Happenings in Zoey's world

Zoey is doing unbelievably well. She is such a happy baby. I can't believe that I have the blessing of being her mom. She is finally well enough to reschedule her MRI and her audiologist appointment. Both of these were canceled previously because she was sick. They are both rescheduled for the 22nd. Our big things that we have done lately were starting physical therapy, our opthamologist appointment, and Zoey's first night without us.
We are using First Steps, a great program that provides therapies to kids in KY under 2 1/2. Until she gets stronger, Physical therapy will be her primary therapy. The PT comes to see her once a week. Right now, she is pretty terrified of him. It takes her a while to warm up to people. I am really hoping that she gets used to him soon. He gives us lots of stuff to work on throughout the week.
She is also receiving Occupational Therapy, but not much right now. Once she has increased her muscle tone, we will step up the OT. We are not in Speech Therapy yet. The plan is to wait a couple months to acclimate her to English. If she is tremendously behind, then we will start Speech. I am not too worried about this. Even though her speech is delayed, it is not too bad. She is very talkative (syllables and sounds) and I really don't expect it to be a long-term issue.

Here is Zoey working out with her Dad.


Her opthamologist appointment went well. I am increasingly impressed with Health professionals that work with babies. That has to be a hard job. Zoey did not like it at all. She did not want to be still and really did not like it when I had to hold her still! She really hated when he dilated her eyes and gave her eye drops! He found that she had a strabismus(cross eye/poor eye control, much worse when she wakes up), an astigmatism, and slightly near sighted. He said that her eye control could improve or it could get worse. We will go back in 4 months (unless it gets worse). If it hasn't improved, we will probably have to patch her eye for a few hours each day. There is also a chance that she could need glasses. All in all, not too bad since at one time doctors thought she was blind!

Here she is after the appointment. She hated the glasses they gave her!


Last night Justin and I volunteered at a prom for adults with disabilities, Shine. Justin and I have been volunteering in the disabilities ministry for a long time, even before we dated. We have such a love for the participants and so many memories that contribute to our relationship. We were super excited to help with Shine and knew we couldn't miss such an exciting day. My mom offered to watch Zoey. Thankfully, she has been very intentional about spending time with her. Zoey is used to her and likes her a lot. I'm not going to lie, it was stressful leaving her. I was in no way worried that my mom was capable of taking care of her, I just did not want Zoey to have any feelings of abandonment. She has lost her primary caretakers on 3 occasions in her short life, I didn't want her in anyway to have those feelings again. Thankfully, is used to my mom and was very happy to spend time with her. It was an incredible relief to know that she could handle this. I know that it will be positive for her to see that we will leave and we do come back.
Shine was wonderful. Words really can't describe what a fantastic night it was. It was such a huge event for everyone in the disabilities community. Many people I know have been excited about this for months now, planning out their clothes, hair, dates, and limo (yes, limo!). I am so excited that we had so many volunteers! There were a lot of people there last night that this was their first interaction with the ministry and I think our wonderful participants won over a lot of people! How could you not have a good time with our fun loving and sweet group? Justin and I helped to pair up prom goers with their escorts as they arrived. It felt like crazy, crazy chaos, but went really well. It was so busy, that I didn't really see Justin or get to dance with him. We will just have to go out dance on another occasion some time! I wish I had a picture of all the prom-goers. Everyone looked so beautiful! You will just have to settle for a picture of Zoey hanging out with her friend Ben.