Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow's the big day...when we REALLY get these surgery wheels turnin'!  Ellie, my mom, and I leave for Vancouver at 1pm.  Wow!

Richard just finished giving me a "how to download pictures from the camera" lesson, so hopefully I will do this blog justice and post lots of updates and pictures for all of you Ellie fans! 

Speaking of pictures, here are a few from the past few days.  On Friday, we spent the afternoon at our local Children's Hospital, with our beloved physical therapist.  She performed the Gross Motor Function Measure test on Ellie.  It was a lengthy and tiresome test, but Ellie powered through.  Our therapist wanted to test Ellie BEFORE the surgery so that when she re-tests in July, we will be astonished with Ellie's improvement in all 86 of the tested areas!    The following are some pictures of Ellie doing her best to accomplish each test task:

Trying with all her might to maintain sitting position with her legs straight...she did it for the required 10 seconds, whoot!

Reaching for Abby Cadabby (if she only knew it was a therapy task, not just "playing around"!)

Sitting up from lying down on her back; something that's very difficult for her to do...what a trooper!

Taking a bit of a break before attempting the next task...

More sitting...

And now to standing!

Just for happy measure, I'll leave you with a picture of Ellie enjoying a bee-ooo-tee-ful Canadian winter day, out in the snow:

"See ya" from Vancouver!