Lance.
He brings more joy to us than anything else in the world. He brings more struggle to our lives than anything else in the World.
Lance was born six weeks early, he weighed a whopping 5 lbs. 1 oz. Very big for being that early, if things had gone the way the were suppose to, he probably would have weighed eight lbs. He came very fast, I went from being dilated at four to delivering in 10 minutes. The doctors knew there was something wrong. He was whisked away and taken to the special nursery. After 10 hours it was determined that they couldn't take care of him there and transferred him to the big hospital down the road where they could put him in the NICU.
He didn't reach his milestones on time, at eleven months he was just starting to roll over. When he turned eighteen months old our world stopped, he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and seizures and we were told he would never walk, or talk.
He showed those doctors a thing or two...he started to walk at two and a half years old. He said his first word at three and even though he struggled, he could talk. But other things were popping up and over time we learned that he was cognitively impaired. He was diagnosed with ADHD, boarder line Autism, OCD and his talking never did improve much. He currently has the cognitive ability of a seven year old.
Lance will be 23 next month. He loves, loves, loves the Beatles. He can tell you (if you listen carefully) every movie, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Robbin Williams and Tim Curry is in. He knows who did all the voices for the characters in every animated film that has come out in the last ten years. (Bet you didn't know Bernadette Peters lends her voice as an angel in the Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie and do you know that John Ratzenberger's voice is in all the Pixar movies?)
Over the last year we found he has a Cavernous Angioma and a compressed brainstem. The angioma is not causing any problems at the moment. The brainstem compression is causing Lance to regress in certain areas. Both of these issues may require delicate surgeries but not at the moment. He receives physical and speech therapy to slow the regression.
Lance needs help with some dressing, tying shoes, hygiene, bathing, cutting his food and basic life skills. He attends a vocational school and has three people that come throughout the week to spend time with him.
He is happy all the time, he loves a good joke, spends way too much time watching TV and listening to music. He loves to go to the special needs Sunday School class and boy does he love to eat! He hates to exercise and adores his family.
We adore him. He is our everything.
We see the world as unfair. We see the challenges of many who are not quite perfect. It makes us angry.
He sees the world as amazing.
He is our son.
2 comments:
I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes, not out of pity, but because of your faith and strength as you allow God to do His will even if you don't understand or don't like it. I was curious about Lance's story and was planning on asking you some day.
God is really using you in my life. I'm blessed by your faith in a situation I can't imagine dealing with. It humbles me because I can be such a whiner over little things and feel life is so unfair at times but in reality I've never gone through the kind of testing you have, maybe because I wouldn't glorify Him in it as you have. God sees you. He notices and He will reward you for your obedience, surrender, and yes, even your times of questioning why.
Gina, I echo what Cindy has just written, I could not have said it as eloquently as she did. I know you and your husband and Lance have so many treasures stored up in heaven when you see Jesus. Thank you for sharing Lance's story, I am so moved by it, and have tears too.
On another note, I love love love the Beatles too!!
And, as far as the fragrance oils for the bath salts, many of the health food stores carry them (we have a Marlene's here and also Fred Meyer stores have a health food section). I know you can order scents online too..there are certain ones for candlemaking only though so that's something to check. I will try to find some of the online sites I've used and let you know. I have about 12 different scents...lavender, orange, romance (which is combination of different ones), jasmine, etc. You can scent strong or light, depending on how many drops you use..I usually try to mix up a big bowl and then divide up into little bags.
hugs,
Kelly
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