Luke and Laura at the Beach

Yesterday we took Laura for her hearing test to UTMB in Galveston. Good news first......her cochlea can hear. That's the inner ear part that picks up sound and transmits it to the brain via the auditory nerve. Bad news......her ear canals are so tiny that sound can't get to her middle ear (ear drum) to be sent to the cochlea. We will have to wait until she is 5-8 to see if we can repair the ear canal, find out the function of the ear drum, and let sound transmit normally. Until then, she will have a bone conduction hearing aide. It will look like a head band with a sound transmitter that will send the sound to her cochlea via bone so she can hear "fairly normally". Her cleft palate surgery will be May 8, 2008 with her lip repair following in about 4 months. She will start speech therapy as soon as she has her palate repair and gets her hearing aide. Yeah!!! We were so happy to find out that she will be able to hear.

One of the hearing tests required her to be asleep. Well, let me tell ya. Laura sleeps at NIGHT! But, as God usually works out all things for His glory (and to the benefit is those He loves "us"), He let her stay awake the night before until almost midnight (something she never does) so, about 8:30 am she went into a deep sleep in my lap and the audiologists were able to do the entire test. All I had to do was sit in this comfortable recliner and hold my baby!!!! (my favorite thing to do) I am here to testify that God is good and He knows what he is doing!!!

While Laura and I were at the hospital, Nene and Luke were at the beach! We didn't tell Laura!

I put on this cute outfit with flamingos on it for Laura to wear and she was the hit at the hospital. After leaving the hospital, we went to Fishtales and had a wonderful seafood lunch WITH bread pudding for dessert. Then, we took Laura to the beach.

The girl is not only a country cowgirl, she is a bonafide beach bum!!! No kidding! The wind was blowing and she stood with her face to the wind and headed for the water! She seemed to forget that she can't walk very far yet and she made a trail of little footprints in the sand. She was going swimming! This is the same child that only 7 weeks ago was terrified when I sat her in a baby bathtub. Now she was going to swim in the ocean!! Let me tell you guys, she is a trip. Her smile was bigger than the sea itself. God sure put her with the right family because genetically, she lines up with the same things our bio kids love......the farm life and the beach life!! We are going back soon so all of us can have a little fun on the beach before her surgery.

I got just a few pictures of the children so I'll post them. In most of them, Laura's head looks really big because I was snapping pictures as she was running toward the water from an angle above her. But all the pictures are really cute and the kids are adorable.

Mimi, thank you so much for the little flamingo outfit and for the use of your beach house. You are a fabulous grandmother and sooooo generous with us. We love you sooooo much. Enjoy the pictures!!!!