A very late update.....

So it's been a long time since I have updated last, but I didn't really feel like I had much to update on until now. Harper has been great! Progressing and learning new things every day! One of her newest accomplishments that Brian and I are so proud of is that she is doing really well with signing to us and communicating to us through sign. She only does the basics, like milk, please, more, all done.... but it is huge that she is initiating it. The other day we were eating dinner and Harper walked over to the fridge and did the sign for milk, then please. And I was like.."AHHHHHHHHH! Harper you want milk, please? Good girl!" She had never done that before! She is also doing so well mimicking us and trying to repeat sounds back to us that we say to her. Her favorite sound is "mama!" Harper is still doing her therapies through ECI, and they have been great! She has speech, occupational therapy, and cognitive therapy once a week, and physical therapy twice a week. I also take her to private speech and occupational therapy once a week. I truly think all of the therapy helps. We also still have Harper on the organic, gluten free, dairy free, soy free diet and we really feel like it has made such an impact on her behavior. Last week I had the amazing opportunity to go to New Danville, a self sustaining, master planned, integrated community where adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities can Live, Learn, Work and Grow emotionally, socially, and spiritually with their non-disabled peers. The charity event is called Tea on the Lawn and it helps raise money for the New Danville community. I would definitely check out the website and contribute to the charity. http://newdanville.org/ The following day after the tea luncheon Brian and I had the privilege to go to the Gateway Academy Gala. The Gateway Academy serves students with social and academic challenges through innovative approaches to learning, physical fitness, and social awareness. The graduates encounter a changing world with self advocacy, opening a path to personal significance in college, career, and community. We hope that someday Harper will get to attend the Joy School, which is the K-6th grade private school similar to the Gateway Academy but for younger kids. Then go from there go to the Gateway Academy. While we were at the Gala, my friend had mentioned to me how blessed we are with Harper. Which I know and thank God every day for our sweet little angel. But she said the fact that Harper can walk and smile, we should be very blessed because there are so many other kids and families out there with way worse situations than ours. It really hit home and really really really made me super thankful and blessed. So every time I start to feel down, or get upset that Harper CAN'T do something, I just remind myself that I'm so blessed for what she CAN do! Sooooooooooooo.......Yesterday was Harper's 6 month review at her Neurologist and we were excited to go and hopefully hear some answers. After several questions about what Harper is doing developmentally and because of her febrile seizure she had after she turned one he wants Harper to do a 23 hour video EEG. They will call me to set up an appointment and Harper and only one adult, probably me, will go into a small room and they will have different electrodes on Harper's brain and they will watch and monitor her. She will still do daily activities like, eat, play, sleep, but they are watching for mini seizures that we might not be noticing. If she is having mini seizures there is medicine along side with intensive speech therapy that could help her speech. The doctor thinks that she could be having seizures because Harper is great receptively, she listens and follows instructions and understands what you are saying, but expressively she can not do. So he thinks she could possibly be seizing and that is making a barrier between the receptor and expressive area in her brain. So please prayers for Harper that we will find out what is causing her to be delayed. We also asked about Autism again, and he said no. He said that he can tell right when he walked in the room that she doesn't have autism just by her social interaction. He said just because Harper is nonverbal and because she has sensory processing disorder, does not mean she is autistic. We also asked again, why does she have the low muscle tone, like why does she drool, need to wear braces, etc, and he said that is because of genetics. So even though her genetic results came back normal, he still thinks something genetically went wrong, (or right, like I would like to say it.)He then continued to say he can tell it is genetics because "she is odd looking." And I said "she is NOT odd looking she is beautiful!" Then he said, "oh she is beautiful, but I can just tell by the way she looks, like her nose, that it is genetics." SO WHATEVER THAT MEANS!!!!! But he did say that it is still too early to do another MRI, maybe in another year, to see how her underdeveloped brain is looking, and then maybe another 2-3 years to do the genetic testing again. We are getting closer to some answers, but no answers yet. We just hope and pray everyday that she continues to progress. We wouldn't change the situation for the world. She is our gift, our angel, and God has given us a blessing! We will keep you updated once she has her 23 hour video EEG and she has a genetic appointment in July. Continual prayers please!