Where we are now...

So much has happened since we left the feeding clinic, I'm going to limit it to bullet points, otherwise you'd never get through reading this post! (and I'm not sure I'd ever find enough time to write it.)

• We left Evansville on Thursday evening after a final day of therapy.  The whole staff joined together to celebrate Sunshine and our sweet friend and their progress over the past five weeks.
  

 

•  Thankfully, we were able to fit Sunshine's new chair in the trunk of the car and we got a car top carrier to hold our suitcases.

• We attended a Conference in Terre Haute, IN over the weekend.  What a fun time it was to connect with our fellowship there and build new relationships!
• We drove back to South Bend/Mishawaka and crashed at our friend, Thomas' house.  We were so thankful for that place to stay while we went through the craziness of packing that followed.
• Matt's mom flew out to help us with the girls while we packed, and help Matt's sister as she was also in the middle of packing and preparing to move.

Sunshine models her new high chair.

• Matt and I spent Tuesday, Wednesday,  and Friday of that week at our storage unit, sorting and purging through at least half of our boxes (everything that was not already packed for Spain).  It was cold and windy!  The first thing we had to dig out was some warm clothes.  Meanwhile, Matt's mom got a crash course at feeding Sunshine and they both did great! 

Watching us come in from the car.

We loved having a few days to enjoy Autumn!

She was equally excited when it snowed.

• We were thankful for the opportunity to have one last Sunday at Redeemer, our church family in South Bend.
• An awesome group of people helped us load up the trailer Sunday afternoon!  We were so tired of lifting and moving all those boxes, it was amazing to have help.

All loaded up!  Incredible.

These girls are so used to having boxes around by now!

•  Early Monday morning we left South Bend, along with Matt's mom and sister, Anita.  Monday was our long day of driving.  Pulling a trailer, we could barely get up to 60mph, so it took a total of 14 hours to drive to Omaha.  We were so glad when that day was behind us!

Comfy for the long trip!

A quick supper stop meant Buttercup got to have a "picnic" in Tia's car listening to Frozen.

• We spent Tuesday in Omaha with my grandma.  We so needed that day to rest after our long travel day and we all enjoyed spending time at grandma's house and seeing some of my cousins and aunt and uncle in the evening.
• We took Wednesday and Thursday to drive the rest of the way to Colorado Springs.
• Friday we were greeted with a fantastic group of men from our office here who helped unload the trailer.  They were life-savers as we were not at all acclimated to the altitude!
• Since we've been here, we have been busy unpacking and moving in to our space here.  Trying to decide what to unpack and what to leave in boxes for now has been a challenge.  The girls are loving their big play area and having their toys out of boxes.

Sunshine has been walking all over and loves to play "kitchen".

Buttercup has adopted many new dolls, some of which used to be mom's and mine.

I love seeing these sisters bonding and playing together.  Buttercup is such a good big sister, helping Sunshine with difficult things and "reading" to her often.

• And, what I know everyone has been waiting to hear, Sunshine has been doing awesome with her eating!  I think she has only thrown up once in the past month.  That is big improvement in itself.  But that isn't all.  She has also increased her volumes slowly since we left the clinic.  Yesterday she ate/drank a total of 34.6oz throughout the day!  Amazing!  We stay busy keeping up with her feedings and blending and measuring out her food and drink each day.
• We have gotten our CO drivers licenses, started important insurance paperwork, visited a couple potential preschools for Buttercup to attend starting in January, and begun the process of getting Sunshine back into an early intervention therapy program.

We love living with Nana and Opa!

Buttercup enjoys tea parties with Nana.

Here we go again!

The past three weeks have been an absolute blur.  Even as we were driving down to Evansville yesterday, our life and routine of feeding clinic seemed more recent than the chaos and lack of routine we'd had while packing.

Packing up a house and moving out in three weeks is a big job, only to be taken on by the crazy or those who have a great support system.  Maybe we are a little bit of both.  But, we definitely couldn't have done it without all the help of our friends.  Thank you to all who watched the girls, packed boxes, carried heavy things, moved truckloads, vacuumed, cleaned, brought food, hosted us in your home, and gave us hugs and encouragement.  Handing over the keys on Saturday afternoon was monumental.

These girls had a great time together while the mommies were busy packing.

Buddies who came to play for the afternoon.

These girls have such a sweet friendship.

And now we are here.  Back in the same room at the Ronald McDonald House.  Ready to begin "feeding clinic" life again.

Our address is:
Sophia Thiessen
3540 Washington Ave
Evansville, IN 47714

This is our room!  The Ronald McDonald House really is beautiful.  This is where the four of us will be living for the next 5 weeks.  We are thankful there are common areas though!

Sunshine's pack 'n play sits in the corner.

Buttercup was so excited to get here.  She even asked to take a picture next to Ronald McDonald.  Something she had not wanted to do last time we were here.

 Our schedule looks something like this (we are now on Central Time):
8-9 AM - Therapy
10-11 AM - Therapy (while Buttercup and I do some "home preschool")
12-1 PM - Nap time for Sunshine between therapy sessions
1-2 PM - Therapy (Buttercup has some rest time after lunch)
3-4 PM - Therapy (Buttercup likes to come over to the clinic to play during Sunshine's last session)

Then, we have a couple hours off before we have supper and feed Sunshine for the 5th time each day.
We try to take turns doing the therapy sessions and feedings as much as we can, but it is a full and tiring schedule for both of us.  We are looking forward to seeing what they are going to work on with Sunshine next and excited to see more progress for her!  Our miracle prayer for these five weeks is that she could be getting all her nutrition by mouth and we would not have to use the tube at all by the end of it.  Please pray with us for that!

Welcome to Chaos

Our life in pictures...

Buttercup decorated boxes to pack her toys in.  She has also been a great help with packing!

Sunshine lookin' cute before she takes her afternoon nap.

Thankful for friends to play with!

We've been eating out a bit more than usual.

Our furniture is disappearing and making way for boxes.

Which have become fabulous toys.

A little movie is best on a rainy packing day.

The storage unit is slowly filling up (and quickly becoming more orderly than our house!)