More Maryn

Because Maryn's birthday was only 2 weeks after she got to her great school, we got permission to do things a little differently...

We got to have dinner with her, bring a cake and a few gifts and have a private party with Maryn and the kids.

 

My camera wasn't ready but if I could have gotten a movie film crew in I would have done it for the moment when Maryn saw her brother and sisters for the first time. 

It was slow motion in my mind of her opening the door and seeing her siblings standing there.  She wrapped her arms around them and cried.  

They hugged each other and cried.

I cried watching them love each other.

 

It was so awesome to all be together!

Had I known that the cafeteria was serving corn dogs and french fries I would have made something special and brought it in for her birthday dinner. 

But it was the company and not the food that made it a great time.

Nothin' like a Texas Chocolate Sheet cake to say Happy Birthday to my Maryn!

Aunt Marianne made Maryn's favorite cheese ball that we delivered...

2 years in a row makes a tradition I guess.

Emmy had no problem making friends with all the of the girls in Maryn's school.  She jumped right in asking for names and addresses to become pen pals with them.  She taught them some games and they taught her some too which made it fun for EVERYONE. 

I got a kick out watching Maryn clean and do her jobs after we ate.  No one was standing over her forcing her to do anything; it's just what is required there and she did it!
 Hmmmm... I better take some tips.

After we ate we went to the lobby and played lots of fun games for a couple of hours together.

She got lots of pictures and cards and gifts from family members that we delivered. She couldn't receive too much so her gifts included photo albums, chap stick, lotion, headbands and nice letters.  We were able to focus on the little things and just being together.

I LOVE this girl so much! 

I can't believe that she is 16 years old! 

When Maryn was 2 she thought she was already 16 and that feeling never left her.

But, here we are, finally 16 years old and she is in a school where she can't date or drive or have a humongous friend party.  So ironic since typically teenagers live for this birthday. 

This birthday we could focus on things that really matter: family and relationships.

Our gift to her was giving her this opportunity to realize how great she is.

Her gift to herself was to begin to LOVE herself and become the best girl she could be.
Her testimony is being strengthened each day and the love she feels from Heavenly Father.  I could ask for nothing more.

 

My feelings today were sort of sad because I wanted Maryn's 16th birthday to be the funnest, biggest birthday ever!  But, I was also relieved that she was safe and on her road to greatness and we can put off her biggest birthday ever to be next year when she turns 17 years old.  But I'm in no hurry.

 

A week after Maryn's birthday she had a dentist appointment. 

Well, look who just happened to coincidentally show up in the parking lot outside the dentist after her appointment: EVERYBODY!  We got lunch together and had the best time!

After lunch we went to Target to get Maryn some supplies.  Inside the store she started having an attack of some sort.  Her stomach hurt, she couldn't walk, she got in the cart and was crying.  The pain was down on her right side so immediately we thought it was her appendix. 

I could not take her back to her school in that condition so after the Urgent Care turned us away because they didn't have the equipment to check the appendix we went to the ER, where we stayed for the rest of the day and most of the night.

They gave her lots of medication to take away the pain, which actually made her feel worse, and they did lots of tests.  We were so tired and had to wait FOREVER for all the tests that finally at 10:30 at night when we got the results of everything, the final diagnosis was  large cysts on her ovaries. 
Nothing could be done about it,
so go home and go to bed.

Maryn got permission to go home with me, to stay the night and I was to take her back to school in the morning. 

After Maryn's follow-up dentist appointment a week later, we just happened to all meet at Red Robin for lunch.  Grammy Slichta was visiting from New York and she joined in on the fun too

I got to play with Kenley and wanted a picture of me and her together. 
LOOK at how silly she was... never looking at the camera...

NEVER looking at the camera...

Not even once looking at the camera...

She's a sassy little 2 year old...

Maryn got to eat in between her 2 grandmas.

Both love her a lot and both had a lot of good advice, wisdom and counsel to share with her.

Love Maryn! 
Love what this experience is teaching her.
She is being prepared for something great in her future!
And I love that we get to see her as much as we do.