As you’d expect, most of our newsletter will focus on our time with Olivia and all of her progress and milestones.
In our last newsletter, you read about Olivia’s battle immediately after birth, which continued for months and months. The great news is that’s she’s doing great! All of the true medical concerns have been resolved, something that we’re extremely thankful for. We thank God daily for our little girl. Here’s a picture from her first birthday party at school!
That being said, our lives (especially Leslie’s) have been EXTREMELY busy. The never ending barrage of appointments, therapies, school visits, etc. keeps us both working hard. I’d be lying if I said that I did a whole lot of it, it’s really all Leslie. Honestly, she spends another 40 hours a week taking care of the non-stop obligations. Olivia and I are truly fortunate to have such a loving and dedicated mommy / wife. On top of Leslie, we’re all very lucky to have Gramma Honey too, who seems to be able to charm Olivia into doing just about everything and anything – Stephanie, thank you so much for all of your help, we’d be grayer and more wrinkly from the stress without you!
My main duties are changing poopy diapers (which I love), taking out enormous, monstrous bags of diapers, washing Olivia’s mountains of dirty clothes, taking Olivia on shopping trips (mostly to the grocery store or Target) and kissing my little girl every second I can! I love being a daddy almost as much as Leslie loves being a mommy.
Olivia’s been doing great. Despite her chromosomal deletion, Olivia continues to show us there is no “can’t”. Like all parents, we struggle to fight the daily temptation to worry about her milestones and focus on being mommy and daddy. Every time we try to limit her, she just ignores us and goes on doing what she was doing.
The coolest/most gratifying moment we had with Olivia this year was the day of her cochlear implant activation. If you haven’t seen it, we put it on YouTube…check it out at the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjM04gaqFrc
That moment was truly inspirational. We’d been dealing with the fact that Olivia may never really hear for over a year and to see her respond like that was AWESOME!
A month before Olivia’s activation she had her surgery, which wasn’t quite as fun. They had a very difficult time getting her breathing tube in, which caused some serious complications … mainly pneumonia. The day after surgery was agonizing for all of us, Olivia was in so much pain from the surgery and the breathing tube debacle – all we wanted to do was take that pain from her. After a night in the hospital we went home, only to go right back after Olivia spiked a 104+ degree fever. Once we got to the hospital we found out she had pneumonia. We had a month between the surgery and her activation, and we needed every day of it to get better. Now she’s blowing and going with her implant! We love talking with her and singing to her; it’s so much fun!
Among Olivia’s favorite hobbies are chewing on her bib or hand, sucking her thumb, eating her “mac macs” (macaroni and cheese), talking with her mom and dad, and singing songs from Barney Radio on Pandora.
The Rest – It’s true, it’s not that significant compared to Olivia’s Story, but still an important part of our year.
Battle Buddy 57 – As Rx’d By Texas Children’s Hospital
Like last year, we continue to spend a lot of time at Texas Children’s Hospital. It’s sad when we walk through the halls and see multiple nurses, doctors and staff we know well or can give any of the lost families (the place is huge) directions to just about anywhere.
This summer, I organized a fundraiser with my new, good friend Vic at Bayou City Crossfit to raise some cash for Texas Children’s. What a perfect combination, Crossfit, a vomit-inducing way of working out and raising money for a good cause. The event was a HUGE success, we had well over 200 people coming out in 100+ degree July weather to put themselves through a BRUTAL workout – 2 people teams doing 8 exercises, 57 of each (one per day Olivia spent in the NICU). It was SO great to watch, not so fun to part
icipate in. Fortunately, my super-fit best friend Mike came down to be my partner.
It was great to have him there to take part in the event with me. All in all, we raised over $6,000 for Olivia’s endowment at Texas Children’s, not too shabby. Next year we’re shooting for $10,000+… just look at the picture of this cute family, doesn’t it make you want to donate??? Thanks to everyone who donated! Notice Leslie in the shirt made for the event. Hopefully you’ll think about participating next year! Olivia wants to know if you’re up to the challenge.
Halloween
This Christmas newsletter wouldn’t be complete without a mention to the incredible Halloween outfit my mom made for Olivia. Leslie and I have an inside joke (I’ll spare you the details here) about Olivia being an owl, which is an almost constant source of laughter for us, so naturally Olivia was an owl. Mom, you outdid yourself with the outfit.
If you see this menacing owl flying around with her razor-sharp talons unsheathed, I’d recommend you find cover and send her offerings of field mice (part of the inside joke, don’t worry about it…it’s funny to us.)
Naturally, we shamelessly paraded Olivia around in her owl outfit anywhere we could. Needless to say, it was a HUGE hit.
Miss Olivia – World Traveler
Once we took Olivia off of her oxygen, she became quite the traveler. She made a visit to Phoenix to surprise her gramma, papa, great-gramma, and one aunt and one uncle! Imagine my parents’ shock when we showed up at a Home Depot 3,000 miles away from their house to surprise them. Here’s 4 generations of Stevenses, with Leslie as my proxy.
We also took a week-long trip to the Bay Area for Olivia to see a therapist, which was a lot of work but tons of fun too. The therapy is considered “alternate”, but Olivia seems to be responding very well to it – it teaches little ones with developmental delays to organize their thoughts, and thus, their movements better. We saw some immediate results, like Olivia wanted to hold her head up, prop herself up and trying to roll from back to tummy! So awesome.
Leslie and Olivia also joined me for part of a weeklong work trip I had in San Diego. We had a chance to go to the San Diego Zoo and survived a mild earthquake while we were there. San Diego is truly one of the hidden gems in the U.S.
Wrap Up
That’s it for this year, we love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
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