Anchor Center

So this morning we went to the Anchor Center for Blind and Visually Impaired children for her evaluation. We got there and the first thing we did was her eye tests. They take these HUGE gray boards that have these black and white stripes on one side of it. It goes from the black and white stripes being REALLY thick to REALLY thin depending on the board. So the first board would have been 20/1400 vision (legally blind vision is 20/200 just for comparison value) and it took quite awhile to get her to look at it but she did, then the lady went on and we finally after she really started concentrating got her to see 20/670. So she can see between those two. She can definitely see which is a good thing but the best she can see right now is 3 times worse than legally blind. After that I went on a tour of all the different rooms and learned where to do everything when we are there. We will be going monday and wednesdays 9-11am for therapy. I am very excited about this. I am so glad we caught this all so early, that she is getting all the therapy she needs to succeed and develop as well as she can. The lady also said that she can definitely see me and my face. She really reacts to looking at me and my facial expressions. Then she put her in a little box type thing (like literally a wall box that has an opening) which has all these different hanging toys and the only rule is that you can NOT help her touch anything in there. That is her learning time for JUST her. Most babies can last up to 30 minutes in it, she played in there for an hour! She is so interested in seeing things, she just can't see very well but she is definitely a fighter and just keeps on trying! They also have a PT there too which we will use but continue with our actual PT as well. They work on different things so she is getting lots of work going on and the more she does the better she gets! They also said she is going to be a talker! So we might have another Nana on our hands! As I have researched more about her chromosome deletion, there are only 9 people out there with the homozygous (comes from both sides, she got hers from me AND Chris not just one of us) her symptoms are not nearly as severe as most of those kids are. Most of them have severe hypotonia everywhere (she only has it in her neck and arms and that is mainly because she couldn't see, shes already getting a lot stronger in her upper body) and brain problems (which she doesn't have) and seizures that can't be controlled with medications which her seizures are now controlled so I am trying to stay positive that she won't have severe mental retardation or severe autism. When she was on her tummy this morning she held her head up for 30 seconds STRAIGHT without falling down! That is absolutely amazing and the LONGEST she has ever been able to do it for! I am just so proud of her, I know this is going to be an extremely long probably never ending battle for us but I know we can handle it with the love the Lord has for us and the love our family has for each other. I want to thank everyone for their support through these hard times, as I am sure there will be many more as well. You all mean so much to me.