Adeles Adventures in the World

Adele is now ten months old!!! And what an adventure those ten months have been, for that baby girl and all her friends and family!!  Learning the world of blindness has been a bittersweet adventure; we love to see her grow and learn, but we also know that there is now and always will be SO MUCH that she will be missing!!!  But that is our grief, and not hers.
She is a laughing, chattering, wiggling, prissy girl!!! She has her tricks: Mommy has taught her to shake her head when she hears, "No,no,no,no!!!", and wave her hands when she hears, "Hi,hi,hi,hi!" She sleeps soundly when she sleeps, which is usually ten to twelve hours at night and with a nap or two in the day.  This means she has some circadian rhythm, which not all anophthalmic people have.
So many wonderful people have intervened on her behalf: there are her ocularist, Kathy, and the doctors, along with her therapist Rhonda at Clinton County Early Intervention and especially Anna with Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.  These folks are working tirelessly to assure Adele developes to her full potential!! We her family are in your debt!!! Thank you!!!
When Adele was three months old, her friends and family arranged a benefit for her, to help with the expenses as they began to mount. One lovely evening in October last fall, we all gathered at Cindy's Friendly Tavern in Loveland, for a chili supper and raffle.  What a wonderful time!!!! Adele's family and friends all pitched in!  The original Batmobile came thanks to Sharon and Chirs. Two bands played, courtesy Uncle Tim's band and Aunt Melissa's band!! They had the place rocking!! Channel 19's Meagan Mongello interviewed Adele and her mommy and put a plug in for the benefit as well.....The local vendors contributed greatly to the success of an awesome raffle, organized by Aunts Emily and Lori, assisted by cousins Jacqui, Lindsey, Jennifer, Laura, and Meredith. Cousins Ben, Mya,Tyler, Shawn, Max, Aunts Monica, Theresa, Pat, Ellie, Patti, and Uncles Tim, Larry,and Paul,all contributed their time and energy in so many ways!!  Big Al came through with an awesome white chil to feed the masses, and Grampa's texmex chili was a big hit!!! Thirty gallons of chili fed the generous patrons!!! At the end of it all the "take" for Adele's donation account was over ten thousand dollars!!  This year of frequent conformers has drained that amount to near zero. But we NEVER could have made it THIS far without all of you!!!!  People who had seen Adele's story on TV would pull up, jump out and thrust money at us, just to help out!  We have been so very humbled by all of this outpouring of support!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
As Adele grows, she is becoming more mobile.  She has yet to crawl, but sits up strongly, and rocks back and forth on all fours. One of her favorite things is to stand and hold Daddy's hands and lean WAY forward and back, very fast!! She is learning where she is in space!! Then she will let go of hands and concentrate very hard on balancing. But for now, she quickly grabs us for support. No problem there, little girl!!!
Adele holds her own bottle,(kudos to Aunt Lori!) eats well (for Daddy!) and is taking some finger foods like graham crackers.  And she is now the proud owner of two teeth, which are VERY sharp! Her upper gums are next and we see that several more will erupt any day now.
On July 26th, Adele has her first surgery. Dr Nunnery in Indianopolis will implant some sort of orbital expanders; his plan is that, given Adele's CT scan measurements, expanders that are close in size to adolescent orbits will be inserted. He hopes that Adele need never have this particular surgery again.  Other surgeries to help with eyelid formation will likely be in her future.
At some point after this we would like to have a VEP test done: Visual evoked potential can determine if anophthalmic or microphthalmic people are able to detect light. We know through networking with other families that this is sometimes possible, and there have been a few instances in Adele's life that have made us wonder if, at times, she does have some perception of bright light. More noticeable is her natural sleep pattern, uncommon in anophthalmia.
This next Saturday, Helping Hands Golf Outing has their annual outing, with Adele chosen as this years' benficiary! We are not at all familiar with golf, but will be on hand to volunteer and  to cheer on the competitors!! What IS a golf cheer, anyway? Or is it just that quiet clapping?
Well, though this entry may be lengthy, there was a lot to say!!!
Adele is a happy, healthy baby, loved by and nurtured by all who know her!!! We are so glad to know her and have her with us!!!! And she is certainly bringing joy as she grows and learns!! She sees us with her little fingers, and is teaching us so much as well. It is a different way to see. But it is a wonderful way!!!