Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  I am sad to report that I failed to get pictures of the kids in their Easter finery.  It's because we were running late to the Easter Vigil.  I know, it's kind of ridiculous that we were running late to a service that started at 8pm, but that's what happens sometimes.

So, here we are Sunday morning, after having attended a beautiful liturgy at the vigil, we slept in on Sunday.  Then we had our usual Sunday waffles, but extra-special for Easter-- sausage, eggs, strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream, sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc.  Quite a feast.

 Poor Charlie got a shiner in the night.  Sometimes he just starts rubbing his eyes like crazy and then one of them will start swelling.  I'm still trying to figure out what this is about.  But, in the morning, Charlie woke up looking like he had been in a bar fight.

Lucy really wanted to go to the park for Easter, so we did.

Charlie trying out the swings for the first time.

 I know that's a lot of pictures of Charlie, but I just can't help myself.  He's just so dang cute.  

After that, we visited with our friends a little bit, and Lucy and her friend T ran around holding hands and giggling for an hour.  

Then we had Easter dinner with a group of our friends.  Afterwards, the musically inclined broke out the instruments.  You can see Lucy holding her ukulele below, and when she got bored with that, she banged a plastic spoon on a book.  

Now seems like a good time to share two bits of news.  If you haven't heard already, James has been accepted to the PhD program at the JPII Institute!  He was offered a full scholarship as well as a generous stipend, and we have decided that he will continue on.  We're very excited about this opportunity, as well as the likelihood that we will be staying in one place for a while (the program is five years).  Of course, we wish that one place was closer to family, but we hope that someday we will be able to move closer.  So now, James is finishing up his master's, we are looking for a new place to live here, and we're really looking forward to visiting home this summer.

The other news is that after undergoing a sedated hearing test, we recently found out that Charlie has moderate hearing loss in both ears.  We're sad to hear this news, of course, as this was the last of the big medical issues related to Smith Magenis Syndrome that we had to check out.  I am grateful though, that at least for the moment, this is Charlie's only medical issue, and that we have found it out now rather than later. I somehow had a feeling that this test would turn something up, even though we have not really noticed Charlie's hearing loss (Lucy only has to touch one of her toys and it seems that Charlie wakes).  I don't know much at the moment, besides that Charlie will be receiving hearing aids and an audiologist assured me that he will likely be able to hear very well with them.  We have an appointment in a month  to get the process started.  Thanks for all of your prayers, and for all of your support through both good and bad news.  God bless you all in this Easter season!