Blessings...

It's been a really, really long time... I am going to keep this short.

Emileigh's birthday was a big success. She did really well with the noise and so much visual stimulation (which was a relief). We we surprised by my sister when she gave us three big boxes full of birthday cards and packages... over 600 of them! We got stuff from all over the place, even Mexico and Ireland! So to those of you who participated we cannot thank you enough!

She really did well through September and even October. We went to her new pediatrician (there is a special needs clinic at Children's) and opthamologist in September. The pediatrician ordered a suction machine which we have not had to use yet, it is mainly for when she is sick and has a lot of secretions in her mouth and sinuses. It is another thing that will make things easier, especially considering I was using a bulb nasal aspirator before. The opthamologist said she can see fine and everything is healthy but she will need corrective surgery for her eye muscles. When she focuses on something she only can use one eye at a time because her eyes go inwards slightly. So that makes it really hard for her to process the world (on top of the fact that she has other problems processing her environment). So that will be sometime next year after we go back to see Dr. Schwartz in January. Other than that we have had a bunch of outpatient check-ups.

Now as for therapy, she started Speech back in the middle of September and has been doing extremely well with it. She has been doing very small tastes (of bananas and berries) and oral stimulation and she loves it. She has Speech once a week and Physical and Occupational therapies (one or the other) once a week. Everyone is very impressed with how far she has come. She moves her head side to side more but she still favors her right side. We are still waiting for her wheelchair/stroller, collar and bath chair that were ordered at the end of August. I cannot wait for those to be delivered.

For all of those things (and many more) we have been blessed.

We are very happy for her progress but we have had some other things going on as well. There is no easy way to talk about this... part of the reason it took so long for me to write again was because Jacob and I have two dear friends who lost their baby in October. I don't want to go into details because it is not my place, it is their story to tell. So we have been trying to be there for them and be sensitive to their feelings as well. We are trying to learn along the way what helps and/or hinders their healing and coping. So with that being said I wanted to keep my post short so you all can take this time to reflect on your blessings.

My heart is heavy. Please pray for them.

<3 Mighty Max <3