Guess who SPOKE the words "Happy Birthday Dad ". Yes she did !!!!! This morning our joyful daughter Lydia breathed the most beautiful and memorable of all birthday presents: "Happy birthday Dad"! Wow! We have been celebrating the return of Lydia's voice for the last 28 hours. It all started last evening with a visit from our home team speech pathologist Sheila, but let us fill in a few more details.
This week at Holland Bloorview, two of Lydia's three therapists are on holidays, and since Lydia is at such a dynamic stage in her recovery, and because we love having her at home, we thought we would bring her home for the week to be treated by our "home team". Her days have been very busy and chocked full of therapy. Keyrehab, a Kitchener company that specializes in brain injury and serious accident rehabilitation, has put together a wonderful team with whom Lydia is connecting very well.
On weekends, Lydia has been receiving therapy from her home team Physiotherapist, Kim, her Occupational Therapist, Sheri, and a therapy support worker. They have contributed significantly to her recovery. The remaining member of the home team to care for Lydia is a Speech and Language Pathologist, Sheila.
Sheila was able to see Lydia for the first time last night, and within minutes, we heard Lydia's voice. Certainly, they were monosyllabic words, or the first syllable of a word but they were the most beautiful sounds a parent could ever hear. Sheila worked with Lydia and brought amazing things out of her, and she taught us how to cue Lydia to help her to speak. By bed time last night, we were elated to hear her say Sam, Ben, Dad and Mom. We treasured all of these things in our hearts, giving thanks to God, and wondering what the next day would bring.
This morning, Lydia delighted us by saying "Happy Birthday Dad". From there, the torrent continued, with words spoken all day long! It requires great effort, sometimes a lot of prompting or cueing, and her voice is soft and slow, but it is a gift we cherish and celebrate!
We have been in a deluge of grace since Lydia came home on Friday afternoon. She is learning so much each day. Today when we were working on crawling, we tried to encourage her to hold the crawling position for 10 seconds, by saying, why don't we count? We planned to count out loud to help her hold this uncomfortable position. We were so surprised when her voice began, one, two, three, four ... she stumbled on seven, and needed some cueing to get the rest, but she did it once we gave her the starting syllable.
Psalm 40:5 Many O Lord my God are the wonders you have done... were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.
Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the Lord ... is anything too difficult for me?
We give thanks to God for this miraculous recovery of speech. A card we recently received quotes Matt Anderson: In prayer, it's never the size of the mountain that matters, but the strength of the Mountain mover. We worship the One who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work ..
