People have been asking a few questions lately about how Levi is doing. I thought I'd give a little update.
Overall, he is doing great! He is turning two in October and loves to run, jump, play at the park, meet new people, crash trucks together and create games and activities with his incredible imagination. He is a smart, fun-loving, busy kid and has developed quite the personality. He has such an easy-going nature, which has helped with the plethora of appointments, check ups and tests that he has had to go through in the past while. He has many specialists and doctors that all stem from his initial cleft palate and lip and he will continue to be seen by these wonderful people as he continues to develop.
The main thing that he is currently being seen for is his hearing. His last two tests showed that his level of hearing was slightly less than what it should be. They are not sure why this is the case, as his tubes are open. It may be something to do with his inner ear though, and they will continue to investigate if it needs to be treated.
We are also still working on speech development with him. He is behind his age group, however has been making small gains over the past while. The decreased hearing isn’t helping matters, but he definitely can hear more than what he could before his second set of tubes. We have noticed him respond more quickly to us, and he has developed new sounds that he had never tried before, which is encouraging! He also has a list of words that he uses on a frequent basis, including: ‘hi, up, uh-oh, mama, more, dad, outside, cheese, see ya, please, yeah’ and quite a few others. They may not be pronounced quite properly yet, but this is definitely an improvement over a few months ago! We look forward to working more with his speech pathologist to continue to see development over the next several months.
Stemming from Levi’s upcoming birthday is another question that I have begun to hear more frequently.
“When is baby number 2 coming?”.
It’s been popping up here and there for a while, but as Levi’s second birthday is approaching quickly in October, it seems to be the query of choice.
Other moms at the park, acquaintances, strangers we don’t know, people throughout our day to day life, even medical professionals who see Levi or I… “Isn’t it time for a second?” is the question that I’ve been hearing quite regularly.
No one means any harm by these questions. It is natural to be curious. However, it sometimes doesn't cross people’s minds that it might be a sensitive topic. Maybe it’s not as simple as “when will you have another?”, because maybe we’ve been wondering that ourselves. Maybe the timeline isn’t working out to what society has deemed ideal, and maybe it’s been something that we’ve been praying and wishing for.
It seems that our timeline and God’s timeline may be slightly different, as it often is. We’re in a stage of waiting on Him and we’re praying for patience and trusting that He’s got it all figured out. And He does. He always does.
After all, we’ve been here before.
When we were made to wait for our precious little Levi, the timing couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. It was made loud and clear that He’s got it all figured out. We know that He’s got our best interests at heart, and we trust that He’s got a plan; we’re just not sure what it all involves. It’s just a bit tough to wait sometimes, you know?
I know that we’re not nearly at the stage that some couples are made to wait for. I realize that we have already been blessed with a beautiful child, and some couples are still waiting for their precious bundle. Maybe I don’t have a right to be impatient yet. But each couple has different trials at different stages and a lot of them are invisible to the outside world. A lot of their struggles, disappointments and challenges go unannounced, but they exist and they are very real. Sometimes you may find those people are comfortable and willing to share their journey, and sometimes they're not at that point yet. Whatever the case, my message is just to be sensitive to the questions that you are asking. You never know what someone else is going through.
