Pivot

Dear Addie,

Thanksgiving 2025.

We made plans, core memory–type plans, and then had to pivot. We made different plans, super exciting bucket-list–type plans, and pivoted once more. The challenge of trying to live a life of semi-normalcy while staying cautiously optimistic that your health is heading in the right direction has been a dance all its own.

Is today going to be a good day or a bad day? Will food be your friend or your foe? Will we leave the house, or will fatigue win out and keep us home?

The Sunday before Thanksgiving was a bad one. I’ll spare you the details, let’s just say there was a lot of laundry to be done...but I digress.

Feeling that all-too-familiar sadness that seems to have followed us for the last six months, I felt defeated as a parent, in that overly dramatic way you do when you’re stretched thin. Our party of five was all going to be together, and I wanted it to be perfect and memorable for everybody. Sometimes all I want is to hop on a plane and go somewhere new and exciting as a family… or try a new restaurant without hesitation… or go to a parade without a diaper bag and an exit strategy, or dare I say a barf bag these days.

I guess the reality is that sometimes, especially when life gets challenging, we wish for something different. It's human nature. We wonder a little too long if the grass is really greener on the otherside. But the world doesn’t have a bunch of magical lamps with genies granting wishes—nope. What it does have is your own ability to pivot, again and again, when things get hard. And somehow, those pivots keep guiding you exactly where you were meant to be, becasue spoiler alert the grass probably isn't greener - just saying.

Pivoting isn't plan B;

it's part of the process. -Jeff Goins

Addie, I promise you we pivoted enough leading up to Thanksgiving week to get a line dance named after us. There were no planes, no trains, and no Dollywood this year… maybe next year, Dolly ;) But in all that fancy footwork we had done, we somehow found ourselves wandering through a truly magical Christmas display at the Elizabethan Gardens in the Outer Banks. It was so enchanting, and the best part was...we were all together. We even ran into our old friend—St. Nick ;) Can you believe it? We had no idea he would be there! How fun was that?!

And there was absolutely no mistaking it—you were truly enjoying the experience, even flashing your signature smile multiple times for all to see.

My mama heart was so happy as I stood soaking up all the festivities, suddenly realizing that after all that pivoting, it had led us here—where we were supposed to be the whole time. It was simple and perfect and without the use of a genie;)

Addie, while there unfortunately seems to be a shortage of genies floating around granting wishes, somehow, somewhere, we were lucky enough to stumbled upon a little Christmas magic after all those pivots. Every day after that rocky start, you surprised us with one of your best weeks yet.

Holiday magic - perhaps, but whatever the case may be we were all happy to see you happy baby girl.

Love,

Mom