Today is my dads 51st birthday, and I would like to wish him a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I can’t help but think back to his last birthday, which was spent so much differently.

Today also marks one year(+one week) since our world was turned upside down.
The seemingly endless days of hospitals, doctors, sleepless nights, and tears.
I vowed never to forget what it felt like to be so completely helpless. Because it’s those weeks spent by dad’s bedside praying he would just somehow be okay, that make me realize just how fortunate I really am to even have a father. And it was the doctor who told us he would never be able to speak or comprehend speech again, that makes my dad a living, breathing, SPEAKING miracle.

Sometimes, just briefly, I remember what our life was like before and it scares me. It scares me because I realize we have absolutely no idea what life will look like next year. It scares me because I took my perfect, comfortable lifestyle SO for-granted. And it scares me because I realize way too soon, I will again do the same. So while the last year has been the hardest year of our lives in so many different ways and our lives aren’t back to “normal” – there’s a good chance Dad’s speech will never be perfect– it has become the new normal. And if there’s anything this past year has taught me its to cherish the people closest to me. To live purposesfully. To never, ever judge a person or situation from the outward appearance. To make time for the things that really matter. And to be more thankful for each year that I’m blessed with so very much.

xoxo.
Kayla