Our miracle baby is growing so fast! I can't believe she just turned 18 months. With this milestone came her 18 month physical, but we were dreading it. Our Charlotte has been excelling in the speech department and has been talking away from months now, but the walking has been a struggle. She took a few steps on her own a couple weeks after her first birthday, but soon decided it wasn't for her and she abruptly stopped. Since then, we have been begging and pleading and encouraging and pushing her to walk with no success. We asked the doctor several times and they assured us it wasn't a big deal and that she was only being cautious and perhaps stubborn (I have NO idea where she would get that from 😏). We knew at the beginning of the appointment that she had arrived at her walking deadline and there might be some concern this time. It started as usual... "She's tall for her age. She's low in weight for her age." Things we knew were a constant theme for her progress did not surprise us. We were told that she is also very advanced intellectually for her age, which I always thought, but ignored, because I'm biased. And then the moment we dreaded came. "She needs to see an pediatric orthopedic specialist. She needs a full evaluation because at this point, I am concerned she might have an issue with that left hip and possibly the left leg." You see, she never crawled and went straight to this weird half walk thing where she would step with her right foot and then slide her left knee to meet her right foot. And since she was 10 months old, that's how she gets around everywhere. Because of this, her knee is swollen and calloused and bruised up. It's been one of those things that has made us sad to see. We want her to thrive.
After the appointment, Nathan and I laid hands on her legs and hips and began to pray. We know God is more than able to heal anything that can be wrong in her little body. And if it's in her mind, we know He can restore her confidence too. We also know that God can chose NOT to, and we're okay with that. We know that sometimes there are things in life that we must go through to shape us and mold us into the vessel He needs us to be. Regardless, we continued to pray for God's will in the matter.
Today Charlotte and I had a day out with my grandma as we try to do on a weekly basis. We usually have lunch and spend the afternoon shopping. While in Ross, Charlotte started crying that she wanted down out of the shopping cart. So I obliged and let her out and while bending down to pick up some clothing that had fallen off the rack, I noticed her squatting on both feet. My grandma encouraged her to stand up and then it happened...
This girl just started walking! She was so excited! Laughing and wobbling all around the store. Anytime we'd pick her up, she say "walk!" and try to get down. She still has a ways to go and still needs to be evaluated, but I'm so excited that we can now go into that appointment and say "SHE IS WALKING!!!" Praise Jesus for hearing our prayers and allowing us this confirmation that she CAN walk!!!
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