At Home in the Mountains

You know that movie Four Christmases? We lived it. We technically had five Christmases. My pictures loaded up all out of order so I'll just tell about the Christmas of each picture. This was at Aaron's grandparents ranch. They had a real tree. By that I mean they went out and picked it and cut it themselves. I always love Grandma Fletcher's tree because it had a bunch of ornaments she made herself and lots of old ornaments that her mother made. It is hours of entertainment to look at the tree and hear the stories about the ornaments. We got there on Christmas day night and then had Christmas dinner with them the day after Christmas. Aaron's Dad and his wife were there and Anna's sister and her husband came for dinner. We had a good time there. This is Maddy's Christmas outfit that Aaron's Aunt Sherry gave Maddy. She works at the Salvation army and found it there. Someone had donated it brand new. I will probably redonate it since Maddy will not be small enou...

It is a gorgeously warm day today! Maddy and I went on a walk to stretch out the sore muscles from the race yesterday. Before the race we had to go to the expo on Saturday to pick up our numbers. We had like 15 bags to haul around plus Maddy because of all the relay teams from DBU. Fortunately Tricia and Nat were there with us so they took turns holding Maddy. We walked around and got free samples of stuff, mostly nasty sports drinks and bars, but we did get about 15 lbs of free dog food out of the deal and Aaron bought this awesome tape called K tape that he used for the race for his knee and feet. It is the tape that Kerry Walsh wore for the volleyball games during the olympics. Then we went to lunch with Nat and then came home and cleaned and cooked spaghetti and then TRicia came to eat. Brittany came to stay the night and we left at 5:45 to get to the race the next morning. The race was really cool. I thought I was going to die but I ended up doing much better than I expected. I...

Can't see them very well in these pics best picture I was able to get for now sitting in boppy Maddy's ornament for her first Christmas Aaron's first Christmas ornament his mom made him. Well we did it. We got Maddy hearing aids for Christmas. :) When we were at Grandma and Grandpa's we were all talking about how much the average family spends on Christmas presents. Aaron looked it up and it turns out that the average American spends over $400 PER PERSON on Christmas presents. Yikes! So we decided we'd count Maddy's hearing aids as a Christmas present so we could brag about how much we spend on her for Christmas. haha! So we went to the Callier at 8:30 this morning and waited about 30 minutes in the waiting room. I think our doctor is just slow because while he was working with us a nurse or someone knocked on the door and it sounded like he was supposed to have been with somebody at 9:30 and it was about 15 after ten. That is okay. Getting hearing aids is a big...

One year ago today we found out we were having a little girl. One year ago today, the OB called us into his office and told us that Maddy was not going to survive. One year ago today God heard the prayers of many friends and family and he started working a miracle. One year ago today I thought I would never see my precious little girl alive. One year ago today I was so shocked I didn't and couldn't feel anything but disbelief. One year ago today, God started planning that today a little girl named Madeline Mae Fletcher would be by my side as I write this, talking and playing with her stuffed cow that Aunt Tammy gave her. One year ago today God set out to prove that he is faithful and he hears his people's prayers and that he still does miracles. Today is bittersweet because one year ago today our dreams and plans we had for our new life with our baby girl were destroyed. But one year ago today God started making a new plan to give us a different dream and a different plan. ...

Pediatrician check ups always stress me out. I know it is because of this whole weight issue. Every time we go in I know he is not going to be satisfied because she is still not on the chart with her weight. Today Aaron went with me so it made it a little better, but I still left the office feeling like a horrible mother. Maddy weighed 10 lb 13.5 oz so we are creeping toward that 11 lb mark we thought she was at a couple of weeks ago. Still, she has gained a lb in 1 month. Between August and October she gain 1 lb so this is a big improvement for her. Still not good enough though. This time he decided that she is not getting enough calories. She is eating about 23 oz a day which we thought was doing pretty good. Nope. She needs to be eating 28 oz minimum and he'd like to see her eat 30-33oz. Sometimes I feel like I am doing something wrong, but when your child starts screaming and punching the bottle away because she's had enough there is not much you can do. She is eating more ...

I am not sure what she was doing but this picture is hilarious! Well God just added another thing for us to be thankful for and something I just had to share. For Maddy's hearing aids our insurance only pays $1000 for hearing aids every three years. Fortunately we don't have to replace the actual hearing aid piece very often but we do have to get new ear pieces, fittings, etc. as she grows. Aaron has been talking to the HR lady, Tamy Rogers who is a sweet and wonderful person and helped us when the insurance was trying to get out of paying for my pregnancy, over the last few days to see if we can talk to insurance into giving us more money for Maddy's hearing stuff. They regard it as a quality of life issue and we are trying to say that for now it is not quality of life but a medical necessity so she can learn how to talk!!! All very frustrating. So we were going to have to come up with about $2500 before December 8th to pay for the part with the hearing aids that the insur...

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Maddy's labs from the endocrinologist came back normal. Thanks to everyone who prayed for her about this over the last month or so. Now please just keep praying that she will gain weight and that she will be the size she needs to be for her. So thankful for this good news this week as well as the news for Brandon and Amanda and kids.