Friday, July 25, 2008

An Update

IMG_0143 The charming and beautiful Susan and I want to give an Allie update. As you may know (or may not know), Allie is diagnosed a quadriplegic with infantile cerebral palsy. In addition to this, Allie has been declared legally blind due to optic atrophy and cortical visual impairment. It's taken us some time to process this information in a way that we can share it without falling apart.

None of these declarations about Allie's medical and physical condition leave us hopeless. We are enraptured with overwhelming affection for this little girl. To the degree of tragedy we've walked through with her is our degree of love for her. It's beyond description.

Since she has no trunk control, she's been fit and measured for some special equipment. We have on order a special stroller, an activity chair for around the house, and specialized bath-chair. Although she is not able to sit up by herself, she is developing arm, hand and head control. With her trunk supported by this equipment, she'll be able to focus more on developing and maximizing motor skills.IMG_0142

The new trauma we have been coming to grips with is the idea of trading in our sexy compact car and acquiring a mini-van. We made it through the childhood and teen years of our two kids without establishing ourselves as suburbanites by purchasing a mini-van. Now it looks like we're forced to make that transition because we need something to transport Allie's new equipment. To compound our mini-van trauma, I've put my wonderful red Honda VFR super-bike on Craig's list to help underwrite this sobering mini-van acquisition. Pray our emotions and marriage survive the status change of moving from a glamorous small car to a mid-sized soccer-mom mobile.

On another subject, I've posted a video of Allie and me. I call this video "Bouncehouse."

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