It doesn’t feel like November. We've had some 70° days in Fort Wayne. Perhaps it is a good time for a blog update.
Wow, it’s been over a year let’s get caught up.
Halloween outfit with Rudy (last year)
Ashley with
Great Aunt Kathy and Mom. We will be visiting Kathy and Dave
in Florida this winter now that they to have move down to the gulf coast
December means it is time to be celebrate with the gift of
giving. For over 40 years, inspired by
Miss Virginia, people in Fort Wayne have sought food donations and assembled
Christmas dinners of turkey and all the fixings for several hundred families
each year.
Ashley got us involved a few years ago. The current organizer, Suzie Beard, worked at
Matthew 25 a free health clinic in Fort Wayne when Ashley was in high
school. Both Ashley and Austin Miles
volunteered at the clinic while in high school.
How we have the pleasure of playing a small role in this very noble
cause.
Ashley adding gifts to the meals.
With Suzie.
2015 starts off with our annual trek down to Florida.
Ashley with Grandma in Naples.
On the beach in Marco Island with Miles.
A trip to see George (her ADEM soulmate)
and his family.
George’s sister Ana and
brother-in-law Tony hosted our get together at their home and we had the
pleasure of visiting with several of their family members.
We occasionally have issues with Canadian Geese. In Miami the pesky bird is Peacocks! Their beautiful until they land on your roof
with all the grace of a 747.
We celebrated Rudy’s 1st birthday on St. Patrick’s
Day. He thinks he owns the place.
In
April we attended the ‘Kelly Tough’ event in Fort Wayne. With former NFL quarterback Jim Kelly and his
wife Jill sharing how their faith helps the deal with the loss of their son
who was born with a terminal illness.
This spring our church St. Vincent's had a retreat for parishioners with disabilities.
June was a busy month –
Cousin Alex’s wedding where Ashley was dancing with everyone including
the groom and...
Great Aunt Kris.
The 3rd week of the month had us venturing down to our 8th Transverse Myelitis Association camp. This is our fourth camp at Camp for Courageous Kids in Scottsville, KY. Fun times with Sandy and Pauline.
The end of June marks eight years since Ashley's 'encounter' with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM). She continues to work hard and is still confident that she will recover. Getting flowers every year from friend Emily reinforces her motivation.
We all went to a Fort Wayne Tincaps (minor league baseball) game where we caught up with Aunts Janet
and Ann.
The best thing we ever had our neighbors
the Markley's do was putting in a pool.
Ashley is working out three days a week at Turnstone. This is arguably one of the nation’s top
facilities for exercise, sports, recreation and day programs for people with disabilities. With an expansion this year the state of the
art facility is over 190,000 square feet.
As summer was winding down Ashley made a donation to Locks-of-Love.
September is birthday month for Ashley. We had several family and friends over to celebrate.
Can you spot Ashley?
Henry and Cheryl weaved their way up to find us.
We dog sat for a few weeks for friends. Coby was a good dog, but I think we’ll stick
to one
Ashley had a procedure to lengthen her Achilles Tendons. This means being in casts on both legs for
six weeks. After two weeks the doctor
checked the surgery site and everything looked good. It was time for re-casting. Ashley had her choice of colors. With Halloween approaching and the Cincinnati
Bengals undefeated she decided to do an Orange/Black combination. Halloween was dry and not too cold for the
tricker-treaters. The Bengals are still
undefeated.
The casts come off on November 16th. Hopefully that won’t jinx the Bengals.
Thank you for your prayers. Ashley sends her love.
.JPG)
