My dear, dear global family! It has been a while since I actually WROTE an update so on these first days into Year 3 of this growth and adventure, I thought that I would carve out the time to do so! Since there is SO MUCH TO SAY, I’m going to break this into a few posts…. so make sure that you check back into the Schuy is the Limit page and www.facebook.com/ilovemyimpossible to be sure that you catch them all.

UPDATES!!! Year Three, here we come with a roar!!! (Ha ha— love the sense of humor of the Universe! I’m several paragraphs down writing this and on comes Katy Perry’s Roar— yep— that’s us!!) It’s amazing what we all discover when we pause a moment and look back and say, “where was I a year ago…. two years ago….? What was I dreaming about? What was I hoping for? What did I feel like I was missing? What did I feel that I needed? Where am I now? What surprises did I see? What remarkable things did I see and achieve? It’s amazing how many we see when we stop and look for those!

It is easy to measure our lives by shortage and scarcity…. meaning, “well yes, I have THIS, but without THAT, it really doesn’t mean enough….” Have you ever found yourself doing that? I certainly have done that A LOT in my past. And when I did that, it was hard to feel grateful. It was hard to feel like where I stood in that moment was “enough”. It was hard to feel truly worthy — much less to even think that I might have an important purpose in life.

Nothing like a boulder to have made us realize that this is NOT the ideal way to live one’s way through this lifetime! Wink!

So yes! We are SO GRATEFUL FOR EACH AND EVERY TINY AMAZING THING THAT IS IN OUR LIVES—AND — WE REJOICE IN THE PART OF OUR SPIRIT THAT SAYS TODAY WAS AWESOME! I CAN ONLY WAIT TO SEE HOW EVEN MORE AWESOME IT IS WHEN WE HAVE _____ IN OUR LIVES! Let’s play and see!

Desiring is a beautiful thing and the fact that we will never have it all and never get it done just means that we get to keep dancing! And we so love to dance!

So…. GOALS CURRENTLY BEING ACHIEVED BY SCHUYLER:

—SCHUY’S AMAZING SISTER SAYA IS GETTING MARRIED TO THE MOST AMAZING GUY THIS COMING WEEK! Give a huge standing ovation for Schuyler: she will be WALKING IN HER SISTER’S WEDDING with her dynamo PT trainer Dan spotting her with her gait belt. NO WALKER!! (Thank you, Dan!!) This has been her goal since virtually Day 1. This has been something that she has strived for and dared to believe could be possible in some shape or form. Note to selves: dreams sometimes can be achieved when we are not to proud or too somber to ask for help. Kudos and hugs to PT Dan for being the body for Schuy to lean on. There is more than one way to walk down an aisle and many ways to achieve the “impossible”!

— NO MORE NAPS! Schuy officially kicked the naps back in July! She is awake and vibrant all day every day. She fills her day messaging friends, face timing with her amazing Gammy, solving the marble challenge that the amazing Forrest Maddox crafted for her, reading, coloring, doing sticker books, practicing OT exercises and watching movies on TV. She is a busy young woman! And oh yes, she is still plotting how to change the world through social enterprise and living BIG!

— Schuy’s progress with the walker is AMAZING!! Friends who haven’t seen her in a while are so happy when they come to visit! Yes, Schuy and I still LOVE seeing friends and sharing our lovely Tampa, St. Pete favorite haunts with them!! AND OF COURSE I’M THRILLED EACH AND EVERY TIME THAT I SEE HOW SHE WALKS!! Every time she stands up, she is a little more independent— a little less off balance— a little less precarious. Her energy is a little bit higher and the giggles and silliness never stops! We are hoping that maybe by this time next year, she will be walking with the walker with little to no assistance. She is SO CLOSE to being able to stand on her own. She CAN stand and balance by herself with the walker for 8 minutes. Woot! Woot! Yep, hear us ROAR, world! Here us ROAR!!!

— SCHUY is making SO MUCH PROGRESS in pretty much every aspect of her life. She did a rock star job planning out her sister’s bachelorette party events! Such fun! Right down to the party Ubers! An evening of DJ’ing it up at Schnebly’s Winery (OMG the passionfruit and mango and avocado wines—who would have known??) … Schuy and I did an exemplary job of holding down the fort as the other girls landed some spots at the Steve Aoki show in Miami. And she literally navigated STEPS in the Air BNB so nothing stops us if we can help it these days! She loves when we can venture out to one of the St. Pete Restaurants or to the Locale market.

Yes, we giggle. We laugh. We dream. We have fun as we work on figuring out what Life has in store for us next. New goals! Hoping that there is international travel in our future! Hoping that we can impact the world to love more, smile more, believe more and dream…. always dream… and always dance in that 1%!

Did any of you take us up on the 1% challenge? Schuy started at 1 sit-up in the morning and by adding 1 sit-up a day quickly got to her goal of 30. Now we do 30 sit-ups every morning (and this morning we added an adjective to each sit up. It looks like, “One sit-up. You’re amazing. Two sit-ups. You’re incredible. Three sit-ups. You’re formidable, etc.” ) It’s never too late to join us. How will you up your game and impact the world 1% at a time?

Every morning as I spot her for those exercises, I look around the room and feel such gratitude for all of the gifts that you all in our global family have given Schuy to feather her lovely nest — gorgeous crafted quilts, hand-made pillows and pillow cases, stuffed animals, cards, lights, angels, dream catchers, gemstones, jewelry, oils, photos, paintings, signs, special healthy supplements…. so many tokens of your love! And how about these gorgeous flowers in this photo?

This incredible bouquet arrived on the 19th commemorating her success, her spirit and the power of deep friendship from the very special Forrest. The doorbell rang. Schuy was at the table. The dogs began their mighty bark and I came running down from my office where I was working. Outside the door was this man holding this incredible bouquet. It was like a scene from the bachelor! Ha ha! THANK YOU FORREST! Schuy absolutely SQUEALED and blushed in delight! She held them like a beauty queen and admired the array of color and nature!

Schuy absolutely loves all of the cards and the goodies that friends continue to send her. I can’t tell you how much we BOTH appreciate that you all continue to do that!!

GOALS FOR NEXT YEAR:

Year THREE is going to be HUGE!

THE MS. FLORIDA WHEELCHAIR PAGEANT!! Whether she is crowned or not, this is HUGE! At first, she was reticent to enter. She is still getting comfortable with speaking. It still requires a lot of effort and focus and public speaking doesn’t sound particularly attractive to her right now. That said, when she realized that there could be a larger purpose woven into this challenge, she said “game on”! And thank you to her sponsors! I will dedicate a special shout out to all of you in a separate post! Let it just be said for now that she is being supported by angels!! THANK YOU, ANGELS!!

A huge goal is to travel internationally! We have seen that international travel is not particularly wheel chair friendly. The aisles do not fit wheel chairs so Schuy can currently only travel on flights that are short enough to accommodate. There would be no way currently for her to use the restroom on a plane. Note the emphasis on the phrase currently! Thanks to Dan, we are working on that. She practices with me. And now she practices with Chantel. It’s amazing the idiosyncrasies of maneuvering. We work on subtle shifts. Forwards and back. Side to side.

Our dream would be to revisit Colombia. I’m working intensely on growing the part of my life where I can share some of these profound lessons that I have learned courtesy of this boulder with others…. many others. I want a portion of the proceeds to go to the wonderful Hospital Manuela Beltran in Soccoro. That is the tiny regional hospital in Colombia that treated Schuy. If you have been following our story, you may remember that few of the regional hospitals even have ICUs. If someone had a serious injury, they could not be treated. Had Schuy been injured elsewhere, the hospital might not have been able to save her.

My dream is to first help to sponsor a few families to afford the treatment of an ICU and then to help Manuela Beltran purchase some needed equipment or talented staff. Beyond that, I would LOVE (my dream big moment) to be able to fund 5 more ICUs being built in small regional hospitals around Colombia. The Colombian people have been angels to us. I would love to become an angel for them.

So, today is another LONG POST! WELCOME BACK TO MY WORLD! Ha ha!

Today, my shout out is to the presence of joy NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES! I would urge you to measure your life by all that you are capable of dreaming —not by some misleading value of what might be missing. Soak in as many aspects of every moment as your heart can handle! Rejoice in the clouds! Dance underneath the thunder! Be silly! Be weird — if weird means connecting to a bit of joyous fun and inspiration.

Life isn’t meant to be read about or assessed and qualified. There is no right answer. There is no failing grade. Life it. Love it. Bask in it. Make it your own— and for gosh sakes, DREAM! PLEASE DREAM…. because dreams are the wings that transform the impossible into the possibilities! Much love from our roaring world to yours!! #SchuyIsTheLimit