Hello Again!

I want to apologize for the delay in writing in this blog. Things have gotten so busy these days! Hope is doing great! She is growing like a weed, her hair is starting to grow out a bit more, and she is an all around happy gal. She has a great memory too- our 5 year old daughter Hannah has been studying her phonics by watching a dvd that teaches the sounds of each letter. Tonight we were amazed when Hope told us every letter and sound! She memorized them all just from listening to the dvd. The girl is growing by leaps and bounds, and her teachers are all really proud of her. She is starting to talk alot more, although she is still in a parroting phase. Her teachers say it is typical for blind children to go through a stage of repeating everything, vs. conversing. They say she is right on the threshold for beginning to converse, and that is really exciting for us. She is talking, but getting things kind of mixed up. Like instead of asking for a drink, she will say, “Do you want a glass of water, honey?” which means that she wants a glass of water. We are trying to teach her to say, “I want a glass of water” and she is starting to get it. 🙂
I also realized that I hadn’t written a report of our last doctor visit. We had the test at the cellular level back in December. We were really excited and hopeful about it, from the doctors reports of how amazingly her right eye reattached itself. When they went in to her eyes at the cellular level, though, they found that she has no vision. It was extremely dissapointing, after being convinced that she would see normally wtih glasses, and it made us sad. Hope doesnt seem to mind, she is doing well getting around, and really uses her other senses to compensate for her lack of vision. The whole thing has been a roller coaster ride, but we are now settling into a routine, and learning the ins and outs of sight impairment.
In other news, our family bought a house in December. So we are now enjoying life in the city of Riverside. We were able to get much more for the money out here, and for the same price of renting a 1600 square foot house with a patio, we now have a 3300 square foot house on an acre! Woo hoo! We love the beauty of the nature out here, and have been settling in nicely.
I will try to update more often, and post some pictures too…..