Praise Report

So, I have a praise report regarding Kennedy.  Since birth, Kennedy has had a lot of hearing problems.  She failed the newborn screening that she had before she left the hospital.  Then, they scheduled a follow-up and she failed that one as well.  They said that it could be because her ears were so small and her ear canals were tiny, not to mention she has the cleft palate, so they then scheduled another follow-up, which she failed again.  And I'm not sure if she actually failed, or they just couldn't get a good reading.  So, then we were referred for actual testing in Louisville because anything this small town has to do besides check-ups with Kennedy, they get afraid and send us elsewhere.  Which, doesn't bother me or my husband because we know that the folks out of town specialize in working with children.

Anyway, Kennedy failed their hearing test and got PE tubes.  When she went for a follow-up appointment months later, she failed again, they checked the ears, could not find the tubes & she got a 2nd set.  So, to this day Kennedy has failed multiple screenings and hearing tests.  So, needless to say, we were really concerned about her hearing.  Here she was, 18 months old not making one consonant sound.  Every noise that came out of her mouth was just infinite vowel babbling noises.  She was tested for speech services and qualified with no problem.  As a parent, that was very difficult to deal with and as a school psychologist it was heart-wrenching.  This is because I know that the longer a child cannot hear during those critical stages of development, the more it affects their speech later.  And I know that Kennedy already has several hurdles to overcome without adding to it the hurdle of being difficult to understand, which can also make it difficult for reading.  So I prayed for her hearing, prayed for her speech and prayed for her development.

I don't know about other places, but here we go to church on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights.  A couple of weeks ago at our Sunday morning service they announced that our Sunday night service would focus on healing.  Needless to say that was a service that I couldn't miss.  At the service we had Kennedy's hearing prayed for and her speech.  After they prayed for her, I talked to God and told him that I wanted to hear Kennedy make some kind of consonant noise and respond to music before the week was over.  I really wanted to stretch my faith and believe for those things that I've been waiting to see. 

Kennedy has a Jumperoo that she bounces in and plays in.  And that thing plays music while she's playing with it and sometimes plays music just when someone passes it.  Well a few days after the service, someone passed the Jumperoo, it started playing music, and Kennedy started clapping.  Clapping! I couldn't believe it.  It took us forever to get her to start clapping, and now clapping to music!!  And since then she's started bouncing and moving her legs to music.  Happy Happy Joy Joy!  Then, on top of that, a few days after the clapping we were in the car and she started saying "mamamamama".  My sister looked at me and I looked at her like, did Kennedy just say mama?  Then she said it again!  Ever since then, she's been saying it every day.  Just mama mama mama.  I love it!  Don't know if she's calling me or just babbling, but frankly I don't care.  My prayers have literally been answered for my baby.  Now, on to expecting bigger and greater things for her.

Also, she's had another appointment and she finally passed her hearing test (in the left ear).  Even though its only in one ear, that's progress that we'll be glad to take.  Our God is an Awesome God!