she was able to get something that was all her own.  I, of course was crying as Madison read the letter to me.  I could not believe that someone had sent her a whole package!  As she unwrapped the package, her eyes got bigger and bigger.  It was a shower bag with all sorts of goodies in it.  Nail polish, manicure and pedicure sets, sleep mask and yummy lotion.  She was jumping all over the house yelling “how did she know that my favorite colors were pink and purple?”  She also has a 10-year-old, so of course it worked out beautifully.  Immediately, Madison said can we call and tell her thank you?  I got on the phone and told my friend how she did the perfect thing and the perfect time.  Madison has mentioned that it is hard to see all these things come for Nathan and not always have her name on it.  I have tried to explain to her that while it may have started as postcards for Nathan, it has turned into an adventure for the whole family.  We all get to see these beautiful places that we may not ever get to.  But being 10 years old, having something come in the mail with your name on it is HUGE!  So for my beautiful, kind, loving and wonderful friend who is reading this, you will never know the gift you gave me.  You may have given my daughter the gift and she is thankful, but you gave me a greater gift by seeing the smile on her face.  You know I love you!

On to medical news….We took Nathan in for his eye appointment on Friday and they did all the usual tests.  In May he was 20/400, in July he was 20/200 and on Friday, I am thrilled to say he was 20/125.  The Dr. did caution us not to get too excited as his eyes will continue to fluctuate up and down.  However, at this appointment they fluctuated up and for that I am thankful.  We will take all the improvements we can get.  He did recommend a supplement that they give to older patients with retinopathy, so I will need to look into that.  I was convinced that his eyes had gotten worse, so I was completely surprised when he told us the news.  We are so grateful for positive improvements in anything with his health.  He is doing good in school and was very excited today that he got to go into his general classroom and participate in decorating something for Christmas.  I was happy for him as I worry about him being alone and not with his peers enough.

Postcards are coming!  Daily we are receiving more and more and even from Nathan and Madison’s classmates.  Our stack is growing to the point where I need to figure out something more creative to do with them.  I think I am going to get a map of the world and put it on Nathan’s wall and put colored push pins in all the places that we receive them from so he can see how far they have traveled.  The news team that came on Thursday was blown away by how many we received.  The news anchor is from Russia originally and brought Nathan and Madison both gifts from Russia.  She also sat down with them and dug through all the postcards to find the ones from Russia to show them that is where she came from.  It was such a neat experience to see what goes into putting a news story together.  They were with us for 6 hours and it will probably turn out to be a two to three-minute story!!

Thank you all for everything.  I will never get a chance to personally thank you all, but please know that you have touched our hearts in ways that we cannot describe.

Stacey