Easter

We had a great Easter weekend with my family in Atlanta!  Cohen went on an egg hunt at my parent's church on Saturday but had no interest in searching for Easter eggs; he only wanted to play on the playground!  He's still a little too young to grasp the concept of an Easter egg hunt but it was fun anyway.  On Sunday we went to church and my family came over for Easter lunch.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

New York City

Adam and I had another opportunity to take an amazing trip with the Wounded Warrior Project  (WWP), this time to New York City.  It has been about a month now since our trip...just taken me a while to blog about it.  Adam has been to NY before, but I never have, so this was definitely a great experience for us both.  Like I said in my previous post about our trip to Montana, the WWP is a non-profit organization that raises money to provide all kind of programs to assist wounded warriors and their caregivers in the healing process.  Adam and I cannot say enough positive things about the project as they have helped so many warriors recover from their visible as well as invisible injuries from war.

This trip to NYC was specifically for their major fund-raising event of the year which is the Courage Awards and Benefit Dinner.  This year the dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria which is an absolutely amazing hotel in the heart of Manhattan.  There were about 75 wounded warriors and their spouses/caregivers at the event and around 800 people total.  Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary under President G.W. Bush, was the MC for the event.  There was a silent auction with all kinds of merchandise and vacations for "sale" and you could donate monetarily as well.  Also, three awards were given out, two for community service/commitment to WWP and servicemen and women and one to a wounded warrior for courage.  We had an amazing time at the awards dinner and were so honored to be invited to this event.  Here are a few pictures at the Waldorf Astoria.

The WWP does a fantastic job of planning trips for warriors and caregivers.  The day after the Gala we were taken on a tour of NYC escorted by the NYPD.  We all loaded up on buses and toured the city including a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty and NYC from the water and a tour of the World Trade Center site and 9/11 Memorial, St. Paul's Chapel and the FDNY station next to the World Trade Centers.  That evening, we had dinner on the 40th floor of one of the buildings that has recently been rebuilt from September 11th.  Here is a picture of us with the view of the city in the background.

 

We had a little free time as well and did some shopping on 5th Avenue, went to a local Italian restaurant and spent some time with one of Adam's good friends who lives in NYC.  We had an amazing trip and will hopefully be able to go back and visit again soon!

Reunion

Most of you know that before Cohen came along, like most couples, Adam and I had our first "baby" or our dog Cooper.  Adam and I got Cooper together but the dog very quickly turned into Adam's best buddy.  Cooper likes me of course, but he LOVES Adam.  He is an awesome dog and is so good with Cohen, which is one of the reasons we decided to get the kind of dog we did, a Rhodesian Ridgeback.  Cooper is not your run of the mill dog but is pretty big (about 90 pounds) and is pretty quirky.  He does not play fetch or like water like most large dogs do, but instead looks at you like your an idiot when you throw a ball or frisbee.  He thinks he is a lap dog and will try to squeeze into the smallest space on the sofa just to be next to "his people".  The breed is called "counter surfers" as they will stand and "walk" along your kitchen counter tops in search of food and Cooper actually jumped over the island in my kitchen one time to escape from me when he was in trouble for eating food in the kitchen.  Cooper is a very sweet dog but it's not so easy to find someone to keep a dog like this, especially for an unknown period of time.

When Adam first was injured, Cooper initially stayed with our neighbor but he soon deployed in a couple of months.  Then Cooper went to stay with a good friend in Clarksville until he deployed in December.  After that we did not have anywhere to send Cooper since I did not want to burden anyone else so Adam suggested I contacted the breeder, Ann, where we got Cooper to see if she if she could keep him while we were gone.  Ann ended up contacting a couple, Scott and Debbie, who live about an hour from Clarksville to see if they could keep Cooper.  This couple had a Ridgeback that died just a couple months prior and they were pretty distraught.  And, it would be much easier logistically to get Cooper to their home than all the way to Atlanta where Ann lives.  So as soon as Ann contacted Scott he said "yes", they would take Cooper, before he even called his wife to ask her!  Of course she was on board with adopting Cooper temporarily too.  A couple of days later Scott and Debbie went to our friends house to pick up Cooper and ended up taking care of him for the next six months.  No questions asked and at the time, for an unknown period of time.  I kept in touch with Scott and Debbie via email and phone while we were in Tampa, Atlanta and Bethesda but Adam and I did not meet them until we went to visit Cooper in April of 2010.  Adam and I finally ended up getting our Copper back in the Summer of 2010.

Scott and Debbie were wonderful "parents" for our Cooper and were such a blessing for us.  We have now become great friends with this amazing couple who now have a new Ridgeback puppy of their own and a new baby in their family!  About a month ago, Ann came to Nashville to visit Scott and Debbie and to show their Ridgeback puppy in a local dog show.  Adam, Cohen and I went to the dog show to support Rafa, the new puppy, and to see Ann, Scott, Debbie and baby Caleb.  Our little reunion was so great!  Here are a few pictures: 

Reunion with Cooper at Scott and Debbie's Summer 2010

Reunion of everyone in March 2011:  Adam, Scott, Carrie, Ann, Debbie, Cohen, baby Caleb and Rafa

Cooper

Busy Busy!

Sorry it has been over a month since I last updated the blog...probably the longest since I started Adam's caringbridge website back in September of 2009.  We have been super busy the past month with lots of new happenings...

A lot of people have been asking how Adam is doing driving and are completely amazed that he is able to drive now.  He is doing great and we both love that he now has more independence than we ever thought possible since his injury.  He drives pretty much everywhere in Clarksville, to all his appointments and anywhere else he wants to go!  I still drive on long trips, on the highway and in big cities like Nashville or Atlanta which I'm sure he does not mind :)  I have taken a couple of long weekend trips to Atlanta for various reasons and Adam can stay in Clarksville by himself now and not have to worry about having transportation!  It is so great that we both have independence--another step towards normalcy.

I started working about a month ago--YAY!  I'm only working two days a week for a lady in town who has her own pediatric therapy practice.  She is wonderful to work for and I am loving being back at work part-time.  I am very blessed to have a career that I love and that is very rewarding.  It worked out really well because Adam started driving right before I went back to work so now he can take Cohen to daycare if he has an appointment; otherwise Adam watches Cohen while I am working.

We also put our house on the market about three weeks ago.  We have no idea when Adam will be getting out of the Army and when we are moving; however, we think it will be in the next few months.  Our realtor told us it would take about five months to sell our house so we wanted to go ahead and get it listed.  We are definitely hoping to be moved in the next five months--if everything goes as planned; however, the problem is we have no control over the Army ;)  It was a little crazy trying to get the house ready to put on the market the week I started working and getting ready to go out of town the following week...

Adam, Cohen and I took about a week of travel in March to go visit Charlotte, visit friends in Asheville and then to a friends wedding in Knoxville.  We had a great time on our little road trip.  Cohen was quite a handful at the wedding--thank goodness it was a beautiful day and he could run around outside with all of the other children.  Here is a picture of him at the wedding and a few more recent pictures:

Cohen at my friend Anna's wedding--being well-behaved for the time being!

Loves hats!

Cohen with his Aunt Lorra and cousin Benjamin

Updates on Adam

Just wanted to give a couple of updates on what has been going on with Adam. He is doing great, so no worries!  He went to Vanderbilt about a month ago and had a driving evaluation.  They recommended that he start driving on post and around Clarksville on smaller roads and gradually progress to busier roads over the next two months, avoiding high traffic times, no night time driving, no highway driving and no driving in inclement weather.  Pretty much what we expected they would say.  Then he goes back for a second evaluation in a couple of months to see how he is doing and see if he can drive in more "advanced" conditions.  When he went for his evaluation he had only driven about three times for maybe five minutes, on post where the speed limit is 25-35 mph.  Before that he had not driven since December of 2008.  He is doing really well with driving and hopefully this will eventually allow him some more independence!

Also, Adam's medical evaluation board has recently started.  This probably does not mean much to those of you who are not in the military, but it is a long and cumbersome process that determines if you are "fit" or "not fit" to stay active duty and if you are not fit, then it determines your disability rating with the military.  So the process has begun for Adam and we really have no idea how long it will take.  But, we will definitely have many, many life changing decisions to make over the next few weeks and months so please keep us in your prayers that we will make the right decisions!

Family time

The day after we returned home from our ski trip to Whitefish, Adam left for Texas to visit his brother and family.  Adam's brother Dan is active duty Army as well and was promoted to Colonel (yea Dan!!), so Adam went to Fort Hood, TX for the promotion and a visit.  Dan and his wife, Tracy, have three children, Hannah, Wyatt and Jack.  Maura, Adam and Dan's sister, also lives in Texas with her son, Mitch.  Their mother, Elizabeth, was also visiting from Colorado for the promotion as well.  Cohen and I did not go since Adam and I just returned from the ski trip and Adam's dad was coming to visit us the day after Adam returned from Texas.

I know I do not update very much on how Adam is doing anymore because it's really hard now to measure or put into words the progress he is making.  However, one pretty significant task he was able to accomplish completely independently on this trip to Texas was flying by himself.  This may not seem like a difficult task to most people, but it can be for someone with a brain injury like his, with his visual processing impairments.  I never would have thought a year ago he would be able to check in on a computer, check his luggage, get in through security, find his way through the airport to the gate, have a layover (in Atlanta of all places) and make it to the next terminal/gate and find his luggage and his brother at the airport in TX all by himself, with no problems.  I was a little nervous and very impressed, but of course it was no big deal to Adam ;)

Here is a picture of Adam and his brother at the promotion.  The two small children are Dan's and the older child is Mitch.

The day after Adam returned from Texas, his dad arrived from Utah for a visit.  Cohen had a great time with his Grandpa and by the end of the visit he wanted Grandpa to do everything for him instead of his mom or dad, like put on his jacket, pick him up, give him his milk or put on his shoes!  I think that Grandpa and Cohen both enjoyed their time together!

Whitefish, Montana

Adam and I just returned from Whitefish, Montana earlier this week after going on an amazing ski trip with the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).  The WWP (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) is a non-profit organization designed to provide many different services and opportunities to injured service members.  It is a wonderful organization and we were lucky enough to get to take a trip with them to Montana.  So I will just share a little about our trip....

We spent six days with six other wounded warriors (three of whom had spouses), three staff members from the WWP and many amazing volunteers from Whitefish and other places across the U.S.  And everyone was so wonderful!  All of the warriors and spouses had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed our trip.  The staff was awesome, so fun to be around and you can tell they all really love their jobs.  And the people of Whitefish were so gracious, generous and just kindhearted people!  There were so many people who went out of their way to make sure we had a wonderful vacation and who thanked us for being there.  It just made you never want to leave!

We participated in all kinds of fun activities on our trip.  There were three days of skiing, a day for the Whitefish winter carnival and a day for dog sledding/snowmobiling.  I was a little (or actually a lot) nervous about Adam skiing, but he did AMAZING!!  Who would have thought a year ago that he would be snow skiing this year?!  Not that I should be surprised since he has been able to do everything he's set his mind to since his injury (just like before).  All of the warriors had their own ski instructor and Adam's instructor was great and ranked in the top 100 in the country.  He is actually certified to teach the blind how to ski.  Since Adam is "visually impaired", he wore a vest that said so the first day or so he skied.  But at the end of the second day when the ski instructor, Link, and everyone else figured out that Adam was not having any problems seeing people, trees or anything else, Link decided Adam no longer needed the vest.  Like I said, Adam did awesome skiing and surpassed me on the morning of the second day (which may not be saying a lot ;0).

Whitefish has a winter carnival every year where they have a penguin plunge (which raises money for the Special Olympics), a parade through downtown Whitefish and other fun local activities.  Most of the warriors (including Adam) and staff, one of the wives and a lot of the local people from Whitefish participated in the penguin plunge.  I backed out the morning of--thank goodness because it looked really cold!  We were also a part of the parade that same day and had a great time participating in it.

On Sunday a group of us went dog sledding.  Another group went snowmobiling but Adam and I had done that before and wanted to try something different.  We were so glad we did because dog sledding was so much fun!!  The man who owned the business has 109 dogs and they all LOVE to run and pull sleds.  It was an hour long ride (about 11 1/2 miles) through a state park that he has a permit to sled through.  What an awesome adventure!

The rest of the trip we spent having great lunches/dinners, doing some sight-seeing at Glacier National Park and doing some shopping in downtown Whitefish.  We had a great week and have so many people to thank for making it happen.  And now have lots of new friends!  Here are some pictures from our week:

Groomer ride up the mountain our first day in Whitefish

View from top of the mounain

After skiing

Warriors and spouses after skiing

Adam before the Penguin Plunge

Adam, staff and other warriors with penguins before the plunge

plunge "pool"

Adam getting out of the COLD water!

Before the parade

Parade float

Warriors at VFW after parade

Dog sledding

Dogs ready to go!

Sledding!

Superbowl party

Downtown Whitefish

Link (Adam's ski instructor), Adam and Larry (volunteer from Whitefish)

Adam and JP, another warrior

Last dinner

Oprah's, "The Bravest Families in America"

I'm not sure how many of you were able to see Oprah's show on January 27 titled, "The Bravest Families in America", but it was heart wrenching!  I did not get to see it on air but watched parts of it online.  The show discussed the visible and invisible wounds of war and showed several different amazing military families.  It brought back many memories for me and made me so thankful for my wonderful husband and how amazingly well he has recovered from his injury!  It also made me thankful for all the sacrifices that our military men and women and their families make everyday for our country.  Just go to oprah.com and search for the show on January 27, 2011 if you are interested in watching.

Seattle

Adam and I took a trip to Seattle after the new year to visit some good friends from Adam's old unit, Dave and Megan Zientek.  After the guys last deployment, the Zientek's moved duty stations to Fort Lewis which is outside of Seattle.  Megan is from the Seattle area and loves it out there, understandably so because it is beautiful!!  The Zientek's have a beautiful house outside of the city, away from the Army post and pretty much in the middle of nowhere!  They are on a dirt road with lots of acres, beautiful trees and an amazing view of the valley and mountains.  It is a view that you typically only see in pictures!  We had a wonderful trip with them; spent some time relaxing and hanging out and also did the typical touristy thing in the city at Pike Place Market.  One of my good friends from Atlanta, Anna, recently moved out to Seattle so we also had dinner with her and her fiance, Ben, one evening.  Lots of fun with great friends!  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Dave and Adam

Megan and Dave

The rest of our Christmas vacation...

Sorry it has taken a while for me to post again on the rest of our holidays--it seems like so long ago now!  We had a great New Year's Eve and went to a concert with one of Adam's best friend's, Brian (who was in our wedding for those of you who may remember), and his girlfriend, Jessica.  They came into town from Washington, D.C. to see Zac Brown Band and invited us to come along.  Adam and I were super excited because we both love Zac Brown and, of course, always have a wonderful time with Brian and Jess whom we seldom get to see.  The concert was awesome and we stayed out really late, at least late for Adam and me!  We are use to going to bed pretty early and getting up pretty early as are most people who have toddlers.  And everyone knows that children do not sleep late the next morning after their parents stay up late, in fact, they probably get up even earlier ;)  I do not have any pictures of our New Year's Eve--not sure what we were thinking?!

We also had another fun night out with some friends the next night!  Kind of sounding like we are back in college again going out two nights in a row!  We have not done that in years.  Anyway, Adam has stayed very good friends with all of his college buddies who are now all married with children.  We all get together fairly often when we can, but always with our children who are all under the age of five.  This means that we can NEVER finish any conversation without being interrupted, at least the women cannot (the men tend to go hide in another room, the basement or outside somewhere!).  So we all decided to have an adult night out over the holidays: go to a nice dinner, go out afterwards and stay in a hotel in Buckhead.  There were 19 of us including Adam and me and we all had a fabulous time!!  Dinner was wonderful--lots of conversation to be had with no interruptions!  We tend to act like kids at a middle school dance when we all get together with the guys in one room and the girls in another and this night was no different:  the guys sat at one end of the table and the girls at the other end!  Someone did take pictures of this night, I just do not have any of them.