April

Got to go to the apraxia workshop that I signed up for in February.  Thanks to the fundraising that is done with the apraxia walk that was done in Denver, I and many other people were able to attend for free.  It was an Apraxia 101, which honestly is the first time I have sat down and found out a lot of answers to my many questions.  I feel so blessed to be able to say that we have found the right SLP because she fit all the criteria that we were told that a good SLP for apraxia would have.  That is a "Good one God" there because it was totally ironic how we got Brianne Lay in the first place.  I am not sure if I posted before but I will again :)  When we got back from Boys Town, I emailed many SLP's in this are and Denver and she was the one and only to write us back.  She is amazing and Kamiree loves her...all big pluses!  I also learned that Practice language is all we should be doing all the time.  I mean making her talk instead of getting it when she points or we "understand" what she is saying...she needs to say it!  

I was blessed this trip because my mom went with me.  I was able to show her the school Kamiree is going to attend as well as have her go to 2 speech therapy sessions with Kamiree and I.  Kamiree did so well, this gluten free stuff seems to be working, and was calm and worked hard the whole 30 minutes.  It was such a transformation from just 2 months ago.  I was able to sign Kaden up for his school this time, and he will go with us May 8th to have his interview.  It seems to be falling more and more into place each time.  I know I am saying blessing a lot but I do feel blessed at this point.

It's been awhile....

I'm sorry that we have not updated in so long! I feel like our lives are spinning and we have no control of it right now. Chris took Kamiree down to Denver the week of Feb 23rd and she did awesome! She participated at all her therapies and had a good attitude for most the time :) We are now working on putting two words together and helping her put the two syllables that make up the word together so it's smooth. For instance, instead of buh nee, we are getting her to say it all together. I'm proud of how she has improved, but I do know she could be so much farther if we had her in an intensive speech therapy every week. This is the other reason we are going spinning....trying to figure out moving to Denver. Chris just did a teacher job fair down in Colorado trying to get a job. I pray that he will get one because 1. He loves teaching 2. He has to have a job for us to move 3. We need to move to Colorado. It's intimidating to have 600 other teachers looking for jobs in one building. Through this all we know that God is in control and we are relying on Him to get through all this. We have just recently changed our diet. We are now trying gluten free. So far this is day 3 and I have noticed a difference in Kamiree. She seems to be saying more words and a lot calmer. I don't know if I'm just looking for it, so we will continue and see how it goes. It's really good for our family because we are eating more vegetables and learning about them :) So if you need something to pray for it would be that Chris gets a job offer down in Denver! Kamiree needs this.

Behavioral Issues

If there is one thing I still cannot totally understand about apraxia, it's the behavioral issues that seem to go with it. I understand that Kamiree is frustrated because she is not able to speak even though the words are in her head, but I don't understand the constant hitting and kicking. I have such a hard time not going crazy when Kamiree slaps me across the face. She just did this on Valentine's night at the church. She was frustrated because she wanted to stay with me instead of going into the nursery. I understood this, but there was no way to explain I would be back after I was done eating...so started the hitting and kicking. I need help on learning how to calm her down quickly or slow down her temper. We do discipline her accordingly, but there are times I know she is frustrated more from lack of speech then just being bad to be bad. It is so hard to take a slap on the face multiple times and not get angry...I need prayer please! Also, Chris is heading to Denver next week with Kamiree so we will get to see how far she has come.

Kaufman Childrens's Center?????

Another week of speech over for Miss Kamiree. On Tuesday she got up to 21 cards right and I'm so excited for her! Yes, I bribe her to do the cards, and yes, I don't really care what it takes to make Kamiree talk as of right now. What is two small scoops of ice cream or one cookie to have her say 50 plus cards to me??? I will do whatever period.

So I was on the apraxia site on Facebook, which honestly has kept me positive throughout all these changes, and I saw that someone was talking about the Kaufman Children's center in detroit which has a summer program that lasts 3 weeks and is very intensive. It will cost us about $3600.00 but everybody that has taken their apraxia child there said it has changed their lives right away. It's just money right? To have a daughter that can speak would be worth every penny. I know that God will provide this and I am going to start praying more. They even will help Chris and I learn how to teach Kamiree as well as curb her frustrated behavior. It sounds so great! Kamiree already does the Kaufman cards for speech, so this is a whole program for apraxic children. Anyways, this is the update :) I think we will take one more week off of Denver, so I can make sure she knows all these old cards and then we will head down and see how Kamiree has improved. God is good, and I am feeling so positive right now!!

New Beginnings

This week we have stayed home trying this new schedule for Kamiree. It has gone...well I don't know. Kamiree hates change so she was sick on Tuesday and that threw off the whole week. She did not want to go to school the rest of the week so we had behavioral issues. The only thing she really wanted to do was keep going to speech with one of her new SLP's Bobbie. It has been hard for me not to sit in on speech and see what is going on, so I really don't know how she did this week. What I do know is that she did all her Kauffman cards for at least 3 days and she is up to 7 words with NO HELP! It is weird cards like Tuba that she remembers :) We are at least going to take this next week off from Denver. Really she needs to know at least her first 25 cards until we can go to the next series so hopefully we can get them down this next week. With apraxia, repetition is so important! That is why she knows the name of all her siblings, a lot of cousin, and grandparents. We are always talking about them or to them! :) We did get some more of the results from Omaha yesterday and it brought fresh tears. Just remembering that she is special needs and needs a lot of help. I guess it's human nature to think that she is all good, but then looking at those and hearing what other people label her as makes feelings arise you don't know you have. Anyways, this is the update for the week...if you are praying for us just please pray for dealing with the behavioral issues better and that she works hard and uses her words.

Another Week

Kamiree and I just pulled into town earlier this evening :) It's always so nice to be home and get hugs and kisses from my husband and the kids. This trip we decided to stay 4 nights, allowing time to recover from the car trip so that she would be ready to start first thing Monday morning. Kamiree had an awesome first day of speech! She said all the words she needed to and participated fully in everything! That day we headed down to Colorado Springs after to visit my sister-in-law and her family. The next day Kamiree did very well the first 20 minutes and then started to get angry. We went bowling and to Beauty and the Beast 3D to keep us busy later. The third day was a nightmare speech lesson. Not only did she scream but she decided to kick the therapist as well....I wish I knew what sets her off so that I could help her but I can't figure it out. For every single day we did the exact same thing...we woke up and she took a bath and then we went to McDonalds and then to speech. I never wavered from that all 4 days and for some reason it did not work on Wednesday. Bri, that's the speech therapist, had us come back at 3:30 to show her she was going to have to work whether Kamiree liked or not. Bri was able to at least get her to say her cards and we left. As a mother it is so hard not to be mad at Kamiree when she acts like that all day. She knows she is wrong and usually within 3 minutes of getting in the car she says sorry mommy, sorry mommy, over and over again. Today Kamiree went right into speech and worked her hardest the whole time! :) It was funny because she kept looking at me saying "mommy happy." And yes I was! I kept telling her, "yes, mommy is happy." She has improved so much these 4 weeks. We are going to take 2 weeks off from Denver and she will start working with a new speech therapist this next week in Thermopolis, who will be doing whatever Bri tells her to do. I did look at a house down there this last time and loved it, so I can't wait to take Chris down there to show him. We would be renting :) Anyways, that's the update for this week, very positive!

What to say

Well this week has flown by! This was a week break for Kamiree going to Denver and I'm still kind of nervous about the whole thing. She didn't have daily speech like Denver, but Lacey did do the cards with her at school and I have been doing them at home. I was very impressed with her saying the whole word tonight...this is a huge accomplishment! She said "tuba" like it was nothing, ha, I wish you could of heard her try to say it last week because she couldn't. These are the steps I need to see as a mother. Kamiree and I are heading back to Denver Sunday night thru Thursday morning to get in 4 sessions. We have found someone here who will be working with our SLP in Denver and will keep Kamiree going. We might actually have a house to rent in lakewood starting beginning of August, which would be a Praise God for us and this family who owns the house :) I will be looking at it this coming week, and am quite excited actually. It could be a 3 year deal, so then we can reevaluate and see if we want to come back to Thermop or stay. I guess it all depends on how the kids are doing. I am trying to take a step back and look at the whole picture and not expect Kamiree to talk right away. I realize this is a slow process and in this society no one likes things slow, including me. I want instant results or something isn't working, which for apraxia this will be opposite. Thank you for all the encouraging words this week while I stayed in Thermopolis. There are a lot of amazing people in our lives and I thank you.