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Friday, February 27, 2009

A Little Child Shall Lead Them

This next post comes from a wonderful blog by a terrific mom who just happens to be an amazing photographer... really, she is AMAZING!


It is a tender story about the little angel in her family. I am posting this here because to me it exemplifies the goodness in people. This family has a little angel, Lucy, they get to raise and yet, from the sounds of this story, they are Lucy's angels. Everyone of them.


And shouldn't our homes be a place where angels dwell? A place where we reach out to lift each other. A refuge from the storm?

Check out Shawni's original post here. And then check out her blog and photography. You will love her instantly! The photo at the bottom is one of hers...





Lucy.

Nothing can really prepare you to get a phone call from the geneticist
telling you that your child has a really rare syndrome that will change her
life, and that of your family's forever...even if you and your husband already
knew it in your hearts.

And as much as we kind of knew it was coming, I do wish
the geneticist would have at least told me to sit down, or find a quiet
place...I mean, she MUST have been able to hear the chaos going on around me on
a Friday afternoon when my house was filled with the whole neighborhood.


I'll never quite forget standing there folding laundry trying to squelch the tears that were burning to come out amidst my kids and their friends asking intermittently for a snack, help with their roller blades, wanting a drink, etc. I know kids have an automatic button that tells them they need to start talking to an adult the second she gets on the phone and not give up (at least mine do), and usually I can multi-task. But not that Friday. Not while I felt like my whole world was suddenly swimming around me.

Lucy has a syndrome called "Bardet-Biedl." It's extremely rare, and we are just coming to grips with the fact that we can't go in and sit down with the geneticist and get a concrete run-down of all the things that will change in life. It's different for every child. But most of the children diagnosed have health problems, are overweight all their lives, and the most heartbreaking thing for us is that the majority of these kids lose their vision. Most of them become legally blind by the time they are teenagers, sometimes as early as age eight or nine.

The geneticist has brought up a few different possibilities for various syndromes since we met with her for the first time over a year ago. Each one she mentioned before I mentally checked it off my list right after I heard the symptoms. I knew Lucy didn't' have them. But when she mentioned this Bardet-Biedl Syndrome right before Christmas Dave looked it up and started to worry. Symptoms include slower learning, weight issues, and extra digits (Lucy had an extra toe when she was born).

I never looked it up. I felt that the more I pushed it away, the more likely it would be that it would just disappear. I didn't want to know the symptoms. I didn't want to start to worry. To me it felt like it just couldn't happen to Lucy if we didn't know anything about it.

But Dave knew we definitely needed to test her for it. He had a bad feeling about it right from the start. And as much as I tried to bounce that bad feeling off of me, it gradually seeped in, little by little.

So we took her in for yet another blood test right after Christmas. Just a precaution. Just to quiet our fears. The way I played it out in my mind was that it would come back negative and I could go back to my own diagnosis I had made: Lucy was just a little bit slower than our other kids. She'd catch up eventually as long as we all work with her and keep going with her therapists. All would be well.

But gradually I started to realize this syndrome was a big possibility.

One early morning Dave came back into our room completely ashen-faced after he had checked on Lucy who had been crying. The sun still wasn't up and it was still pretty dim in Lucy's room. He claimed she couldn't see him. (Night vision is the first thing to go with Bardet-Biedl.) I rolled over and told him he was just too worried about the whole thing...he must be reading into things. Lucy is just too stubborn. She just didn't want to look at him.

But two weeks later on another early morning the same thing happened to me. The exact same thing. And the worry started seeping deeper. By that afternoon, though, I was telling myself the same thing I told Dave. Lucy's just so stubborn. She just didn't want to look at me. She must have just been tired. Surely she was just in a funny mood.

The next week we were at Dave's brother's house. We were gathering the kids to head home that night and when I came out Dave and Max were talking to Lu in the shadow of our car. When I got closer Max told me Lucy couldn't see. I smiled and told him sure she could. But I knew he was right as soon as I looked at her. She was looking through us. She looked just like a blind person. She reached to show us where our noses were when we asked but she missed...by a long shot. Her eyes were just as beautiful as ever...but they couldn't see us. They couldn't see a thing.

The ride home was slow motion. It was like Dave and I were sitting in a bubble in the front seat. We didn't talk...just sat with tears in our eyes thinking what this meant. It was like the commotion and noise of all the kids in the back turned swirly and far away...and completely muted as we sat thinking about Lu.

So, Lucy fit into what this syndrome outlined. Now we just had to wait for the geneticist to tell us what we already knew.

Though we don't know so much of what we will eventually learn about this syndrome, we do know with all our hearts that we adore this child. Each of us in our family could absolutely eat her up. She is so endearing and her smile melts our hearts every time she throws it at us...which is a lot. And we're so grateful for that. We're so grateful that although she may learn things a little slowly, she'll still have her mental capacities. We're so grateful she can walk and she can breathe easily and she can throw out hugs and kisses like nobody's business. We are so thankful that only one in five of our kids has to deal with this (apparently each of them had a 30% chance to have this syndrome with us as their parents). Although this has hit us hard, we know it could be something so much worse, and we are so thankful.

I'm writing all this on this blog because so many have asked. I feel like we almost have a little built in "Lucy Fan Club" that melts my heart. It's taken us a little while to get our heads wrapped around this and to be ready to share it, but Dave and I are convinced that the more people we have rooting for her the better she'll do. I want to thank everyone who has been so concerned about her and about us...all the prayers and thoughts on our behalf. Someone wrote a little bit ago that they wanted to have their own "I Love Lucy" t-shirt. I can't stop thinking about how sweet that was.

And I think the more info. we share about such a rare thing the more info. we may be able to gain through anyone out there with any extra information about it.

Dave and I are determined to become experts on Bardet-Biedl and to learn everything we possibly can and to help Lucy progress in every way she can. I have loved watching Dave come home each night and work with her on various things. I have loved watching the kids work with her, hearing them pray for her (their bowed heads sometimes coming up with teary eyes), listening to them talk about her.

One thing's for sure: we couldn't be more thankful to have this little girl in our family. We feel like we have been blessed and prepared each step of the way. And we feel like she makes our family whole in so many ways.

Love you Lu.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Timeless Kindness

Kindness is shown in so many ways, and through so many people. The following story is told in the late 1800’s by Margaret McIntire Burgess about a leader in our church, Joseph Smith. Regardless of religious affiliation, a person can’t help being touched by such a simple kind act.

“My older brother and I were going to school, near to the building which was
known as Joseph’s brick store. It had been raining the previous day, causing the
ground to be very muddy, especially along that street. My brother Wallace and I
both got [our feet] in the mud, and could not get out, and of course, child-like, we began to cry, for we thought we would have to stay there. But looking up, I beheld the loving friend of children, the Prophet Joseph, coming to us. He soon had us on higher and drier ground. Then he stooped down and cleaned the mud from our little, heavy-laden shoes, took his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped our tear-stained faces. He spoke kind and cheering words to us, and sent us on our way to school rejoicing.”

It doesn't take much to help someone feel better.

Friday, February 13, 2009

A Change of Pace... by Heather

So, this story comes from a blog my friend keeps. If you know her at all, you wouldn't be surprised by this at all... She is AMAZING.

Even though we are in the same ward, we haven't gotten to know each other very well. I always knew she was a wonderful person, but never knew how much so.Thankfully, I found her blog and have just grown to love her and her example. She is truly a light on a hill...

Here is here story... the original posted here.


Change of Pace


Something happened to me a week ago now and I haven't been able to shake
it. Guess that means its worthy of a post...I took Carson for a walk and needed
to pick up a few things from the store before we headed home. It had been a long
walk and my mind was a whirl of thoughts. It has been a pretty rocky couple of
months for me. A lot of "Woe Is Me" was going on during that walk and I found my
self praying through a lot of it. You know from the outside of the gospel it
almost looks magical, has this fix all perk to being apart of it. And its just
not true. Life is life, and the gospel is a wonderful tool to help you
cope,learn, heal, grow and march through it. A talk I had with Natalie a long
while back came to mind.(She has been one of my great teachers:)) She said she
prayed for her own personal revelation. That is what I wanted, and that is what
I prayed for. Just for my own little revelation. No more than 3 seconds later as
we were strolling into Wal-Mart a very old man touched my shoulder. His hands
were shaky and he was still trying to move his body to face me fully.

Old man: Aren't they the ultimate blessing? As he looked down at Carson.

Old man:One of life's greatest joys is right there in your stroller, his shaky hand pointing.

Old man: My granddaughter had a lot of problems having babies, so many
miscarriages.So many. She went to a doctor and he helped them have twins 3
months later she got pregnant on her own, he gave a big smile and small pause,
with twins.

Old man:Don't worry it will come.....My mouth just dropped and I
blinked at him.

Old man Pointing to Carson again: He is here to help you, trust
him, he will do great things.My eyes filled with tears and I whispered thank
you.

Old man squeezed my shoulder hard: You're going to be okay... God is
blessing you, if you look.He slowly walked outside.

I didn't move. I couldn't.

My head was clear. All the negative thoughts that I had thought of I couldn't remember. I found such a peace with what he said. I felt the spirit so strongly.

Thank you kind sir, you helped guide me on a brighter path.