New Kicks

So I found Will some shoes, not without frustration. I finally found him shoes at Striderite, after looking at 4 other stores. They are New Balance shoes size 7 double wide. They sort of look funny on him, they don't look like should be on such a little boy. Not to mention that they are super hard to even get on his foot! But I am happy that they don't have any characters on them and they are kind of cute. He wore them for about 45 minutes today until he was screaming to have them off. I think that he will get used to them pretty quickly and may be soon he will take off walking!

Sorry, I couldn't get a picture of him standing in the shoes, he wasn't so sure of them when I had the camera out. Maybe tomorrow.

On the hunt...

for shoes!! Now that we have Will's braces!! WOOOHOOO! I actually went and picked them up yesterday but today was the first day that I put them on him. Lets just say he wasn't too thrilled about them. We are going to gradually increase his wear time so that he can get used to them.

Today I had to go to Target so I took a look at there boy shoes. Yuk! They didn't have anything that would even work not to mention that none were cute. They had tons of really cute girl shoes but nothing for boys. Tomorrow I have to go to Walmart, I will see if there is anything there but I am not holding my breath. If I can't find anything there I will have to go to Striderite. My problem is going to be finding something that will fit over the brace. Will has wide feet to begin with and then with the brace, watch out!! So I am going to be looking for a double or triple wide shoe. Wish me luck!

So here are some pictures of Will with his new braces. Caroline picked out the colors and straps. She was very proud of her choices. I think that she did pretty good too! They have dogs and baseball bats and balls on them.

Stuck in NM

Josh left yesterday for a business trip to New Mexico. He was supposed to be home tonight late, around 10:30pm.

I got a phone call earlier, caller ID showed AM Airlines, my heart sank. They have never called our home phone before. No worries, they called to say that Josh's flight had been changed and he would not be getting in until midnight. I called Josh to let him know what they had said and to give him his new flight information.

He just called me to tell me that he wouldn't be home until tomorrow. There is a blizzard in Dallas and there are no flights going in or out of Dallas. So Josh is stuck. Lets hope that he makes it home tomorrow. They told him that everyone is having to change flights that were to go through Dallas therefore causing it to be really hard to find a decent flight time. He had already checked out of his hotel and returned his rental car, so let hope that he finds a hotel and transportation.

Pray for Josh's safe return home.

ABC Adventure

Caroline and I had fun watching this video. Caroline gets so tickled watching it. Imaging her giggling the entire time you are watching it. Just click on the link and it should appear.


http://www.myabcadventure.com/index.htm?movieid=BABD751E-8213-442D-AA2B-66AD676DF250

Reflections from the weekend

This weekend gave Josh and I much hope and eased our minds about Will's future. My biggest fear for Will is that he will not be able to speak. I know now that even though he may never speak, he will be able to communicate with us. Some of the kids were talking with no problems, others used signing and gestures and others used talking devises. Whatever the means, they were all able to communicate their needs. I don't care how Will communicates, I just want him to be able to tell me what he wants, what he needs, if something hurts or if someone was mean to him. I want to hear him say "I love you Mommy" but if I hear it come from a talking devise or if he uses sign language to tell me, I am cool with that.

All of the kids at the reunion were happy and healthy. That is all that really matters, right?

All the kids love life. They love everything about it and they also love everyone in their lives. Most of these children meet no strangers, they open their hearts to everyone that they meet. We could all learn so much from them.

I feel as though I have met folks that are my family. These parents totally get what it means to be raising a special needs child, there was no explination needed. They already know. I am already looking forward to next year. I can't wait to see everyone again and to see how big all of the kids have gotten.

More pictures

Here is Will with Little Kayla. There were two little girls with the name Kayla, so there was little Kayla and big Kayla. If Will had long curly hair him and Kayla could have been twins!


This is Addi with McKenna (Erica's big sister). These two remembered each other from years past and are best buddies. I didn't get a picture of Erica but here is a video that her awesome big sister McKenna did for a school project. McKenna's vision

This is Jesse and Will playing with a toy. Jesse's shirt cracked me up. It says "I do all my own stunts".



This is Jeni and Mark (Erica's Dad). Jeni was telling them about her favorite Tom Hanks movie Castaway. Jeni loves Tom Hanks and knows all of the movies that he has been in. Jeni was the oldest of the RTSweeties at the reunion, she is 25 years old. She is so very sweet. She went around and introduced herself to everyone and asked everyone's name. She looked at Will for awhile and said that he was pretty cute.


This is Hunter, he loved the bouncing balls that someone had brought from home. He wanted to have races, he told me to say "Gentleman start your engines!". Hunter is in a regular classroom at school and is doing great.

This picture turned out fuzzy but it was the only one that I had of Big Kayla. Kayla and Addi are watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, need I say more! Kayla is so sweet, she looks like a porcelain doll.

Pictures from the 10th Annual Midwest RTS Reunion

So here are a few pictures from this weekend. We had a great time. I am going to post more tomorrow (blogger is being really slow tonight) and I will also reflect on the weekend then.


Addi and Kenny watching videos. Kenny just had surgery to remove ingrown toe nails last week but he was walking around and having a great time despite the bandages on both feet. Addi is just as cute as a bug! She is a rock star at her signing, she is awesome!




Here is Caden. Caden was all over the place on Saturday evening, everyone was Caden's friend. I fell in love with his smile. When I would get out my camera he would sign "more" because he wanted me to take more pictures of him (my kind of kid!!).



Troy (Jesse's Dad) brought his guitar and played music for us. Caden stood right next to him the entire time that Troy was playing. Caden would even help Troy strum the guitar by holding onto his hand while he was playing.



This is Eric. He was cracking everyone up on Saturday evening. He is a big wrestling and basketball fan. He was upset that his team (the Bucks) had lost. He told us all about his job and what he does while at work. He is a pretty amazing guy, Eric will be turning 22 next week.

Here is Candy and Chris. Chris is a real cutie. He enjoyed running around the conference room playing with his brothers.

William and Max. Max is only a few months younger than Will and he also has an older sister that is 4 years old. Josh and I talked a long while with Max's Mom and Dad. They are super nice people and they are huge Brewers fans, they may come to StL and go to a Cardinals vs. Brewers game with us!