I'm Finally Home!

I can't even describe the feeling I had yesterday as we flew over the mountains and into the valley I love. I was bursting with joy! I had given up all hope that I would ever return to this glorious place, a true heaven on earth, yet here I was, staring up at the majesty of the Grand Teton Mountain Range. I want to cry just telling you about it! My dear God has blessed me, yet again, I will be forever grateful!

Hannah and I had an interesting trip. We left Buffalo on Monday evening at 6:10 and when we arrived in Cleveland, we found out our plane to Indianapolis had been delayed until 11:00, we were supposed to be in Indianapolis by 10:15. We had over four hours to kill in Cleveland and finally arrived in Indianapolis at 12:05 a.m. I had a reservation at an area hotel, and it was after 1:00 before the shuttle got us there. We needed to be back to meet our family at 5:00 a.m. So I had a total of 2 hours sleep.

My niece, nephews, and their mom were waiting for us at the airport when we arrived and what a joyous meeting! I have waited for this for 12 years, ever since my niece Amber was born. To be honest, I felt like we had been getting together their whole lives, everything was comfortable and easy. The kids were very nervous about the plane ride, but once we were up in the air, they loved every minute!

Coming home has truly been the highlight of my post transplant experience for several wonderful reasons. I am here with three children whom I have loved their whole loves, yet never been able to hold; I am in my beloved home with the two best parents in the ENTIRE world and my sweet daughter; and I am breathing easy, without oxygen here, INCREDIBLE!

I can't wait to share pictures with you. Hannah has the camera, they all headed off with Granddaddy this morning to visit a rescue center for birds. I am trying to recover from my lack of sleep while traveling.

Thank you for your many prayers, they are SO appreciated!

Beautiful Girls

I know I said the last post would be my last before our trip, but I had to share these pictures.

Check out my beautiful girls!

This is my niece Amber at her dance recital, doesn't she look lovely! 

I get to meet her tomorrow and I can't wait to give her a BIG hug!

Hannah was in a parade this weekend with the Olean Area Irish Dancers.  Can you find her in this pic?

Here she is with one of her best Irish Dance friends, Emily.

She got contacts on Saturday and I am still having a hard time adjusting to her without glasses.

Hannah, Emily, Rae, and Haley after the parade.

We fly to Indianapolis today.  I can't wait!  Please pray that this trip home is a good one.  This is what I have been looking forward to since my transplant.  Nothing compares to being able to return to my beloved Mountains in Jackson Hole!  I truly never thought I would see that valley in the Tetons again. 

Thank you, Lord!

Busy Week!

Wow, this has been a busy week!

Hannah finished 5th Grade and Moved Up to 6th Grade.  My baby is in Middle School!

I have been working for a few weeks on some landscaping by our driveway and I finally got it finished.

Here is the final product.  The plants will hopefully bloom at some point.

Though I had to be careful while gardening, it sure felt good to be able to do it!

I celebrated two special people's Birthdays, My Mother-in-Law, Gail's, and one of my very best friends in the world, Debbie B.'s.

Hannah and I got hair cuts

 Here is my scary attempt to take our picture and show you...

And now, I am getting ready to fly home on Tuesday, Hooray!

Hannah and I will fly to Indianapolis on Monday, meet the kids at the airport on Tuesday morning, and we will all fly to Jackson on Tuesday.  I am SO excited!

So, this will be my last post, potentially until we return.

My love to you all!  Nancy

Let's Support the Singing Sisters

A couple of night ago I was watching America's Got Talent and, to my surprise, two sisters came on who both have CF.  Actually, they come from a family where all 4 children have CF, incredible!  They sang The Climb, by Miley Cirus, and I thought they did a great job!  They had a wonderful message of hope for people with CF.  I am not sure when we can start calling in to support performers, but if you are a watcher of America's Got Talent, then please consider supporting them.  I think it is wonderful that they are living out their dream and showing the world that CF can't stop us!  Go Christina and Ali, continue to inspire us, and make your dreams come true, despite our awful illness!

If you didn't see the Singing Sisters, check them out here. Don't forget to pause the music player.

Some misc. pics that got missed along the way.

It seems like I get too busy to always post events that are happening, so I thought I would share some pictures that got missed along the way.

In May Hannah competed in Solo Fest with her flute again.  She was very nervous this time around, but did a great job!  Here she is before we left.

This is Hannah with her friend Destiny at Solo Fest.

For one of Hannah's classes, she had to do a project about a Greek God or Goddess.

Her Goddess was Athena.  I talked her out of doing a diorama of Athena coming out of Zeus' head

and instead, she built the Parthenon.  Here is the finished product.

I don't know if you can see it, but there is even the statue of Athena inside.

Finally, on the day that Hannah and I were at her Band competition at Darien Lake, Scott stayed home to build a pool deck.  We have had the pool for 4 years, but have never had a deck.  This is wonderful!

So, just a little catch up on things you missed!

An Amazing Father's Day Weekend!

Have you ever had a weekend that was so perfect you just didn't want it to end?  That was this weekend for me.  There is nothing like spending the weekend with your family away from all distractions and stresses.

We went camping at the State Park this weekend to celebrate Father's Day.  We camped at the same site we camped at last year and we just love it!  There is a stream across the street, it is quiet and peaceful, and this year we made some adorable friends.

Unfortunately, I thought I was putting the pictures on starting Friday, but instead, they are reversed, so let me take you through our weekend starting yesterday and going back to Friday.

We got home yesterday, cleaned up the camper, watered the flowers that were wilting, and swam in the pool.

I discovered this little guy when I was watering the garden, I can hear my mom screaming now!

It was the perfect day to relax by and in the pool!

Saturday night by the camp fire.

 Now, I know we were probably being naughty by feeding these guys, but I promise, there were no

signs telling us not to and they were so precious!

We had several raccoon friends hanging around.  They were very gentle and would take the food right

out of our hands.  It was a lot of fun to watch them!

This one was very interested in the camera.

Say Cheese!

Hannah invited her Irish Dance friend, Amber to come with us.  The girls had a wonderful time together.

On Saturday we rented a paddle boat to go out into the lake.

Who knew you could use a paddle boat as a diving board!

I don't think I realized a picture was being taken.

Scott, always the jokester!

We had a picnic and the girls swam at the beach.

We discovered some large rocks in the park, called Thunder Rocks.  We all had a good time trying to climb them!  Can you imagine, I was able to climb rocks, I still can't believe it!

King of the Mountain!

The girls and I took a walk down the stream by our campsite.  It was gorgeous!

The deepest spot.

We had several flute concerts.

I was amazed at the difference in how well I felt this year versus last year at the park.

It is such a MIRACLE!

My Sweetheart!

What a wonderful weekend!  The only thing that would have made it better is if my dad could have been there too!  He would have loved every minute of our campout!

Thank you Daddy for instilling in me such a deep love of nature.  Your passion always affected me and now I know it also infected me.  It is a joy to share with my daughter the love of nature that you taught to me!

I can't wait to be there next week and give you a great big Father's Day hug!