Talker update and Vacation Preview

We just arrived home from vacation.  It was fabulous!  Great to get away, relax, spend more time together as a family.  I LOVE vacation.

This year we went to spend time with an old friend of mine.  It was really wonderful to reconnect with her and meet her family and have her meet mine.  We found out that while our lives have changed - we added husbands, children and dogs to our lives - we pretty much are still the same people we were when we last saw each other something like 15 years ago.  Which is both Wild and Wonderful.   And it makes me wish we didn't live 6.5 hours apart so we could get together more often - if you're reading this Caroline, pick a date real soon to come down and visit us!  You know you have a really good friend when so many years can go by and then when you get together you just pick up where you left off like no time at all went by.  The fact that families got along great, too, made our reunion even sweeter.

I'll write a bit more about our fabulous vacation soon but I did want to update on something we found out before vacation.  Emma's primary insurance came through and pre-approved her eye gaze talker and mount.  All $17,000 of it!  When I got the letter I was on cloud 9 and jumped around grinning from ear to ear.  I cried some happy tears, too, because I just was not up for another battle with the insurance company to fund Emma's equipment.  They are long, exhausting battles and I usually get a few scars from each one.  I'm so thankful that I have one less battle right now because we are updating Emma's IEP and any parent that goes through IEPs for a child with similar needs as Emma knows that takes all your energy...and then some.  It also came at a time where I was having it all out with God on how come He couldn't just let one thing come easy to my Emma.  So maybe He threw us a bone.  And reminded me that He has our back.  And now I'm hoping that my writing about this good news here doesn't jinx us.  Fingers crossed we see her new talker in the next week or two!