Rackham 2019 Christmas Letter

December 9, 2019 (started)
(Finished December, 31!)

Happy holidays, everyone! We love seeing all of your updates on social media and in your Christmas cards! It is so nice to reconnect at least once a year. 2019 has been a really good year for the Rackham family here in Lehi, Utah--definitely the calmest year since the kids were born. Thanks for reading!

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Dave: Dave moved into a senior leadership position at Pluralsight in South Jordan, UT in March of this year and he's loving it. He has fantastic peers and mentors and learns so much from them. He's definitely busy and a little more stressed in this new role, but Pluralsight continues to give him the flexibility to come in early and be home early to spend a good amount of time with the kids before they go to sleep (at 7:00 pm on the dot!). He takes the kids 2 nights a week when Erin sees clients, and also every Saturday while Erin works on her dissertation at the library.

He doesn't get out to fish the Provo or ski as much as he'd like to (see above for reasons why...), but when he gets the chance, he has a great time with both. If life allowed, he'd be on the river or mountain every weekend. Hopefully when the kids get a little older, that becomes more feasible! 

We have both enjoyed (maybe enjoyed isn't exactly the right word) becoming more politically engaged with the 2020 presidential election around the corner and we spend much of our free time (what little there is) discussing the news and politics of the day. 

Erin: With Olivia turning 1 early this year, Erin was ready to jump back in to finish her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy and BYU. She finished her required clinical hours and passed the licensing exam to achieve full MFT licensure in Utah this summer!



She submitted her final publication for her program to a journal over the summer as well. This fall semester has entailed way too many hours in the American Fork library writing (and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting) her dissertation. She successfully proposed this December, and then plans to defend in a few months and graduate in the spring of 2020 (theoretically...).

She sees clients two nights a week at a great private practice here in Pleasant Grove and really enjoys specializing in trauma and addictions work.

Erin's dad was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia in March of this year and has been in and out of the hospital with treatments, transfusions, a bone marrow transplant in September, and complications from said bone marrow transplant since. This has meant multiple trips down to California to help with things as much as possible, as well as let the kids spend as much time with grandpa as they can.

 It's been quite a roller coaster of highs and lows, and the outpouring of love and support (emotional as well as physical support of friends' blood and platelet donations directly given to my dad) has been moving and sustaining.

As of writing this letter, he is in the hospital again with an infection they are hoping to fight successfully, but his numbers haven't done too well post-transplant, and if he's healthy enough, another transplant is the most likely next step. Continued prayers are always appreciated. Thank you for those of you who have reached out to us through all of this. It has meant the world.

Bennett (just turned 3): First and foremost, Bennett had NO seizures this year!! He is going on 17 months seizure-free, which is just incredible. He received an Autism diagnosis early this year and we have continued to work with our early intervention therapists 1-2x/week for language, occupational, physical, and developmental therapy. Early intervention has completely changed ours and Bennett's lives and we will be forever grateful for our amazing therapists. We had to say goodbye to them this week as Bennett turned 3 and the program only covers 0-2 years old. They feel like part of the family, so this was so hard for us!

We started using an augmentative communication device (iPad with pictures he could tap to talk for him when he was non-verbal) and it kicked off his language development like crazy. He went from zero words in January, to talking like a pretty typical 2 year old now in December! He loves to pray for "Grandpa and Grandma" every night, ask "Livvy? Are you sad?", and "read" us his books (he's memorized them in surprising detail!).

He still basically only eats macaroni, cereal, pancakes, peanut butter, yogurt, and sometimes we can get a few new foods in for a few weeks before he quits eating them again. This seems to be typical for autistic kids, but it's hard to know for sure what exactly is going on. We supplement with Pediasure 1-2x/day, which is really hard. We're constantly working on desensitizing him to new textures and tastes, but have yet to see him make huge strides in eating.

He loves to read (sometimes for hours in his crib!), dance, ride in the car, and watch Daniel Tiger, Bubble Guppies, and Little Baby Bum. He is just the sweetest little boy, and we love him. 

Olivia (22 months): Olivia's our little firecracker. She seems to experience the world at a little higher intensity than the rest of us. This means her emotions (everything from joy to anger) are intense.

She is talking at close to Bennett’s level, but is a little harder to understand. She wants to tell us everything all the time—all day long. She’s such a talker. Like her brother, she loves to read, dance, and watch Little Baby Bum. Both of our kids are outside babies and would play outside all day every day if weather and mom’s energy permitted!

Olivia is definitely entering that fun 2 year-old stage of boundary testing, something Bennett never really did, so we are having fun trouble-shooting that with her. She’s so sweet and fun to be around, she brings so much joyous energy to our lives! 

Her most recent developments include saying "hiiii!" when any of us walk in or out of the house, going back and forth with Bennett in the car seeing who can yell the loudest (until Bennett stops and says, "that was scary?"), repeating funny phrases we teach her ("Aint nobody got time for that!", "Expelliarmus!", "What are we? Besties!") and bonding deeply with our incredible nanny, Emilee C. We couldn't have done this year without Emilee, she has been such a huge blessing to all of us, and Olivia has taken to her like she's her second mom (sometimes I think first mom!).

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Overall, it's been a year of stability with no moving, no pregnancy, no births, and no serious medical challenges between the 4 of us, which has been a very welcome change from the last few years. Here's to another good year in 2020! Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! We love you!

Love, 

Dave, Erin, Bennett, and Olivia