Something good for a change

A little over two years ago my son and his wife gave me my first grandchild: a precious and sweet natured little girl they named Isabelle. She has been a bright shining ray of sunlight across our lives, and a real blessing from Almighty God in every sense of the word.

Over time we discovered that she wasn’t developing in her motor skills at the normal rate, and after many doctor’s visits it was finally determined that she had undergone some oxygen starvation while in the womb. There is actually scar tissue on the surface of her brain. So we have watched as our precious grandbaby has lagged behind in motor development and speech patterns.

The good news, we are told, is that oftentimes the brain can adapt and other parts of the brain that are undamaged can “take up the slack”. Many children with this problem grow up and show no signs of ever struggling to develop normally.

Many children are afflicted to some extent for their whole lives.

Need I say that many prayers have been said over this sweet and wonderful little girl that she will be among those who are able to overcome?

Isabelle shows many signs that her problems are not cognitive, and that is something important to be thankful for. But she has reached the age of two and has not been able to walk without the aid of a walker. She is also way behind in her speech development and articulates very little that even passes for baby talk.

Nonetheless, we all love her very much, and her mother and father have both worked VERY hard with the physical therapy routines in order to give Isabelle every chance to walk and talk like every other precious two year old out there.

I got a text message from her mother this morning that absolutely brought me tears – and I am a man who could stomp the eyeballs out of an enemy and eat a sandwich over the corpse. But I blubbered like a little child when I read this from my DIL:

“Isabelle walked unassisted today without trying to hold onto the therapist. She actually looked like a toddler walking down the therapy hallway. :D”

Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow!