Happy Birthday to Me!!

My friend Jan posted this comment on Facebook as a fellow member of the fused-neck club. "Aside from the pain, and the damned INCONVENIENCE, I did find my injury and healing to be one of the most INTERESTING things that ever happened to me. And yes, it certainly did have the effect of clarifying where I was in life, and where I wanted to go from 'here.'  Deeply grateful that you have no residual nerve damage, we hope you will have no residual pain, and hope you enjoy exploring a new facet of the word PATIENCE."

I could not have written this any better, and with that thankfulness, I celebrated my birthday on Saturday.  

Our friend Annabelle's eight-year-old great-granddaughter Serenity has been responsible for taking care of a litter of barn cats.  A couple of weeks ago we started to think that one of these kittens would be a great "nurse" on my recovery journey.  We've wanted another kitty for quite a while now but somehow Serenity's kittens started the ball rolling.  She wrote me a special card to go with her gift.

Originally we had talked about going to the animal shelter and picking out a kitten together.  When Alexia realized that the kitty was already selected, she rolled up her sleeves and went to work supplying us with a list of 118 suggested names, typed in four columns.  We ultimately chose Madeline, though that's quickly becoming Maddie.  

Annabelle baked a cake for my birthday that morning and thought it would be a good idea to just let the kitten settle down while she frosted it and gave us a chance to visit.  I'm not sure how relaxing it was for the kitten to have two anxious little girls peeping into the box, but she just curled up and purred.

The big reveal - time to meet the family!

Including dogs.

The hardest part of everything has been this stage of the introduction, and two days later, we're still in transition.  Madeline is nonplussed but the dogs are worried.

Serenity wanted to actually hand her to me and with my stiffness, it was a little awkward.  Serenity is a very special little girl.  About six years ago Annabelle and her husband learned that two of their great grandchildren were wards of the foster care system in Washington.  They are retired and live on a fixed income but they spent everything they had, and with community support, were able to bring Serenity and her brother Timmy here and adopt them.  DD Chris was so touched by the story that she collected clothes, toys and play equipment through Alexia's preschool and borrowed a van for the delivery.  Annabelle told us this weekend that thanks to that delivery they didn't have to buy clothes for three years.

The girls did a great job in managing the dogs and presenting me with the kitten.  And now Madeline is ours.

I know she has a long way to go before actually being settled in but I think we're off to a good start.  Ian has fixed up the laundry room so we can close her in at night.  It upset the dogs to have her roaming around at night so Ian has a little bed in there where they can't reach her and she feels safe.  It works for me too as sleep still is hard to come by and certainly wasn't enhanced by a prowling kitten.

Chris and Alexia had a very special present for me - another sun catcher for our front tree.  I have wished every since our trip to Massachusetts that I had bought one from the Historic Deerfield gift shop.  Chrissie enlisted Karen, her son John's adoptive mother, who bought and delivered this for my birthday.  They took a picture of the tree at the Gathering and sent it to Karen - "and this is the color scheme!"  I had just cut down and washed the others the day before I broke my neck.  They're still on the dining room table and now there's one more for the collection.

I never know when a nap will hit me so I've been doing more knitting than reading.  I realized today that I'm going to run out of knitting before the yarn I ordered is delivered on Friday.  I remembered this skein that Melissa gave me when she was here in August.

Ian went up to my studio with me today for my first visit since the accident.  There's not much description on the band, other than its approximately 1400 yards of 100% wool, sports weight yarn.

I swatched it and have cast on in a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to actually wear a short-sleeved wool sweater but then I got to thinking that it really would be a good garment for subbing in school libraries.  I originally thought I'd make a Hannah Fettig vest but realized that I never seem to find a way to wear vests knit from variegated yarns.  So this is Maddie's first knitting project.  I think she's got the right attitude for a fiber cat.