Happy 2010~~

I am so excited about the NEW YEAR! I was just at the park with Brianna this week and I just sat there watching her run up the stairs, slide down the slides, hold onto the railings and I was teary eyed! It was a little over a year ago that she was diagnosed with JRA which is now JIA and she wasn't walking, thank God the steroid injections helped with that! Then she couldn't even hold onto railings at the park, she had a poor sense of balance when climbing the stairs at the parks, and sometimes she would get to the top of the little playground and just sit there and watch the other kids run and play! She would laugh though and ask for help to get up, because her hands hurt, or her wrist hurt, or her ankles...so I would help her up, and it was hard...hard to watch all these healthy kids running and playing and not worrying if they hit their hands on the railings, or on the edge of the slide while sliding down. Oh-and then at the end of the slide, it was the pain in her ankles, so I always waited at the bottom to catch her before her feet could hit the ground! I remember one day she went all by herself, and a little boy went literally right after her and crashed right into Bri while she sat in the sand and she just sat there. He kept saying "come on get up" and she sat there smiling trying to get up! So I got her up and helped her up and down the playground;). Wow...so we've come a long way! SHE"S AMAZING!!!!! Running, dancing (she lovveess to dance), jumping (loves jumprope), sliding, climbing, laughing and playing! YAYYY! She's truly amazing! So when people see me watching her play and I have not one dry eye...now you know why! Because she can do it now too! Sorry-I"m extremely EMOTIONAL! And when I see our other kids thriving and healthy, that makes me emotional and thankful to God that they are healthy, and that they are just truly amazing kids! She loves watching her brothers play baseball, she cheers for them in the stands and runs around with the other kids! I just look at her in awe!
So we had a wonderful relaxing holiday with family and friends and we are looking forward to a healthy 2010! Bri is fully off of her Naproxen now, she was weaned off of that, and her last eye appointment was great! The Dr dialted her eyes hoping to get her iris "unstuck" from her lense in her left eye along the bottom it's visible! But the dialation didn't help, but her swelling is down in both eyes now, so THANK YOU GOD we are done with the eye drops every hour, which turned into every two hours, which has now turned into 4 times a day! YAYYY! And she is only on Methotrexate injections once a week! Which is a whole other story! We wait until about 11:30pm to do this so she is sound asleep, and the minute we touch her leg, she sits up and says "no daddy no shot" uhoh! So Eric and I literally have to both unfortunantely hold her down now while he gives the injection...which he hates because she is saying "no daddy no daddy please" oh ya! It kills him and I to hear her say that absolutely sobbing! But we have to do this! So afterwards of course she gets big hugs and kisses! Then the next day she'll say to me, "mommy daddy shot" and show me her thigh! Whoa...I'm hoping and praying this gets easier because we DREAD shot night!! And boy does she have a great set of lungs haha:)!