Skip to main content

Gracie's school


We are SO thrilled with Gracie's school. Josh and I both spent a day there this week and it is so amazing that we are eager to send our little 3.5 year old to public school every day! Her 2.5 hours in school are packed full of things that we can't provide at home - PT, OT, speech, a consistent approach, one-on-one consistent attention and coaching, other kids, tons of toys, crafts, stories, ABC's, days of the week, colors, routine tasks, songs... Everything that she does in preschool develops her skills more and more. Her para, Kelly, is so patient, consistent, and kind with her - she makes her work hard, she doesn't do a THING for her that Gracie can do for herself and Gracie knows it so she works hard for her! her therapists love her and are so excited with her. They have learned her so well that they know how to motivate her, they know that when she's hungry she's a bear, they know that she loves taking things out of containers and loves things that make noise - they have really applied themselves to learning Gracie so that they can teach her. Gracie loves school and does so well there!




We are grateful that Gracie is now a citizen and has her passport so we can travel anywhere that we want! We are still working on getting medicaid so that we can have access to augmentive communication devices. Please pray that this goes through soon. We are approaching a year with Gracie - she'll hit her anniversary as we hopefully go into labor to get her a little sibling! She has changed SO much in this year! I pray that her birth mom can see through the photos and the reports how much her baby has grown up and blossomed into a little girl. I pray that she can see that her decision of love for Gracie has given her a chance to thrive. I pray that someday, Gracie will be able to give back to her birth mom!


Gracie had another seizure - a scary one with trouble breathing. I was working night float, so I wasn't home and Josh (for the first time) felt panicky because she was breathing so poorly. She ended up admitted to the hospital and did well but we spent a long day in the hospital with my poor sister and her family hanging out with us at the hospital. I went a long 36 hours without sleep and back to work that night... 'yawn!' We're increasing her med dose (Keppra)... pray that it holds her!


"Baby sister" is growing well - and mama is doing well too. We're going on 34 weeks! Only 6 weeks left!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d...
6 comments
Read more

New Stage of Life

Gracie has entered a new developmental stage. She now is active and has been rolling all over the floor. We cleared out a little living room so that she would have room to roll around - she's rolling front to back, both directions. She also has been much easier to get up on all fours - it used to take 3-4 adults to cram her into the crawling position due to her resistance. She now even spontaneously gets into a semi-crawling position on her own. In the crawling position she's been weight bearing even on her right arm (but always in combination with her left arm). She also has been rocking a little in the crawling position as if she gets it that this is a way that you can move! It's been so exciting. But it also makes her much more eager to be down with other kids and moving around. She's in a very active active stage, always moving, and wanting to move. She's also taken, not just a huge interest in other kids, but also interest in toys a bit more. She's so fun!
4 comments
Read more

The Foolishness of God's Calling

A friend shared with me how "strange" (and scary) our decisions appear to those observing our lives. Most people are barely surviving residency and then for me to decide to adopt, to decide to adopt a child with special needs, to decide to adopt this child from the uncertainty of Liberia, to decide to start my Master's of Public Health during residency... it all seems crazy and overwhelming to the observer. But what my friend did not take into account is that God's calling on our lives will not always appear sane. Our choices are neither noble nor insane if they are what God has called us to. These choices are simply obedience to sovereign God! We are not living for life in this world, we are in fact aliens to this world and shouldn't settle down and get too comfortable because our joy is in heaven. God calls each of us to "not waste our lives" but live each day with an eternal focus. With an eternal focus, we should not only adopt a child with disabil...
4 comments
Read more