Pittsburgh adventure

We are back from our snowy adventure up north!

The four of us drove up to Pittsburgh PA this week to take Abby to a very important appointment. Dr. Roman is a developmentalist who specializes in children with cortical vision impairment (vision loss originating in the brain). Although Abby's blindness isn't totally cortically related, Dr. Roman has been a wealth of encouragement and knowledge for our family. We saw her for the first time 6 months ago after I attended a seminar she led about cortical vision impairment in children.

At our last visit this past September, she challenged us to push for more services for Abby, specifically a vision teacher and other people who have experience teaching blind children how to play, read, get around etc. We were able to take her list of suggestions and look over the past 6 months to describe how each was answered. Abby has a teacher for the visually impaired at school, she is beginning to receive pre-braille activities and orientation and mobility assistance. The list is more involved than most of you want to read about, so these were the highlights.

It was great to see her again, as well as her husband who is a neonatologist there at West Penn Hospital. He was so sweet to our kids last time and even took Josiah while we talked. This time he came to see us in clinic and immediately remembered us, picked up Josiah and off they went! When the pair finally reappeared an hour later we could tell Josiah had made a good friend.

Dr. Roman said she could see some progress in the way Abby responded to very, bright lights. She could tell Abby had grown and had developed better upper body strength. We think she was pleased to see all the services Abby is now getting. One of the main issues we wanted to talk to her about was recruiting an intervener for Abby; Someone who is trained in Deafblindness to connect Abby with her world. It is a very specialized job, and there aren't very many people who qualify. Dr. Roman absolutely agreed that Abby needs an intervener!! She will be including this recommendation in the formal letter she will be writing for us, in addition to another long list of suggestions and fun ideas.

Go to http://www.deafblindchildren.org/Intervenors.htm if you want to learn more about Deafblindness or Interveners.

As we left their clinic heading towards the cafeteria for lunch, we felt overwhelmed once again in the goodness of the Lord. Who would have thought 3 years ago that we would be in Pittsburgh feeling the presence of our Lord through such a special lady?

As much as we have prayed that God would heal Abby's eyes, we have had to admit again and again that only through this road could He speak to us this way... and to think about all the wonderful, special people we never would have met. The "medical professionals" who have become part of our family.

Thank you for all of your prayers while we traveled. It was a good trip... and we did get to see lots of SNOW!

-On a different yet not unrelated note-

Spring is on it's way and in the past we have participated in Walk America to help raise money for the March of Dimes' research to help save premature babies. Although preemies will always be extra special to our family, we can't ignore the babies who will never get a chance to live because of abortion in our country.

On Saturday, April 21st, we will be walking to help save all babies at risk of losing their lives. North Alabama's Walk for Life will be held at the Huntsville Middle School Track at 9 am. It will be a 2 mile trek. If anyone would like to participate we hope to see you there! If you want to, but are unable to take part, would you consider sponsoring our family? If so, all we need is an email from you with your complete mailing address including zip code and the amount you would like to donate. (patrickandpatty@truevine.net)

100% of the money goes to Choose Life support center here in Huntsville to help them reach out to women in our community by providing free pg tests, counseling, ultrasounds, life choice mentoring and discipleship, infant adoption awareness and after abortion grief support.

We know Choose Life Save a Life appreciates any support they receive. "Let there be LIFE!"

Check out their website at http://www.chooselifehuntsville.org/