Home With Mr. A!

Yep, I'm sleepy!

Outside Fun!

The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 

~Exodus 4:11~

 I set out this morning to create a new blog for updating everyone on life with Mr. A, which I have been horrible at and do apologize! I came here to my blog "Is It Not I" and tears flooded my eyes as I read the top which stated one of my all time favorite verses. It was such a blatant reminder to me that He knows my name, He knows my life from beginning to end. You see, this verse was always a favorite of mine because whenever I read it I saw the great power and strength of our God! I always imagined God using a stern, loud, Father, voice with Moses, here. One of those "how dare you question my plan" voices! I always thought it was so great! That is not the reason it brought tears to my eyes this time and not the reason it re-inserted it's self back into my life as a strong voice in my head....

Daddy Love!

Mr. A's first outing to the Pumpkin Patch!

He knew before I was knit together in my mother's womb that I would be the mother of Mr. Augustus. "WHO makes him deaf or mute??" "WHO gives him sight or makes him blind?" "IS IT NOT I, THE LORD!?!? Our God loves us so much He gives us encouragement before we even know we need it! What a MIGHTY God we serve, AMEN!? I want to explain a little further the significance of this verse in our life. You see, Mr. Augustus has been diagnosed as deaf and with Cortical Visual Blindness.  This has been a hard diagnosis for me and one I have not spoken of too much because of the pain I feel when  I think that my sweet baby boy has to deal with these invasive medical interventions without the use of those senses to ease that discomfort.  But what a comfort to be reminded of Who chose these things for Mr. A! I don't know a whole lot at this point of my life. Tomorrow is uncertain for us. But this I do know;  how dare I question the goodness of God's plan for my life, for Baby Auggie's life, for all of our children's life! This IS His plan for us. What Satan would love to use for evil, God WILL use for good! To this I am certain. 

You need a kiss!

 For this reason I have decided to keep my "old blog" instead of creating a new one. God knew what life would bring and He set us up accordingly. From now on I will be updating about Baby A. here. 

Sister Love time!

 I have prayed and thought much about what I would say when I updated everyone this time. There are great days and days that are hard to stay afloat. I have days that I recognize the ever present Lord so powerfully in this place, and days that I focus more on the enemy of my soul and what he is trying to accomplish. However, I praise God, Who's Joy is my strength, for reminding me of the truth that is my future and the truth that is the great adversaries future!! These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. ~John 16:33~ My future is bright! His is not. OUR GOD HAS OVERCOME THE WORLD!  Can I tell you that if you have Jesus be of good cheer, Your Savior has overcome every trial you have or will face?! Can I tell you that if you do not have Jesus to turn from your sin and repent for there is a Great and Mighty God who loves YOU and sent His only Son to pay the debt for every wrong doing you have ever and will ever do?! This is a gift! No payment necessary! He wins and when you have Him, YOU win! I am not sure of much, but to this I am sure!

Masked bandit stopping fro some love!

Oh, how I love you!

  I mentioned that Augustus has been diagnosed with hearing loss. We went to the Audiologist today for an in depth screening to tell us if his hearing is something that can be corrected or if it is permanent. As disappointing as the results were, we are ready to accept them. Augustus is completely deaf in one ear and very severely impaired in the other ear. Now, that being said, he also showed that he had a lot of fluid in his middle ear. So we have been referred to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. Once the fluid gets drained we are praying that he has some degree of hearing return. The audiologist told us that with the severity of his hearing loss it is unlikely that his hearing will return to normal but it can definitely help bring some of his hearing back. They were going to fit him with a hearing aid today but decided to wait until he sees the ENT so he can be fit with the correct settings right away.  We have been learning sign language and Praise God, it seems to be coming naturally to everyone in the house, so far. We were told about a video series called "Signing Time" that we will be ordering soon. It is suppose to be fun and easy to learn from. Praise! I am also very excited to have learned that there is a "Community center for the Deaf" here, and that most of them offer what is called a "Deaf Mentor", which is a mentor who comes to your home and teaches your family ASL (American Sign :Language). So Praise, Praise, Praise! God always provides! Another huge praise in this area is that Augustus has made such amazing improvement with his upper extremities! The therapists says that his movement with is upper extremities is normal looking and actually seems quite good! I was so happy to hear this because I thought the same thing and it is sometimes difficult to get Doctors and Therapists on the same page as you. One reason this is such a huge praise is this means he has a much better chance of being able to use sign language himself! I have been praying so much that if he is deaf God would give him use of his arms and the ability to sign. 

Couch Potatoes!

 CVB (Cortical Visual Blindness) is a type of blindness that does not affect the eyes but is a result of a brain injury. I was not aware of this prior to Mr. A, but the whole brain is used in the seeing process as opposed to just one part that sees. There are many pathways throughout your brain that play a part in the seeing process. If there is damage in the middle of one of those pathways it interrupts that seeing process. This means a few things. 1. Augustus can see some things. 2. The brain *can* form new pathways if it so chooses. And 3. Therapy and stimulation of these pathways can aid in that process.  His eyes are good, it is an issue of  how the brain interprets what the eyes see. The great news is that he has already made some huge improvements with seeing. Praise God! We live in a time with many bright and stimulating toys and videos so we have tools all around us! Praise!

I love you too Mr. Glow Worm.

 The next thing we get many questions about is Augustus' ability to eat and will he ever eat. The answer in short, is we don't know. We have found some wonderful therapies and we are very excited about the prospect of good results but all we can really say is that it is in our Father's Hands.

 I love all of you so much and I can not even come close to expressing how much your love, support, and prayers mean to us! I promise I will try my best to update you more often than I have been. I also want you all to know that questions do not offend or upset us in any way. We are more than happy to answer any of your questions. So many of you have been emotionally invested in our journey and we want you to know that we appreciate you all so much!

Could therapy be any funner?

 There are days when all I can do is fall to my knees and beg God for mercy. I am in no way strong, courageous, or good, but I serve a big God! If you gain nothing else from watching Augustus' journey from death to life, I hope that you know that there *is* a God and He is mighty to save!

Oh yeah!

Living In His Mercy,

 The Tannehill's