Big News=Big Post

It's a biggie today.  I'll cover these points:

• A miraculous gift from God
• A scrapbooking challenge
• Me-- running???

First, this is my amazing niece Mya.

She's almost two, and is doing absolutely everything that you'd expect of an almost two year old. She uses the word NO a lot. She's learning to use the potty. She's fascinated with the fuzz between her toes. :)

I'm so thankful that she's doing all of these "expected" things. Just about a year ago, we weren't sure that Miss Mya was going to live.

She has an amazing story that you can read about here. (This post is only the beginning of a crazy scary month of posts last year where our family spent a lot of time in prayer.) It began as an expected "routine" heart surgery but ended up not being routine in the least. She is a gift from God and we're blessed to miraculously still have her with us.

Mya has a scar to remind us and we have some amazing pictures too. As a scrapper, I want to document the tough times Mya went through almost a year ago. But some of the pictures are hard to look at too.

When the My Minds Eye blog offered up the "Hope" challenge with a sketch, I decided this was the perfect time to record a glimpse into the feelings I have had through Mya's heart surgeries.

Here's the sketch of the layout challenge:

I used almost exclusively My Minds Eye products-- including products from three of their lines (Out & About, So Sophie and Lush).

I have a favorite sweet photo of Mya by Cye Photography that I wanted to feature on the page. I also wanted to hide a second photo of her behind it. The hospital bed photo is too emotional to feature on a page itself, but it's an important part of the story. I love that I could include it on my layout.

And here's the layout:

Wish me luck in the My Minds Eye challenge/ contest!

And then, wish me even more luck. I'm crazy, but have officially jumped in.

We're visiting my niece Mya in August to join her family and friends in a "Run for Children's" 5K. It's a run/walk to raise money for Children's Hospital where Mya spent most of August last year. You can donate to our team "Mya and the Heartbeats" here if you'd like to help out.

Our original plan was to walk the 5K, but with my sister having just finished a half marathon and my friend Harmony doing the same... I got a lot of  encouragement from them to try running it. So today I officially started training (by going on a great "run" with great friends!!! Thanks, ladies!). We walk/ran about 2 miles and I think I ran about 2/3 of a mile. I don't remember running that much since high school volleyball practices!

(a post "run" shadow shot just before 8 this morning)

I'm on an accelerated "Couch to 5K" plan as I only have a month to train. I may walk/run it, but I will-- for the first time ever-- actually run at least a good portion of a 5K. HA! Never would have guessed that one! I even purchased new running shoes (a first) for motivation.

So you can see Mya, my sister and brother in law at their blog where they give more information about the 5K. They share a great video of their fabulous little family there.

Phew. I told you it was a big post! Amazing, huh? So that's what's keeping me busy these days. How about you?