A visit to the Neuro Psychologist....

I think these pictures capture Dylan's personality in a nutshell.  He is one of the happiest kids I have ever met.  The simplest of things make him laugh and giggle, and that laughter is contagious.  He has a almost a magical way of making people fall in love with him.  Strangers in the grocery store, at the park, or wherever we go are all drawn to him.  He is special.  He is our miracle.....

A couple of weeks ago we went to see a Neuro Psychologist.  His oncologist believes that some of Dylan's delays are not "normal" reactions to his treatments.  Dr. G has dealt with many, many children going through treatments, but nobody has gone through exactly what Dylan did, and especially not at the age he did.  Before doing any MRI's or other tests, we were advised to see a psychologist.

I went into the appointment with Dylan knowing what they would probably tell me, but not wanting to hear it.  We know Dylan is behind....really, really behind.  We can see that he is not like his peers and emulates peers over half his age, including Andrew.  We have always been told by therapists that he was just delayed and that he would catch up.  This has not been the case.....

The psychologist spent a couple of hours interacting with Dylan and going through a series of tests and games to gage where Dylan was developmentally.  If I did not know Dylan was behind before, I definitely knew now.  I watched as he showed him pictures and asked him questions and I watched Dylan like I have never watched before.  I saw his little mind racing and trying to figure things out, and other times I saw the blank stare on his face as though the Doctor was speaking a foreign language. 

After the doctor finished his tests, he concluded that Dylan is functioning at a 2 year old level and below in some areas.  He believes that the chemo and radiation had a far greater effect on Dylan's brain than what was expected or "normal".  He has officially diagnosed Dylan with a Major Neurocognitive Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition, without behavioral disturbance.  The white matter in his brain has been disrupted causing primary deficits in attention, persistence, and short-term memory/memory encoding. 

What does this mean to us?  This means that nobody can tell us what Dylan will or will not do.  Only time will tell. He is currently progressing, but at a very slow rate.  But any type of progression is good.  This means that Dylan may or may not catch up and be "normal", and more likely that he will always be behind developmentally, and posssibly severely delayed.

Aside from any and all diagnoses....we are thankful that Dylan is here.  We have been blessed beyond measure from the joy that this child has brought us.  The joy and laughter overshadow any and all of the heartache and pain that we have gone through.  He is a blessing.  He is perfect in God's eyes, and he is exactly how God wants him. 

As parents we always want whats best for our children.  We want them to grow up, learn to ride a bike, go to college, get married someday and have our grandchildren.  We have to realize that these things may never happen for Dylan and that is very hard, however trivial that may seem.  Please pray for us as we embark on our journey with a new perspective.  We are learning new ways to parent him and to help him learn.  His brain functions a little differently than most.  Everything right now is a little overwhelming.  We know that we cannot do this alone and that the Lord will be our strength in times of weakness.  We know that the Lord has blessed us with amazing friends and family who will not leave our side and will be there to pick us up when we fall.  We know that we have thousands of prayer warriors out there praying for our family and our precious Dylan.  We know that God is a god of miracles and that He can completely heal Dylan.  Whatever the path that God has chosen for us, we will walk boldly and give Him praise.  We are thankful that God has chosen us to be Dylan's parents and that we get the privilege to raise this amazing little boy.  Thank you for being part of our journey! You are loved and appreciated more than you will ever know!

Goodbye Lily.....

Tonight we had to say goodbye to our precious white lab, Lily.  She had been acting strange all week, so we took her in to the vet today.  Originally they concluded that she had diabetes, but after we received her blood work back this evening we found out that it was much worse.  We decided to say goodbye....it was probably the hardest thing we have ever done.  I am thankful that the boys do not fully understand what is going and will always have pictures with Lily.  We told them that Lily had to go bye bye and to tell her night night....Our hearts are sad but we are thankful that she is no longer sick.
 Here is our Lily story :

8 years ago, I was wanting a baby....but after being married only 6 months, Erik suggested getting a puppy.  I had always wanted a little, fluffy, white dog.  Erik tricked me.  He took me to a home with these ADORABLE little white lab puppies...I fell in love with Lily immediately! She was soooooooooooooo cute!!! Little did I know that she would be the biggest little terror of a puppy and also grow into the most amazing dog a family could ask for.  If you have seen the movie or read the book Marley and Me, then that gives you a small glimpse into Lily's first years.  She was crazy!! She ate anything and everything in site.  She destroyed a leather couch, countless shoes and clothing, and even ate our Christmas tree! Yes, she did! She ate the glass bulbs and would jump into the tree and eat the lights on the tree.  She was CRAZY!!!! As she grew up, she got better.  Everyone kept telling us that we just had to wait 2-3 years and she would be an amazing dog! I did not think we could survive that long with her! Thankfully, we did.  She calmed down and became our best friend.  Everyone loved Lily, and everyone has a favorite story about her.  Although Lily grew out of her puppy stage, she never grew out of being a food thief.  I guess she thought we did not feed her enough.  She loved Q-tips and cottonballs...the proof was in her droppings.  She has stolen loaves of bread....YES, an entire loaf! She once ate a platter of hershey kisses from a bridal shower.  We came home to an empty platter and thought there was no way she could have done that....but then, pink foil poo showed itself.  She stole a bag of two dozen chocolate chip cookies and went to town...the vet just laughed when we called about that one.  Lily loved the boys.  I think she loved the boys' food even more.  She was so good with them.  As you can see in the pictures below, she would let them "cuddle" with her and love on her and she would always be so patient with them.  She has been an amazing dog to us.  She has been here through all the trials we have gone through.  She was a friend and campanion to Erik when I was gone for 6 months in the hospital with Dylan.  She was our dog, but even more, our furry friend.  She was a part of our family and we will always cherish our memories with her.  We found out late this afternoon that we were going to put her down, so we had a short photoshoot with her and the boys. 

Week 24: {Solitude}

As I mentioned before, both boys got sick on our little weekend camping trip....SOOOOO much fun!! Andrew is normally a super active and crazy kiddo....but this day, all he wanted to do was cuddle and be away from everyone. Good thing Auntie Mandy was there to cuddle with! And she was brave enough to lay in the shifty hammock....which later broke! lol! More camping pictures to come later! So many fun things going on this summer and I want to catch up before our California trip next week! YAY for beach pictures!

Week 23: {Yummy}

Here are a few photos of some awesome camp food that my amazing sister in law Renee made. She is the bomb! And the food, well, it was sooooooooo delicious! The camping trip was a little rough to say the least because both kiddos got sick....but at least I was able to snap a few shots!!

Week 22: {Pure JOY}

The boys LOVE brushing their teeth! I hope it always stays this way. They both race to the bathroom to see who gets dibs on the super awesome stool that their great grandpa made! Thankfully, Grandpa has since made an additional stool so there are no more near fatal accidents of being pushed off :) I still have to do most of the brushing, and then they just chew and suck on the watery toothbrush. I love that they love this bedtime routine and I hope we can always make it a fun time!