Help Me Grow identifies children with or at risk for developmental delays or disabilities; provides screenings for health, hearing, vision, and development; and provides up-to-date information during a visit from a registered nurse to parents on the child's health, development, safety, and community resources. Reece's new service coordinator came to the house last week and set up his first evaluation. And today was that day.
Reece is given certain tasks to perform and then he is "graded" on how well he does. The overall scores determine whether or not he has a "delay" or "no delay." In addition to the visual assessment, they ask what seems like a bizillion questions. "Does he do this? Does he do that? How often? 25% of the time? What's his mood like when he does this? How about that? Are you concerned? Has he seen a doctor for that? Has he had genetic testing done for this? How about for that?" It's a lot for a parent to take in. After we got through all the questions, they began their assessment.
First, they wanted to make sure he could track objects.
While I would like to say I don't get jealous when I see other kids Reece's age doing the things he can't yet, I'd be lying. It hurts. Or when kids 6 months younger are doing things that Reece can't yet. It hurts. And it really hurts on days like today. Every part of Reece's evaluation came back "delayed." I knew walking into the building today how the evaluation would go. But it hurt. Really bad.
Reece is perfect to me. And I know so many of you reading this agree. But when others tell me otherwise, it breaks my heart. I know, I know. It's their job. I'm not blaming them at all. And when he is older and is doing all the things other kids his age are doing, his delay as a baby/toddler won't matter. Will it matter when he is 5 that he didn't crawl until he was 16 months old? Or that he wouldn't eat anything other than baby formula until he was 16 months old? Or that he didn't say his first word the same time other babies do? No.
What does matter is that Reece is getting stronger and stronger by the day. He's 15 months old and has had two heart surgeries, six heart catheterizations, he has been hospitalized seven times, he's been poked and prodded more in his 15 months than most of you reading this, and he does it all with a smile.
Reece with his contagious smile is changing the lives of so many around him. He has touched the lives of thousands. Thousands of people he has never met. He's taught people to live life to its fullest and not sweat the small stuff. And to NEVER give up hope.
Now THAT is what will matter.
A lot of you have seen me post on Facebook that Reece has been entered in a contest to be on the cover of Parents magazine. To be a finalist, he has to have the most votes by Friday night. Of the hundreds that have entered this week, he is #13! If you wouldn't mind sharing this blog post and asking your friends and family to vote for Reece once a day until Friday, we would greatly appreciate it. He sure has quite the story to tell!
To vote, please click here.