Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Inspiration

As we sit and patiently await the results of our latest test, I found myself needing some inspiration. I've inserted a link to a video about a little girl in Toronto named Teya. This video was first brough to my attention about a year ago, and I had the amazing opportunity to talk to Teya's mom, Jeanette. Both Jeanette and Teya are such huge inspirations to me. Teya for proving everyone wrong, and Jeanette for perservering, thinking outside of the limitations of our network of children's therapy services and believing in her daughter. Jeanette told me that after little progress with traditional therapies she basically "fired" everyone, and started over with this new type of therapy. She actually flew to Chile in order for Teya to receive therapy from the person who created it.


http://www.cuevasmedek.com/teya_mov.html



We're pretty lucky so far...no one has said to us that Joey will never walk. In fact, everyone seems pretty positive that we will, it'll just be in his own time. Despite his delays Joey has definitely developed quite a personality, and perhaps inherited a bit of his mother's stubborness! This poses challenges when it comes to therapy, but we are still confident that he will walk.

Today I finally broke through one of my own mental blocks and swallowed a bit of pride and got an application for an accessible parking permit for Joey. I had never really considered it before, but now that he is able to sit in shopping carts or in a chair by himself I find myself carrying him from the car to whatever building we're going to, instead of using a stroller. That was fine in the summer, but with the snow and ice upon us it's becoming increasingly dangerous for me to walk across a skating rink-like parking lot with a squirmy 2.5-year-old in my arms! Last week when we went to his physio appointment I carried him in, extremely nervous about slipping and falling because the lot was covered in a thick layer of ice. On our way into the building I passed the empty accessible parking spot, which was cleared of ice, well salted and there was a salted pathway to the door. So we're applying for a temporary permit, since we never know if/when Joey will be at least be able to stand on his own.

I hope you found the video as moving as I did. I'm glad I came across it again.

- P, J & J

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