Exotropia

Suzie had a follow up appointment with the eye doctor last Tuesday. We felt like the few days preceding the appointment, her eyes had gotten a little worse. The eye doctor immediately saw the issue, diagnosing Suzie with exotropia. Most likely a result from her cerebral palsy, her eyes tend to drift outward, the opposite of cross-eyed. He noticed it in both eyes, although the right eye is stronger than the left one. So he recommended we start patching her eyes for two hours a day. We patch the right eye for two days and then the left eye for one day, and repeat for the next three weeks until we see him again. I was a little skeptical that Suzie would even tolerate the patch, but she does so well! She cries when I pull it out, and will rub it sporadically, but she leaves it on and just gets caught up in playing. I'm so proud of her! I think part of it is that she really doesn't like the way it feels when we pull it off, so she's not in a hurry to remove it herself. I feel like her eyes are already getting better, although she still struggles the most when she is tired. But I am hopeful that this will resolve the issue and she might not need surgery. Here are a couple of pictures and a short video of our little pirate!





The day before her eye appointment we went to meet her new neurosurgeon in Midland. He was very personable (who knew a brain surgeon could be sociable!) and recommended we come back every six months until she is five years old. If I am tempted to be discouraged about Suzie's eyes and how she has another possible surgery looming in her future, I just need to remember many of the children I saw come in and out of the neurosurgeon's office. Many of them in wheelchairs and/or unable to speak or do anything for themselves. God has been SO abundantly merciful to our little girl and to us and we are extremely grateful for how well she is doing. Praise the Lord!

April Showers

We have had a very busy few weeks and it's just getting busier! The past few days have brought a whole lot of rain, which Lubbock, similar to Santa Clarita, is not set up the best for. Our church parking lot, front and back yards, and the roads are just seeping with water. But we are enjoying the rain and things have gone from dead brown to lively green in a matter of days. Spring is here!


Here are some more pictures to recap our last few busy weeks:

Suzie went to her first Red Raider baseball game! She did great and would even clap right along with the rest of us.




We celebrated our first holiday here in Texas and had a great Easter service followed by fellowship, food and an egg hunt with some wonderful new friends.







Nana, Kyle's mom, came in for a weekend visit.



We've been having a blast with the youth group!




The craziness continues these next few weeks. Granddad (Kyle's Dad) is coming in a few hours and the guys hope to go to a football game and a baseball game tomorrow, despite the stormy weather. Then we have a baseball game with the youth this Sunday. Monday we meet with Suzie's neurosurgeon for the first time which is more than a two hour drive for us. Then Tuesday we're back to the eye doctor. That afternoon, one of my best friends, Karyn, and her husband Darby are stopping by for a visit on their way to Georgia. And that weekend we have a campout with the church. And my parents come in a few days after that!

We are all doing really well and loving life here in Texas. Suzie continues to progress and grow and we are continually amazed at God's mercy to us. She is such a joy. She is talking up a storm and now says more words than I can count. Here are a few of her new words: yellow, red, blue, green, three, sit, bubble, cheek, toe, my, church, catch. She is also beginning to put two words together. The other day when Kyle picked her up from nursery, she said, "My daddy!" and at therapy the other day when she saw herself in the mirror she said, "Hi Suzie!" And when you ask her what color something is, she always says, "yellow" first, so I have been correcting her by saying, "It's not yellow, it's red." So when I asked her what color something was she said, "Not yellow.":)

She's also progressing very well physically. Her therapists really want her to use both her hands at the same time to engage both sides of the brain together. One of her favorite activities in doing this is catching the ball like this video shows. She is also starting to be able to inch forward on this car using her legs.


One day, Suzie discovered that she can use this toy to walk around the house. She just started doing it all on her own! This video only shows her walking a few steps. She actually will walk around for much longer, but I chose this one because it also shows her crawling correctly for a bit and putting on a "necklace" which is one of her other favorite two handed activities.


Well, thanks for keeping up with us! God bless!