Hard Knocks and Hope

The past few weeks have been really rough!  We've had a series of hard knocks.  First, we had a plumbing bill to the tune of $1800.  The following week, we had to put Shylah, our German Shepherd down.  (That whole episode was very tragic and stressful situation.)  We put her down on a Monday, that Friday I had a miscarriage.  I was 8.5 weeks pregnant when I lost the baby.  Right after that, our family all came down with the flu.  It was the worst sickness we've had in a long time.  While I was sick, I destroyed my phone by putting it in the washer.  So yeah, the past few weeks have been rough.

Nonetheless, God is faithful.  He is our hope and help in trouble.  When you get knocked down so low, there is only one way that you can look and that is up.  Sometimes that is what it takes to get us hard headed, independent people to turn our focus back to God.  I have to admit that I did go through a "woe is me" stage but now I'm trying to get back up and focus on seeking God's will.

September and October are going to be very difficult months for us emotionally.  September 19 was Sierra's birthday and October 17 is when she entered the gates of heaven.  A friend and I are working on putting together something special to do on Sierra's birthday.  More details will follow....

What's up now?

Despite the pain, life has been very busy.  Buck is now a certified therapy dog.  Now we just have to find a place to visit!  Our goal is to visit children in the hospital, but we won't be able to do that until after the children's hospital moves in October.  We would also love to visit children in a special needs class, but it is summer vacation right now.  We are trying to find a nursing home to visit until we can do either of those.

Also, I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I would LOVE to train service dogs for special needs children.  I'm going to be doing research and trying to find out how to go about that.

Ruby is growing like a weed and getting into tons of mischief.  She brightens our days and keeps life interesting.

Hello Blog

I know that I've neglected this blog lately.  It's not because we are doing great and completely healed.  The pain is still so real.  The past week was particularly difficult.  I'm not sure why.  We miss Sierra so much.  Ruby has been talking a lot about "Sissy" lately.  She's been saying, "Sissy?  Bye." and "Sissy? Know?" as she's saying it, she'll hold out her little hands like she does when she's looking for something.  Another thing she said was, "Sissy, I lo lu" (I love you.)  It is sweet and heartbreaking all in one.

Independence Day is coming up next week.  It was always one of my favorite holidays.  This year I'm dreading it.  I don't have my precious angel baby to dress up in red, white, and blue.  Sometimes, I wish we could just skip holidays.  Sometimes I wonder how it is possible to celebrate when we are in so much pain.  Yet life must go on.  Not for our sake, but for Ruby's.  We want her to experience all the joys of childhood.  

I think sometimes people see us out and about and think that we've healed and are no longer suffering.  What they don't see are...

....the tears shed in the quiet of night
....the pain of seeing the matching dresses that Sierra and Ruby were supposed to wear the day Sierra went to heaven.
....the shattered dreams of having Sierra get a wish granted from "Make a Wish"
....the daily items that were Sierra's that she will never use again
....the "we should have..." thoughts
....the little girl who will never see her "Sissy" again on this earth
....the pain of seeing other special needs children and knowing that I can't hug my own special needs child

The list goes on and on just as does the pain.

Forever In Our Hearts

Forever In Our Hearts
Author: Unknown

God looked around His garden
And He found an empty place.
He then looked down upon
This earth and saw your tired face.
He put His arms around you
And lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful,
He always takes the best.
He knew that you were in pain.
He knew that you would never
Get well on earth again.
So He closed your weary eyelids
And whispered, "Peace Be Thine."
He then took you up to Heaven with
Hands gentle and so kind.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
But you did not go alone.
For part of us went with you
The day God called you Home.

Finding A New "Normal"

Today Jason went back to work. It's been 3 weeks since our little angel baby left us. Now we are forced to return to the routines of life as we try to find a new "normal." That is easier said than done when it feels like our hearts and lives have been torn apart. Life will never be the same again, but through God's grace, we will persevere.

As we were sitting in the FL airport crying our eyes out as we waited for our flight home, a lady came over and tried to offer some words of comfort. She had lost her adult daughter 2 years earlier. She said, "When I get up in the morning, I say, 'I'm just going to do the best I can today.'" That's how it is with us right now. We are living one day at a time. I think of the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness that says, "...strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow..." We haven't reached the "bright hope for tomorrow" stage yet but I know it will come. God is truly faithful.

I never really realized how much time I spent with Sierra. Yet, despite the many hours we spent caring for Sierra and her special needs, she was NEVER a burden to us. Caring for her was pure joy, and we got so much back in return. There was not one single time when we got frustrated or impatient with her. How many 3 year olds can you say that about? (I can't say the same for Ruby and she is only 10 months old!) She was truly a remarkable little girl. In the coming days, I'm going to dedicate a post to writing about all the lives she touched.

One of the things that I want to do with some of my free time is to begin training Buck to be a pet therapy dog so that we can visit children in the hospital. Last week, we had a consultation with a dog trainer and we put a down payment on a training package. Hopefully Buck and I can begin that in the next month or two. I know I've mentioned doing this, and now I want to give a little explanation as to why I want to do this.

Buck and Sierra loved each other. Buck was so good with her. He loved cuddling up to her and was so gentle. A few days after we arrived home (without Sierra), Buck started sniffing around Sierra's playmat. Then he went running around the house frantically looking for her. He seemed to realize that she was gone and became very sad. It will be wonderful when he can make other children happy and show the same love towards them that he did towards Sierra.

Another reason we want to do this is because the community did SO MUCH for us when we were doing fundraising for Sierra. We feel that this is a small way that we can give back to the community. Sort of a "thank-you" for all the help they gave us.

In a way, I think it will be part of the healing process for me. I never would have thought that I would want to go back into the hospital with all the memories that we have of hospitals. I feel like this is something that I can do for God and for Sierra. I know how scary it can be to have a child in the hospital and how touching it is when someone does something nice for your child. If Buck can make a few children happy then it will be worth it. Maybe God will allow me to bring a bit of comfort to the parents as well. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on our progress with the dog training.

Sunshine in the Rain

Through this horrible storm, we have seen bursts of sunshine as God orchestras all the details and reminds us of His loving care. My mother asked for me to write them out because she wanted to send an email about it. I think I'm going to just list them out in bullet form.

*The ER that we took Sierra to was very good. All of the people were VERY nice and showed lots of compassion. They were caressing Sierra as they worked on her. It was a much different ER experience than we've ever had before.

*The people in the ER also allowed us to have Ruby in the room with Sierra. We only had her in there with us for a few minutes and then passed her off to her grandparents who were in the waiting room. But it was special that we had a few last minutes together as a family.

*Sierra went to be with Jesus while we were vacationing in Florida. She passed away on a Sunday morning. We were supposed to come home on Tuesday. After she left us, we felt an urgency to get home ASAP. Jason called up Jet Blue and asked if there was any way they could change our tickets. They were AMAZING! They were on the phone with Jason for an hour and the lady worked really hard. She was able to get us a nonstop flight coming home that afternoon. On top of that, she waived $1500 worth of fees.

*Since everything happened in FL, that meant that we had funeral home fees for the funeral home there, plus transportation, plus the funeral home here. We didn't have life insurance on Sierra. Some friends very kindly offered to transport her body for us to cut down on expenses. We decided it was probably best just to have the funeral homes make arrangements to fly her body back. We used a funeral home in FL that is owned by someone Jason's uncle knows. He gave us a discount. Some friends called us and said they wanted to help out. They generously paid for the expenses of the funeral home in FL as well as the transportation costs.

*Three groups of people have taken up a collection for us (church, work, online friends) and many people have sent gifts. The money will be used to pay for the headstone, get Sierra's name engraved on the memorial wall at Morgan's Wonderland, and make a memorial garden for Sierra at our land.

*Jason's parents (who were also vacationing in FL at the time) were flying in for the funeral. They were flying into Dallas. We had so much going on that it would have been difficult for us to pick them up. Jason called up a friend and asked him to pick them up. That friend was already planning on driving from Dallas to Temple that day.

*We decided to sell the hyperbaric chamber to help pay for the funeral expenses. I posted a Facebook status about it. Several of my friends reposted my status to try to help us. Within several hours, someone had bought it.

*Some dear friends put together a book with pictures of Sierra and many sweet notes. It is so beautiful!

*When we were making funeral arrangements, we stopped by a cemetery that someone said used to have free plots for children. It turned out that they no longer had free plots for children. The man there was very flippant and we didn't like him. We weren't thinking clearly at the time and probably would have went ahead with that cemetery if our pastor had not been with us. He said, "This doesn't feel right. Why don't you keep looking?" So we went home. We started talking about it and decided that we really wanted to find a little cemetery out in the country.

We had recently purchased land just outside of Troy. Our plans were to build there and get Sierra out to the country. We did a quick Google search for cemeteries in Troy. There were three listed. None of them had contact information. The funeral home didn't have any information either. Jason and our pastor began making calls to try to find contact information. About three different people gave them the name of a lady who runs the newspaper in Troy. We tried calling her, but her phone went to fax. We decided to stop by. We were greeted by a very nice lady who seemed to know everyone. (The town has a population of 1,600.) She had the contact information we needed.

Out of the three cemeteries, the one that stood out to us in name was Shiloh Cemetery. One of them was right by the highway and the other one didn't really interest us. We drove out to Shiloh Cemetery and it was just perfect. It was only about 5 miles from our land. It was a peaceful little cemetery out in the country. The last person buried there was 26 years ago.

We called the lady in charge of the cemetery. She said that we could pick out any spot we liked. There was no charge, but we could make a donation if we wanted (which we will be doing.) Oh and Shiloh means, "Gift from God," which describes Sierra perfectly.

*It was cold and rainy on the morning of the burial. The sky was overcast and dreary. We arrived at the cemetery early and were wondering if the light rain was going to turn into a downpour. Once the service began, the rain stopped. Not only did the rain stop, but about 3 times during the service, the sun broke through the clouds. It was such a beautiful sight! I liked to think of it as Sierra smiling down on us.

Two Weeks

Tomorrow it will be two weeks since our little angel left us. Oh how my heart aches. I miss her so much. :'-( Our family is incomplete without her. My days feel empty. Yes, I have a lot more free time now, but I would give up all of my free time to have her back in my arms.

Every little thing reminds me of my sweet little girl. As I walk down the baby isle to pick up diapers for Ruby, my mind says, "Do I need diapers for Sierra?" "Am I almost out of suppositories for Sierra or do I need to buy more." "I wonder if Sierra could drink out of that sippy cup." "There are some cute bows that would look good in Sierra's hair." On and on it goes. Then reality comes crashing down.

Modeling Mothering

Rosetta does most of the writing here, but I wanted to jump in to talk about mothering.

Rosetta had modeled mothering for the last several years.  Of Sierra's 3 years and 28 days of life, Rosetta spent 3 years and 27 days with her.  The one day she didn't, our other daughter Ruby was born so she was a little busy.  But its not so much about the number of days spent, its about what she did during those days.

When Sierra was in NICU, the doctors put a feeding tube in her stomach because they said she would never be able to eat normally.  Rosetta found a special kind of bottle called a Haberman that assisted kids with with sucking reflexes to learn to suck.  Within two months, the tube was out.

This does not mean that feeding Sierra was easy.  She eventually learned to suck well enough to go to a regular baby bottle and then to a sippy cup, but feedings typically took at least half an hour, many times longer.  On top of that, Sierra typically couldn't go to the bathroom on her own, so Rosetta spent significant time each day helping her make this happen.

On top of all that, there were endless therapies and appointments.  It started out with taking her to a chiropractor in Austin twice a week.  Eventually we switched to a chiropractor in Temple, but then found a good massage therapist in Austin that she started taking her to.  This involved significant drive time, not to mention the various local therapies that she took her to, or had therapists come to the house for.  Most of the time any time Rosetta got to herself was after midnight, if she got it at all!

Sierra's cues were very subtle.  Many times I wouldn't even pick up on them.  But Rosetta did, even if it was the middle of the night and she was asleep.  Rosetta was so tuned in that if anything was amiss she would wake right up and tend to Sierra.

Sierra could not have had a more caring mother who dedicated her life to her daughter and giving her every opportunity.

Continuing Her Legacy

I have decided to continue this blog. I will use it to write down memories of Sierra or share my grief as I miss my precious little girl. The entries will be very raw and real. Some of them will be happy memories and others will be filled with the pain and hurt of losing my baby.

If my SN friends do not want to continue reading my blog I completely understand! I know that when Sierra was still here it was very difficult for me to read about SN children that had passed away. During that time, I wanted to focus on her life and not think about the possibility of her leaving. Now that she is gone, I still want to primarily focus on her life.

Sierra Rose Fedelem September 19, 2007 - October 17, 2010

Sierra Rose Fedelem

September 19, 2007 - October 17, 2010

Sierra Rose Fedelem was our precious daughter.  She was not breathing at birth, almost died, and sustained significant brain damage which the doctors stated would prevent her from ever walking, talking or seeing.  We chose to not give up and tried many mainstream and alternative therapies.  She took us places we never would have gone and taught us things we never would have known.  We are grateful for the time we had with her.  She went to be with Jesus suddenly on October 17, 2010.

Everyone is welcome to attend:

Graveside service: Saturday at 11 am, Shiloh Cemetery, Troy, TX (Google Map: http://bit.ly/bjzVH7 )

Memorial Service: Sunday at 4 pm, Grace Community Church, Waco, TX (Google Map: http://bit.ly/9wHIVG )

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels

By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees

And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting

And I know she's smiling saying

Don't worry 'bout me

Alan Jackson, Sissy's Song

Our Precious Little Angel is with Jesus

Sierra has gone to be with Jesus.  Many people have been asking what happened. 

Sierra had been kinda sick for a week or two. She wasn't too bad so I didn't take her to the doctor. We went to Florida for a week to visit Jason's grandmother (his parents were also visiting.) On Friday night her breathing was a bit labored and she was swollen. Her breathing improved by Sat morning. Sat evening her breathing became labored again. I woke Jason up around 4am on Sunday morning and told him we should take her to the hospital. 

We looked up a Children's hospital on google and went to it. The people in ER were extremely nice. They even let Ruby in the room which was special because we got to be together as a family for the last time. They told us that her sodium levels, plateletes, and a bunch of other things were low. They said they would have to intubate her. 

I had to leave the room during intubation. While they were doing it, I saw the nurses start to hurry around. A nurse came out to get some dopamine.  I knew that wasn't good. I looked in the window and saw them doing chest compressions on her. I hugged Jason tight and started wailing hysterically. All of a sudden God enveloped me in a blanket of peace. I stopped crying and looked at Jason and said, "She's with Jesus now! She can walk, and talk, and see!" A few minutes later a nurse came out to tell us what we already knew.

It was a huge shock.  We always knew that it would happen as some time, but she left at a time when we weren't expecting it.  Overall though, we are grateful that God took her home so quickly rather than allowing her to be in the hospital for days on end.

JetBlue worked hard and got us on flights home that afternoon.  Today we worked on getting arrangements made for transporting her body back to Texas, finding a cemetery, making memorial service arrangements, etc.

The graveside service will be on Saturday October 23, 2010 at 11:00am at Shiloh Cemetery in Troy.  (From IH-35, take the 308 exit and go east for approximately 1.1 mile, turn left onto Shiloh Rd, go 1 mile and the cemetery is on the left.)

The memorial service will be on Sunday October 24, 2010 at 4:00pm at Grace Community Church in Waco, TX

Many people have been asking for our address.  It is:

410 E Lamar Ave

Temple, TX 76501

Doing well

Since I'm sitting here at the computer in the peace and quiet (the rest of the family is asleep), I decided it would be a good time to write a quick update.

Sierra has been doing really well lately. She has been so much more awake and alert. Since going to China for the stem cell treatments, we've really noticed cognitive improvements in her.

She is currently getting occupational therapy and speech therapy twice a week. They come to our home so we are not battling the germs at a therapy place. We goes the the chiropractor every other week and we have recently begun taking her to a "manual therapist" in Austin every other week.

The "manual therapist" has been helping her immensely! We were really starting to get worried about how curved her spine is. He is helping straighten it out. He does what almost looks like a massage but he says that it isn't massage because it goes deeper than tissue and manipulates the muscles and bones. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what he does (this man is so intelligent that I don't understand the majority of what he says.) But, whatever it is, it is helping! Her spine is getting much straighter and she has been more active.

Ruby is our little Energizer Bunny. She is so active and noisy. She loves Sierra and provides a lot of positive stimulation. I think having a sister has been one of the very best therapies for Sierra.

In other news, we are working on moving to the country! We purchased some land and after we sell the house, we plan to build a little at a time. I can't wait to get the girls (especially Sierra) out to the fresh air and do things like horseback riding more often. We probably won't move for a year or two just yet, but we are so excited!

Long Time No See!

Wow, it has been forever since I posted here. I can't write a long post right now since it is 1 am. =) We use Facebook more than the blog nowadays.

The winter was really long and hard for us. Sierra was sick for nearly 6 months straight. She is feeling MUCH better now!

Sierra's little sister was born three weeks early. I was induced on Dec. 23 and she was born on Christmas Eve. Her name is Ruby Violet Faith. She is a great addition to the family and has provided lots of beneficial stimulation for Sierra.

Here are some pictures of the girls.

New Sister!

It's been a while since I've updated and a lot has happened since then. In November, Sierra landed in the hospital with pneumonia and a staph infection. She was only there for 5 days and we didn't have to go to PICU. She was able to get out a few days before Thanksgiving.

This past Sunday Sierra started looking a little sick. On Monday, we took her to the doctor. He gave her a shot of Rocephin and started her on antibiotics. Today she is doing MUCH better. She is perkier and more alert. We are so grateful because tomorrow I am going to be induced, and did not know how I was going to survive if my other little girl was in the hospital.

Sierra's little sister is due Jan 15. Last week at a check-up and ultrasound they said that the amniotic fluids were low and put me on bedrest. On Monday they checked them again and said they were still at a 6. Tomorrow I go in for another ultrasound and will more than likely be induced. She will probably be born on December 24.

We would greatly appreciate everyones prayers. Please pray that Sierra would continue to improve, that God will give me strength, and that I would not have flashbacks of Sierra's birth.

P.S. I know something is wrong with the blog right now and won't allow comments to be posted. I'll try to get Jason to fix that sometime. Not sure when that will be. EDIT: Comments should now be fixed. If anyone is having issues please let us know. Most of you have alternate contact info for us. Pop up blockers need to allow popups on this site as this was the only fix I had for now.

More Progress

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog anymore but I figured it would be good for me to update for my own benefit. It seems like sometimes progress kind of sneaks up in little areas and they can be so small that you don't realize they are there until you look to the past and realize, "Hey, she didn't used to do that!"

Lately during feedings, Sierra has put her hand up a couple of times and placed it on the bottle. She'll leave it there for a few seconds at a time. In the past, if she would ever touch the bottle it would be with her fist closed. Now she is placing her hand on the bottle with her fingers open! So I decided that maybe it is time to see if she can gradually make the transition to a sippy cup. I bought her a sippy cup that has handles on it. The plan is to eventually get her to hold on to those handles. I had to remove the valve inside that prevents the sippy cup from spilling because her suck is still too weak to get anything out with that valve on. The few times that I have given it to her, she has done pretty well. I think she is rather annoyed that it isn't the bottle, but she has been able to drink out of it. One of the times, I took the lid off for the last few sips and gave it to her that way, like a regular cup. It was a bit messy, but she did fine with it! I would tell her, "Okay here is comes, now swallow it." That would give her an idea of where the liquid was. About 6 or 7 months ago, I had tried doing this and it resulted in the drink going down the wrong way and her having a choking fit. I didn't repeat it because I was afraid of her aspirating. She has had stem cell treatments since then, and I honestly believe that they are what have helped her gain more oral motor control.

I have been very pleased with Sierra's new therapists! They have been doing a lot with her and giving me ideas of what things to do at home. Here are some of the main things we are working on:

1. Stretches: Her arms. Her arms do not straighten out all the way. We are working on stretching them so hopefully the muscles will stretch and give her better range. Her thumbs. Her thumbs are a bit tight. Not too bad, but we are working on making them better. Her ankles. Same thing, just trying to make sure they don't tighten up. Her side. She has a tendency to pull to the left. This is causing her back to curve. We stretch out her left side and curve her to the right.

2. Sitting: We've been working on having her side sit with her arms in front of her supporting her and her fingers flat on the floor rather than in a fist. She did an EXCELLENT job on Friday!

3. Crawl position: Having her on all fours with her knees under her, her hands supporting her, her fingers flat on the floor, and her head up.

4. Rolling: She does a bit of rolling on her own but she will only roll towards her left. They are working on getting her to roll both ways. Last Friday, they put her on a swing. It is basically a square board suspended from the ceiling. They had her laying on it. A therapist was on each side. They would tilt the swing and have gravity help Sierra roll. She did really well on that!

5. Mouth exercises: They have been showing me some exercises to do with Sierra that are supposed to strengthen the muscles in the mouth.

Sierra gets therapy on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays she gets half an hour of PT, half an hour of OT, and half an hour of ST. She was supposed to have the same schedule on Fridays but the OT and PT decided that instead they would rather work together and give Sierra a more rigourous 30 minute session instead of doing them seperately. It has seemed to work out really well. Sierra did such a good job with the two therapists. They made her work hard!

Pigtails and Poodle

Rolling, Rolling Rolling & First Speech Therapy

Rolling, Rolling Rolling

Sierra has been making so many little improvements in the past couple of weeks! Now she regularly rolls from her right side, onto her back, and then onto her left side. She doesn't like being on her right side so whenever I lay her down on her side, I put her on her right side. =) She almost immediately rolls. This morning, she rolled from her belly onto her side, onto her back, and then onto her other side. She was just about to make it back onto her belly but I had to interrupt her because we had to leave for her speech therapy.

Speech Therapy

Today Sierra had her very first speech therapy session. It is really more about learning to communicate and do things than it is about talking. The therapist had a toy that makes noise when you touch different buttons on it. She would put Sierra's hands on it and help her touch the buttons. We put Sierra on her right side (the side she doesn't like) and had her play with the toy while on that side. I believe that she was responding to the toy, because she did not even try to roll during the whole therapy session even though she hates being on that side!

Sierra's birthday is next month and I am really wanting to get her some toys that make noise, play music, or have varying textures for her to touch.

Thank you all for your continued prayers. God is continuing to work in the life of this miracle baby!

Sick, More Progress, and Therapy

Sick

On Monday Sierra got a cold. She has been pretty congested. When I first saw that she was getting sick, I began giving her Berry Well which is a syrup with elderberries, Bee propolis, Echinacea root extract, raw honey, and raw apple cider vinegar. I was giving that to her about every 3 hours or so and giving her garlic "tea." The garlic did wonders in helping break up the congestion and the Berry Well helped boost her immune system. Of course all the prayers helped as well! She is doing MUCH better today and I believe she is on the mend. Yay! We didn't have to go to the doctor or give her any medicine.

More Progress

Over the past three weeks or so, we have been seeing a lot more progress! They are all very little improvements but they are improvements nonetheless. Let me see if I can remember them all. She has started using both legs equally. Before, when she was on her belly, she would pull her right leg up under her and push with it, but would hardly ever do that with her left leg. She has begun using her left leg almost as often as her right leg.

Sierra is continuing to do well with her weight bearing. She will stand for several minutes at a time when we hold her up. At church, I lean her against the pew and she can stand without me supporting her.

Her big toes always used to be scrunched up. About two weeks ago we noticed that they weren't scrunched up anymore. They were fully extended! I'm not sure the significance of that...I think it may have to do with her muscles loosening up, I don't know.

We've started noticing some more purposeful movements. Sierra has begun to put her hand up to her mouth. The other day, I put a toy in her hand and then helped guide it to her mouth. After that, she put it in her mouth, by herself about 3 times! It could have been an accident, but I don't think so. She has also shown more interest in touching toys.

Sierra's grandfather made a 12' crawling slide for her. The angle is adjustable. It encourages her to crawl and gravity helps her make progress. She is getting very good at crawling down her slide!

Perhaps the most exciting thing is that we discovered that she is beginning to understand some words! My mother pointed out that when we say, "eat" Sierra will start moving her mouth like she wants to eat. We tried saying "eat" at different times and she would respond by moving her mouth. Since she understands "eat" who knows how many other words she understands! She just has not yet learned how to show that she understands them.

Therapy

There is a new therapy place that opened here in Temple. We have been to evaluations for speech therapy, and occupational therapy. She will get an evaluation for physical therapy on Monday. We were VERY pleased with the therapists! They were excellent! This therapy place is called Hope Therapy Center. There have a branch in Waco and just opened this branch in Temple. They are eventually going to get aqua therapy and hippotherapy.

A Long Overdue Update

Family

First of all, I just wanted to say that Sierra's very first cousin was born today. His name is Remmington James Shalom Klassy. Sierra hasn't met him quite yet but she will soon.

Sierra was very happy to have her CA grandparents here for a visit. We were all sad to see them go.

Sierra got to meet her great grandmother Fedelem for the first time while we were in FL.

This week Sierra's other great grandmother is visiting.

Doctors and Tests

Sierra has quite a few appointments coming up this month and next. Today we went to see her pediatrician for a check-up. Tomorrow we go for a 4 hour video EEG. If the results are good, her local neurologist will consider decreasing the amount of Keppra (anti-seizure medication) that she is taking.

Dr. Hammesfahr wants us to go see an endocrinologist and to have Sierra's hormone levels checked. Brain injured children usually have messed up hormone levels. He says that by correcting those, it will help the brain. Dr. H also wants her to get an MRI, a STECT and another test. We will be doing those next month.

Progress

We have been seeing lots of little improvements over the past couple of weeks. Sierra is doing so much better with weight bearing on her legs! Now she can stand for several minutes at a time. We don't need to hold onto her for balance but she does have to have her hands on something to help her keep her balance. Her balance is improving so much! I put her in a sitting position the other day and she sat there for several minutes.

She has also become much more "talkative" and louder. She still does not make any real tonal type sounds. It is mainly gutteral.

Another encouraging improvement is that she has been so much more awake and alert. Before, she would keep her eyes closed almost all the time even when she was awake. Now, she keeps them open quite a bit throughout the day. She is doing so well. I am so proud of her and so grateful for these improvments that God has given her! We are continuing to pray for more improvements.

I really should take some video clips of her and put them on here. I'll try to get to that soon.

Prayer Request

We are very pleased with Dr. H and how optimistic he is. The only very discouraging thing is that we will have to fly out to FL once every three months to have an appointment (This is not his requirement...the medical board of FL requires it). There is a very slight chance that we may be able to get insurance to cover it. We would really appreciate your prayers that this would happen. We will just have to trust that God will provide the funds to allow this.

A Matter of Perspective

I do have some updates to write about Sierra, which I will try to get to later today or tomorrow, but this was on my mind so I wanted to write it down.

Today Sierra and I went to the grocery store. While we were there, we saw a young man in an electric wheel chair. I'm guessing that he had cerebral palsy in addition to other disabilities. He obviously could not walk, his hands were spastic and not much use to him, he got around by using a stick attached to his forehead to move the wheelchair. I have to admit, I stared at him. But, it was not out of pity or to gawk.

I stared out of admiration. Here was a young man who was severely disabled but he did not let his disabilities disable him. He was at the store all by himself. The workers seemed to know him. One employee was chatting away with him and then another came to push a cart for him. This young man could not talk, but he had a computer screen in front of him that was a communication device. He did everything with the stick attached to his forehead. He communicated and maneuvered around the store. You could tell that it wasn't always easy to get around with the stick and get it in the right place, but that did not stop him. I didn't see a man to be pitied but a man to be admired and respected, not someone who was disabled, but rather someone who was enabled with determination and strength.

It is my hope and prayer that Sierra will be like this young man, in that she will have the determination and strength to continue going even when life is rough.