6.12.11

Choosing thankfulness!

Things I am thankful for about Aimee:
Her smile
That she rarely gets sick
That I can put her hair in pigtails
That when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she plays
That every morning I get to spend an hour rocking her while she eats breakfast
That God provides for all her needs
That she is delightful to be with and to look at
That God chose us to be her parents
That we have so many friends and family to support us
AND...
That Aimee is a BIG SISTER! We are so honored that God has entrusted us with another child to love. We are anticipating their arrival around Christmas time. :D Lots of reasons to be thankful!

So onto the news.

We received the response letter to our application for financial aid through children's this last week. Unfortunately, we were only partially approved for this next year. We will have to pay the first couple of thousand up front. Not exactly sure why this change took place, but we are still so thankful for financial aid. That first couple of thousand has already been provided for through the photo contest and is really nothing compared to how much is spent through the hospital on her care over a year. In fact, this month she will well exceed that amount several times. God is always taking care of us.

We have decided to begin speech therapy next week. It will add another appointment to our weeks, but I am anxious to work on her ability to communicate. Primarily I would like to teach her that she can make choices and express them to us in some way. It will be really interesting to see what next steps we can take to get us there.

Tomorrow Aimee and I will be observing a 2 year class similar to the one the school district would like her to be enrolled in for this Fall. This will give us an opportunity to meet the potential teacher, school therapists and nurses. Really not sure if putting her in school is the right choice or not. Praying that a glimpse into their activities will give me insight.

We applied this week to attend a weekend conference at the school for the blind in Vancouver, Wa. According to Aimee's OT this is a really good learning opportunity that they only approve 8-10 families for each year in our state. We would stay in the student housing and learn from other families of visually impaired kids. Hoping that we are an approved family.

It has been 1 year this week since Aimee failed a swallow study and was changed to tube feedings. It is still sad to me when I remember how much she enjoyed eating and how fun it was for me to come up with combinations of pureed foods for her to sample. It was the one area that we could really tell she had some dislikes! We have been giving her between 1 and 2 teaspoons of puree in the morning while she eats breakfast. I am working with a feeding therapist at Children's with the goal of increasing her ability to swallow correctly. Unfortunately, just like every other area that we are working on, progress is hard won and slow.