Radical

Each summer our family attends camp meeting at Roxbury Holiness Camp. The theme of the camp this summer was simply: "Radical"; various speakers focused their messages on how God has demonstrated the radical way he works in the world and in the lives of his children. There were several opportunities for individuals to give testimony to the radical movement of God in their lives.

One morning a lady shared a testimony regarding how she watched God move in amazing ways in the life of her aging father as he battled Alzheimer's, and that got me to thinking... here was someone giving witness to the manifestation of God's radical-ness in the life of a man near the end of his life, and in our care we have a man at the beginning of his life who has experienced that same touch. Since Baby H is not able to speak for himself, I felt led to share part of what we had witnessed as God has moved radically in this baby's life.  

Only after being placed with us for a few weeks did we become fully aware of what Baby H had suffered. The report from the hospital emergency room described him as a "near fatality." That alone caused goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes. Upon admission to and an assessment at St. Christopher's Hospital, his injuries were determined to be the result of "non-accidental trauma" and suspected to be a case of shaken baby syndrome.

Initially he was non-responsive and not able to breathe on his own and so was intubated and on a feeding tube. In addition to fractures to his ribs, there was also evidence of previously healed fractures in his ribs and wrists. Bleeding and bruising in his brain damaged the nerves that affected his vision, hearing, and use of his arms and hands, the brain damage also resulted in seizures. I am sharing this information as a way to understand the severity of Baby H's condition and as a reference point as we move forward.

When he came (to our) home on May 18 at five months old, he was taking about 5 ounces of formula by bottle - which would take about 30 minutes due to the pacing technique we needed to use to help him relearn and strengthen the breathe-suck-swallow reflex. He was not able to roll over at all, and could not push up on his arms while laying on his belly - his arms would automatically swing back along his sides - and his hands were often fisted instead of open so that he was not able to grab at toys. Sitting up with support seemed to exhaust him and so was not very tolerable. There was continued concern of hearing loss as he seemed somewhat unresponsive to noises.

During the first few weeks there were follow up visits to the opthamologist and the neurologist to monitor the effects of the injuries and any progress or problems. At the opthamology appointment the doctor remarked that all the blood had reabsorbed into the brain as would be expected and that there appeared to be no long-term damage: return in six months - which we just did last week. This time - a different doctor - examined Baby H and reported, "No need for glasses." To which I replied, "I didn't know that was a concern." After checking the chart the doctor commented that she wasn't aware of the details of his case and didn't know what she should be looking for since there was no evidence of any previous injuries. Return in one year. That's radical.

At the follow-up visit to the neurologist, we were escorted to an examination room to wait for the doctor. Baby H was sitting on the lap of the case worker being his pleasant self. As soon as the doctor entered the room he looked at Baby H and said, "That is NOT the same baby. This is a miracle." He related the details from the first time he had seen the baby several weeks previously, thoroughly checked him over and told us to return in a year. That's radical.

Tomorrow Baby H will be evaluated by a team of professionals from Early Intervention to assess his needs for special services due to his delays. A child must present with a twenty-five percent delay in order to receive services; so at age eight months, Baby H will need to have a skill set at or below the developmental age of six months.

By the time he was six months old he was able to roll over, both back-to-front and front-to-back, sit up unassisted, do 'push-ups' by extending his arms while on his belly.

At seven months he was creeping along the floor forwards and backwards on his belly and then crawling on his hand and knees.

At eight months old he is pulling to stand at furniture, standing supported with one hand, beginning to walk along while holding onto the sofa; he is able to finger-feed himself bite-sized pieces of food (with no teeth - what an adorable toothless grin he has!) and uses a sippy cup, waves bye-bye and plays "patta cake" and "so big." He is able to babble all the vowel sounds and says "dada", "mama", "baba" - although none of those sounds means anything yet. He recognizes and favors Stan and I and our kids over friends of ours.

It would appear to this unprofessional - but well-seasoned mom - that the team of professionals will be hard pressed to find ANY delay with Baby H.

This journey that we are honored to travel, to witness, is nothing short of radical.