Things are moving sooo fast

so i am trying to document it so I can keep track of everything! Cohen went today to have impressions for her ear-molds. All children hearing aids are the type that go behind the ear and have a "earmold" in the ear canal to transmit the sound through. These hearing aids are used because it is easy to remake just the earmolds every few months as she continues to grow.
She did so great! They had to put a small cotton ball on a string down in her ear canal and then took a syrings and filled her ear full of putty.wax stuff. She had to wait 5 minutes and then they removed them. I was in total shock as she sat there and just ate her crackers acting like nothing was going on! Let's pray that she continues this cooperation.
The hearing aids will be here in 3 days but the earmolds take about 2-3 weeks. In the meantime, we are meeting with the Parent/Infant program mentor who will show us some activities to do with her and our Speech Therapist is going to also meet with us and the School to learn a few things that we can do with her this summer until she is enrolled at Magnolia.
We have learned so much over the last 5 days and when I look back to a week ago I would have never guessed that this is what we would be preparing for. We are so thankful for all the resources that we have found and been given.

Annual Girl's Beach Trip

That time of year again and boy did it come and go too fast. My high school besties and I spent Mother's Day holiday together again. I hope and pray that everyone has friends like these girls. They have been there for me through so many things over the years and I have grown in so many ways through their friendships. I couldn't ask for better friends to be surrounded by. As always, we just get together and the time flies as we laugh until we cry, ask our "deep" questions, and just enjoy time together.

This year had a special meaning behind it....we all turn the BIG 3-0 this year!! As the baby of the group, I still have a few months to live up my 20's :)

It was such a great vacation that just went by so fast. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and God knew I needed that time for rejuvenation and rest before my tough week that laid ahead.

more pics

I love these girls!! Can't wait til next year......

Many faces of Kinson....

I guess I need to learn that "Boys will be boys!" He decided instead of a bath after his soccer game, that he would just play outside in the rain! My mom keeps reminding me to pick my battles-----I didn't object to this idea:)

Couldn't you just eat this little boy up! He has really become so entertaining and we just smile with anticipation as we wait to hear what will come out his mouth next! He really is so much fun at this age!!

I just wanted to clear up a few questions that have been asked about Cohen. These new findings will not change any of the other things that we have already set up. Her injections should begin sometime in June and she will continue her current medicine. We also still have no etiology to any of the conditions. When the drs looked at each condition alone they had a theory based un my unmanaged hypo-T while pregnant, however now with multiple conditions there is a chance that it is more chromosomal. We still haven't started the genetic testing yet and are unsure when/if we start that. Thanks again for all the continued support, it means so much that she is loved by so many!!

Have you ever seen anything more precious......

Than this?!?!

This little girl has captivated our hearts and we just think she is the most perfect, cutest, fabulous little girl in the whole wide world. She is so busy that I can only get my hand on a camera when it gets close to bedtime!

Thanks to all of our friends and family that have been checking in with us. It really means so much to us that we have such a wonderful support group. Sorry to those who called/texted Thursday and got no reply. It took us some time to absorb and process the news, but things moved QUICKLY and we haven't looked back.

Cohen's surgery revealed that Cohen had an unrepairable perforation in her left eardrum that will serve as a "tube" for drainage and the right ear tube was replaced without difficulty. Her adenoids were removed also with no problems. While she was still asleep, we had opted for an Auditory Brain Response test to detect hearing deficits. With her speech delays, we were ruling out a hearing impairment. The test revealed that she had mild/mod hearing loss in her right ear and mod/severe loss in her left ear. This was so shocking to us. We were prepared to hear that it was fluid causing what might be a hearing impairment. He left ear might improve a small amount if her eardrum repairs itself, if not a patch will be performed.

The only option for her at this time will be hearing aids. It is amazing how things began to fall into place. On my way home from the hospital, I stopped by CVS to fill her prescriptions and in walked Dr Flowers, Cohen's ped. He had already received a message from me and asked me to go ahead and explain it all to him right then. 5 minutes later he had a planned laid out and rolling! Friday morning, We met with Magnolia Speech School's hearing impaired department and toured what will be her classroom hopefully in August and met with an audiologist that will be our mentor through this process. Jennifer was wonderful and answered our 1,000,000 questions and gave us a simulation so we could hear exactly what Cohen hears. It was very eye-opening yet encouraging at the same time. We quickly realized how much she had to concentrate to hear, but we also realized that she CAN hear.

We spoke to our insurance company and are very grateful that at least part of her hearing aids will be covered and that UMC and Magnolia indicated that we could receive these within the next few weeks-- they are out the month of July, so they want her to have them before then. So needless to say, we have received more education, spoke to more people about things we are cluless about, and in the meantime pampered to a recovering 18month old! We do have a few reservations over the next few weeks. We are definitely unsure as to what childcare will be throughout the summer after she gets her hearing aids. I do not think that a classroom full of 12 18month olds are the right place to transition to hearing aids :) We are also just plain scared. We do not know the etiology of her hearing loss, we do not know if it has gotten better or worse since birth, and we do not know yet if it will improve or get worse. We do know that God gave us the baby girl as ours and we are unbelievably grateful that she is ours and that He has given us the means to provide for her everything that she will need.

David Beckham potential?!

Kinson's first soccer season ended this morning. Bear is sooo sad. We loved every minute of watching Kinson play. By the end of the season, Kinson played hard and made great friends. He scored his first and only goal last weekend and was quick to let everyone know that he got a cupcake when he scored!! He at least gained the concept of the game:)