Getting ready to start school, doctor appts and more...

Annika's new classmates have been eagerly preparing and anticipating her arrival to their class. She met them on Tuesday, Jan. 3rd, and we have been waiting since then for our pediatrician to give her the last immunizations she needs to be officially enroll. January 5th, Eli came home with a folder for Annika from her new teacher and it was filled with drawings from each of her classmates of them playing with her! Melt. My. Heart!!! Look at her happy face. She is blessed to have such great fellow students and soon-to-be friends waiting for her.  She finally gets to start school this coming Tuesday and she is very excited and ready to be in school just like big sister and little brother!

And, this momma is blessed that Annika's teacher loves the Lord. She told me the other day that she had been praying over the Christmas break that the Lord would give her the new student HE wants her to have (our school apparently got quite the influx this week!), and when her teacher found out it was going to be Annika, she was excited. Y'all, I cried when she told me this. I couldn't help it. We continue to see God's Hand in this journey and to that I say....God is good! 

While waiting for Annika to be able to start school, she and I went up to her school one afternoon for a bit and met the ESL specialist for our campus. We spent sometime getting to know her and vice versa. Annika enjoyed our time there and hit it off with the ESL specialist. One of the things we really like about the specialist is she spent a couple years in living in China and she has a heart for the kiddos there. Annika will be spending a lot of time with her during school school days, so I'm glad Annika liked her! :-)

Doctor Appointments....

We went to the eye specialist on January 5th and learned Annika is farsighted, has a stigmatism and needs glasses. The doctor is hopeful that glasses will also help correct her crossing eyes, and we go back in a couple months to see how her eyes are doing. If the glasses do not help her wandering eyes, then we will talk about I muscle surgery at that time. The amusing part today was trying to fit her for glasses. She has no ears, a flat nose, and a head that won't hold a head strap on to hold up the glasses! 😜 She did enjoy trying different types on though and selected a pair of Hello Kitty glasses.  Once they come in, I'm going to work to create a headband with loops to hold her glasses on her head.  :-)

Annika had her appt recently with the ENT doctor and did great! This was just the initial appt to get the ball rolling on her other ear appts.  We learned that she does indeed have not one, but BOTH ear canals. Yay! We didn't think she had one on the right side, but she does, the opening is just tiny :). And we learned she has some infection in the other ear canal, so the Dr has prescribed some antibiotics ear drops. This past Friday, we went to our Children's hospital and got a CT scan of Annika's head so we can see what inner ear parts she has or doesn't have, and tomorrow we go back for a hearing test!  It is exciting to be going through these appointments so that we can see what our little girl needs to live a better and fuller life!  She does great at every appointment and is a good patient.  She knows that all of these appointments are to help her eyes and ears, both of which she desires to be better.  We have an appointment set with the craniofacial specialist on March 1st in regards to any reconstructive surgeries she'll need too.  The ball is rolling and it feels good to finally be helping our little girl. And I do believe she would agree. 

To God be the glory...

❤