December 2014
As always, lots of
craziness at the Staffenhagen Compound.
This year we want to reflect on the upcoming year and share some
Highlights from 2014. This quote is a
great one to send us into 2015.
Jeremiah
29:11
“For I
know the plans I have for you,” declares the
LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans
to give you hope and a future.”
We are eagerly anticipating
2015. We are hoping changes will find us
in a better place. We are hoping for
medical advances for our Wyatt. We are
hoping for health and happiness for our children. We are hoping to have Americans seeing a
bright future. We are hoping that anyone
who is struggling financially, medically or emotionally finds clarity this
year. Most of all, we are hoping, to slow our lives down and spend more time
with our kiddos. Our “big kids” are
establishing their own lives, and we don’t want to miss an opportunity to just
be a family, to enjoy being together, more than we do now. Our goal would be all 6 of the kids home, at
least once a week, so we can stay connected.
Sooner than later our kids are going to be moving on and creating their
own families. We have always been a
close family, but now more than ever, we need to stay close. Ultimately, if we can count on each other we
can accomplish anything. Life is crazy, fast, busy, and full of so many
commitments, we would like to lead a more relaxed, restful lifestyle. Oh stop laughing……….slow down with 6 kids,
yeah right, it’s a lofty wish I guess……..hahahahaha
Leigha turned 20 this year,
adulthood, whether we like it or not. We
are so incredibly blessed to have an amazing daughter like her. She is generous, kind, caring and so very
considerate of others. We get comments
all the time on what an amazing girl she is. We are so proud of our daughter. She’s beautiful inside and out. We don’t know why we were so lucky to be
picked to be her parents. She is
everything we could have hoped to have in a daughter. We can’t wait to see where 2015 takes
her. Although we will miss her more than
we can ever imagine, we are so excited for her.
She is ready to build a life for herself.
Anthony turned 18 this
year. We had a pretty low key
celebration, just the way Anthony likes it.
As funny as it sounds, the highlight of the day was his birthday cake. Anthony doesn’t even like cake. It was a bunch of cupcakes made to look like Mega
Man, a character from the Mega Man video game.
The biggest news for him, is that he started his Senior Year of High
School. He has been going to WAVA,
online school, since he was in 6th grade. We can’t believe how quickly 7 years has
gone. He had so many strikes against
him, but he is done so well. He
currently has a 3.8 cumulative GPA. We
are so proud of all his hard work. It
makes us emotional just thinking about how so many people wrote him off. Basically told us he wouldn’t get very far,
probably not even finish HS. Well, in
June all those people will be proven wrong.
Travis is finally at the High
School, no more Cavelero for him, YES! Being
at the High school suits him. He just
fit right in no problem. He’s a
sophomore and before we know it, he will be a Senior too. All our “big kids” are growing up way to fast. All 3 of them are taller than Melissa now.
Travis played boys and girls club basketball and his team won the entire
thing. When they won the championship,
the boys ran to the lake and jumped in.
It was February, with snow on the ground, but they didn’t care. The coach even joined them in the frigid
celebration. He played school baseball
as well as baseball with American Legion.
Probably one of the coolest things he got to do this summer was go to
Chicago to play baseball with his old coach and some of his previous
teammates. It was quite a trip. He traveled with another family and we stayed
home. It was pretty hard to let him go,
Melissa cried a little, but we knew what an incredible opportunity it was. Playing baseball for a week in Chicago, how
cool is that? On the way home, he was bumped up to First Class, lucky kid. This is a trip he will never forget.
Brady is now 9 years old. He is in 4th grade and doing very
well. He enjoys reading and learning
about History. He is also extremely
creative. He says he wants to be a “movie
maker” when he grows up. Last year it
was author, maybe he’ll write screenplays.
He keeps us guessing and always on our toes. He has an incredible sense of humor. And we’ve recently learned that he has the weakest
stomach of all time. He gets grossed out
by everything. A drop of blood and the
boy practically passes out. Our guess,
no medical school for Brady, haha. He
has become such a big kid practically overnight. He tries so hard to help with Wyatt and Carter
as much as he can. We are looking for
some clarity for Brady in 2015, keep him in your thoughts for resolution to
some pretty tough stuff he is dealing with.
Wyatt, our sweet Wyatt, our
warrior, the bravest kid we know. Wyatt
is now 6 years old. He lost is first
tooth several weeks ago, but sadly, he swallowed it. So the tooth fairy got a note, not a
tooth. We were not going to go look for
it, yuck!!!!!! Another huge change for
Wyatt, he started a new school about 1 month ago. He was attending WAVA online, but after
several conversations with his doctors and his new teachers, we’ve learned that
WAVA isn’t the best fit for Wyatt. We
are in the process of completing some testing to determine how to best move forward
with Wyatt’s education. We are feeling
great about his new school. Both the
teachers have excellent reputations. We
are thrilled he was able to attend this school.
It’s very small about 2 or 3 kids per grade. It’s perfect for Wyatt. It’s a nurturing, understanding environment where
his differences are celebrated. He is
with 2 women who care about Wyatt and their other 19 students as if they were
their own children. Sometimes the right
person, or right situation just falls in your lap. That is what has happened here. These women are like none we have ever
met. We feel like God knew we were at
the end of our ropes and we didn’t know where to go. Then angel Jill and angel Jennifer came into
our lives (thanks Dr. Jenna) just when Wyatt needed them most. In the 4 weeks Wyatt has attended this school
there has been some serious adjustments for him. He misses Mama a lot. It hasn’t been all balloons and confetti,
that’s for sure. He read us a book for
the first time a couple of weeks ago. He couldn’t read anything, not a single
word, 4 weeks ago. He loves school and
clearly something is working. Wyatt
takes most of his frustration out on poor Miss Jennifer, but she isn’t backing
down. She may even start tutoring him in
January.
On the Duchenne front, Wyatt
is doing amazing. He had a check-up in
June with Dr. Wong in Ohio, and she is thrilled with how he is doing. His physical strength is great, as well as
his heart and lungs. We are so blessed
that he is so strong. Duchenne is a miserable,
EVIL disease and our Warrior is fighting it with all he has. Promising things are on the horizon for our
Duchenne community. Keep all the boys,
young men and even a group of girls in your thoughts. Medical advances are coming, please oh please
let 2015 be our year to End Duchenne.
Last but certainly not least,
baby Carter. NOT really a baby anymore,
he’s 3 going on 15. He is a hurricane
running through the house. He attends
preschool, which he LOVES. We wish he
could go every day of the week. He is so
so so very smart. In fact he tried to
help Wyatt “cheat” on a test. Carter
kept giving Wyatt the answers before Wyatt had a chance to answer. Funny, funny kid. He is quite the personality. We see a lot of Melissa’s grandpa “Papa” in
him. Melissa shot a video of Carter last
week for his two best friends, Abby and Brooklyn. He just kept saying over and over “Hello
Gorgeous!” It was hilarious. He’s quite the player, 2 girlfriends at such
a young age. Geez, what are we in for? Carter
in just the last 3 or 4 days finally decided that diapers weren’t for him. So far so good, and after this no more
diapers for us. YOOHOO!!!! 2o years of
diapers (only about 3 year break in the early 2000’s), $48,000 later, and we
are almost done. Not sure what we will
do, we will probably have baby aisle withdrawals. NOT!!!!!! Carter brought joy
to our family at a time of such sadness and pain. God sent us this child, this miracle baby,
exactly when we needed him. He is a
delight, a joy, and such a bright light in our home. We love you Carter, monkey, crazy kid. Oh, and he is going to be in the NFL Hall of
Fame or have a PHD and cure diseases, no
pressure Carter, you got this.
Life throws us for a loop on a
regular basis. We continue to fight hard
to move forward. We are so blessed to
have 6 gifts, 6 beautiful amazing, unique, incredible kids. Life is not without struggle and pain. God knows we have had our share. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful
people in our lives to help us get through the tough stuff. God Bless you all.
Happy Holidays,
Have faith, have joy and have love.
Tom, Melissa, Leigha, Anthony, Travis, Brady, Wyatt and
Carter.
