I Climb For Juli...

Those who know me, know that my daughter, Juliana, has faced some difficulties in her 6 years with us.  They started at birth with her VSD heart defect, then she refused to eat, followed with her developmental delay.  She has seen an array of specialists, all of whom have helped us in different ways.  The one I am going to highlight in this post is Dr. Gaebler at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC).

We were referred to Dr. Gaebler by Juli's GI doctor when Juli was about a year old.  Juli had noticeable weakness on her left side and her GI doctor was curious if that had any impact on why Juli didn't like to eat.  Our visits over the past 5 years have never given us insight into why Juli doesn't like to eat, but they have taken us down a different path.  I learned new lingo: AFO and UCB (the different braces/orthotics that Juli wears).

Juli's old AFO's, she has graduated to UCB's now 

We had even more tests done and were referred to different specialists from there.  Finally, this year, Dr. Gaebler was the first doctor who gave us names/diagnoses for what is going on with Juli and from there, doors continued to open.

Juli was diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder along with Sensory Processing Disorder by Dr. Gaebler.  From there, our Developmental Pediatrician tested Juli and she tested high for anxiety (which broke my heart to hear that my 6 year old has anxiety, but it explained so much) and inattentive ADHD.  She will never outgrow Developmental Coordination Disorder and it will make learning difficult for her.  To help with this, we have added Occupational Therapy outside of the school (she already receives it during school). With the Sensory Processing Disorder, she is learning to handle it in her OT sessions.  Her screaming episodes where she becomes overwhelmed and doesn't know how to process are decreasing, although now she will "shut down" in order to shut out all of the sensory information.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because on November 8th, I am participating in the SkyRise Chicago Tower Up Climb benefiting the RIC.  Juli asked me to do the climb, and how could I say no to this face?

So, I need to raise $150 in order to climb the 103 flights of stairs, and I am hoping some of you will sponsor me.  I want to make this little girl proud of her mom.

**If you click on the words "sponsor me" it will take you to my page.  I am overwhelmed already by those who have donated. Thank you so much!**

God Is Good...

Back in May, I posted a little bit about how the end of the school year sucked and I had to deal with having my character challenged.  At the end of the school year, there was a mass exodus of a bunch of people who had done little to help me out, and some new people were hired, who I knew would have my back.  However, with school starting back up in less than 2 weeks my anxiety level had begun rise to epic proportions starting last week.  I was having nightmares every night of having to work with the person who had done this to me.  Over the summer, I had worked on forgiving this person, but I knew that trusting that person wasn't going to happen, at least right away.

Last night, my cell phone rang, and it wasn't one of my set ringtones, so I almost didn't look to see who it was.  I am glad I did.  It was our new division chair.  Our conversation went like this, "Hey Jenna, I don't know if you're going to be happy about this, but I have some news about your Chemistry team."  My stomach dropped.  Had I been removed...again?  I had been summoned in over the summer by the new Assistant Principal to explain to him what had gone on, and I had made sure I was professional the entire time.  "Am I off the team again?"  "You're still on the team and so is Grant."  "Okay, then what's not to like?"  "Well, so and so has been removed from the team this year to go teach math.  You will have a new co-teacher on your team."  Immediately my anxiety level dropped, and I said as much.

God is good.  I also don't find it a coincidence that yesterday morning I started 2 studies on anxiety, because I couldn't handle myself anymore.  Thank you, Jesus, this year will be a better year.