Smiling at God: August 2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Progress

After seeing a video earlier this week of a special little boy's first steps, I was inspired to create a video montage of Sarah Kate's progress from before the selective dorsal rhizotomy up to today.

Cross-posted at BringingtheSunshine.com

About Smiling at God

My daughter, Sarah Kate, was born 10 weeks prematurely, weighing only 2lbs, 9oz. She has a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia. I have created this blog as a way of documenting and sharing with our family and friends the journey that she is undertaking as she undergoes selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery. It is my hope that others who are unknown to us may also benefit from hearing about our experiences.

Why is the blog titled "Smiling at God?" When Sarah Kate was born, she spent her first 53 days in the NICU. Although it's not a choice I would ever make, I did witness many small miracles during our "sneak preview." One of those was what Scott and I termed "smiling at God." Sarah Kate was a very calm preemie, which was not the case for many of the tiny miracles. She would lie in her isolette and just look around as if she was taking in every detail. Although the doctors told us that her facial expressions were caused by an immature neurological system and that her vision wasn't good enough for her to be able to see very far beyond her own face, we could never accept it completely. On many occasions, Sarah Kate would lie on her back, looking straight up, and just begin to smile. We believed that she was smiling at God, and throughout her young life God has been smiling back at her.