Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Lily donning her squeaky shoes

The girls sharing the bean bag chair (Lily is a little possessive)

The girls and daddy at Target

Celebrating Lydia's 5th birthday at Jump for Fun with our Life Group

Lydia with her sweet smile!

I have thought about writing a blog post so often and just have not made the time to sit down and write it out.  A LOT has been going on in our lives!!!! First of all, I had my hysterectomy in early June.  The fibroid that was causing my pain was baseball size and attached to not only my uterus but my colon as well.  All was removed successfully and I have permanent staples in my colon now.  I had to stay an extra day in the hospital due to some trouble with my bladder. About ten days after the surgery, I randomly developed hives all over my abdomen.  They itched like crazy and looked lovely too :-)  Anyway, two weeks later and they are still there...faded, but there.  I tried everything...lots of steroids, itch medicine and lotion...nothing.  I visited the dermatologist this past week and he said it was an allergic reaction to an antibiotic.  He said it wasn't traditional hives but a form of them that is specifically tied to an antibiotic.  He's gathering my records to figure our what I had in the hospital.  He said it took 9 days to show up because it was probably my first exposure to it.  He said next time it would occur much faster and much worse.  I'll be jotting down the name of that antibiotic once he figures it out! :-)

"The Hives"

Miss Lily is on the move...she decided it was time to begin walking....11 months old!!  This video shows one of her first attempts at multiple steps.  She is much faster now and can even stand up from a sitting position without holding on to anything.  She is growing by leaps and bounds and a true joy!!

You may have noticed that I changed our blog title to "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made".  When I look at both of our girls, I am reminded that each is unique and truly fearfully and wonderfully made.  As mentioned in my last post, our developmental pediatrician noticed some concerns and told us that Lydia has an intellectual disability (formerly known as mental retardation) as well as a speech impairment.  At the time he also told us she was not ready for Kindergarten.  We were going down the path to repeat preschool and pursue Speech and Occupational Therapy medically.  We have been attending OT twice a week and just had the evaluation for Speech this past week. I chose to also pursue an evaluation through the school district in hopes of receiving therapy through the district for free.  This past Monday, Lydia was evaluated.  On Thursday, I received the report confirming the Intellectual Disability and Speech Impairment diagnosis.  At the evaluation, the diagnostician discussed putting Lydia in KN, allowing her to access the various services and intensive instruction available.  Since Lydia has already been evaluated and services will be available from Day 1, Matt and I have decided to move forward with entering Lydia in KN.  I don't want her to get any further behind and I do not have the resources or knowledge to best help her.  Our ARD/IEP meeting will not be until closer to the start of school.  We are hoping to have Lydia in a Resource class for Reading and Math, Speech Therapy, regular education Circle Time and Specials as well as possibly time in a Life Skills class.  With this intensive array of instruction, I feel comfortable sending our little girl to "big school".  Of course, I may cry the first week!!!  I pray that God will bless us with amazing teachers who will love Lydia and help her adjust to school.  God is good and we know He has a perfect plan in place.  We are digesting all of this day by day...In many ways, it has opened our eyes to so many things about our Lydia.  It helps explain why our sweet girl is still not potty trained at age 5.  It explains why she is our little "Amelia Bedelia" - very concrete in her understanding.  I know some feel that "labeling" a child is bad and sets them up for failure.  I feel that this "label" allows us to access an array of resources that will help Lydia achieve more than we could even imagine!!!

Meanwhile, daddy has been busy working, working, working...We are thankful that he works so hard to provide for our family and provide me the opportunity to stay home and manage our home and care for our girls.

I hope to blog more often, putting some of my thoughts to "paper" regarding our new journey.