I started a blog about 6 months ago about my switch from a working mom to a stay-at-home mom.  I was totally uninspired.  I made 2 blog posts in the 6 months since I’ve been off.  I don’t know if it’s been a combination of being home for the first time EVER with a very difficult 5 year old and an over scheduled 8 year old and just getting completely wrapped up in life with them or the fact that I’m basically breathing air through a straw while I’m 10 feet below water but I’ve always found an excuse to NOT blog.  And I love to write so clearly it was the wrong material.

My 8 year old, Sporty, had surgery December 1, 2016 to correct a clubfoot.  She was actually born with bilateral clubfeet but we fixed her left foot 3 years ago and conquered the right foot this past year.  It was rough but through it all her spirit was for the most part, unwavering.  I recently posted a picture on Facebook of about 25% of her casts and AFOs lined up in a path leading to her fully corrected clubfeet (I’ll post that when I get a little more savvy on wordpress) and her former kindergarten teacher (she’s now in 2nd grade) suggested I write a book on her and all she’s accomplished despite her lot in life (and yes, I know our lot could have been a lot worse, I’ll get to that argument eventually).  While I’m flattered she thinks I’m book worthy, I’ll settle on blog posts for now.  Maybe when Sporty gets a college scholarship for softball (her current goal) or soccer, I’ll go for that book deal.  For now, I’ll be the cliché stay-at-home blogging mom.

As I’ve thought about her teacher’s quick statement as we passed in the halls before school one day, I’ve always felt like our family has been given clubfoot and our extraordinary daughter for some reason.  Is it to teach us to see perfection in something imperfect (crooked feet)?  Is it to show Doctors that they may know all the statistics but they can never predict the power of the human spirit?  Is it to reach out and help other families (maybe via this blog)?  I don’t know any of the answers.  I know life has been hard for us, for Sporty, but we’ve made the best of it or at least tried.  Her surgery in December was her 3rd, and in my opinion, one surgery for a child is one too many but it’s our normal, its our world.  My 5 year old thinks all big sisters have casts and AFOs, it doesn’t occur to him that we lead a different life than most.  We go to an awesome orthopedic surgeon at a world renowned medical facility.  He’s been treating her since she was 10 days old.  He’s shared office space with neurology and other specialties, we’ve seen it could be much worse.  But I also see my friends and their kids, and I can see that our life can be much easier too, a world without casts, AFOs, surgeries, buying whatever shoe she wants and not worrying about her wide chunky feet, a side effect of clubfeet.  Still through all of this wallowing and doubt, I feel like we were handed a stubborn case of clubfeet for something.

So here we go with “Made to Run.”  I chose the words carefully.  She wasn’t born to run, her feet were twisted upwards making, walking, let alone running impossible, but innately, she was made to run.  Something inside of her is wired to run and after she was released for physical activity after this last surgery and I saw her running, I saw her face as she ran, it was wild and happy and free and I realized that ironically, this bilateral clubfoot girl was made to run.  She came out 4 weeks premature, wide eyed and taking in the world, screaming at the top of her lungs at a mere 4lbs 14oz, shocking the NICU Doctors who found themselves worthless with this premature baby that acted like a full term baby.  She hasn’t stopped since.  In a recent conversation with her, I told her (in reference to school work) that everything didn’t have to be a race.  She responded with “Mom, it’s not my fault I was made to race, I can’t help how I was born.”

No Sporty, you are right, you can’t help how you were born.  So this is the story of a girl who was made to run.  A girl who has defied the Doctors predictions for her life.  A girl who lives life to the fullest.  A story of a girl, beating clubfeet one step at a time.

The adventure begins!