It’s no secret this past year has been a rough one for us and many times it’s challenged my faith.  In those moments when well-intentioned people say things like, “it’s all in God’s plan…” or “God only gives you what you can handle…”  When you have a sick child (and I would guess when you deal with any sort of devastating sickness, uncontrolled crisis in life), your perspective on statements like that changes.  I completely respect others beliefs and know that these things are only said with the best of intentions.  For me though, I cannot have faith and also believe that this was meant to happen to my little lady.  For me, things happen, they aren’t necessarily given to us so we learn a specific lesson, they just happen.  How you handle them is where the lessons happen.

Easter is about re-birth – a new start.  Maura has shown this past year how to keep faith even faced with these situations.  She’s shown so much strength and tenacity and humor through a pretty crappy deal.  We are so very grateful and thankful for all the wonderful things she has accomplished.  At times it’s hard to see past the feelings of wishing this hadn’t happened to her, but it did and if we don’t move on, how can we expect her to.  It’s still a work in progress of course, and there is still a lot of work ahead of her, but I have faith that she will continue to be a strong fighter.  I also have no doubt that their are countless lessons yet for her to teach me.

This week, through an amazing connection, Maura was able to meet another person who has JDM and is in remission.  They even have the same doctor.  I will never forget the look on her face when she realized that the person sitting across from her had gone through a similar struggle and was now doing okay.  It was amazing.  She also went to Children’s in Chicago to see one of the leading researchers in the nation for JDM and got an amazing report (thanks to all the wonderful care she’s received here in Green Bay 🙂 )  I was amazed at how compliant she was sitting in an 8×8 room for four hours and being poked and prodded and asked to do so many things that most people take for granted.  She’s definitely my hero.

So in the spirit of re-birth here are a few pictures of her doing things that a year ago were impossible for her to do.  There is an energy to her movements that weren’t there before because she remembers and truly appreciates the ability to spin, twirl, walk, and run.  She has incredible faith.