the a-MAY-zing month of May

On the 17th we celebrated 4 months home with Christabel!! What an amazing 4 months it has been. We have continued to watch God do great things! but, this month seemed to be filled with an extraordinary lot of great things!

• on May 6 Christabel got her very last cast **for a long while at least!** I thought she would pick orange...she asked for pink [a new favorite maybe?]

• on May 7 she was seen by ophthalmology to evaluate a lazy eye that we had noticed first in photos before she was even home, and continued to notice over the last few months. It was discovered that the "lazy eye" is actually a crossing problem that she has likely had since birth & was likely much worse when she was younger but she is slowly growing out of it. In order to correct this & prevent any damage from her method of compensating, she has been fitted for glasses [and they are pretty darn cute...and also pink!]

• on May 13 her final casts were removed & she left the office in her new AFO's [just a fancy name for braces]. She had two weeks to acclimate to the braces & to wearing shoes. She followed up with her ortho doc & has been referred to physical therapy & to a Physiatrist [both will start preparing for that marathon that she will run one day...we dream big!!]

• she also had further urology testing to evaluate the function of her bladder and to formulate a plan to get her out of diapers! She has started a new medication & bladder training program that we hope will be the answer to prayers in regard to toileting.

• finally, she had a baseline MRI to get a better picture of her brain and spine. Her neurosurgeon already said "we will definitely see things that are not "normal" be we would expect that given her diagnosis" This is more to get a picture of what her brain and spine look like when she is happy & healthy, so if anything changes in her mood or health a new MRI could help explain the issue. So...unless she has an issue, we won't see neurosurgery for a year.

So...as we enter summer we look forward to first steps, big girl underwear, lots & lots of learning & knowledge retention, & just lots of fun!! We look forward to getting her up off the floor and on those beautiful feet...we are excited to see her explore a whole new world located at about 3ft 4in!!

Continue to pray for her this summer as we prepare her to enter school. She is super excited...her momma is super nervous...but God has some amazing plans for this sweet girl and He will be with her [and her momma] every step of the way!!