Blessed and Fortunate

March 1- Mae is continuing to make gains with relation to her eating and also her development. We have found that she does not prefer store bought baby food meat (our dog Idol likes it though!) And as a result, Ryan has been preparing and pureeing her meats daily. She has been introduced to ground venison, ground beef, and ground turkey. Her favorite, so far, is venison and she devours it! Ryan is pretty happy about this- he’s already thinking ahead and looking at booking an extended hunting trip this fall to make sure he gets a deer for his little girl! ;) With regard to her development, Mae is starting to sit up, reach farther for toys, grab at faces, make more purposeful noises (indicating a desire to start talking/communicating with us), and standing with support. She is simply remarkable!

Mae was evaluated by our local school district today (speech therapist, occupational therapist, and physical therapist) and it appears that things are progressing as expected and at an acceptable rate. With that being said, there is quite a range of acceptability at her age of only six months- meaning, she is slightly delayed in some areas but is certainly excelling in others. We will follow up with the school district in three-six months but will continue to receive services from Early On to keep her growth and development monitored.  

Reading on the internet and watching the news the past couple of weeks has really put life into perspective with how great our family has it and how lucky we are. Don’t get me wrong, our daily routine certainly looks much different than many families and we definitely have challenges with Mae, but, we are truly so fortunate. We recently read an article about a little girl who is allergic to water, including her own tears! Could you imagine a baby allergic to her own precious tears? Or the parent who has to take their child to chemotherapy for cancer treatments, or the child who cannot eat anything while on TPN and cries because they still feel hunger, and so many more… Things for us could be so much worse. We know that God is good and there is a Greater purpose for this journey that we are on.

We know that we will have challenges and that things may become more difficult for us but right now we are ‘soaking up’ the good and thanking God for the miracle that Mae is. We’re blessed to be her parents and we’re blessed to have two healthy little boys who adore her more and more each day.

Psalms 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.