While I have plenty to do to keep me busy right up until the eleventh hour of 2012, our family is really looking forward to 2013. Sure...every year holds such promise and hope, but it is especially true for our family. See, to begin with...Kenna will turn a year old on January 9th.
There are loads of babies who turn a year old every day, but for us, this is a huge milestone. Kenna is the little girl who lived. She is the baby that shocked and amazed everyone with her determination and resilience. She is a survivor. After being born too soon and way too small, after six long months in the hospital, after surgery on her left eye for Retinopathy of Prematurity, double inguinal hernia repair, an umbilical hernia repair, and a Mic-key button insertion, Kenna finally came home...weighing a whopping six pounds.
We have had an infant for so very long. Our life this past year has been one long hospital visit after another, followed by doctor appointments, and therapists making home visits. And while it has been challenging, I wouldn't change any of it because I'm happy where we are. Kenna is making great strides to catch up in height, weight, motor skills. She requires an incredible amount of care, but I wouldn't trade one minute of that time.
What we look forward to in 2013 is Kenna graduating from oxygen, losing all the monitors and wires, having her Mic-key button removed, and getting to enjoy a life less isolated, less removed from society. We are looking forward to getting back to normal. Our old normal...the kind of normal where we don't have to count oxygen tanks, and carry an insane amount of medical equipment wherever we go. It will be nice to be able to go places again and do things and experience life with Kenna.
A year of living like this has made us appreciate the simple things. It was a good lesson that not everyone has a chance to learn. It was a hard lesson fraught with growing pains. It was the kind of year that changed our perspective, our direction, and our life forever. 2013 will be a year of simple pleasures, of family field trips to places that aren't medically related, and an opportunity to make more memories.
What do you look forward to in 2013?
When Nicki isn't playing nurse, wife, and mother, she can be found writing on Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey. Her novels, including one about the NICU experience with Kenna, can be purchased through Amazon.
