Cerebral palsy awareness month...

Your first pictures of Faith walking..

(Faith and me walking, hand in hand)

Cerebral palsy...

I had heard that term before Faith was born but I never knew what it meant.

Even after she got the dx, it was a long time before I had a firm grip on it...

Just about anyone who reads regularly will know what it means, what comes with that diagnosis and what it means for our kiddos. So I won't waste time with definitions....

Cerebral palsy, to me means...

...Celebrating tiny, minute, microscopic victories when your child can hold a spoon or sit alone or push her own hand through a coat sleeve...

...Walking extra slow everywhere you go as you hold the hand of a new walker who doesn't always look where she is going...

...Learning how to juggle a wheelchair, a walker, braces, feeding tubes, a pharmacy's worth of meds, a ten lb. medical notebook, diaper bags, your purse and oh yeah...your kid...and get it all in the door of a doctor/therapy center....all by yourself.

...Developing biceps that could put any body builder to shame after years of lifting a child and various equipment in and out of everything..

...Planning your vacation around handicap accessible hotels, parking spaces and businesses,

then packing for that vacation like you are going into a bomb shelter for the next five years..

...Being able to explain medical terminology to DOCTORS and give them advice on what to do about a condition...(also being asked what medical school you graduated from)...

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS, BABY!

...Giving up everything you EVER loved in life, to spend all the time you can with a little kid who can't talk..

...Checking out every car parked in a handicap space to see if they really have a tag to park there, then reporting the EVIL DOERS!

...Savoring every opportunity to make memories and give your child that chance to be a kid...

...Cutting holes in your kid's footie pajamas so they can wear them and still access their G tube..

...Knowing all the different positions to hold hands, put on clothes, braces and transfer so that muscles can release and cooperate...

...Getting up 499 times every single night of your life to check and make sure she is breathing, feed and medicate her and make her comfortable...

...NEVER EVER, EVER giving up on your babe...

...KNOWING that you ARE equipped to DO this...That your child might have CP BUT CP does NOT have your child!

That what happened may be difficult but we are all defined by how we handle the challenges we are given.

Faith and I chose to see her challenges as a testimony for God's infinite love and compassion for us.

So, in many ways I am thankful for Faith's Cerebral Palsy and we wouldn't have it any other way.

(This is gonna be our new theme...REACHING!)