All the Things I Learned from Mylie's Extra Chromosome

March 6, 2008 - the day Mylie was born changed my life. I know the birth of a child always changes the life of a mama. It's inevitable.

I had a beautiful pregnancy, beautiful birth and a perfect first 24 hours with her. It was the day after that the doctors told us she may have Down syndrome - an extra chromosome.

That was the day I was transformed.

Tyler and I had one hour of panic, tears, fears... but then it was over and we felt an overwhelming peace. We knew that God had something extraordinary for us and we have trusted ever since.

These are all the things I've learned from her extra chromosome:

1. To trust God passionately, undeniably, consistently.

2. That Pure Love is perfect... nothing else has to be.

3. "This moment is my last" is either a good thing (good riddance) or a good chance to take pictures (good memories).

4. My greatest joy as a human being has been witnessing Ty and Mylie's relationship.

5. Suffering is real, it's hard and painful but gives birth to incredible joy.

Mylie after abdominal surgery at 10 months.

6. Mylie has the joy and peace people spend a lifetime looking for.... and it's infectious.

7. Ty loves his sister no matter what and even more knowing she has one extra thing to love.

The only smile while in the hospital was when her brother came to see her.

8. Never fear people with disabilities (or anyone else for that matter). We all search for the same thing: acceptance, love and friendship.

9. Onward and Upward!!

 10. That everything will be OK.

Wishing you an unshakable trust that all will be well!
xoxoxo

Passions

We all have those things that make us happier than happy... that make us tick, makes us giddy and complete. It's good to have many. Around here we seem to have many consistent ones, new ones, old ones, family ones, personal ones.... the list goes on. 

Highlighting the ones we experienced today on this beautiful Sunday:

Tyler's passion has always been our property. He loves his vineyard, his orchard, his plants. This weekend he raked the grass to pull out the dead grass from choking the new grass. He loves this stuff! He is sowing a beautiful seed, a gift he always envisioned when we started a family. What a blessing!

Legos have been Ty's passion lately. He creates, he builds,  he destroys, he builds again.  He's been obsessed with Star Wars Lego Wii, which is sometimes hard for us to deal with. 

This is what he looks like when he's in a Wii daze.
beautiful eyes

My sweet little Mylie has loved her food since the first time she nursed. She loves the nourishment, the social aspect of eating together, savoring the flavors and being content. Can't blamer her, eh?

He has been my passion for almost 20 years! Lucky me!

beautiful eyes!

One of my newest passions has been the flowers around my house. Watching them grow, tending to them like they are my children ( I even talk to them but don't tell anyone) and then enjoying their incredible colors is definitely a passion. The reward is huge!

This is Ty when he's tired of me taking pictures of him. 

But after awhile he gets used to it. He understands passion.


Wishing you a lovely day of passionate loves. Where would we be without them?
xoxox

Moments in Time

Tuesday May 10th, 2011 was any ordinary day for us. Mylie went to pre-school and Ty went to school. I picked them both up and we came home to play before dad came home.

It was a moment in time...

and I have it frozen in my photos.

I think that is why I like photography so much. I get to freeze moments in time in our lives so that we can remember them always.

It's a bit of an obsession for me...  clearly.

Maybe has something to do with loosing all my family baby pictures and movies in a fire. We have little memories of those times. It is such a loss, as I think we would have had fantastic memories to witness over and over again if we had those moments frozen in time. All we are left with are vague memories of those times that as we age seem more and more distant to me.

This morning Ty woke up to animals being thrown in his face.... as usual. He's used to it now...

Mylie loving that her brother sleeps in her room with her.

After school Ty decompressed from a long day of hard work by running through the sprinklers over a rainbow.

To be 7 again...














Mylie watching from the playset as her brother gets soaking wet. She's a little more sane to not want to get wet when it's still a bit chilly.

She thinks her brother is fascinating...

so does his mommy...

Best days of our lives...

Anyway.... a very ordinary day in the life of Mylie and Ty... for them to remember one day as adults and maybe share with the next generation.

Thanks for letting me share. Hope today, as ordinary as it may be to you, is an awesome moment in time.
xoxo

Daily Walks with Mylie

In all honesty I think every day is Mother's Day but for the sake of celebrating all mamas around the world together- I hope everyone enjoyed their mother, sister, daughter, friend yesterday. We're all mothers in some way or another.

I wish I could share with you the lovely moments of my special day - the cut up papaya with lemon as I awoke surrounded with flowers and cards. Or, the dancing that went on and balloon games we played. But all 220 pictures, somehow between the camera and the computer, got lost. It is a simple, easy lesson in letting go I guess.

It's a valuable lesson. 

And so I've learned ONWARD AND UPWARD!

and so... for us, today, that meant my and Mylie's daily walk.

We first passed our peach tree that is blooming beautifully and will produce ridiculously delicious peaches very soon.

then, we stopped and stood where an old oak once stood for 30 some years,  maybe more.

we admired every plant...

and every flower...

watched as a huge vulture floated in the sky above...

and as always Mylie sat to play with dirt and grass....

and then sat again to check out the grass that was growing through the asphalt...

especially loved the bee and all the work that he was doing to bring us such a gorgeous spring.

Love those walks with my girl! They are always peaceful. I notice things I never noticed before because Mylie takes her time to look and therefore so do I. Hurrying her up never works. I've learned to let her be. She's taking it all in and genuinely admiring the world around her. 

And I could learn a thing or two from her - 

slowing down to notice the small things in life (I really should count rings in a tree stump more often...really! or what it looks like in person to watch a bee's antenna go into a flower), 

appreciating taking my time (reeeeeally taking my time to notice grass growing through asphalt! I would have passed that one by no doubt, but it was quite lovely to see a small patch of green in a sea of asphalt), 

loving the details of life (and there are so many)... 

Wishing you a lovely week full of details and mysterious findings.

xoxox

Siblings

So, Ty has had an interesting request the past few weeks. He's wanted to "keep Mylie company" at night and sleeps on a thin mat at the foot of her crib. We haven't' been able to figure out why. There are more cons than pros:
1. He's got a comfortable bed all to himself in his room.
2. He sleeps on a thin mat on top of hard wood floors (not very comfy).
3. Mylie wakes up at 6 am sharp!!! and he's in a stage where we can't wake him up in the mornings for school.
4. Once Mylie sees him sleeping on her floor in the morning she throws all her stuffed animals, blankets and pillows on top of him and if she is feeling bold will crawl onto her changing table (attached to her crib) and pull out her socks from the drawer and throw those on top of him as well.

It's quite the scene when we walk in the room in the mornings.

But, I must say... it's pretty cute!

 (Ty was smitten right away with little Miss Mylie girl)

 (He's been the protective big brother from the beginning.)

I have a hunch it may have something to do with his knowing that Mylie has Down syndrome. He just recently found out. We've never talked about it on purpose because we wanted Ty to grow up loving Mylie for who she is, without any labels or any expectations. It's been wonderful and it would have lasted longer if he hadn't overheard me in conversation with someone from SELPA (the agency involved in her elementary school services). 

As soon as he heard me he pulled on my arm and asked, "Mylie has Down syndrome?" 

I turned to him a little surprised he was there but knew that this was about as natural a moment as any and said, "Yes, she does." 

Looking a little concerned he asked, "Well... what is Down syndrome?" 

"Nothing much, sweetie. It just means she has an extra chromosome." 

Wheels still turning in his head he asks, "Well, does she need one of mine?"

Trying not to burst into tears from such a beautiful compassionate instinct from my first born, I swallow my tears of joy and softly explain she is just fine the way she is, she doesn't need any chromosomes or a kidney for that matter and that she has been created perfectly, that he doesn't need to worry. He looks relieved and goes back to playing with the other kids.

Tyler and I decided early on that we would let the conversation happen naturally. We didn't feel he needed any explanation or label at an age when kids just genuinely love... and I mean love - the way we should always remember to love. 

So, now he knows a little bit and maybe puts it all together somehow. I think he is still trying to figure it out and for now feels better if he's "keeping her company" at night. 

Fine by me. He needs to process in his own way. 

Watching it from a mother's perspective is one of the most poignant moments of my mommy career.
Sigh...
Happy Mother's Day to you all!!
xoxxo

First posting

I've been inspired to start a blog. Most of the time I don't question the inspiration, I just do it. I've learned that is the best way. So, here I am... thank you for being here with me. I have so many friends and family that want to stay connected and Facebook, as fun as it is, just wasn't enough. So off we go... I promise to post only when inspired, to keep it short and sweet and to post the essence of my inspiration. Nothing more, nothing less.

Uninhibited joy. Miss Mylie dancing is one of my biggest inspirations. She dances in the morning, in the shower, while eating lunch, while playing at the beach. She reminds me to dance whenever I get the feeling, in spite of people watching, no matter where I am, to the songs I know by heart because.... it simply makes me happy.

 Life is just too short to do otherwise.

 They say that God gives us our children to transform us. I believe that wholeheartedly.

 My other source of inspiration, 8 years coming, has been the talented, creative, energetic, loving and compassionate Mr. Ty. Photo dates with him have been incredibly exciting for me. I spent 4 years alone with him before Mylie came to join our crew. Since then, I've been focused primarily on her and of course Ty got shuffled off to the side a bit. So, our photo dates have been so much fun because he loves it, I love it, and Mylie and Daddy get to hang out alone. His first photos were amazing (see my Facebook page). We went on another jaunt the other day and he took it to another level. I'm not so sure how he comes up with it all, but leave it to Ty to find a new way to do things. He reminds me to look beyond the obvious, to keep looking even if I don't see anything, and find something... ANYTHING and then run with it. Something spectacular is bound to be there. It always is for him...

 He's running or jumping as he takes this shot...

 and tries things upside down...

 and likes the perspective of being inside the car during a car wash...

 and then jumps up and down in the car during the car wash... genius!

and if nothing else captures the essence of grass... while moving somehow. Pretty cool I must admit...

Hope your days ahead have a little something fascinatingly (is that a word?) unexpected.
xoxox