Most people have a love-hate relationship with their bodies.  They’d like this part to be a little skinnier/fuller/perkier/etc, and that part to be a little less wrinkly/saggy/freckly/etc.  But overall most bodies run pretty smoothly.  They take us through the milestones of sitting, standing, walking, talking, processing food properly, learning quadratic equations, going to college, living on our own, getting married, and finding another well-running body with which to produce new people, who will follow the same cycle.

Sure, I have parts that I wouldn’t mind rearranging a little, but ever since Sienna was diagnosed with FOP, I have been in awe of how many things my body can do correctly.  Things that I have always taken for granted. I met all my milestones growing up and even made it through a great college, swimming competitively and only giving my body a second thought when I injured things from overuse or wore myself out from late nights studying. (Yep, definitely just studying. Future Sienna who is reading this, college is JUST for studying)

Sienna’s body, on the other hand, has a faulty gene that tells it to keep making bone on top of her existing skeleton.  Just one little gene gone haywire, and it can change everything.  If the research doesn’t continue, it could land her locked in place completely.  (But the research WILL continue, donate at www.siennasflowergarden.com to help fund it – every dollar counts!)

But even so, I am still also in awe of HER body.  Everything else seems to function perfectly.  Everything but one teeny tiny gene.  She is smart and funny, creative, caring, can successfully process anything she eats, and she currently has few movement restrictions so she is VERY difficult to slow down.  So while FOP is terrible and progressive and we fear the future, it’s still better than many of the other things I’ve learned about that can go wrong in little bodies.  I’m thankful for everything that is running.  And I know that many families would trade places with us in a heartbeat.