Category Archives: Faith & Hope

Family Retreat Day 2

Faith & Hope, Parenting, Special needs children

As I sit here this evening reflecting back on the events of today, I am overwhelmed with joy. There is so much love here….an abundance of love that never ceases to flow.

Family retreat day 2 was awesome! Today’s big events included the big swing, fishing, swimming, a giant slip-n-slide, and a Pirates and Princesses dance. The staff and volunteers have gone above & beyond to make this fun for the kids and relaxing for the parents.

I think my favorite thing about camp is the immediate relationships that are formed here. It’s like a family reunion with people you’ve just met; except I feel like I have known these people my entire life.  And the best part is that they get my sick sense of humor!! When the spoon misses Gideon’s mouth and I say, “Well he didn’t see that one coming!” they laugh!! Apparently my blind jokes are funny here!

Speaking of immediate relationships, Laynie has bonded (and I mean like gorilla glue) to a sweet teenager named MaKayla. Since we got here, they have been inseparable. Tonight Laynie told her, “I’m so glad my brother has a genetic disorder because if he didn’t, we wouldn’t have come to this camp & I wouldn’t have met you!!”

Yall….I can’t even begin to tell you how significant her statement was to me. During adult chapel time this morning the speaker challenged us parents to really quiet our spirits long enough to see our children’s circumstances through God’s eyes.

Do we recognize that our circumstances serve a unique purpose in this world?

Apparently my 5 year-old does.

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***For more pictures and videos visit my Life with a Happy Heart FB page. You don’t want to miss the video of Laynie when the DJ played…. Let it Go.

Family Retreat Day 1

Faith & Hope

Today we arrived at Camp Allen for our 1st ever Joni & Friends family retreat!! I have been eagerly awaiting this time away and my first thought upon arrival….I don’t ever want to leave.

The short term missionary (STM) assigned to Gideon couldn’t be more perfect and of course Laynie has already made friends with several STMs assigned to her age group.

They served us a delicious dinner, helped us unpack our car and after some time of worship, they let our kids spend time getting to know everyone in their groups. The night concluded with an ice cream social which naturally led to lots of jumping on bed for Laynie.

On the schedule for tomorrow- fishing for Laynie and swimming for Gideon. As for Kevin and I, we will be doing some giant swing thing after chapel and then maybe something really crazy…like a nap!!!

This is going to be the best weekend ever!!

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Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse

Faith & Hope

Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse.

Please forgive me in advance, because what you are about to read is my very very very limited understanding of how all this works…

So a week ago, we took our son for another ABR; he gets one every six months because of his genetic disorder. ABR stands for Auditory Brain Repsonse and to put it simply, it is a hearing test where Gideon has to be sedated. The last time he had this test done was back in November and we were excited because his hearing results showed then to be stable- meaning that he had not lost any more hearing.

But that wasn’t the case this time around. Unfortunately, you can see from the results below, that Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse.

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The picture on the left shows the results from November and next to it are his results from last week. The “O” represents his right ear and the “X” represents his left ear. So according to the this, he has lost some hearing in his left ear, but more significantly in his right.

Before the ABR, the audiologist always does a Tympanometry to make sure there is no fluid behind the ear drums, as this can effect the results. Because Gideon had been sick in April, the tympanometry showed that he did in fact have fluid in both ears. So going into the ABR, we knew that it would possibly show a loss, but the audiologist explained they have a way to account for that and if need be, to go around it.

Because the ABR results showed such a great amount of loss, they did what is called a Bone Conduction ABR. And here’s how I understood that test to work…. A vibrating device was placed behind Gideon’s ear. That piece vibrates the bones in the ear and by doing so it stimulates the cochlea, while bypassing the outer and middle ear (where the fluid is).

From my understanding, and the sympathy expressed by the doctors in the room, the BC ABR verified the results of the first ABR. Meaning that Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse.  🙁

So what’s next?

Well, we go back in 3 weeks to see if the fluid is gone. If not, the ENT wants to do tubes. In the meantime, they turned Gideon’s hearing aids WAY up and he seems to be loving them! He’s actually wearing them for hours at a time, which is unlike him.

Hopefully, at our next appointment we can discuss our options regarding a cochlear implant. If his right ear is as bad as the results show, Gideon should qualify (especially because of his diagnosis).

Until then, we appreciate your prayers that Gideon would not need tubes. We want a healthy boy especially going into the Summer. Gideon LOVES the pool and would be in the water every day if we let him.