That was quite an absence!

Hi all! Wow I knew I hadn't updated in a while but had no idea it was so long! This is mainly because I guess I haven't felt the need to, that is, I am always drawn to my blog to vent my fears and frustrations to do with Elin. Thankfully, things have been going amazingly well lately and of course I am wary of saying that, but it's true! Elin has been a superstar. We feel since she turned two in July that things have really settled down for her. She travels better and her seizures are more infrequent. She is such a happy little soul and has been so calm for such a long time now. We even managed to get to London this weekend with her..unthinkable twelve months ago! I have read that children with severe brain damage can take over two years to even start making sense of the world in any way. This is what we feel is happening with Elin. She is beginning to understand her special and unique world. We have started the statementing process for school and I am so looking forward to Elin going, where the teachers are experts in her condition and she will be able to grow and develop even more as well as being around other children. We are also well underway with the process of adapting the house for her. She will need wheelchair access, ceiling hoists, a lower floor bedroom, a special hydraulic bath to name but a few things. It means we will need an extension of course. It's a lot to get your head around, it fairly easy to carry around a two year old...but what happens in ten years time when she is a teenager and still unable to move? I don't like thinking about that too much, but clearly we need everything in place well before she gets too heavy to lift. We are lucky we live in a day and age where these things are available to us. Fifty years ago Elin would probably have had to live in a hospice ( she definitely would not have her Mickey button for feeding! ) so we have to thank God for that, that she was born now and not in a time when we could not have looked after her. That would have broken any parent's heart. I got reminded today of a saying I love and I think it sums up mine and Paul's feelings towards Elin's condition brilliantly: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade :-). Elin is definitely my lemonade.