Today I have found myself back at a very familiar place. Sanford Children’s Hospital. Lainey has appointments today and tomorrow. And I can…not…believe…it has been a year already. One year since she blessed our lives. One year since our lives changed. One year of having felt every emotion there is. One year of growth.

When you find yourself going through trials in life, I think you end up putting your head down and plowing through. You do what you need to do because you have no choice. And it’s not until you have gotten through it all and can look up and take a breathe that you reflect on what all happened. I have lately found myself reflecting a lot on this past year. And it wasn’t until looking at some pictures and video clips that I thought, “wow”. Did that all really happen? I mean, yes, it was a crazy time while going through it all and we felt it. The first night I got to go out and spending time with my friends I found myself in the bathroom crying because it all just sort of hit me. So it’s not like this is the first time I’ve looked back. But one year is a big deal. Especially when I remember feeling like we were living in 1 – 1/2 hour increments and crossing our fingers her next bottling would go better. A year away seemed impossible. But here we are. I put those pictures and videos clips into one video. I hope to look back on this video 5, 10 years down the road, still proud of how we plowed through. And I hope to show the video to Lainey someday and tell her how strong of a little girl she is.