I took Jordan to meet with her pediatric orthopedic specialist this week to make sure she doesn’t have any anomalies in her hips or spine. We decided to take this step after her physical therapist was concerned about a number of tiny issues with Jordan’s physical abilities and structure. It was so great to watch Jordan bravely get the x-rays and watch her ooooh and ahhh over what her bones look like. They’re so tiny! And the good news is she’s so healthy. Her doctor and I talked about options where we could with prosthetics. He recommended I find a prosthetic office that teams up with occupational and physical therapy. I appreciated his ideas… And I may consider that. But for now I feel empowered enough and knowledgeable enough from my current therapists that I feel I can go to our current prosthetic expert and get what Jordan needs.

It’s such a process… But I feel like Jordan is hanging in there and growing more and more with the arm she wears these days.

Speaking of growing. Miss Jordan started looking big to me today. Maybe it’s because we hung out with sweet babies over the weekend and she looked huge. But for some reason she’s just not my little baby anymore. (sob) Today Randy and I got to meet with Jordan’s teachers for a parent-teacher conference. Since her school is a child development lab, she was assigned a student to work with her throughout this semester. Her student teacher did all kinds of skills assessments and really got to know our girl. The result: A 15 page paper all about Jordan’s skills and goals to improve her skills. And a wonderful look at Jordan’s incredible abilities. I’m really proud of what she’s been able to accomplish with this school and I’m super proud of how she’s handling herself as a little person with a massive personality. I’m so proud to hear how well she is able to communicate (when she isn’t angry about not getting her way) and how she’s learning to express herself artistically. She’s also really trying to challenge herself physically. She actually uses the scooters in the playground… and tries pedaling the tricycle from time to time. All around, she’s rocking pre-school and that makes me very proud.

We all walked around the zoo, talked about things any family would talk about and then we’d periodically talk about little arms, Shriners, prosthetics and things we were/are worried about for our kids. It was a wonderful first time meeting and I can’t wait for more to come.

I can’t tell you how awesome it feels when you get to hang out with families who you would have never had a chance to meet without the help of our kids. I honestly feel we are all blessed to have this special connection. I am honored and it is amazing to see the places Jordan has helped take me – physically and in spirit as I grow each day with the help of both of my kids.

Yeah. That’s stinking cute. Jordan’s language is skyrocketing and many of her words that are in the past tense get and extra -ed or -ted added to them. I love it.

I came home from almost a week out of town to go to a friend’s wedding and speak at a national broadcast journalist conference. I’ve really been out of town a lot. So what did we do?

Went out of town again.

We’re staying in a hotel while I speak at a regional conference for journalists. I asked if I could bring the whole family because I really couldn’t deal with another weekend away from the family. And since we’re going to be out of town, we’re going to have a chance to meet up with a couple of families with sweet baby girls with limb differences. I can’t tell you how excited I am to meet them! Jordan and Cameron seem much more excited about going to the zoo – I’m much more excited about having a chance to meet more families face-to-face. It’s therapeutic. It’s fun. It’s incredible to be able to show time and time again that a limb difference doesn’t slow any of our kids down.

Oh – speaking of not slowing down. That picture is of Jordan this past Thursday when I took her and her brother over to our favorite ice cream place. One of her friends from school was there and Jordan got super goofy. This is her posing with the dog statue outside of the ice cream place. She loves the dog. She loves the ice cream and you can see she’s all over both in the picture. She kills me.

It is one of those little concerns that make you think back to high school prom. You worry you might have the same dress as some other girl. I kind of worried about that when I bought Jordan’s Easter dress on the sales rack. That fear sort of came true — but it came true in a very cute way. There were two sisters wearing the same dress as Jordan — but in different colors. I had to take a picture of three little girls being super cute.

That same night we watched the 60 Minutes package about Dean Kamen’s work on prosthetics with the U.S. military. The DEKA project was presented in a really fantastic way. Jordan got to watch it twice… And she desperately wanted to see the prosthetics and people with limb differences. Since then, she’s talked more about how people have two arms and she has one arm. She’s just ingesting that difference in that bright and cheerful mind of hers. It is just another step in growing up in a world where there aren’t that many limb differences.

So… I’m thinking about figuring out a way to fund an opportunity for our family to attend Camp No Limits. The group is bringing a camp to St. Louis for the first time this summer. I realize Jordan is only 3… but I think it would be so cool for our whole family to have more time with other families of limb different kids. I built this page because I’m hungry for that connection. But this summer connection would cost $1,000 to attend. I’m pretty heart broken that this organization charges so much for families that just want to connect. I realize running a camp can be expensive… but we’re also families that spend a lot of money on therapies, extra doctors appointments and for some families there’s cost of prosthetic and orthotics.

I do have two other small, less expensive meetings planned in the coming months. In two weekends, we’re going to meet up with a couple of families while we’re in St. Louis. (I’m speaking at a conference and taking the whole family along) There’s also a summer meeting planned through another mom who lives near us. It’s excited to know we’re going to meet a few more families. It’s comforting and a chance to celebrate our kids and the amazing connections we make through them!

So we met with our PT. She’s awesome. Jordan loves her. Cameron loves her. Hell, I love her. She’s just very knowledgeable and has never led us down the wrong path… And she’s been with us for so long and has spent a lot of personal time getting to know our family. In today’s visit, she got to enjoy how the kids have grown a TON lately. She also got to enjoy Jordan’s increasing precociousness. She checked Jordan’s ankle structure – they’re still turning inward a bit so we’ll keep working with the shoe orthotics. She watched how Jordan walks, climbs stairs and hops (which she can’t do yet). She checked out Jordan’s hip strength — she’s still so loose. We don’t know why. Her leg length was measured with a possible quarter to half an inch difference… It’s not that unusual for kids to have a bit of a difference but a quarter to a half an inch is a little more than usual. It isn’t anything to be concerned yet. We also watched how Jordan stands and sits — and there’s a little something that looks a little strange. She sits with a curve in her hips… She doesn’t sit straight up. It’s strange and there doesn’t seem to be a reason why. There also seems to be a slight lean to the way she stands. These are all things I wouldn’t notice without the expert eye spending time with us. But all those tiny things led her to recommend that we have Jordan’s hips and spine x-rayed just in case. Her reasoning (and I totally agree) is: We don’t really know why Jordan’s arm was made the way it was made. It’s possible there’s something else in her body that caused it and it could lead to other challenges. You just don’t know. So I’m waiting to set up a meeting with our pediatric orthopedic doctor. I’m hoping there aren’t any extra concerns… but I’d also like the peace of mind knowing that we’re keeping an eye on any possible challenges for Miss Jordan.

I also captured a moment of Jordan trotting with her horse, Thunder this past week. It was freezing outside, but Jordan didn’t complain. She did a really good job staying upright and centered on the saddle. It makes a Momma proud.

In other news, I’m wondering if there’s something the online community can do. The Shriners Hospital system isn’t able to raise money like it used to… And some of its hospitals are closing. It’s possible others will close soon. I learned about it from the Chaos and Mayhem blog. It looks like Shriners hospitals in Erie, PA, Galveston, TX, Greenville, SC, Shreveport, LA, Spokane, WA and Springfield, MA will close. According to Modern Healthcare, Shriners lost $3 billion due to the weak economy. Operations in the rest of the hospitals need to be trimmed by 20 to 30 percent. There are petitions out there to keep these hospitals running… But what will make that happen is money. I have only visited Shriners once, but it’s amazing what these hospitals do. I’m hoping to work with them to meet more families and children for Jordan to meet. Our closest hospital is two hours away… but some families have to travel across states to get there. Shriners are one of the few sources of inexpensive and free care for kids with all kinds of physical challenges. They do wonderful things and I’ve been lucky to work with them. If you’re able to give anything, here’s a link to donate to Shriners.