Ephphatha! Be Opened!

For six years, Christina has made extremely limited progress in learning to speak. 

She has a 50 word vocabulary and does not use words on a regular basis to meet her needs, preferring to use hand motions. We have only heard her say one original sentence, years ago, and it has weighed heavily on my heart as a mother. But, after three years of inclusive education had failed to address this problem, I was at a loss as to what to do next. 

Last January, Dr Judith Mascolo, Christina's doctor and the mother of a child with Down syndrome herself, was observing Christina and  suggested she be evaluated at UCONN Speech and Hearing Center. She believed that Christina was able to speak much more than she is currently speaking. She gave me hope. 

We had Christina's  speech evaluation today at UCONN and the director was convinced that Christina is "stimulable", that there is hope she can learn to speak more, and will see her twice this summer and then begin regular sessions in September for 6-8 weeks, with a re-evaluation to determine if they were effective. 

I am still nervous since its possible that she does not advance, and then they decide they cannot help her. I can't tell you how devastating that would be to me if they decided Christina is making no progress after two months of therapy. It haunts me and almost made me despair of even trying to help her. I need to increase my faith. 

 I ask you all to pray with me that Jesus will repeat what He did when he healed the deaf mute in  Mark's Gospel. He commanded, "Ephphatha, be opened!" and the man spoke. May He do that to my little Christina!

 Please keep this in your prayers.