HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM MAXWELL!

Happy New Year to the wonderful members of the MIGHTY MAX fan club! My mom says everyone has been sooo absolutely incredible this year. Your warm thoughts and loving prayers helped bring me home...thank you! Hope your 2006 is a year of peace, joy and love!

Mom says she has never been happier to say goodbye to a year before...she says 2006 has to be WONDERFUL. We certainly paid our dues in 2005! From the very messy divorce (yuck!) to my prematurity, multiple surgeries (never again please!) and lengthy stay in the hospital, we had quite a challenging year from start to finish! We are welcoming in 2006 with open arms!

Here are a few highlights of my "ins" and "outs" for the New Year...lots and lots of good changes!

INs

• Home sweet home in Bellingham, WA (Finally...YAY!)
• Cuddling with my mommy
• Meeting more family and friends (AFTER flu season!)
• OUTpatient clinic appointments (during which we can visit our nurses and doctors and they can "ooh and aah" at how adorable I am!)
• Wonderful, effective therapy sessions for my development (OT/PT, hearing, oral/feeding, etc.)
• Playgroups with other kiddos like me!
• Making new friends in our new town!
• Walks around the neighborhood
• Hangin' with my cousins, Thomas & Jackson (stay healthy boys!!!)
• Being surrounded by loving, thoughtful, good people
• Getting to know all the wonderful people who have been praying so much for me!
• Educating people about the importance of quality, accessible, affordable programs for special needs community (Mom & I are very dedicated to this issue...we have heard that navigating the "system" can be quite a nightmare!)
• AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...STAYING HEALTHY & GETTING STRONGER!!!

OUTs

• Lengthy stays at the hospital
• Being sick and requiring surgeries
• Germs
• Medicines (we are excited to wean down the list!)
• Saying goodbye to fellow children when their bodies could no longer go on (mom and I have had our hearts broken too many times this year)
• Helicopter and ambulance rides (I prefer the car now please!)
• Moving (I love my doctors and nurses, and I think I will really like Bham...well once I am allowed out of the house!!)
• People who are immoral, selfish or just plain ol' mean (Sorry, absolutely no tolerance for that...especially after everything we have been through. We need to be a more loving, helpful, caring world...don't you think!?!?)
• Lupus (My doggy Barney was recently diagnosed with this, so I am just using wishful thinking that if I put it on my "out" list, he no longer will have this condition!)
• AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, SUCTIONING! I do not like when my mom has to suction my nose. Hopefully soon I can do a better job of clearing my own "secretions"...because I truly despise that machine! (For those kiddos out there who have spent time in the hospital...you know what I mean!)

Love to all of you! I must run...Mom says it is time to put away the laptop and get to bed...so night night everyone. Please remember to keep my friends (Ryan, Lane, and Carter) in the hospital in your prayers....they each are having a rough time and need some extra love and support. Thank you! Happy New Year!!!

Love, MIGHTY MAX