Look Who’s Walking

As you may have guessed big changes have been occurring here in our household. Lots of milestones being reached by Maggie and continued good news.

Maggie is walking independently now. She progressed from holding two of our hands to one and then made a big leap when she received her posterior walker, or “bus” according to Maggie. After spending a week with visiting grandparents and a very encouraging grandfather Maggie has taken off. She is walking around the house like she runs the place (let’s be real, she does). Maggie is so determined and amazes us all by her ability to just pop up and take off walking.

When walking Maggie’s ankles do bend in (pronation). Thanks be to God for our many resources we know that there isn’t something super wrong with her ankles and that this is something that can be remedied with therapy. We are currently in the process of getting Maggie fitted for SMOs. Basically this is a flexible orthotic that will allow Maggie to use her growing muscles to straighten out her ankles while walking. She won’t be wearing these all the time but rather for a few hours at a time while in shoes.

That brings us to the next part. Shoes are our newest mind boggler. Maggie’s delightful feet are unique. Six toes each, webbed, wider and chunkier all around. Where normal toddler shoes narrow down to the toe, we have been looking for ones that give her thicker feet more room. Thankfully we have an amazing shoe store that fitted her and then took them back when we saw her little foot getting bruised from rubbing. We found another pair and will be seeing how they work with her orthotics and the general shape of her foot.

Lastly, but not least, Maggie had her clinic day. Maybe I have explained this before, but Maggie has a clinic day twice a year to meet with ENT, Speech, Audiology, and Plastic Surgeon. It is a full few hours of testing, and talking with these amazing professionals who help us make sure that Maggie is not just surviving but thriving. We also schedule her ophthalmology appointment during this time to reduce travel.

This clinic day was a bit unusual. It was just me and Maggie this time. Carlos stayed back with the other kids and Maggie and I forged ahead into the screenings. I know you all have been praying for us because Maggie had a great time. Previously she would cry practically anytime someone came in the room. Now she just saw it as playtime. She played with the speech therapist, she played with Audiology (she let them do the pressure tests with no problem), she sat happily while the ENT cleaned out her ears, and she kept everyone laughing with her joyful attitude.

We had prayed that our clinic day would be one with good, miraculous news, and that Maggie and I would be a light to those around us. The Lord answered big time. Maggie looks great and our plastic’s team said that Maggie is doing great and that her results are “unheard of”, even going to the extent of saying that Maggie may not even need surgery until she is a teen. Alleluia! Thank you Jesus! We got our second big news from our opthalmologist who is pleased with her eyes and is having us go back to patching for a bit to see if that can give us the end results that will allow Maggie to see super well. YES YES YES!!! The Lord is faithful to His promises.

We are richly blessed and we wouldn’t know how much without each and everyone of our babies.