AAWWW, ((((((Kamie)))))),



It's always hard when real-life doesn't turn out like the picture that we have in our heads. Voice of experience talking here

Take some time to cry and grieve for that image that doesn't exist anymore. Then dust yourself off and rejoice in what you do have.

I was looking over your photo albums the other day. I can't believe how fast they're both growing. Zoe's starting to get that long, lean look -- moving away from her baby fat.

They keep growing even when I'm not watching -- don't they

This has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but, it's related. When my Dad was 16, he caught his right arm in a machine in a carpet factory. The machine tore his arm up real bad. He was in the hospital for two years. Had to learn how to write left-handed.

My Father had the most beautiful hand-writing. AND, he created things -- solutions -- that, to this day, still amaze me that he was able to physically do it. My Mom had an old sewing bucket -- the strap that held the cover on broke. He spliced together some old leather -- looks like it might have come from an old belt. It's so precisely spliced that you almost can't see the splice. For him to be able to do something so precisely with the use of only one arm makes be just so proud of him.

My Dad has been gone since just after Thanksgiving 1977.

Tonight, I heard on the news that the researchers are testing a way for amputees to be able to communicate using their brain to make a prosthetic arm move. They move the nerves from the shoulder to the chest wall. Then the person who's lost her arm learns how to use her mind to make the nerves communicate and move the arm.

If my Dad had been injured now, they would have been able to give him back the use of his arm. He could only pick it up or down. He couldn't use his hand.

It just amazes that every type of illness or disease that I've lost relatives (or ex-spouse) to now has some sort of a treatment that gives, if not a cure, at least a much-much longer life.

What will be available for Zoe -- before she even finishes high school -- it just boggles my mind. There are miracles on the way for Miss Zoe. Believe it. I do

Kamie, you're gonna learn to love those AFOs, 'cause they're gonna give Zoe a way to do something NOW, until a better solution comes along.

BIG HUGS (and love).