My year

Hey friends and family!

I have sent several of you my blog link as an apology for not keeping in touch. I guess I should offer something of an explanation. The last year of my life, I feel like I have been on a rollercoaster ride, only not the fun kind. It's been a really exciting and great year, but we have had so much going on.

It started last January when we learned that Hadley was having trouble with her cochlear implant. We took her to see a specialist in Denver and learned the worst...that her internal device was failing and that within a matter of time, she would most likely lose the remainder of her electrodes and be unable to hear. That meant another surgery for a new implant. After a few visits with other specialists, we decided to take her to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to have her revision surgery. The Dr. we saw, John Niparko, is one of the very best in the field. Her surgery was at the end of February and initially appeared to go well.

In March, we learned that the revision surgery wasn't successful due to excessive damage caused by the first implant. She has some hearing with the revised implant but not enough. We scheduled another surgery for the day after school got out and she had her 3rd cochlear implant surgery on June 1st.

With the new surgery and the new implant came a learning curve and a few months of frustration. I am pleased to report that Hadley is now doing really well. Today, the hearing specialist from the district called and said that he is really pleased with her listening skills and that he finally feels like she is back on track. It took a year and a lot of work but she's all right!

We spent some time this year working on the Romney for President campaign. It was so much fun for us. We are so sad that he's out of the race but glad we got to share in some of the experiences of the campaign trail. Note to anyone reading: I do not recommend Iowa in August, especially when pregnant. The Straw Poll was really exciting but....wow...the humidity! The picture in the yellow shirts was taken about 15 minutes before I passed out. Seriously. We did get to talk to Campaign Carl, though, so that was cool!

We also made a great discovery this year: the very best time to take a trip to Disneyland. We went the week after Labor Day, when everyone has just gone back to school and we had a blast. There were no lines, the kids were perfect, the weather was perfect, and everyone had a great time. Of course, Stewart managed to plan yet another family vacation around a BYU football game so we had to go watch BYU lose to UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Maddox and Hadley loved the beach but I think Maddox is like his mom. As a true Florida girl, I hate the Pacific Ocean. It's way too cold. Maddox refused to go in the water!

Somewhere in the midst of everything, I managed to get pregnant with number 3. Lincoln Stewart Peay, apparently as impatient as my other two children, was born 8 weeks early. He arrived on November 19th and spent the next 6 weeks in the hospital. My other kids prayed and prayed for him to come home for Christmas but he didn't quite make it. Hadley, the eternal optimist, said, "That's okay! He'll be home by Kwanza!" Kids are great, right? I didn't even know when Kwanza was!

Those are really just the major events of the year. We've had more than a few minor events as well. Either way, it's been a crazy year for us. So this makes up for the Christmas card that I didn't send, right?