Potential Knows No Boundaries

Well, I'm not really back: getting back into the posting has been hard when you are working around the clock.

This was written by my wife for a book titled "Children Have Strokes Too!". It is a collection of stories of children who have the challenge of CP in their lives.

My wife really captures a lot in this and the words still touch my heart. I am positing it so others can have hope, as we have, in our loving and caring Father.

God Bless
Doug

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Potential Knows No Boundaries

Many verses in the Bible I have read and re-read; they became too familiar and in fact, overlooked even as they are read. Then one day my circumstances change, I read the verse and realize the enormity of it--and the fact that it was written a couple of thousand years ago, just for me on this day.

The day in question happened to be December 14, 2006. In October of that year, my then 13 month old daughter Elizabeth, had fallen and hit her head on the tile floor. We went to the ER, had a CAT scan which showed no acute injury. It did show a vaguely explained abnormality in her brain, particularly on the right side. Off to her pediatrician we went; then to the hospital for an MRI. I was fine through all of this. I knew my daughter and there was nothing wrong with her.

One day, mixed in with bills and junk mail arrived a radiology report. As I read scary words like “white matter deficiency,” “corpus callosum thinned but present,” “cystic encephalomalacia” and more, I became afraid for Elizabeth’s future.

Over the next several weeks, my husband and I noticed she walked consistently leading with her right leg and that she held her left arm bent tightly at the elbow. At her 15 month check-up I asked her pediatrician to watch her move. Two days later, on December 14th, we sat in an exam room with our ears on fire as we caught the words coming from a neurologist’s mouth. Elizabeth/cerebral palsy. In utero stroke. Abnormal. Disability. Cerebral palsy/Elizabeth. Laboring under the weight of a stack of referrals we left the neurologist. We were too stunned to ask questions beyond “What does this mean?” On the drive home we tried to look past ourselves and realize that on this same day other parents might be receiving the more devastating news of brain tumors, cancer or other life threatening illnesses.

True comfort did not come until later that day when I read in Jeremiah 1:4-5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” The Lord knew her before He formed her! In other words: before she suffered lack of oxygen to her brain. He set her apart, knowing what was going to happen. And the best part, He has plans for her future!

We went to specialist after specialist. We tested the patience of our sweet older daughter, Emily, taking her to every appointment. Elizabeth was evaluated, tested and approved for OT, PT and Early Intervention. During the evaluation phase, she tested at a 9 month old level in verbal skills (she was now 17 months old.) That apparently did not qualify her for speech therapy. We were outraged by the injustice! We went home ready to research any other options available to her for speech therapy. I went back to Jeremiah to read those verses again, seeking solace in His Word. And I found what I was looking for. I read a little further this time. In verse 6 Jeremiah says “Ah Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” Of course, at this point I had to dry my tears to continue. After a call for obedience, verse 9 goes on to say “Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth…’” We decided not to pursue speech therapy on our own.

Our daughter’s potential truly knows no bounds. Her neurologist looked at a second, higher resolution MRI and told us if she had seen the scan before she met Elizabeth, her best guess would be that the child was wheel chair bound, non-verbal and unable to use her arm. Misty-eyed, she followed with “So what do I know?!”

There is more drama to her story; it includes seizures, a stay in the hospital, eye glasses and a denial of services. Elizabeth’s 3rd birthday has come and gone. She takes ballet classes, knows her colors and ABC’s and she loves to sing. And, at her last evaluation, her verbal skills were at the 5 1/2 year old level.

By Laura Joseph