Jaylie - Almost 4yrs old

Okay, so I'm just a couple of days away from the 6 month mark from my last update... I'm noticing a trend here... I blame it on the hair I am losing here in my 30's :). Anyways, Jaylie is doing well. She is growing and progressing at her own rate which is exactly what the Dr has ordered.

Jaylie is eating more food, though not enough to be nutritionally significant, she is eating more often and more varieties of food. With that said, the feeding therapist is concerned Jaylie has not learned to eat by now. The feeding therapist has advised the longer Jaylie goes without learning to eat, the harder it will be for Jaylie to learn to eat.

Acknowledging the feeding therapists concerns, keeping in mind the Dr's overall goal of focusing on ensuring Jaylie is growing and developing holistically, we are confident Jaylie will be able to overcome her oral aversion. Jaylie's life has proven time and again despite the odds, God will pull her through in His timing. We have not given up hope Jaylie will learn to eat. We fully expect God will continue to be faithful, enabling Jaylie to overcome the oral aversion she currently is struggling with.

Jaylie loves pre-school. Jaylie started her second year of pre-school (first being the tailed end of the 2011-2012 year) in September. Jaylie is learning a lot at school. She is able to recite the alphabet very well, count to 20 in english and spanish (thanks Dora...) and carry on a basic conversation using an improved pronunciation of words, though her vocabulary pronunciation is not 100% correct. Jaylie's oral and cognitive abilities have improved quite significantly over the last 6 months.

Overall things are going really well this year. We've had at least 1 1/2 years of 'normal' life were we aren't running to the Dr every other day with some type of medical emergency, which has been really nice. We are so incredibly thankful for the blessing God has given us, so incredibly thankful for this experience of 'normalcy' with Jaylie. We are currently planning Jaylie's 4th birthday party and the holiday's to follow like normal people do. We like being normal :). Thank you Jesus! :)

We hope and pray this new normal becomes our normal.

We will never forget how this all started and the incredible work and blessing God has done and continues to do in Jaylie's life. We will never forget and will continue to acknowledge we would not be here in this place in life without all of your support, our beloved friends and family!

We hope and pray you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving, Christmas and wonderful New Year!

Happy Holiday's!

Nathan, Kristina and Jaylie

Recent picture:

Jaylie - 3 1/2 years old

So I told myself I was not going to be one of those every six month blog updaters... Well, I've pretty much failed at that, my apologies!

How is Jaylie doing? She is doing fantastic! She is growing learning and developing at her own pace. She's shooting up like a weed growth wise and has definitely started to display her own personality. She is speaking simple muddled sentences and words that usually need to be translated by grandma, mom or me, with some words being complete indecipherable, though very cute :).

Jaylie is a joy to all that she comes in contact with. She commonly tells the world Hi and bye as we arrive and depart from different locations. It is funny to see peoples faces as they carry along in their mundane world only to be interrupted by a cute little 3 year old saying 'Hi!!!' or 'Bye!'. No one is immune to Jaylie's cuteness or adorability :). Random strangers are no make for the joy and enthusiasm Jaylie instantly brings into their world even if its only for a few brief seconds. Needless to say Jaylie makes a lot of friends and positively touches a lot of peoples lives just by her being herself and enjoying this world she is a part of.

Jaylie is absolutely infatuated with dance and music. She commonly will start dancing and say "I'm dancing mama, I'm dancing!". This infatuation with music was taken to a whole new level when we took Jaylie to Sesame Street Live, can't stop the music this last weekend. Jaylie was so excited when she saw all the Sesame street characters dancing and singing she literally almost passed out from hyperventilation! Okay, maybe she didn't almost past out but saying she was thrilled out of her mind is an understatement. She most definitely had the best time of her life thus far - it was very cute to watch how wonderful of a time she was having.

(some pictures from the event: Sesame Street Live 2013 )

Jaylie is still not eating anything substantial but is requesting food and drinks more often. We are content with allowing Jaylie to grown develop and mature at her own rate (this is the recommend approach by Jaylie neurologist).

Jaylie is finishing up her first year of preschool next month. She started in Jan in the early intervention program. Since Jaylie started in preschool we have seen a tremendous growth in her speech, object identification, letter and sounds association, basically huge improvements in cognitive abilities. These cognitive developments are such a blessing to see. The Dr's have said they cannot give us any promise or prognosis on what Jaylie will and will not be able to do, so to see her growing and developing as a toddler is amazing, refreshing, encouraging and very exciting! One of the reasons we haven't put a blog together hasn't been because there is nothing to write about, it has been because we have been so busy living life, trying new things and growing as a family -- experiencing new firsts on a lot of different levels. We are so very grateful for all that God has given us and allowed us to experience. We are doing our best to soak it all up and enjoy these good times in the present :).

So yeah, we are doing great, Jaylie is doing wonderful! We are very much so looking forward to experiencing what this summer has for us!

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support. Jaylie really is a living breathing growing miracle, an ongoing story and testament to what prayer, support, perseverance and a touch from God can do to a life.

If you haven't met Jaylie, you really should, she'll change your life :)

God bless all you guys! I hope you have a great summer! I'll try to check in in less than 6 months, I promise :)

Love,

Nathan, Kristina and Jaylie

Recent pic's: