2008 in review

I swear I will post pictures of Tomas later today or tomorrow!
This is a little late, but I am just finding the time to reflect on 2008. It was a busy year with lots of change. 2008 started off well with a nice 2 week vacation to DC and to Chile. It was a special trip to bring Catalina to meet my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins in Chile. Unfortunately Cata brough a stomach bug with her to Chile and she spent the whole vacation sick. The other sad part about that special trip is that is when she lost her verbal language. She had 6 precious words before we left for that trip and she came home with none.
The winter dragged on, I was working hard, and Kevin was still traveling for work, but April brought a great change for our family life - Kevin took a job at Target headquarters so he would not be traveling anymore! We got to celebrate with friends as we spent time with our best friends from med school in Denver and then went to Aspen to see one of my best friends from childhood. It was amazing to be with close friends again and to be able to share fun times with our children.
The winter finally turned to spring and summer and we got to enjoy the outdoors and the lakes. Cata had her Early Intervention (EI) eval in June and we went to a new pediatrician for her 18 month visit. Both of those were hard - the pediatrician was as concerned as I was about Cata so we were launching into a work up and the EI eval put on paper what I had feared, Cata was significantly delayed globally. The summer was a blur of test and doctors visits. At the end of the summer, burned out from working crazy hours and trying to keep up with everything, I took a leave of absence from work. We enjoyed one amazing week of me being home with Catalina, seeing some progress (she started walking!), we were so hopeful until the dreaded phone call on September 3rd that changed our lives. Rett Syndrome walked into our home.
Rett brought us a lot of sadness but has also had many positives. We were flooded by emails, calls, and letters from friends and family. We are blessed to have so much support. We were also so thankful to have the charitable support of so many friends - over $23,000 has been donated to Rett Syndrome research in honor of Catalina. The generosity of everyone has been overwhelming. The other positive that has come of Rett Syndrome is the group of wonderful families that we have met. They have provided support and showed us that life goes on and can be so full of love and happiness.
The fall flew by. We spent lots of time with new friends, went to DC for Thanksgiving, went to Alabama to see the Rett specialist, enjoyed our first Christmas without either of our families and rang in the new year with our dear friends and their family. Overall it was a busy, challenging year but we are thankful for all that we have been given and for another wonderful year in our lives.
Here is a summary of photos from 2008. Many have been on the blog before and others didn't make it.