Reflecting on the past Year

As 2016 comes to an end, I've been reflecting on the past year. It's had plenty of ups and downs but most of all it has seen some big changes.

Earlier on the year saw our family becoming complete with the arrival of Faith. It took Roo a while to get used to her but once he did the bond between them grew & its been such a privilege to see it develop, to see how much Roo has changed for the better since her arrival. He adores her and loves to try and make her laugh. Every time she cries he comes running to me, taps me on the arm with a worried look on his face, says "Faith" & gets me to follow him. As she gets older, moves more he is becoming a bit wary as I don't think he realises she isn't going to stay like a new born all the time! 

The first 4 weeks passed by blissfully until our world was turned upside down yet again with the news that Faith had a profound hearing loss. I took it quite hard but once the shock wore off and I accepted it we got on with making sure she got the right hearing aids. Then came the whirlwind of appointments week after week. It was quite overwhelming at first as I never realised how much professionals can be involved with deafness. I mean I knew with Roo we had loads purely cos no one knew what was wrong with him but at that time Faith just had a hearing loss so didn't expect all the different appointments. Also with her being delayed has been a worry but she has come on so much this past month that I have so much hope that she is going to be ok and just likes to do things at her pace and not at the pace that professionals want her to be at.

Roo reached a big milestone in August - he started school! He has surprised us all with how well he has settled into school, a big factor in this was the fact the school is so good with sn children so they know & understand. We definately made the right decision to keep him there. He also started horse riding for the disabled which was fantastic for him and amazing for us to watch him as I mentioned in an earlier post. We had his first parents evening & while it wasn't like the ones we have for our other children we were proud of what he had managed to achieve at his own pace. This Christmas saw Roo in his first school nativity which he coped really well with even though he wouldn't do any of the actions for the songs, just wanted to  sit and watch all that was going on around him but it was amazing to watch , to see that he was included, and staff encouraging him.

There were lots of hardships & down times throughout the year but I won't go on about them as want to focus on the positives & good! 2017 looks to be a challenging year as we end the year with new referrals for both Roo & Faith. 

2017 sees many more appointments, possible operations for both Faith & myself & I hope that we may even get results for possible diagnoses for both Roo & Faith. Despite all the constant appointments, going back and forwards to various hospitals I am determined to make sure that we will make many good memories with all of our children. If there is one thing I've learned about 2016 is that life is far too short. The swan community has been hit the hardest with the loss of several of wee ones. We are like a big family so we feel those losses very deeply & it has made us realise that focusing on the positives, creating many good memories is the most important thing to do. 

A Happy New Year to you all