The Story Continues
For whatever reason, I couldn't sleep. I decided to make my nightly trip to the bathroom, an ever-expanding belly will do that to a woman. I glanced into Devyn's bedroom before ducking into the bathroom and my eyes made out an empty bed. I stood there, completely perplexed and began to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I did a double-take, scanned the floors of her rooms for a blanket and a pillow, and decided that no, my eyes weren't deceiving me. Devyn was not in her bed, or in her room.

I felt my heart begin to race and I turned back to our bedroom. I turned on the bathroom light, enough to illuminate our bed and noticed there, right beside her daddy's knees were two small feet sticking out from the covers.
With a relieved grin, I closed the door to the bathroom, and completed my business. When I returned to the bedroom, I picked Devyn up into my arms and moved her from one side of our bed, to the other. Because I know as much as her daddy loves her, he'll sleep better without her there. And because I know that I'll sleep much better with her tucked up against my side.
We lay there, the three of us. Daddy, child, mommy. Every so often, I felt a kick from within, reminding me that soon our family of four will turn into a family of five. But there's something about the first child, the eldest, the one that made us parents to begin with. And as I lay there, still unable to sleep, I reflected on the day before. God was good to us, He has provided for us in ways I never dreamed, and I couldn't be happier with the results from
Devyn's assessment.
On our way to the meeting with the speech and occupational therapists yesterday, Jon and I took a moment to pray. We prayed for guidance, we prayed for strength, we prayed for peace. We prayed that we'd be open to the results, to the therapists' ideas and treatment plans, we prayed for the right teachers and therapists that would soon be a part of our child's life. But mostly we prayed that to whatever end, Devyn and her story would be used for God's glory.
The results meeting was everything we'd hoped for and more. The occupational therapist went first, going over everything that she'd observed. Her conclusion was not only that Devyn's motor skills were exactly where they should be, some of her skills were advanced for a four-year-old. She felt there was no reason to be concerned about Devyn's motor skills. Praise the Lord! The speech therapist went next, again noting the strengths and weaknesses of Devyn's speech. The number of her vocabulary words are exactly where she should be, the letters that she pronounces correctly, and her observations of unclear enunciation, switching letters and words around, substituting b's for v's, k's for g's, etc. and mixing up she/her and he/him pronouns. All in all, nothing was said that was a shock or surprise to Jon and I.
Because of her inability to be understood, except by those of us who love and interact with Devyn on a daily basis, Devyn qualifies for speech therapy through the school district. The speech therapist suggested a therapy group once a week, for two hours a week. Basically, Devyn will be one of six children who all have similar speech difficulties. There is both a teacher and a speech therapist in the room; Devyn will alternate between playing with the other children and working one-on-one with the therapist. We were able to meet both the teacher and Devyn's therapist yesterday and personally, I've already fallen in love with both of them. There is an obvious love and passion, both for the children themselves and for what they do in their lives.
And the best part? The speech therapist believes that Devyn probably won't need this extra therapy for more than a year or 18 months at the latest. So here we sit, a mere three months after Devyn's initial speech therapy had to end due to changes in Jon's insurance, a renewed hope for Devyn and her speech. Where in private therapy, she was going for an hour every other week, she is now being moved to a play group with a very low student-to-teacher ratio for two hours every... single.... week. God is so good and provides mightily, wouldn't you agree?!
Well, that's it. I'm off to snuggle my daughter a little more and hopefully drift back to sleep.