God works in mysterious ways

Anyone who has struggled with infertility can attest to this: when you are in the middle of trying to get pregnant, it seems as though there are beautiful, round bellies all around you. It may be coincidence or just that you are more aware of those bellies because you're longing for it so badly yourself. I do believe in "signs" and always told myself that it was God's way of showing me that I was next. Likewise, since Luke has been born, we have come across numerous children and adults with Down syndrome in a variety of capacities. The other day I saw the same man working at the grocery store whom I had seen before. I so wanted to wrap my arms around him and ask him to tell me about his life thus far, how people have treated him, etc. Two weeks ago Jackson and I were at the library and passed by a group of young adults with Down syndrome. Down syndrome (or special needs children, in general) has even shown up on the very few TV shows that Pete and I make time to watch these days. Each time we just look at one another in amazement, without saying a word, but knowing what the other is thinking. Again, I don't know if it's just coincidence or that we are more aware, but I like to believe that it's God's way of showing us that we are not alone, that Luke is not alone.

Just after Luke's last surgery, one of the post-anesthesia nurses said something that I think about on a daily basis. She was standing by the bed watching over him and said, "How can you look at that face and not believe in God?" While I consider myself a religious person, I would say I'm much more spiritual. I believe in signs from above, that things happen for a reason, and that God works in mysterious ways.

Along the same lines, I think we have a "sign" that we've made the right choice in switching doctors. Since we saw the new doctor at Children's just a couple of weeks ago, Luke has already shown great improvement. Last week he even had a few dirty diapers...on his own! This is huge news in our household these days. I never thought a dirty diaper could make us so happy! We think that the new way this doctor has us doing the irrigations has really helped. She feels that his rectal area is way too tight, which is also part of the problem, so we have again gone up a size on the probe for his dilations. Once he is bigger and more stable, she will begin the stretching procedures she mentioned to us at our first appointment. She believes that this will help immensely and may even allow us to stop the irrigations. Amazing! On another note, we went back to the audiologist for Luke's post-op, follow-up hearing assessment, which again came back inconclusive. We will have to go to Loyola now for a more advanced assessment that is done in the outpatient center. If that shows any issues, then they will do a sedated assessment to gain a complete look at how much, if any, hearing loss exists. Otherwise, he is doing really well, all things considered, and has also shown improvements with the physical, developmental, occupational, and speech therapies.