Absentee blogger is back

Wow, I  haven't made many entries in the last couple of weeks. We are crazy busy. 

Loves playing in the leaves and asked mommy to fill it up.

I’m in the midst of trying to find footwear for Sidney. She has a limb difference of about 1 ½ inches. We purchase two pairs of shoes, because her feet are two different sizes. It takes her a couple of days to get used to the bulk of the lift. We tried Nordstrom’s for the first time. It allows people with feet of at least a 1 ½ size difference to buy two pair of shoes and return the unused sizes. This is awesome, because Sidney’s feet are a size 4 and size 8. I read the history and the store founders wife had polio. Though it’s a store policy, I always feel like there’s someone needing it worse.  

Finally picking our late planted tomatoes.

So, the difference between her feet is obvious. As she grows, we also face the physical difference developing between legs. It doesn’t have a negative impact on Sidney’s overall wellbeing. Thankfully, she’s still young enough, she lives blissfully unaware this is taking place. She calls her smaller side her “little foot.” As a mother, it’s tough. I thought I moved past the emotion involved in watching anything adverse happen to my girl. But that’s not the case. And I don’t share this, because we feel sorry for her. If anything we ignore barriers based on society’s perceptions, thinking of possibility alone. I think it’s my lack of control over the situation that’s troubling. 

If your catching up, she has hand anomalies, but her hands were caused by fibular hemimelia. This means she is missing her fibula bone. This creates a limb difference which becomes more pronounced as she grows. There is a 13% difference between her right and left legs, but 13% increases as she grows. It bodes well for her that she is small and petite. 13% isn’t as much for a person hovering around 5ft as an adult as it is for a tall person. 

Writing this, it seems ridiculous to bring it up. Sidney is thriving. We’ve worked past so much in the last two months alone. She no longer follows me to the bathroom. If I go upstairs to do something quickly, she doesn’t follow me screaming. It’s wonderful. It’s a huge burden lifted. She’s starting to better understand permanency. Her recent night terrors have gone away. She’s sleeping in a toddler bed. She wakes up every morning and looks outside with the happiest expression and says “sun up!” She loves school and tells us, “I want to learn to read.” 

Honestly, most days, we don’t remember there is a physical difference. It’s Sidney. Physical steps backward don’t matter, because for every physical step backward, there are a million more forward. everything, she’s a normal, ornery three year old. , I wonder what the people in the orphanage might think if they could see her now. 

We are off to Eli’s football game. I am interested to see if this is a one season extra curricular. Then there’s Tom work like a mad man. It’s getting colder each morning. His 9-5 is busy, and our side business is crazy. He worked a 16 hour day yesterday. I joke that he needs to go out to the garage and take up a hobby like woodworking for the other 8 hours of the day. Who really needs sleep? And like a gift from above, he found out he isn’t on as tight a schedule as he thought, and he will be home today and tomorrow! 

OK, off to find enough clothes to bundle up for the football game this morning.