Short-term Writing Goals and Checking In

Yikes. No posts for a week? Here's why:

Returned from C's Fabulous First Annual Sooke Writer's Retreat a week ago Monday evening with barely enough time to unpack, do laundry, pay late bills, make notes for my ghost story in progress, and repack for a family trip to Milwaukee for the Little People of America National Conference.

Why LPA? Our middle daughter E is a primordial dwarf. Less than 30 of these individuals are known to exist world-wide.

Individuals with this form of dwarfism are very small for their age, and proportionate (unlike anchodroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, in which the individuals sport shortened limbs on an average-sized torso). When we adopted E from Korea at 21 months, she was 24 inches tall and 11 pounds with her clothes wet. Check this link here for more info on primordial dwarfism.

The National LPA Conference is a week-long annual event. Nearly 1,500 little people attend. The event is both social and educational. Dances are held nightly. Physicians offer medical workshops and evaluations. Parents come together for support and networking. E was thrilled to have the opportunity to reconnect with so many of her friends--and to ogle the boys. Despite an illness that hit Sunday evening with a high fever and cough, E muscled her way through the rest of our stay with the same strength that saw her through her two neurosurgeries.

The highlight of the conference: E would tell you she loved showing off her service dog Jewel, attending the nightly dances and wearing her glitter pants. E's younger sister S would tell you the best part was the indoor water park. I appreciated seeing so many thriving primordials, reconnecting with their parents, and exchanging ideas about how best we can help our kids succeed in an average-sized world.

On tap for today: Working on my ghost story and shepherding E through her convalescence. Turns out she has a throat thing--probably strep. The quick-care doc started her on antibiotics yesterday. Here's to better living through chemistry, and the hope that the fever breaks soon. Yee-hah.

Current read: The Kingfisher Treasury of Ghost Stories chosen by Kenneth Ireland.