Katie's face and story will make a difference!

Katie Starr is the 2011 face of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Her image and story are on all of their membership materials. This was the letter from me that was enclosed with the membership package. If you would like to become a member of the Foundation Fighting Blindness and make a tax deductible contribution that will help aid the research towards treatment and possibly a cure for hereditary blindness, please go to Katie Starr's link. Every dollar counts....more than you will ever know!  

Thank you,  The Katie Starr Team

Xin Nian Kuai Le!!

Our DD are very proud to be Chinese American and were thrilled to be able to share their culture with their teachers and school mates today. 

We are so proud of them.

Our family wishes you a Happy Year of the Rabbit....a very very lucky year!

Pain Uncovered

Tonight Katie was reading a book to Ethan and I about a little boy who had the Chicken Pox.  As the story unfolded, Ethan began to ask me questions about what Chicken Pox are and how do you get them.  Ethan has always been a probing questioner and I thought that this was just the beginning of the usual barrage of questions that are precipitated by some new concept.  I was wrong.  This question would lead us down a path of discussion that I did not anticipate.

I began to answer his questions about Chicken Pox as soon as the story was done.  I explained what they were and I also told him that he had them when he was still in China.  The thought of this seemed to really upset him; much more than I knew at the time.  He got very quiet which is quite unlike him and then about a minute later he looked up at me with tears in his eyes.  I asked him what was wrong; why was he so sad?  I could see that he was doing everything in his power to hold the tears back and so I told him that if he was sad that he could tell me what was upsetting him.  He began to cry very hard and told me that he was sad and scared when he was in China and was sick with the Chicken Pox.  He kept asking why he got them there and where were we?!?  I tried to explain in the simplest of terms that we wanted to be there so badly but that we were waiting on permission from the officials in China to come and adopt him.  He kept re[eating over and over about about how he was so scared he was when he was sick and that why did those people in China not let us come to get him quicker.....it totally broke my heart.  I just held him close and told affirmed that of course he was scared but that he need never be scared again, as he would always have him family around him when he was sick forever and ever.

I know in my heart that this deeply buried memory was really of when he was in the hospital with no one by his side for well over a month for his open heart surgery.  How much pain did he endure without so much as a loving touch?  How may days did he wake up in pain with no one to tell him that it was all going to be OK and be by his side?  He does not consciously remember this but his psyche sure does and that experience lives inside him and impacts how he deals with the world on a daily basis.  He has many coping mechanisms that he exercises each day and that we are trying to help him resolve.

We started him in play therapy about 2 months ago and took a break due to finances but now that my new insurance has kicked in we are going to be starting again.  I know there are so many feelings that our little guy needs to work through but I am grateful that he felt safe enough with me tonight to begin to release the pain.

Closing Day!

My kids have just closed on their first home.

I had the good fortune to be not only the Realtor who facilitated the purchase of the home but also the photographer at the closing table.

There are lots of great deals out there but getting them closed is much more of challenge than ever. 

Thankfully, good things come to those who wait and are patient.

My belief is that life hands you sweet moments; moments that are pure joy!

I am thankful that I was a part of their joy today.

I think that my son looks very "lawyerly" here!

Congratulations to Justin and Judy.  May your life be filled with many joyful moments!

PS  A special thank you to my dear friend Kira who was the closer on this transaction.  She was amazing! 

Daddy's Boy

A Cautionary Tale

Tonight, Marc was bathing the children while I was out at a meeting.  Marc always lets the DD play for awhile and then gets down to bathing them.  When he finishes cleaning them off and begins to let the water drain, they always enjoy their last few minutes in the water....Katie loves to lay her head back and pretend to float in the shallow water. 

Tonight's bathing episode ended on a much different note than any in the past.  As Katie laid back, her hair floated down into the drain and before Marc knew it, her long hair began to weave around the metal on the inside of the drain and became caught.  Marc tried to free her and the hair began winding and tangling more and more while pulling her hair and head down.  Thankfully, he handled it well and was able to get it all untangled and free her.  It took more than a couple of minutes to do that though and a great deal of patience.

On the surface, you may think that the biggest concern here was her hair and possibly losing several inches of it, as at one point Marc thought he may have to cut most of it off in order to free her!  It is much more serious than that.  If he had walked away to get a phone call or to do anything else, she may have been drawn down beneath the waters surface with no way to free herself and possibly could have drowned.

That is why I am sharing this.  Please...anytime there is water involved....do not leave your children alone.  A minute may be the difference between life and death.  Tonight was proof positive of that fact!

I am back

Happy New Year! I have taken a bit of a break; mostly because I was pretty burnt and the last thing that you need to do when you are burnt is just one more thing. That "one more thing" among others was blogging.

I now need to get back into my normal rhythm; which includes blogging. I have always loved my blog...it has been such an outlet for me. My photography is also a creative outlet for me. I decided to do a 365 Blog and post a pic each day beginning today. You can find my photography blog here.

Quick update;

I have a new job.

The DD are doing well. Our holiday season was wonderful and they are doing well in school.

The bigs (Justin and Judy) are in the process of purchasing their first home with my help as a real estate agent.

Katie's eyesight is stable at this time. Our Vision Walk was a major success. We raised more money than any South Florida Team has ever raised. Over $13,000.00 and still counting!! The Foundation was blown away by our success but really, who would not want to help a 5 year old little girl who is losing her eyesight?  They have now asked us to allow Katie to be the face of their national membership fundraising campaign for 2011. We are so proud that our amazing little girl will help the Foundation Fighting Blindness to raise awareness and money so that treatments and/or a cure can be found.

2010 was a very stressful and difficult year in for our family.  Not just because of Katie's diagnosis but for many other reasons, most of which are financial.  So many of us are in the same boat, so I know that you get it!

I will write more soon about her and this journey we are on with her but in the meantime I am here to report that we are taking it a day at a time and we know that we will deal with all of this together as a family. That is all that matters.

May 2011 be good to all of us.  I am going to take matters in my own hands and try hard to make it so.  I am going to pursue my passions more frequently and  I am going to be better to my body, mind and soul.

Thank you for continuing to follow along.  It means more than you will ever know......

Holiday Card 2010

Polka Dot Snowflakes Christmas

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Happy 3 Years Ethan!

It has been three years since we adopted our sweet mischief man in China. On October 29th, 2007, we entered the JiangXi Civil Affairs Office and were shocked to find a very fragile, weak and quite delayed little guy waiting for us. He was so afraid and we were very afraid as well. Somehow and someway, day by day, we were able to help our little guy get healthy and strong. We were able to give him the tools to transform into the amazing little boy who has completed our family. As much as we gave to Ethan, he gave us so much more. He gave us a stronger will, courage to face the unknown and the gift of watching one of the strongest and most resilient children that we have every known. He has beaten the odds and he continues to surprise us daily with every new milestone reached.

There are still remnants of the damage that was done to his psyche through his neglect in China but we can see that he feels very loved and mostly secure that we will always be there for him...always and forever. We pray that someday it all falls away but even if it does not, we do know that his future is very bright!

Happy 3 years Ethan Frederick Zhiqing! We love you with every fiber of our being; just as we do your sister and brother.

Always and Forever,
Mom and Dad

Trying to be strong for our daughter

Tonight I was reading to the Dynamic Duo before bed. The book that I was reading to them was one that Katie could definitely help me with since her reading is really coming along. I asked her to read a couple of sentences and she strained to see the page. She put her face all the way up to the page so that she could see and she was struggling big time! I asked her whether she could see and she became defensive and she said that she could see it. She definitely could not see it without being on top of it. I had to try my level best not to cry....I saved my tears until after she went to bed. I then had a big time boo hoo session. I needed it.

As I was brushing her teeth I told her that sometimes when people have a hard time seeing words on a page that they could learn an alphabet that they can feel with their fingers and they can read books that way. She asked me what it was called and I told her it was called braille. I asked her if she would like to learn braille and she told me that she would...it sounded cool. I better take note of my daughter's positive outlook pretty quickly because all I could think at that time was that we were teaching her how to read the written word but that she may not be able to do so for very long.

I pray that this Friday when I take her to see the specialist down at Bascolm Palmer Eye Institute, that they are able to prescribe new lenses that will give her a greater field of vision for now and that they can do so for a long time.

I know that there are worse things and that it will someday be our new normal but I hate this. I hate it more than I can ever express.

The Ironies of Life

I had a memory come back to me last night in the midst of a fitful sleep.....

About four years ago, just after we made our decision to adopt again, we further decided to walk down the path of a special needs adoption. There was a lot to consider, not least of which was the existing family and responsibilities that were already on our plate but also, what did we think that WE as a couple could actually handle. After lots of soul searching, Marc and I came up with a "list" of the needs that we deemed to be "right" for us.



Within a couple of weeks of the search for our next child, our dear friend Mary saw a child on her agency special needs list that called out our name as potential parents. It was a baby boy from the exact same place that Katie is from; Wuwei, Gansu. He was such a beautiful child and the words underneath his name on their website gave a vague description of a special need. If I remember correctly, it was "uneven iris's." I remember being shocked that with such a benign description that this child was still available. The most minor of special needs always go very quickly. I quickly wrote to the agency to inquire about the boy. I was told that the description given by China was quite vague and even had conflicting facts so that we should proceed with caution when reviewing the file. We were the first email of several that they had received overnight that were interested in this child. They would allow us to review the files with our doctors but there were no promises.

We took the file to not only our pediatrician but to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist that my mother was employed by for many years. After so many years he seemed more like a family friend than a doctor. As such, he told us that the information provided was too vague to make a determination on his condition. He asked us to request more info if we could. We followed his instructions and asked the agency to make the inquiry, which they did. A new examination was then performed in China and the results of the exam were laid out for us in typical China fashion...again conflicting but this time with enough facts for us to come to a decision....

Our doctor informed us that with the type of condition that this baby boy had he would indeed by blind very quickly, if he was not already. In addition, the type of eye issue he had would likely be paired with another medical syndrome of some type. Marc and I were so upset to hear those words. We wanted the words to be untrue to make our decision an easy one. We so wanted to adopt this little boy from Wuwei. It would have been so sweet to have two children from the exact same place. We agonized quite a bit over the file for the next couple of days. Could we handle such a special need? Would it be fair to Katie and to our family as a whole? Did we have the financial resources necessary. The final answer to all of the those questions was a sad....no. He was not our child. I sadly relayed that info to the agency including all of the feedback from the doctor.

The only consolation for us was that the family in line right behind us was already parenting a child with a similar special need and was interested in parenting this child. They asked the agency if they could speak to me in order to get more info on the feedback that our Doctor had given to us. The mom and I spoke several times and the last time that we spoke she was seriously considering adopting him but I will never know for sure. I never heard from her again. His picture never reappeared on the list though, so in our hearts we believe he was adopted.

I am a huge believer in fate and I totally believe that he was not meant to be our son and of course as it turns out Ethan was meant very much meant to be. Anyone that has seen our two youngest children together can tell you that they truly were "Beshert" the Hebrew word for meant to be.

The irony of it all still is quite startling. That same doctor who is a family friend was the first to detect Katie's condition and refer us to a specialist. He had to be part of giving us this sad news again. Thankfully he is a friend and he and his assistant Shannon are totally there for us!

What we believed that we could not handle has been handed to us again. The condition that Katie has may be linked with a syndrome and other medical maladies may follow. This will be determined when the DNA test shows us the bad gene that has caused this.

We not only have been handed this again, but thankfully we know that in our hearts that we not only CAN handle it...we WILL.

Friends Helping Friends

I have had so many friends reach out to help fund raise in addition to other kind offers. Thank you to each and every one of you. Right now there are two opportunities to help by purchasing items.

The first is made possible by my friend Heather. Heather is an adoption friend with two beautiful daughters. She and I met online back in 2005 while we waited for her Abigail (Abba) and my Katie Starr. As you know Katie is from the city of Wuwei in Gansu Province China. Heather's second child, who she adopted a couple of years later is Kaylyn, who is also from Wuwei! Believe me when I tell you that this is not at all common. Gansu province is one of the rarest places in China to adopt from and Wuwei is even rarer. Our Wuwei girls have drawn these two Panda sisters even closer :)

Heather has decided to auction many gently used (with love) items that were both handmade and store bought to benefit the Foundation Fighting Blindness. What a beautiful effort and we are so very grateful. The auction ends October 12th and you can check it out here. Thank you Heather!

The other shopping opportunity is made possible by my dear friend Minouche. Minouche is also a friend that was made through the adoption world. We are a part of the same FCC group and we have grown to be close and trusted friends. She is such a supportive person and so it came as no surprise to me when she decided to donate 10% of the proceeds of some of her clothing line from her Online Etsy Shop, Yaya Kids Couture to the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Yaya is the pet name of her beautiful daughter, who our family loves very much.

She has a back to school clothing line as well as a Hanukkah line. Here is her Facebook Page, where you can purchase the clothing on sale this week. If you are not on facebook, then just email her though her Etsy site and she will give you the promotional price and will make the donation to the foundation. Thank you Minouche!

Here is Katie modeling one of Minouche's beautiful creations. You can be sure that she will be wearing this beauty this holiday season :)


The friends that I have made through the adoption world, both in person and online are very treasured. They have proven their friendship time and again. I know that they are all in this with us for the long haul.....until a cure is found.

Taking Baby Steps

That is how we are approaching how we communicate to Katie about her eye condition. I have consulted with a therapist that specializes in children and she has proved to be a valuable resource for us. Slow and steady will win the race.

It will be much like the adoption conversation; give bits of info and wait for further questioning. Only give her what she asks for and above all, do not answer any questions that we are not able to answer pretty quickly. Our answer to questions like those should be, "I really want to think about what you have asked me before I answer you...Let me go ahead and do that and then we will talk about it further. I promise I will give you the answer soon." Of course, we will answer the question as quickly as possible and when we are fully prepared to do so.

Our fear is that someone will spill the beans to her in a totally inappropriate way but the counselor make me realize that the odds of this are quite small considering she is very young and she is supervised by us most of the time outside of school. There is no real reason to give her the whole story now and terrify her unnecessarily. She is only 5 years old and is too young to be able to process this information properly. If this was going to happen overnight, then yes, we would need to prepare her immediately. As far as we know, Katie's eyesight will wane away slowly, giving us a great deal of time to prepare her.

The first bit of communication will be about the Vision Walk that we are participating in on 10/23. There will be a team of people and she will want to know why they are all there and of course since we are "The Katie Starr Team," it will quite obviously be about her. With the therapist's direction, we have decided to tell her the truth in a dose that she can digest. We will tell her that we are walking and collecting money to aid researchers to help people like her that have weak eyesight. We are hoping that the research scientists can find a cure so that her eyes and many other peoples eyes can be stronger. She knows that he eyes are weak so that is perfect.

In one of our sessions the therapist met Katie and was quite taken with her intelligence and openness. After interacting with her she assured me that if handled properly, Katie Starr will be able to cope with it and thrive despite it. I believe in my heart that she is right.

Another good piece of advice that she gave me was to try to enhance her other senses so that she can compensate as her sight weakens. Also to draw Ethan into it as well so that she does not feel singled out and of course him feel left out. We need to ask them to give us feedback on taste, smells, sounds etc. in order that they are challenging those senses. We will train them to more fully experience what is presented to us...not just "see" with our eyes. We can "see" with our ears, nose, mouth and touch. She has given me several exercises to do in order to accomplish this.

I feel that we are taking positive steps. Our next step is to meet with another specialist in a couple of weeks to get a better idea about timelines and things we can do in the interim to help her preserve her sight as long as possible.

Baby steps are doable. It was that slow old tortoise that won the race against the speedy hare. Taking it slowly will help us to prevail in the end as well.

We are surrounded by love

I cannot explain to all of you how it feels to have so many friends and family buoy us up, support our cause to fund the research for a cure and make so many amazing offers to our daughter and our family. Quite simply, it is humbling.

We have had offers from friends to come for a visit to beautiful places all over the globe so that Katie can see brand new vistas that will sear into her mind's eye.

We have had friends do fund raising in their places of business for The Foundation Fighting Blindness in honor of Katie Starr.

We have a friend who owns two optometric locations where glasses are sold, offer to give Katie her first pair of prescription sunglasses as a gift and to allow us to purchase subsequent prescriptions to her lenses at their cost.

We have had one auction run for us by a woman who makes handmade children's clothing and now another friend is going to run her own online auction to benefit the foundation.

The Foundation has received donations from friends and strangers. Every single dollar of it shines brightly because of the love of a precious girl. One woman completely took me off balance today with a sizable donation paired with a message that she has been following my blog since the beginning and wanted to help out. What a tribute to our girl!

We have received invaluable information from many people and connections with other people that will prove very important to have in the future.

Our temple even made a decision, without our knowledge, to donate all of the money that they receive for Tzedakah from the preschool and religious school children for the entire school year and donate it to Foundation fighting Blindness in honor of our Starr.

Finally, I have asked over and over via facebook and the blog for help in getting the word out and each time dozens of our friends have answered the call to continue to spread the word; even at the risk of losing friendships from all of the messages. I have asked friends to blog about it and they have happily complied! Many friends are even walking with us and that means so much to us. We are truly soldiers fighting a war against time and I know that we can win it.

There are even more beautiful stories, these are just a sampling. We are completely overwhelmed!!

After this walk is over on October 23rd, I have even bigger plans for the next go round. The next event will be exciting, fun, memorable and it will bring us even closer to a cure.

Thank you all so much...I can never say it enough times and someday our daughter will not only know how many lives that she has touched but will also see how many have touched hers. My prayer is that she be able to look you all in the eye and see your beautiful faces when she thanks you. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that it happens!

So much happening

It seems like we have had Katie's diagnosis of Cone-Rod Dystrophy for months instead of 10 days. So much has happened and so many wonderful people have become a part of the Katie Starr Team. It is much more than money that is driving this train. It is the awareness of hereditary blindness and other conditions that require stem cell research to find a cure.

I feel quite driven to keep this message out there and like I have said to so many already.....until a cure is found, we will not rest.

On another note, we need to begin putting together a plan for our girl. The first thing that we need to do is to speak to a proffessional about the proper way to share this very troubling information with Katie. We think she is too young to begin this discussion other than explaining to her as we make changes to her glasses and possibly the learning of alternative ways of acquiring information such as learning Braille, that her eyes are weak and these are the things that we do if that is the case. We may be wrong but we do not think that she is ready to absorb all of this and unless a therapist or someone that has been through this tells us otherwise and what the correct way to handle this may be.....well, we will not be telling her anytime soon. We want to preserve her innocence and knowledge of such a challenge for as long as we can.

We will be meeting with her Pediatric Opthamologist soon to discuss the reports in greater detail and then we will discuss what the first steps will be. Once that is done we will form an educational framework for her. I pray that the school that she is in right now has the resources that may be needed for her. If they do not, then she will need to be moved to another school and that will just break my heart. I want for her to be in the same school as Ethan. They love being in the same school so much!

We have been so gratified and so humbled by the friendship and support that we have received from friends and family. I have been quite a pest with the links that I share but everyone has been more than wonderful to keep passing them along. Communication is truly power! Through all of the sharing of this information from friend to friend, I have been placed in touch with people that have the same condition, found out that the Foundation Fighting Blindness is headed by the friend of a friend who will be in touch with me this week, also been in touch with the regional director of the same organization, who was so impressed by my fund raising ferocity that she wants to meet with me this week to find out about how I am getting the word out and finally a synopsis of Katie Starr's story was placed on Blogher.com's homepage (here is the link).

I remember reading this quote once and it has always stuck with me:

“The bravest battle that ever was fought; Shall I tell you where and when? On the maps of the world you will find it not; It was fought by the mothers of men”

There is nothing that I would not do for my family. I am a mama that is waging a war on behalf of my daughter; the amazing Katie Starr! Please become part of my army!

The word is getting out!

I have been sharing the link to our 5K walk team for the Foundation Fighting blindness constantly on facebook and asking others to do the same. Each day I look at my facebook and I am humbled by the outpouring of friendship and support for Katie, us and the cause of raising money and awareness so that research can continue for Hereditary Retinal Diseases.

Two of my friends are avid shoppers of children's clothing (Mostly one of a kind handmade outfits.) Angel and Mary are fellow adoptive mamas that I have known since early 2005 when we were all just beginning the journey of adoption. They have always been there for us as friends and it did not surprise me one bit that they would be kind enough to post my link on their facebooks. One of their posts caught the attention of Ashley Hackshaw, the owner of
Lil Blue Boo , an online boutique specializing in one of a kind handmade children's clothing. Ashley, who obviously has as big of a heart as her talent, offered to auction off one of her beautiful handmade creations on behalf of Katie Starr to help fund this cause.

My lucky Starr is the name of her creation and there have already been 18 bids on it! It still has 4 days to go. Please take a look at it as well as all of Ashley's beautiful clothing. This is a woman who gives back and she should reap rewards for her kindness.


We are so touched and honored by all of the amazing people in our lives. Thank you to those that have extended themselves in love from the bottom of our hearts!

New Goals

The shock of Katie's diagnosis hit us immediately and though we are still quite stunned, our feelings have turned to sadness and even anger. If you know me at all, then you know I am not at all into feeling that way. Last evening I remembered that my friend Stacey, a friends that I made through the wonderful world of adoption sent me a website to bookmark in case of such a diagnosis. She was kind enough to share with me the story of her uncles who suffered from the same hereditary affliction that robbed them all of their sight. I looked at it a few times while I was waiting and saw that it held a wealth of info but put it aside until we were were given the diagnosis this past Wednesday. The Foundation Fighting Blindness has a mission statement on their site...it is the following:

The urgent mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Inc. is to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by retinitis pigmentosa (RP), macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.

Katie's disease is Cone-Rod Dystrophy which falls under this umbrella of Retinitis Pigmentosa, a group of horrible hereditary diseases.

As I looked again at the website, I discovered something that I had not seen the first few times that I looked and that was a way for me and for my friends far and wide to not only help Katie Starr but any person who may be left totally in the dark due to a hereditary eye disease. The foundation holds 5K walks all over the country on different dates and the South Florida walk is October 23rd at 10:00 am in Fort Lauderdale. I have put together a team and in one day not only do we have people joining us to walk in solidarity but also almost $2,000.00 in donations.

I have two goals in the forefront of my mind now.

The first one is to raise awareness and money to help fund the cutting edge scientific research that will surely one day bring about treatments and even a cure.

The second one is to assist our daughter with developing her mind's eye. We are going to expose her to as much as possible during this time that she has most of her sight still intact. In case a cure is not found in time, I want her to be able to tap into her memory resources. It will help her to form the mental pictures that will enhance her life. I have not developed that plan as of yet and I am sure it will be a work in progress. I really want to bring her back to China as soon as it is financially possible for us. We will make that happen....no doubt!

I ask you to join with us on our first goal and please share this information with others. Please link back to this site so that your friends can read our story. Please facebook the info if you will and feel free to friend me if you choose to do so. Please comment that you would like to be my friend and I will give you my full name if you do not already know it. You can also share it on any online forums that you are a member of. Together, we can meet this goal. The goal will surely be met in our lifetime but we need it to happen quickly for Katie Starr

This could have been any one's child. It has happened to our child though so I am asking for you to help us.

You can make a donation of ANY amount at the following link: TEAM KATIE STARR

I also invite you to check out GuideStar that will allow you to verify this charity.

Thank you to all that will not just read this and think "That poor little girl" but the ones that will share this with others and give even a dollar to help. You are our heros!!

With gratitude,

The news is not good

I am quickly updating to let all who know and care that we have the results of Katie's Electroretinography. Katie has a disease of the eyes called Cone-Rod Dystrophy which is in the same family as Retinitis Pigmentosa. This is an inherited disease that was passed down to her via both birth parents who would have been carriers of the gene. It is a rare disease as it would take two such carriers to pass it. This disease will rob her of her sight. There is no intervention or cure for it at this time. We are devastated right now as you can well imagine. Once we speak to her Doctor next week we will get a better understanding of how this may progress.

Thank you to all who have called, texted, left messages and sent their love and prayers. We appreciate all of it so much. When I can formulate a cohesive thought I will be back, but in the meantime I just wanted to let all who have cared so much know what the results of the test were.

Much love,

Emotions are high!

Tomorrow, Katie has the test that will finally give us some answers about her eyes. Hopefully the answer will not be one of a diagnosis that will rob her of her sight. I have prepared myself though...I am not going into this with a less than prepared mind. The first few days after her Pediatric Ophthalmologist was concerned enough to order this test were ones of sadness and anxiety for me and Marc. After lots of "what ifs" we decided that the only thing to do was to put it aside for the month and let the time pass without the constant conjecture. During these last weeks I have made peace in many ways with my deepest fears. If Katie does indeed have Retinitis Pigmentosa or a similar affliction, we will do everything in our power to make sure she has the best chance possible to keep her sight for as long as humanly possible. I am just going to be grateful in the knowledge that even though it CAN be a tragedy to lose one's sight, it will NOT be one for our Katie. She is a strong and resilient child with a great mind. I marvel at her mind every day and I know that if one of her senses is fading or lost, then her mind will be strong enough to help her to accommodate that loss. We know that she can live a full life no matter what.

I am certainly not saying that I am resigning myself in advance to such a diagnosis. I am simply going to utilize the "glass is half full" way of thinking. There is really no other choice is there?

Today, we went down to the hospital for all of the pre-procedure testing and consults. I am feeling loads of anxiety but my anxiety right now has to do more with our child undergoing general anesthesia. I am doing my best to get in the same positive space about this but hey, I am a work in progress and right now I am not struggling a bit.

I will share the news as soon as I have any. Love to all of you that are still keeping her in your thoughts and prayers. It truly means the world to us.

xxoo

Is this the criteria by which a school should be judged?

Apparently Katie thinks so!

At dinner tonight Katie told us that she really likes her school but not the toilets!

"The toilets at my preschool were much better than the toilets at my new school. The toilets at my new school are too small; they are for babies! My feet even touch the floor!!"

Katie's preschool is also the religious school site for the temple that we belong to and the two schools use the same bathrooms so they are not as big as adult toilets but obviously bigger than the ones that she is using now.

We asked her why she did not think that your feet touching the ground was a good thing. " I just liked my old school's toilets." she said "They were waaaay better!"

We were hysterical but I have to say I totally understand. There is nothing like a good toilet and one that you are used to! ;-)