About 6 months ago on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Emily's accident I wrote about the pain of going to bed praying for the "big miracle" and waking up trying to find the strength to be thankful for the little miracles. Some of those little miracles are very private and I won't talk about them in this blog. But I know that this blog is going out to people that are struggling with what we've endured and I want to provide hope. So here's some "little miracles:"

Losing an arm to a brain injury isn't the same as having an amputation. Yes, you and the amputee still have one arm left, but the amputee doesn't have the missing arm fighting against them, and the arm that's left doesn't shake and miss its mark. That's Emily's reality - her right arm fights her when she's walking, pulling back and throwing her off balance, and she can't always depend on her left arm and hand to go where she wants it to go. It's a long hard process leading to little miracle #1 - about a week ago Emily was putting on a sweater for school. I helped with the first button and asked her to work on the next button while I went and got her some earrings. When I came back she'd buttoned the remaining buttons. To the outside world a small victory - to us a major miracle.

A month ago we were ecstatic that Emily had gotten a B+ in pre-calculus on her quarterly report card. Since that grade, Em's gotten the second highest grade in the class on one test and a 100% on another. Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who had faith in her that she could do this.