Merry Christmas everyone! Here is our family Christmas letter, since I didn't send one out this year. It's been a long year with a lot of changes, surprises, worries and joy.
Isabelle - Isabelle is almost a year old now and brings so much joy into our home. She is almost always happy, sweet, cuddly and calm. In 11 months she's had over 200 doctor apts. There has been heart problems, seizures, eating problems that affected her lungs, developmental delays, eye problems and a whole lot of therapy -weekly appointments with physical, occupational, and developmental therapy. Right now we are trying desperately to find her a speech/feeding therapist. There is a shortage here in the Valley and she is having eating problems, as well as not speaking. We are also applying for a second time to get her into the Long-Term Care program, which would make our lives so much easier. It would change her health care and allow her to receive therapists in the home, as opposed to driving to all appointments, and has other major benefits. We're praying that this year we are able to get her a feeding therapist, as well as get into the Long Term Care program. This would be a huge blessing for our family. However, Isabelle's health is so much better than the doctors originally expected and not a day goes by that we don't thank Heavenly Father for our smiling baby girl.
Eli - Eli is a busy, busy, busy 3 year old. He starts soccer next month, loves singing his ABC's, counting, and playing non-stop. Something surprising we discovered recently was that he has a Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). I was taking Eli with us to Isabelle's physical therapy appointments and after a few sessions the PT discussed with me some things she was noticing about Eli from watching him play. He was tested and and has just started going to occupational therapy once a week. If your wondering what SPD is, here is a good, simple explanation that I found online (on another blog of a mother who's also has a daughter with SPD).
"There are two basic extremes to SPD. Sensory-seeking is on the one end, while sensory-defensive is on the other. An individual that tends to be sensory-seeking is one that generally has a diminished sensitivity to input, and therefore, increases activity and sensory input in order to "sense" it fully. (I know....read that sentence about five times and maybe it will make sense. No pun intended.) These tend to be your kids on the playground that are always wanting the swing to be pushed higher, they want the TV louder, they dance on the dining room table, they run around in the rain with no coat on, they dig into finger paints with gusto...always seeking MORE input. Sensory-seekers are often poor at judging when enough is enough, so they overload themselves with too much high-end activity. To clarify further, her brain tends to under-react to sensory information. When I first heard the word under-react used in this way, my mind said, so a child like that would be sluggish, right? WRONG! Its exactly the opposite. A child that under-reacts to sensory information will seek MORE sensory input for the brain. The end result.......a child that tends to seek higher, faster, farther, louder, etc.
Jennica (the daughter of the woman writing this blog - although this girl sounds so much like Eli it is amazing) is the epitome of sensory-seeking. As a toddler, she was a climber. And a runner. And a grabber of everything. She wants to FEEL the world around her. And for her to do that, she needsMORE.....in every way."
Eli has been tested to be sensory seeking, (hopefully that explanation helped a little). Right now the goals we have set with his OT is to try to teach him the skills that he needs to focus and process, so that when he starts school in a few years he can be successful. I am hopeful that this will help us to understand him better and make things better in our home. Eli has always been all over the place with energy and craziness and this has been hard for us. Often we feel like discipline and things that we are trying to teach him aren't getting through. We are hoping that this will help not only Eli, but Isaac and I to know how to more effectively teach and parent Eli.
Isaac - This year Isaac graduated from University of Phoenix with his degree in Information Technology. He also got his CCNA computer certification. He is now working for Go Daddy, helping people to create their own websites. It's not what he wants to be doing, but he's getting experience and the company is really great and treats their employees well, which is a big change from where he was working before. His hours are awful - 3:30-midnight, but it allows him to be home in the morning so that we can (usually) schedule all doctor/therapy visits in the morning and don't have to constantly try to find a babysitter for Eli. It gives the kids more time with dad, and makes it a little easier for me, not having to constantly drive Eli to a babysitters, and trying to get Isabelle to the doctor.
Me - This has been a hard year. It seems like my life is taken over with the full time job of dealing with doctor appointments, fighting with insurance, trying to get Isabelle the care she needs and into programs that will help her receive better care. I have spent hours and hours on the phone and am trying to not let myself get too stressed out and remember to sit down and enjoy my kids.
We have been blessed this year in many ways that we never expected. So many people have helped us in so many ways - family members, church members, friends, people we never met before - we've received so much kindness from so many people. We have so much to be grateful for and even though this year has not been what we expected, we've learned a lot and our lives have been changed by the love and kindness of so many people. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
