Hope for the Future.

At church this week, a young woman with special needs asked us to support her in a fundraising walk.  Of course, we agreed.  Matt was checking his wallet for the ten bucks we pledged, and said, "I only have a twenty."  "That's okay," the young woman said with a grin, ready to up the pledge.

Clever and sweet, and a stellar fundraiser.  She gives us hope for Ellie.  Ellie, meanwhile, has been taking a lesson from the various protests we've encountered as we've taken her downtown.  (No, I do not know what was being protested at the last gathering we saw, but Ellie didn't care.)

(More milk for babies!  More milk for babies!)

This kid cracks me up.  Maybe she's working on her self-advocacy skills already.  She's ready to take on anything and anyone, including wild beasts.

(Ellie takes on Leonard the Lion.)

(Ellie can also take down this tiger.  Growl.)

As far as hope for my own future at the marathon, I ran for nearly 27 minutes, without walking!  Even running without the stroller, I have suspicions that the neighborhood hills have grown since Ellie's birth.  Ellie has been getting the best workouts in the family, walking with grandma, running with mom, and running with dad. She loves being outside. 

(All the workouts wear Ellie out.)

Grandma has been watching Ellie during the day when we're at work, and over the weekend, she took care of another major need at our house: the back patio.  After a hot summer last year, neglect due to pregnancy stress, and squirrel attacks, the patio was looking pretty sad.  Grandma planted plenty of flowers that will give us a more pleasant view when we eat outdoors and relax.

(Some of the new flowers.)

Aside from her moments of hunger-induced grumpiness, we are blessed to have hope for our sweet, dramatic, beautiful girl. I'll brag - she can roll over front to back, if she's on a slant she can go back to front (resulting in anger, because she hates being on her tummy), and she can hold her head up for about 30 seconds!  Best of all, she is starting to smile more frequently.

(The sea of stuffed animal friends.)

I believe Ellie will continue to bring hope to the rest of us.

(Leonard just hopes Ellie will stop eating his mane.)