Strength & Waiting

Psalm 27
13 "I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living."
14 "Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord."

We have been waiting, 430 days to be exact...waiting on the Lord to guide our steps and direct our paths.  The Lord is good; we got a contract on our house last Wednesday!  In 430 days, I assume we've had close to 100 showings (40 just in 2012)...we had grown weary and lacking in confidence, but the Lord used those days to strengthen our hearts.  I think strength comes from weariness and perseverance.  I think when we've grown tired is when the Lord shows His love and power in our lives...and in turn, our hearts are made stronger by His grace and His goodness.  I am convinced that the Lord showed us things and taught us things over the last 14 months that required this 'perfect' scenario.  It's been such a roller coaster of longing for His provision and then doubting His provision.  My faith has been strengthened in my moments of doubt.  I am so humbled by the ways in which my faith has been made new.  I am humbled by all those moments where I doubted the Lord's involvement in my life...and fought emotions of neglect and abandonment.  But He IS sovereign.  He has taken these moments that appear negative and lacking in faith in my life, and has woven together such a beautiful design.  I have taken a lot of deep breaths in the last week.  Sure, there are still details to sort through (and lots of them), but I am so blessed to take those deep breaths seeing God's unmistakable hand-print on what is unfolding in our lives.

In the last week (and really in just a couple of days) we got a contract on our house and found a great home to lease in the Yukon School District for the next year!  Towards the end of March, we found out Tessa's transfer from Mustang to Yukon was denied.  So, our only way to make sure her transition into the school district (that starts in December) could happen with Yukon schools, was to live in the district by that time.  And things are looking good!  We don't close on our house until June 15th, but we will be signing our lease this weekend so we can get moved before Tessa's surgery!  Tessa is having her left CI surgery on Tuesday June 5th, so we decided to take advantage of this next week and go ahead and get moved and settled before her surgery date.  Yesterday, Darin and Parker had their last day of school and our inspections were done.  We will sign our lease on Saturday and I'll be off work next week so we can all work on getting us moved!

There are so many emotions circling around.  It's hard to know what to do with yourself when you've pressed on so intensely through a season of life.  It's almost a shock to our systems to be free of the burden of selling our house.  When I think about how much of our lives it has consumed over the last year...I am saddened and sometimes angry. BUT, when I look at the Lord's goodness, when I consider the work He has done in our lives and in our hearts, when I focus on what matters...I am overwhelmed by His love for us.  It's too easy to look back and only see the negative in all those times we cleaned, in all the stress that was created by having our house on the market that long & trying to juggle everything else in our crazy busy lives...and summing it all up as such a waste.  But when I stop to understand how drastically the Lord can change our lives when we wait on Him, I feel nothing but gratitude that He invested so heavily in our lives.  I am thankful for a season of 'suffering' and stress, to see, that regardless of how lacking my faith, regardless of how many times I failed in 430 days to see His love and His goodness...He provided anyway.  I am so thankful that He gives us a lens to look back and see things the way He did the whole time...because with that, my faith is strengthened and with that, His grace is revealed.

We are excited about this next chapter in our lives!

~Whitney

Yay For...

Yay for a new pink stroller!

And Yay for a new ramp!

http://www.wheelchair-ramp-solutions.com/5-Suitcase-Ezaccess-Portable-Ramp-Advantage-Serie-p/suitcase%20as5.htm

Yay for sunglasses and baseball!

Yay for adorable new swimsuits!

(she's such a poser ;)

 ...isn't she the cutest thing  

 ~Whitney

UCO Hearing Impaired Preschool

Darin and I had the opportunity to take Tessa to visit the UCO Hearing Impaired Preschool in Edmond last Friday morning and the experience was amazing!!  Even though Tessa just turned 2 in April, decisions for her transition into the school system at 3 are starting now.  We have lots of things to consider and even more to pray about! Since this program includes Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Assistants from UCO*, the ratio of teachers to students is great.  Both the director and the teacher of the preschool are amazing and we couldn't have been happier with the experience.

Between now and when Tessa turns 3, we can be included in the UCO program on Friday mornings from 9:00-11:00.  This is the time for the SoonerStart kids and parents to get a glimpse at what it would be like to attend Preschool here.  The only downside to the Preschool for us at this time, is distance.  It takes a minimum of 45 minutes from our house to the school.

Communication is such a big focus for us right now.  We want to make sure Tessa has the tools she needs to communicate with her caregivers...both now and when she transitions into school.  We are still gathering all of the information, but it does sound like there is a way to incorporate the UCO Preschool with Public School when Tessa turns 3.  The Preschool would only be addressing Speech for Tessa, so we would still need to make sure we were providing her with the other therapies she needs (PT, OT, etc.)  If we could get Tessa in a program for a year or two to really help build the foundation of communication for her...it would be incredible.  It would be such a gift to give our little girl all the opportunity in the world to learn to express herself!

These types of decisions are so easy and so incredibly difficult at the same time.  We are always wanting to make sure life is well-rounded...not only for Tessa but of course for Parker too.  At this point it is hard to imagine 1 1/2 hours on the road to get Tessa to and from Preschool...but when you consider how life-changing this scenario could be for her...a year or two of it seems worth every minute and every mile.  At the same time, being a working mother, and considering traffic and how the time I spend on the road would be time I'm sacrificing with Parker....the decision becomes very challenging for me.

Thus....we have Lots of praying to do.  We trust that if this is the right opportunity for Tessa, that the Lord will continue to open the doors in that direction for us.  Our job is to stay faithfully in His word and His will so when the time comes, His direction for our family is very clear! 

Here's a look at our visit :)

Tessa was just taking it all in and made some new friends too!

This was by far her favorite!

This sweet little friend wanted to join the fun!

~Whitney

*I found this information this morning, it was interesting to read how the Graduate Assistants are involved in the Preschool Program at UCO:

http://www.uco.edu/ceps/files/sps/slp-ga-application.pdf

UCO Hearing Impaired Preschool Classroom GA: (typically four 10-hour per week GA positions)
Graduate assistants in the UCO Hearing Impaired Preschool are supported each semester through an annual contract with
Department of Rehabilitative Services/Oklahoma School for the Deaf. These GAs are engaged in assisting the Teacher of the
Hearing Impaired, Ms. Melanie Coldren, who is employed by DRS/OSD. Preschool GAs must have at least beginner-level
skills in Signing Exact English. The Preschool serves 10-20 children from a number of school districts in and around the
metropolitan area who are hearing impaired and may present other challenging conditions as well. The schedule for the
Preschool follows the calendar for the Edmond Public Schools. For classroom GAs, a proportion of the assigned hours in the
Preschool will translate into a specified number of clock hours that are counted toward practicum requirements.
The duties of these GAs include at least the following:
1. Assisting with the daily classroom management activities to include
a. greeting children in arriving at and leaving the Preschool;
b. preparing and serving snacks;
c. accompanying children to restroom, playground;
d. assisting with classroom and child clean up.
2. Developing teaching materials and activities for group sessions.
3. Providing ongoing language stimulation.
4. Assisting with hearing evaluations, tympanograms, and auditory trainers

Custom DAFOs

Tessa was such a champ yesterday!  She got casted for the very first time in order to get her some new custom braces for her legs.  The soft plastic DAFOS she's been wearing aren't strong enough for her anymore.  The high tone in her legs causes her to fight against the positioning of the braces, so we're having to get stronger ones which requires a custom make.

Tessa wasn't the only champ...her daddy was a champ too!  

He held her the whole time, and even though she was an angel, it's still no easy task!  

Tessa's new DAFOs will look similar to these.  For this first go around though, we stuck with the simple white plastic and light pink straps and foam padding.  Between headbands and bows, CI covers, thumb splints and leg braces...we figure accessorizing is pretty busy already ;)  

We should be getting her's back in a couple weeks.  We'll be excited to get her in them and in the KidWalk and get her moving!

~Whitney

*goodness she's come a long way...I just went  back to watch the little video from her first DAFO fitting appointment....my how things can change in a year!
http://bynumfourblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/yesterday-was-good-day.html

Just a Swingin

Here's our wild-hair-woman enjoying the outdoors...

this is one of those pics to remind me of how tiny she 'was'

...growing up so darn fast!

a famous "cheese" !!!

~Whitney

Big Girl

my little cutie pie

look at this big girl sitting up...like she's been doing it forever! ;)

 I'm just loving her confidence!

~Whitney

Care to Giggle...

Tessa may not have words yet...but she's definitely got the hang of vocal interaction! 

Love it!

~Whitney