Leah's therapist.

Leah will be three next week. I know...I can't believe it too! Leah has been in the Early Intervention program for the past 2 1/2 years. She is now graduating from the program. Her occupational therapist Becca has been her therapist from the day Leah got sick. She came weekly. But at that time Leah was having 30+ seizures a day. Heaven only know how many absent seizures she was having. Because of this Becca couldn't do therapy every week with her. So instead she and I would talk. Little did she know she was my personal therapist. I was very depressed at that time. I just lost my baby. I cried and cried to her. She seemed to be the only one that understood. She said just the right things to me. I know she was God sent. God can't be here but He does send us what we need and she was exactly what I needed. Sometimes the only way I got through life at that time was knowing she would be back again in a week. I didn't know how to take care for my sick baby. She guided me through it all. I could not have made it without her. She helped me and Leah so much. Leah's physical therapist Susan came about 1 1/2 years ago. Becca and Susan are best friends so we had a blast together. She also truly blessed our lives. Her and Leah had an instant bond. Leah's eyes lit up when she saw Susan and Leah did things for Susan that she didn't do for anyone else (except me and Chad). We all laughed together and cried together. I am so thankful God took care of me and Leah by sending these beautiful ladies into our lives. Life brings change. We said there are no goodbye's. It's been a very emotional day for me but they promised to visit. They are considered family now. We love them and will miss them. Even though these women won't be in our home every week they will be in our hearts forever. 

Lauryn's birthday!

Happy Birthday Lauryn! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter! Leah and Lauryn had an instant connection when Leah was born. It was beautiful! Leah loved Lauryn and she always gave her big smiles. Lauryn has been such a strong girl for the past 2 1/2 years. Lauryn has never given up on Leah. She always helps me with her and babysits her all the time. She has never once complained! Lauryn handles Leah's life like a champ! Lauryn never pictured that this would be her life with her baby sister but I am so proud of her continued endurance. Below is Lauryn's favorite quote that has helped her through these past couple years. Even though Leah can't communicate I know she loves her sister very much!

Sweet surprise!

Leah got such a sweet surprise at the door a couple days ago. An envelope with this note and money. It said:

To Leah:
We hope Leah will be better. So we sale Popsicles, red vines, rocks and balloons just for her. Here is $10.75 to help get her medicine.

Wow!!! I am in tears! Such incredible hearts of these sweet little neighborhood girls. I am so touched!

Aware of Angels photo shoot.

Here is the pictures from the photo shoot Season Atwater from Aware of Angels did for us. They turned out so good. We are so happy with them and so incredibly thankful she took the time to do this for my family. These pictures are so precious to us. We never know when Leah's last day will be so we will always cherish these pictures. Chad and I made a video of the pictures. Click on the link below to view the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llT_jp6Crks&feature=em-upload_owner

Leah's eyes!

Leah's eyes are beautiful! They speak words to us. They are our only communication with her. Sometimes her eyes get stuck up or to the side for an hour or a half day or the whole day. On days that her eyes don't work it's devastating to me. It hurts me more than seizures because seizures always end but I never know when her eyes will return and maybe one day they may never return to normal. Her eyes are the most important thing to us and because of this we decided to send her to the Deaf and Blind school (USDB) in August. We met with the Jordan school district a couple weeks ago and wrote up her IEP. At that meeting we had to make our decision about which school is best for her. Chad knew from the start that USDB was the best school for her. I knew it in my heart too! Her IEP meeting was very emotional for me. I had to fill out a packet of all the things she could do and all the words she could say and I had to mark "no" for everything. I just cried and cried...so embarrassing! It was a moment for me of realization. Anyway, she will be off in someone else's care for two days a week...so scary to me. But, it will be so good for her. Now the next project..we need to build a ramp for her wheelchair so she can go into a van that will pick her up. Where's the tissues??!!

Surgery went well.

I am so embarrassed that it has been a month since I have wrote on Leah's blog. Summer has begun and time just flies by. Leah had her tonsils out on June 9th. Everything went very well. The doctor put her in ICU after surgery to make sure Leah didn't do anything funny...Because she does have a history of that ;) She was in ICU for about a day and a half and then they let us go home. One of the doctors was a little bit hesitant to send her home because she was running a small fever but Chad talk him into letting us go home and keep a good eye on her. Luckily, we have a lot of equipment at home to watch her vitals. Leah started breathing so much better right after surgery and she continues to breathe so much better! Leah continued to run a small fever from leaving the hospital and it began to get worse so we took her in to the doctor and she got pneumonia from the anesthetic. Dr. Hornyik put her on two antibiotics and she was put back on oxygen for about five days at home. She started to get better and then about a week later she started to run a fever again and so we called the doctor and she changed her antibiotic. She is now doing so much better and she is back to herself. Yay!!! By the way -the seizures were horrible when she got pneumonia and when she was running fevers now her seizures are back to about five a day!