“…the weakness of God is stronger than human strength…

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not…

so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom [or strength], but on God’s power.”

1 Corinthians 1:25, 27; 2:5 (my emphasis)

This is becoming a season of seeing both of our weakness and of God’s power. As we make the transition as a family to respond each day to Isa’s health and developmental needs, we continue to “get in touch with” our weakness - in the physical & emotional tiredness - and God’s power - in the manifold ways that we see God taking care of Isa and of us.

As such, we are incredibly grateful for your prayers. We have already seen God begin to answer our prayers for Isa’s health & we invite you to continue to join us (& lead us) in praying for Isa and for us as a family. Here are a few specific things to pray for:

NECK - This is our biggest concern & need. Isa is able to hold her neck up intermittently, but has very loose “muscle tone,” meaning she isn’t using her neck muscles to hold her head up consistently/ constantly. The main exercise she needs is “tummy time” in order to practice holding her head & to strengthen the muscles. Unfortunately, because of her arms & hands, being on her tummy can be a really frustrating experience for her. Please pray for her neck muscles to strengthen & develop, as this holds the key to sitting, crawling, standing, etc.

VISION - We’re not sure how extensive her visual impairment is, so pray for God’s healing & full restoration of her vision. She is able to track large objects, and really likes people’s faces (especially smiling ones :), but has a harder time tracking smaller objects. We are waiting for a referral to a pediatric opthamologist for a more comprehensive evaluation of her sight.

HANDS - Isa has two main challenges with her arms & hands: tight muscle tone & sensory integration. What that means is her muscles are too tight (they should be more floppy & loose), which affects her freedom to reach, grab, swat at objects. Also, she has a “touch defensiveness” - the sensory integration problem - which means she is hyper sensitive to touch. While she really likes firm touches, squeezes (read: HUG ME), and patting, she can be very set off by light or gentle touching & new touch, whether human or materials. This results in clenched fists & anxious Isa. An O.T. friend of ours has given us exercises to help her out, since this is actually unrelated to her brain injury. SO pray for Isa’s arms & hands and all of the exercises we are trying to do to develop her.

BRAIN - This is a sort-of big question mark for us - what will her overall cognitive development be. Based on the CT Scan, she needs a lot of stimulation at this stage to help her brain learn to compensate and learn to take on “new tasks” from the parts of her brain that were damaged because of the stroke. The good news is that she seems to be a good learner. Please pray for the immediate & the long-term development of her cognition & emotions & the continued development of her personality (I’m not sure if that is brain related, but she is such a cutie!!)

SERVICES - We were very grateful that our input evaluation with the CA state Regional Center was moved up 2 weeks to last Thursday. Now we are waiting for Regional center to get back to us about her qualification for services. Please pray that this part of the process would speed up, since I was told the input process (the stage we are at) can take up to 45 days to complete. Obviously, the sooner Isa recieves services, the more stimulation for her vision and her brain, as well as for addressing the motor skill delays.

ADOPTION - We are just waiting for to finalize Isa’s adoption with the Children’s Court. The only remaining element is completion of our application to the AAP (Adoption Assistance Program through LA County) processed. Then we’ll get our day in court. Literally.

Again, we really appreciate your support & prayers for Isa. Some of these things that we are praying for we hope to see happening immediately, while some of the prayer needs she has are greater investments for her future. So thank you for investing in her through your prayers!

UPDATE - July 19: I just got a call from the regional center about Isa’s qualifications for services. Wow!! That was much faster than we expected. She’ll start up with a P.T. & O.T. weekly, plus 2x a week “infant stimulation for vision!”

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