CVI Workshop



Emmalin with her Aunt Jessica

This week has been a CRAZY week!   Monday I was with Emmalin in St. Louis meeting with a dentist and Tuesday I went right back for an opportunity to attend a free workshop on Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI -Emmalin's main issue with her vision).  The workshop was put on by MoSPIN (which is a free program that we participate in that is for parents who have children birth -5 that have vision or hearing disabilities).  I am SO grateful that I had the opportunity to go to this!!  This workshop helped me understand CVI a little better and gave me a lot of ideas on ways that I can be working with Emmalin to help her succeed to the best of her ability with CVI!  Not only did I learn a TON about CVI, but I got to ride up and back with Emmalin's vision teacher and OT (both from Emmalin's school).  This gave me the opportunity to get to know these amazing ladies a little better.  It was a "mommy free" day for me, and I'd be fibbing if I said it didn't feel a little weird not having Emmalin with me!  Emmalin was with her Aunt Jessica (my sister) and so I knew that she was in amazing hands, but I have never "left" Emmalin like that (all day), to the point that Jarrad had to pick Emmalin up after he got off work.  I didn't get home until around 8:00 pm and I couldn't believe how excited I was to see my little girl!  The entire experience made me REALLY grateful in a lot of ways! 
I'm grateful there are amazing programs like MoSPIN in Missouri that help educate parents on how to have a better understanding of their children who have vision (or hearing) disabilities.  Through this education, those parents then have the chance to help their children have a better opportunity to succeed in the environment around them.
 I'm grateful that Emmalin has such amazing teachers/therapists at school that were willing to travel all the way to St. Louis to try to get a better understanding of how CVI works so they could then in return have a better understanding of how to help Emmalin succeed to the best of her ability in her school environments. 
And last, it made me SO GRATEFUL for the fact that I have such an amazing husband that works SO hard to provide for our family so that I have the opportunity to stay home with Emmalin! 

We are SO blessed!! 

Below was the sunset on the way home :)  Beautiful!!  God is Good!