Taking the Scenic Route

#94  My favorite Spokesperson, looking like the poster boy he is.

Getting Ready to Leave for the Walk.

We meet up with Carrie & David and their doggie (I can’t remember her name). Carrie was Zane’s first SLP and they had a really special connection. We were also expecting to meet M., the friend that Zane was paired with at WSU, but she was too freaked out by the crowds to want to get out of the car. Her mom walked with us, but her dad took M. back home when she couldn’t calm down.

The crowd begins to gather. I heard there were around 900 walkers.

After Chance talked about autism a bit (he was the older spokeschild), they introduced our family as they prepared for Zane to get the race started. Susan Peters, from the local ABC news station (KAKE), was the Emcee

Zane was excited to do the “Ready, Set, GO!” to start the race.

And, the walk. We ended up having to cut through the back door of Heartspring instead of completing the race because Zach isn’t fully recovered, and the kids were pooping out (I carried Zora for a while, then Carrie gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way)

The food was good. Old Chicago and Popeyes (and I think somebody else) provided food for the walkers.

It was a lot of fun and, despite the wind, it went a lot better than last year. They had bounce houses and were more spread out so it wasn’t as overwhelming. Zane is also getting better at crowds, so that was a major plus too.

I thought I had avoided being interviewed this year, but KFDI ended up tracking me down to talk for a while. I know I am decent at interviews, but dang I always feel stark cold fear when somebody puts a microphone towards me and I have no idea what they are going to ask me. I think in “essay”, not “sound bites”, and it really forces me to adjust quickly.

#93 Zane’s Favorites. When asked what his favorite color was, he immediately said “Orange”. Then the Speech Therapist asked him how to spell orange, and after a momment, he changed his mind to “Red”. His immediate response to “favorite season” was “Spring”, until asked to spell it, when he decided he liked fall better. I think I can safely say his favorite subject is not spelling. (It also makes me wonder if “dog” is really his favorite animal, or he just didn’t want to spell anything else)

When I put the camera down (I was trying to get a picture of the “favorite things” he did) to get him some dried plums he requested, he picked up the camera. I set down the plums, and instead of giving the camera back, this is what he did:

“Three”

(and then he reached down and ate one…)

“Two”

“One”

“Zero”

And other fun…

Some dear friends of mine (not using their real names in case they would prefer it that way), who supported us emotionally and helped financially during the rough time during Zora’s pregnancy, were set to give birth. In a horrible turn of events, their baby died shortly before labor. He was born still.

Like us, they had also undergone frustrating infertility. She was a nurse who worked in the NICU for years, supporting babies and their moms, and was such an incredibly valuable source of support for us when we had our own little one. She knew our needs before we did and I can’t tell you how much her support has made a difference in our lives.

I am so broken hearted for her and her husband. This is just so utterly unfair and horribly tragic.

This was her announcement at a mom’s board, where I met her.

Annoucing the passing and birth of Soren Emery…

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My heart is completely broken. My son passed away a few days ago in utero, the NST I had on Friday was picking up my heart rate, not the baby’s. It’s a really long story that I just can’t bear to type out right now.

He was 6lbs,0oz 18 inches long and had dark hair like his daddy. 10 fngers and 10 toes. And he’s left a hole in my life that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fix.

I know she is taking an internet break right now, and not wanting to be on the phone, but just in case she stopped by (she is a blog regular, as I am a regular to her blog), I wanted her to know that she, her dh, and beautiful Soren will remain in my prayers. I am so deeply sorry my friend. ANY TIME you want to talk, you are free to call, IM, or email me.

Zach refuses to take meds for anxiety, which sort of drive me crazy (ironic, isn’t it), but I understand and support him. After much discussion, we have decided we are going to make a concerted effort to exercise more, including Yoga & Tai Chi type things, and start practicing meditation.

By “coincidence” (I don’t believe in coincidence) there was a show on one of the science channels about a mummy found, that talked at length about Buddhist monks and their mediation practices (the mummy was a monk), and showed the scientific evaluation of how meditation helped control breathing, heart rate, etc. and how dramatically it could help. That sparked a search for a local place to meditate at, which lead me to the discovery of several places in town. However, all of them were strongly Buddhist (and I think one was Hindu) and we aren’t comfortable with that. We both appreciate Buddhist thought, but it is because there are a lot of parallels to Christianity that we find inspiring, but we aren’t Buddhist. We are Christian.

I have always thought of meditation as a form of prayer, and I don’t feel comfortable praying to anybody except God. There are a lot of calls to meditate in the bible (“Be still and know that I am God” is one that comes to mind first, and Jesus’ going off to a quiet place to pray at length is another). After some more searching, I found two websites that offered Christian meditation information/education. Christian Meditation and World Community for Christian Meditation. The latter appealed to me more, but the first one seemed a little more like “Christian Meditation for the Clueless”, which we are right now. I know you don’t need anything to meditate, but I thought the more guided meditation would be a good set of training wheels while we learn how to do this, how to quiet our thoughts better. I can do it in short bursts, but not for an extended period of time, at least not without my thought going all over the place. The closest I get is when I zone out during knitting. So, we got some of the mp3 downloads from the first site and are trying that. (some of the downloads are bordering on offensive to me, but most of them look good. I guess I will find out. lol)

I also found this cool Yoga-type video that I want. It is called “Yoga Prayer” and the following line in the description caught my attention: Ryan seamlessly harmonizes prayers like Psalm 84, the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis, and the Beatitudes with vitalizing yoga postures to create a uniquely powerful spiritual practice. (IMO, the Beatitudes are among the most important passage of the bible, and the Prayer of St Francis is one of my favorite writings ever). I had just gotten “Yoga for Inflexible People”, so I will do that for a while until I get a little more physically able to do the stretches (I can’t even touch my toes right now, so a lot of the stuff is just so far beyond me at this point there really isn’t any point until I get into better shape), but this is on my “list of things to get” when I am ready for it. I saw some other aerobics tapes “for Christians”, but many of them look too dorky for words, and this is coming from somebody who actually bought a Richard Simmons tape along with the Yoga..inflexible tape. lol.

#92 My Treasures! (and yes, that is Zora with another carrot in the background. The bunny now has a small pile of carrots and isn’t biting…literally)

#91 New Shoes! WooHoo!