Leah's Latest

As many of you may remember, many of you may not, this blog all began in an effort to keep people in the loop of what it was like when we were acquiring a service dog for Leah. Then the blog morphed into a family blog, then an adoption blog, then a "catch-all" blog! Kinda like a newspaper with no direction! Yeah, that's it!

Well, I wanted to take the blog back to it's roots and give you an update on Riley and Leah. Fun, eh?

Riley passed all of his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and Service Dog tests without fail...I still say the most difficult ones were having a wheelchair intentionally run over his puffy white tail without him moving and then him having to lay next to a nice, piping hot plate of food without creeping closer to it or sniffing it! Can your dog do that?! Riley can! Then Riley went to school with Leah, using all of his Autism Assistance Dog skills that he was trained for, for over a year. During that year, Leah continued to have sensory defensiveness (didn't like the feel of) toward his fur or his wet nose or his scratchy paws. Leah just has never liked the fact that Riley is an unpredictable creature...not to mention that he feels funny too!!!

Within the same year, we initiated a very intense home ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) program with Leah. This is just good old teaching with very specific objectives. But it's very intense...up to 4 hours a day in our home as well as going to preschool! Well, let me tell you something...ABA works...and Leah doesn't need the assistance of her assistance dog anymore!!! We still take him out with us so his skills are kept in tact, but with the intense work that she's done for 9 months, we've relinquished the use of Riley at school for her and she is doing AWESOME!!! Her language is moving in the right direction, her play and social skills are increasing...she's becoming more typical each day! The Doctors that we work with out of Kalamazoo actually have questioned us if she really has autism!!! That's a lot of work, if you know how she was when we started all of this therapy!

One thing that I said I would always hesitate to do is to take Leah to a DAN Doctor. For all of you non-autism people, a DAN is a Defeat Autism Now! Doctor. This doctor believes that he/she can treat autism biomedically. I don't believe that it can be completely treated nor (obviously) cured, but I wold like to look into some of the aspects of the treatments. The reason: I always said I would consider a DAN if Leah hit a plateau. I feel she has hit a plateau in her sensory needs and eye contact...she shy's away from looking at people and she is constantly on the move and wiggling as well as banging her hands and fluffing stuff! This has been since the day she could sit up...and she's 4 1/2 now...that's a plateau if I've ever been on one! So, I'm not looking to make miracles...but I need to look behind a door that I just haven't opened for her!

Overall, Leah has made tremendous developmental growth. She is a beautiful, happy and talkative girl! She loves music, dancing, her sister...and of course suckers! She's an amazing piece of this family. Our family just wouldn't be as happy and full without all of the special things she brings to us each and every moment that she does! Someone asked me a long time ago if I wish she didn't have autism or I regret the situation. My answer: NOPE! If Leah didn't have autism, she wouldn't be the Leah we know and love and kiss and cuddle and are learning right along side of!!! Thank God for Leah!

A Bulleted List of our Week

You can hardly imagine what's been going on in our week. So instead of narrating our life today, I'm simply going to bullet them and you can extrapolate what each of them has added (or compunded) to our lives!!!!!

• We got a new puppy!!!! His given name was "TIM"...OMG! But I couldn't take it...he's now better known as "Murphy"!
• Logan was put on antibiotics for a sinus infection
• Josh was put on antibiotics for a sinus infection
• Leah has the sniffles and sneezes today...no fever, but her antibiotic is waiting at the pharmacy
• Kristin had a another week from hell at her horrific and misreable job...can you say, WTF? Yes, I've applied for 2 jobs this week too!
• Leah has been referred to a Geneticist for an increasing number of cafe' au lait spots on her body
• Preschool was cancelled on Friday due to the Swine Flu throughout DeWitt Public Schools
• My Grandma Kohls was hospitalized with sudden blindness and is having a temporal biopsy today (prayers please)

I think that's enough, don't you! My goodness...and I wonder why I have difficulty sleeping or concentrating some times!!!! I know, breathe in and breathe out...meditate...pray! God gave me so many good things in this life, I just need to focus on those and reflect MORE on those! I think I tried to do that once upon a time in this blog...didn't last long! The overwhelming seems to invade my positive thinking! The power of positive thinking and prayer........

An Uneventful Update

So many people have asked me, "What's up with the adoption?" "Where are you in the process?" I can give you an update but it really doesn't have much info in it!

The last time we updated we told you that we were 16th on the list for a singleton girl and 8th on the list for twins, either girl-girl or girl-boy. Wellllllll, we don't have any new info on this....soooooo, we could very well still be 16th and 8th or we could be bumped up! Who knows!

The frustrating thing with this lack of information is that we have asked over and over for information from our agency and we have been given blanket statements about our case. We don't need OR DESERVE blanket statements from the agency who we have worked with for so many months and also have completed a successful adoption of two beautiful girls!!!! You ask, what is a blanket statement? "Your case is being monitored and we are reviewing your documents." We've got an answer similar to this several times!!!!!!

The other component of our update is that we have requested our agency look into if there is a child who is deaf or hard of hearing that meets our home study eligibility criteria. This means is there a little girl, age 0-18 months, who has a hearing loss, or is there a child in that age range that is one in a twin set. So, we are open to a special needs adoption as this is my area of expertise and I really feel that my heart and mind is ready and prepared for parenting another child with special needs. I believe that God has put me here to do this...this is my purpose. BUT, our agency can't seem to answer the question if this is a possibility or not and if there is a child available currently or if we wait! SO FRUSTRATING!!!! I just need some answers about OUR CASE...it's OUR information!!!

Once we get any information, we will share it with you...but for now, this is our update!

At the Dentist

We all knew growing up in my family, with a mother as a dental hygienist, that dental health was a priority. Give me a break...we didn't know what a sugared cereal was and having gum with xyletol in it was the only kind made, right? Literally, I would beg to spend the night at friends' houses that had Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms in their pantry! That's how much our family valued dental health!

I can't say that we don't have the coveted Fruit Loop every now and then, but I will say that we do go to the dentist every 6 months...and this includes the little ladies!!! Yepper, the girls have been to the dentist right along for several visits. It's getting better with each visit...it was rough to begin with! I mean we couldn't even walk back to the "BIG CHAIR" room without tears and so-on!

But come on, we've got BIG GIRLS now! Logan even asked to go back to the room and get started!!! That's putting dental health in the highest priority!!! :) We can't quite sit in the BIG chair, nor do we use the "polisher", but we do county our teeth, scrape the cavity boogies and paint our teeth! We'll eventually get to the full appointment...but it's all a start to making Grandma proud and having true Dental Health!

The Knight's Love SMB

Many of you don't know but I was almost a SMB member...for those of you who don't know "SMB"...that's insider talk for Spartan Marching Band! Yep, I tried out, made the band and they said, "Okay show up and you'll just do one more try out for a chair." But in between both try outs, the first of my many heart procedures took place and we all know that the first procedure didn't go as planned! So, I was a "no-show" to the chair try-outs for the SMB! Regrets? No, just a passion for the band to this day!

And then there's Josh who is a percussionist through-and-through! So much that I have to ask him to stop the toe-tapping or finger jiving at least a few times a week! That drum line gives us all goose bumps! We're both trying to convince Leah and Logan that playing drums is the only option in life, per music standards!

So we had no plans for our weekend and there was a home MSU game...for us that means CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT! We drive ourselves over to campus, pay an arm and a leg for parking, then go watch the band! This is the third season we've done it and the girls love it!!! Both seem to plug their ears at first, as that is always their first reaction to anything with sound, but after some time, we're all clapping and marching with the SMB! After we watch the warm up, we dash down the street to catch the March to the Stadium! The girls caught their first glimpse of Sparty today...or the first one that they seem to remember! We all joined in on the chanting of The Series as they grimaced in straight rank and file right in front of our eyes!

After the band entered the stadium, we went to the children's area and found the ever-loved inflatables! Oh yeah...if we would have found those first the girls would have never allowed us to walk the campus and hang out listening to the band play scales and warm-up!

It was a great day to see the SMB...so on any given home football day, we'll be cheering GO GREEN, but it's not necessarily for the helmeted and padded boys on the field...it's for those highly skilled musicians who brought our family so much enjoyment today!