Hey everyone, Kara is doing great! She is supported walking with her shopping cart and holding our hands. Her knees are turned in when she walks. The opposite of bow legged but not so bad that it is knee knocking. Her therapist thinks and hopes she will outgrow it as she gets stronger and more confident. For now we are just going to keep doing walking exercises.
Kara is getting glasses. Her right eye is very near sighted and she has normal vision in her left. This once again makes me shake my head and wonder how her first eye doctor can get it so wrong. He said she was farsighted and gave her glasses for that. He didn't dilate her eyes to give us that diagnosis. This doctor not only dilated them but she also spent a great amount of time looking in them. All the while keeping Kara happy and interested. She also let me look in her eyes and explained what I was seeing.
I wanted to tell a little story about a situation that came up while at the park today. I think it holds a lesson for non special need parents and special need parents as well. Kara was crawling around on the playground equipment and just playing and having fun. Another parent walked by and said to Kara "You are an awful big baby."
I was a little confused by why in the world she would say that and said "she isn't a baby she is two."
She said "I know it is just that she is crawling around."
I told her "She can't walk." Which led her to get all flustered and say something else about other kids crawling around not just your daughter, if she is your daughter..... and on and on it went.
So for the non special needs mom the lesson is simple. Don't say something about another child is doing if you don't know that child or their parent because there may be something you don't know. Then for those who aren't adoptive parents; always assume that if someone is with a child it is their child. If you are wrong no big deal. Families come in all shapes and sizes and it is less embarrassing for you and the adoptive parent if you just assume the child is theirs.
Now for special needs parents. When I first became a special needs parent, I was easily offended and overly sensitive and fiercely protective of my daughter. I have now had a little experience with rude people. ignorant people, and even some really nice people who mean no harm and accidentally say something insensitive and I have learned to let it roll off my back. A lot of people mean no harm and I know I can sometimes be insensitive without meaning too. As a special needs parent you are going to hear it all and the best you can do is move on. If you dwell on it and stew over it or blow up and get upset that will continue on to your precious child and make them feel as if something is wrong with them. Instead lets teach them that they are special and make them secure in your love. Dwell on the amazing things they can do and not the things they can't do.
Just some thoughts I had from the day. As always we are incredibly thankful for our daughter and all the joy and happiness she has brought to our lives.

Post surgery

Kara's surgery is done and over! Thank you all for your prayers. So far everything has gone well. She had a little trouble in recovery waking up. They eventually gave her some morphine because she was continually upset and they figured that she it was more than having trouble waking up. The morphine makes her sleepy and she fell asleep in my arms after that. Before the morphine she was crying a lot and the only word she said was "yea" when I asked her if she wanted daddy to hold her. I was so very thankful he was there. When she woke up after the morphine and we got her dressed she said "yea" a couple more times but she wasn't talking like normal. On the way home we gave her some food and milk and after a few minutes she looked at me and said "I love you". Then she looked at Matt when he turned around to check on us and said to him "I love you." Nothing could have made us happier. By the time we got home she had started singing with her Toddler Tunes CD.
Her eyes are really red. Startling if you are unprepared for it. She hasn't needed any Tylonel since the evening of surgery day. We have to put drops in 4 times a day. I am monitoring her temperature for signs of infection but so far she is doing great. We go back the doctor on the 19th for Post Op. They said it could take up to 6 weeks for the eyes to fully straighten out but they looks straighter to us already.
They also checked her prescription while under. Turns out her left eye is near sighted and her right is far sighted. Her old glasses were for farsightedness which obviously wouldn't have helped her left eye at all. It would have helped the right though and that was her dominate eye which explains why she seemed to see better with the glasses. Although we are going to check them again but it looks like we may be going back to glasses. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but what is best for her is what is most important to me.
Praising God for his grace and mercy. I was really nervous the day of her surgery but Psalm 146 helped calm me down and focus on the fact that God is in control. Nothing happens outside his will and he loves her more than I do. Thanking God for Kara and how he has watched over her so far. I can honestly say we have seen God move in her little life so much. It didn't take us long to realize we have zero power and he is completely in control. Kara is a constant reminder.
Our prayer requests are just that she would not get an infection (which I am most concerned about). That the redness in her eyes doesn't last too long, and the last is that we can get her eye drops in without too much of a fight. Thank you for your prayers
Matt, Lindsay, and Kara

Starting two with more surgery.

Wow, life has been so busy for us lately. Just got back from a month vacation early Saturday morning. Sunday Kara turned 2! Time has flown. Matt and I are so proud of Kara and all she has accomplished in her two years. She is all over the place and so very busy. Getting into everything and her new favorite word is "down". Unfortunately she wants down whether we are at a gas station, airport, or anywhere else completely filthy.
Today has left my head spinning. We had a Pediatrician appointment this morning. Kara is doing great, healthy, happy. She got her last immunization till she is 4. Assuming she doesn't get sick, she doesn't have to go to the doctor again till her 3 year check-up.
After the pediatrician we had an ophthalmology appointment with a new Pediatric Ophthalmologist. Now for you to understand why my head was spinning I need to give you a little background. We started taking Kara to the Ophthalmologist when she was 5 months old, and fresh out of the hospital. Her eyes were consistently crossed which may have been caused by the pressure in her head. She has been seeing him every few months since then and he has told us over and over to patch her eyes. Then he prescribed her glasses and continued to tell us to patch her eyes. I was getting a little frustrated with the continuing of patching her eyes with no change or hope for the future. To make matters worse the Ophthalmologist would not answer my questions and even had moments where he was down right rude to me. Needless to say Matt and I were unhappy with him. So I got referred to the only other Pediatric Ophthalmologist in town (to clarify there are other Ophthalmologist who take children. This is the only other Only Pediatric Ophthalmologist in Greenville.) We had our first appointment with her today. She was much better with Kara. Her diagnosis is what threw me for a loop. She dilated Kara's eyes, which her other Ophthalmologist had only done her very first visit. She spent a lot of time checking Kara's eyes and used lots of different tools that I had never seen used. She told me that Kara has a condition called Esotropia. She said her eyes were seeing double vision therefore her brain told her left eye to stop pretty much which is why it turned in. To correct it she needs to get the left eye working again before it completely shuts down. She has us putting drops in the right eye everyday that will blur her vision and dilate her eye. Then on August 14th she will have eye muscle surgery. She made it very clear that this is not something we can wait on. She was booked until October but told her assistant that we have to get Kara in before that. She still may not get back any form of depth perception we are praying that she will. The kicker was when she told me she doesn't need glasses. So my daughter who previously was prescribed patches and glasses by one doctor, now needs surgery asap with drops to blur her vision everyday all day and no glasses. I am obviously nervous that my daughter is once again having surgery but more than anything I am confused. Not only did my daughter get two different diagnosis' but they are completely opposite. I have zero medical knowledge so how do I know who is right and who is wrong? For now we are going to do the surgery and are just praying that God protects her and guides us in this new challenge he has given us.
Please pray with us for little Kara.
Matt and Lindsay  

Walking and talking!

Hello everyone! Since most of my followers are facebook friends, you have probably already seen the video of Kara taking steps. I cannot tell you how exciting this is to us. We are delighted that she is learning to walk. Those of you who have special needs family members understand what a major accomplishment this is. When we brought her home, we weren't sure what we were facing with her future. God has enabled her to be a normal child. Her physical is a little late but the big thing is it is there. I can't tell you how much it delights me to see her get in to trouble. Even though it can be frustrating it is at the same time thrilling that she is able to do it. So our goal is to have her walking by two.
As always we are so very thankful for her. We had an assessment done with Babynet last month and the results were great. Her personal and Social score was exactly age appropriate as well as her self-help. Her cognition was 6% behind (every child is different so everyone would not meet the exact age appropriateness, they said there is nothing abnormal and that is actually behind until 16% behind). Her Communication was 4-7% behind which is once again in the normal range. We will be having a speech evaluation next week and I think we may be finally getting rid of speech after that. Then her fine motor and gross motor is still behind enough to need services. We have seen great improvement in her Occupational Therapy since she has gotten her glasses. Her depth perception was off before that and made such things as stacking extremely difficult. Physically she is growing with leaps and bounds. With the right motivation (which is tricky to figure out) she can pull herself into a standing position and walk alongside the couch. Without the right motivation she is a pretty hopeless case :-) .
What an adventure we have been on with this little girl. Life is crazy but we are praising the Lord for this wonderful opportunity we have to be her parents. I never pictured myself being a special needs mom but I love it! I never know when she is going to suddenly learn something new because there is no textbook answer for when she should be doing something. Keeps life exciting. She is the sweetest little thing ever and I love how she will still snuggle with mommy and daddy. She is never too busy to sit on our lap or lay on our shoulder. She loves hugs and says "love you" quite often. She quotes lines from pooh and is learning to say her ABC's and to count to ten (she does 2,6,9 and 10). We are thankful for our smart beautiful sweet angel. Wouldn't trade her for anything!

We've got a plan

Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to fill you in on our 19 month old. Kara is doing great and growing so much. She is growing her vocabulary with leaps and bounds. Her newest words are "nany" which is her Grandmother, "Papa" Grandfather, "Beth" (which comes out more sounding like Bef) which is her physical therapist. Her other new thing is practicing different forms of greeting such as hi, hello, hey, and hey you. She generally answers every question with a no but once in awhile she will get on a yes spell.  That is just a small sampling of the many things she says. Her speech is doing so well.
We have been finding her physical skills feel like they are at a stand still. We were told before that when one thing picks up it is possibly and even likely that others may fall behind. It seems to be now that she is talking the physical is what fell behind. She is very mobile scooting herself all over the place and she won't sit still for very long. Problem is we are ready for her to start walking. So I talked to our therapist about it and we have a plan. For the next 6 to 8 weeks we are going to push hard on standing, pull to stand, and feet placement as she stands. If she just still is not progressing she is going to refer us to Shriners. Shriners will evaluate her physical situation and they design braces for kids that help them learn different things such as how to hold their feet, and keep them from hyperextending her knees. She said she is 95% sure the braces would be temporary and that Kara would learn how to function without them. We aren't sure how long she would have the braces and she would only have to wear them at home when practicing standing and walking. No one can say how long it will take for her to get the hang of it but we are hoping to have her walking by 2. She did and evaluation for Physical Therapy yesterday (I HATE  EVALUATIONS) and we have seen some positive progress since her last.
I am so thankful for my sweet and happy baby. Matt and I were saying that we think God gave her an extra dose of sweetness when he held back the physical end. Thankful also for great therapists and the work they do with her.