Friday, March 25, 2011

S E V E N ! ! !


My baby girl turned 7 today.

WOW!

I cannot believe we have had the privledge of being her parents for 7 years!

That's 2,555 days!!!

Oh Happy Birthday my darling daughter, and PS. . . she shares a birthday with Grandpa. So we'll shout out to him as well!

LOVE TO YOU BOTH!

Monday, March 21, 2011

I just sent Savanah off to school.
Countdown to 7th birthday, 4 days I was reminded.
Desmond and I stayed up late watching old home movies.
We watched several of Savanah.
One in particular that struck us was only a few years ago.
4 almost to be exact.
RIGHT before her implant.
She wasn't able to communicate with us.
She had the best facial expressions though!
She was verbal in jibberish, she wasn't using ASL, either were we.
She was "sort of" lipreading.
She was just more watching our faces.
It was such a moment to watch again.
Since being implanted and her being able to communicate with us and everyone else.
I feel like we sort of forgot about that time in all of our lives.
It was such an impactful time but for some reason, we have blocked it out.


How far we've come in FOUR years! Savanah is talking, reading, spelling, going to school, expressing emotions appropriately, understanding different noises. . . GROWING up. We are so proud of her everyday, these old home videos are good to watch, such a blessing to see where we all were and where we all are NOW!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

A favorite poem of mine. . .

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Remarkable.


(Savanah with little sister, pictured above).
Sorry it's been such a long time.
We've just been busy.
Living life.
Enjoying it.
Savanah is almost done with the first grade.
She is shining!
She is doing amazingly well with spelling and reading.
We were told she wouldn't be able to read till she was 10+, and yes she is 6!
Granted only for 5 more days. After 5 more days, she will be 7!!!
Where has the time gone?!?
Savanah is sure growing up.
She plays the Wii like an old pro.
She watches what she wants to watch on TV, so yes, she controls the remote.
She bathes herself, dresses herself and pretty much is 100% independent.
It's definitely been fun to watch Savanah develop into her own little personality!