We are still alive!  I know you probably all think we have dropped off the face of the earth, but it has been really hectic around our house for the last few months!  We arrived home in August and moved out of our house the next weekend!  I know, as if we didn't have enough going on...we sold our house and had to move the first weekend home!  Ella started school the following Friday and it has not slowed down since.  We had a wonderful homecoming and the Vanderbilt Life Flight crew that helped Ella the night of her accident was even able to come and visit her that night.  We got to see the crew and the helicopter up close and it is simply amazing what can and was done in such a small space.  It was an amazing night and Ella was so excited to be home and see all her friends. 

Ella started school with her classmates on August 7.  It has been a challenge but she is doing great.  We just got her report card from the first 9 weeks and she had all 100's and a 98!  She has been so amazing.  Her teacher has been wonderful...working with her and she still has that love of school that she always did.  We are still struggling a bit with her vision, but she is able to do her work with help.  We carried Ella to a Vision Specialist in September and he has given us a lot of hope for her recovery.  She has made significant improvement since we came home, but her vision is still very impaired.  She is currently seeing at about 20/400 which is well past legally blind.  But, she manages herself well and honestly, if you did not know that she was at that level of impairment, you would not really notice it at all. She does not require assistance to get around.  Her fine motor skills-hand writing, eating, etc. are much better than they were when we left Atlanta and she is walking much better.  Today she raked up a big pile of leaves and was jumping in them and she said 'I am so glad that I can run again.  This would not be fun if I was still in a wheelchair."  It is truly amazing how far she has come.  I still cannot believe that it has been 6 months since Ella's accident.  It seems like only yesterday that we began this journey.  I cannot tell you how proud Todd and I are of Ella.  She continues to be so positive about all of this.  At times, we feel so overwhelmed by all of this, but it is hard to be negative when she is so positive.  She has only been upset about all of this a few times.  All of her friends have been so wonderful and have just taken her under their wings.  She came in from school about the second week and was upset.  She said, "I am a weirdo."  I said, "What do you mean?"  She said, "We had school pictures and the photographer made me feel like a weirdo.  He kept telling me to look at him and he did not know that I look out of the corners of my eyes.  My friends kept trying to tell him that I look a different way than other people."  I told her that we are all a little weird and that not everyone would know that she looked a little different, but that it was ok.  I was so proud of her friends for taking up for her. 

Mia started school with Ella and she has been doing good as well.  We were all blessed a couple of weeks ago when our new addition arrived.  Sophie Marie Brown was born on Wednesday, October 14.  She has been such a blessing to all of us and the girls are absolutely in love with her!  I was afraid they might be a little jealous, especially Mia, but they have been wonderful.  They have both tried to help, a little too much at times, but it has been wonderful.  It was such a long journey and at times, I wasn't sure that we were going to make it! I am so thankful that she arrived safe and healthy!  She is a great baby.  She truly flourishes in the chaos that is our family.  In fact, the crazier it is around here...the more content she seems.  She sleeps through all the noise....if only she would sleep when we are all quiet and sleeping!!!

We went to several follow up appointments with the Doctors at Vanderbilt.  The Neurosurgeon who saw Ella in April could not believe she was the same child.  He was shocked at how well she was doing.  We also had a follow up in Atlanta and they were amazed at how much she had improved in just one month.  We are so blessed that she is doing so well and improving daily. 

Thanks so much for your continued prayers.  I will try my best to update more often and post some pictures of Sophie soon. 

Todd, Sara, Ella, Mia, and Sophie