Getting in the Christmas Spirit

I'll admit that its been very hard to do this year. Knowing that Maggie is going to need another surgery makes it really hard to concentrate on the fun in life. Christmas is always our favorite time of year. Not so much because of the presents , but of the giving. We love to give gifts to others when the opportunity arises. Sometimes we don't even wait until Christmas day to give.
Just last week we bought our Director of Religious Ed ( DRE) a great gift that I know will be so helpful to her for her teaching at the school, Religious Ed, and Kid's Club.
She absolutely loved it , along with it I gave her an awesome copy of Puppet Saints.  Its an ebook by a blog called Catholic Icing where you can print out little stencils to make Saint Puppets out of paper bags. My girls have loved it and we knew the kids at the school would love it too.    We're also going to start making soaps , handmade soaps to give and to eventually sell as well.  I think that too will be a great fundraiser to help defer the costs of this next trip to Cincinnati.  I love handmade soaps as they clean so much better and leave your skin feeling soft. But I'll leave that for another day to post on the blog here.

As for Christmas Maggie is super excited and she can't wait to see what Santa brings her this year.

She has been wondering each and every day and imagining what Santa will bring her. She even wonderfully crafted a Christmas list detailing what she would like. So we'll have to see what Santa brings this year. 

On the medical front things continue to be the same with her bladder. Many bladder spasms each day, thankfully they aren't causing her pain like they do for so many people that get them, or at least she's somehow not recognizing it as pain. Not being able to access her Mitrofanoff is a real pain and I find if we don't access it at least twice a day for some reason it feels like it swells inside. I'm not sure if I'm doing it when she's having a spasm and that's what I'm feeling but its strange. We do know with the last cystoscopy that the Mitrofanoff channel is good. So I'm thinking my theory maybe correct. 

For some time we were also having equipment failure and lots of urine leaking onto Maggie's bed. I'm not sure as to why but it was what it was and I think for now we're okay with her night drainage. Though we've had some strange instances of urine managing to go around her cap and leaking all over with her supra pubic tube. At first we thought that her cap had fallen out, or had gotten lose. Only to find this was not the case at all and with her leaking urine all over her pants. Not a fun thing to clean up, especially when we're out in public.  

We do continue to pray to God, and ask St. Margaret of Costello ( a Saint that, too ,was born with physical birth defects) for intercession on Maggie's behalf that a miracle take place, and her bladder will do what it is supposed to do so we can avoid this bladder augmentation surgery altogether. I know its a HUGE order to ask for, but we know that miracles do happen. 

As for now we'll continue to celebrate the Advent season the very best we can. 

Won't you consider donating this holiday season?  Each donation will be greatly used for our next trip to Cincinnati for Maggie's Bladder Augmentation surgery. 

Also for each $10 your name will be put in our television raffle for a 37 inch Vizio television set. 

We always thank you from the bottom of hearts and may God bless you this Christmas season.