Finally a Parade and Walking with Dinosaurs!

Our Christmas parade was delayed due to bad weather until this week. It was sad how excited I was for the parade - it is just so fun to do these things with the kids and see their excitement (mostly Noah's so far, but Ryan is getting there).

Noah was very excited - his eyes were so big watching all the floats! He kept hugging me and saying "this is great" :)

Another thing we have been waiting on for a while is the movie Walking With Dinosaurs to come out! We saw a preview for it while watching another movie months ago and Noah has been talking about it ever since! Noah was so excited when I told him it was finally time to see it! My dad, brother, and his kids also met us there. Noah loved the movie - he even cheered during the happy ending! I love that he is at the movie age now - we are making great memories.

To those keeping up with Ryan's progress:

Ryan had to have her eyes checked due to starting therapy - it is just a normal check up to have when starting therapy (and a good idea for any kid). She has more than a slight astigmatism but the doctor wanted to let it go for a year before glasses, and maybe in a year it won't be necessary. So, nothing to worry about there for now.

We also had an appointment with her Primary Care Doctor to get his opinion on what to do next. The day after our initial evaluation, I was speaking to her therapist and she has recommended we look into genetic testing due to the fact that none of Ryan's symptoms fall into any one category - so she may have something genetically different than other kids causing her "red flags" (unable to walk, unable to get herself up from lying down on her back, sleeping a lot). When the therapist told me this I asked her if this was something that Ryan may not overcome and not ever walk. She told me that she could not say at this time. Honestly, that stunned me. I had a pity party that afternoon - and then I snapped out of it. I felt bad for even letting that upset me. It took me a day to wrap my mind around that and I just decided that answer was not acceptable. Nope, not hearing it. So, we had the appointment with Ryan's regular doctor. He said he does not think there is anything genetically wrong with her - none of the things he looks at gave him any reason to think that. However, he is referring her to have the testing done. He said that either way, the only way to fix it is therapy, so we will treat it the same. But, it may give us an idea for her future if something comes up abnormal on her testing. She has been scheduled an appointment with Arkansas Children's Hospital in January for her testing. Her doctor also did hip x-rays while we were there and everything there looked good, so that was a relief.

This was a lot to take in, since I really just thought I would take her to her physical therapy evaluation and they would say something along the lines of "oh, we see this a lot, no problem" and she would be fine. So, once the shock wore off, I am positive that Ryan will be fine. She will walk, and I think it will be soon. Just from the prayers we have already received I can see her making progress. She is standing better and is able to climb our stairs and into her rocking chair - neither of which she could do 2 weeks ago. As Noah says "God will make Ryan walk" - we all need to have his faith. Therapy starts this week to get her walking - so once again I ask for prayers for her. Thanks for all the prayers and encouraging words so far - keep them coming, they are not going unnoticed!