Imagine finding out you’re pregnant. You and your husband go in for an ultrasound at 20 weeks, and you can tell by the way the ultrasound tech is acting that there’s something wrong. You anxiously wait for the doctor to come talk with you about the ultrasound. He tells you there are some abnormalities, and he sends you to Columbus for more testing. For the next 20 weeks, you make multiple trips to the city and have numerous tests to try and figure out what’s going on. Finally, the doctor sits you down and tells you not to buy anything for your baby, because he doesn’t think she will live very long.
At a time when you should be excited about the new life you’ve created, all you can actually do is hope your baby lives long enough for you to hold her in your arms. Finally, she arrives and she is beautiful. After the doctors examine her, she is rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). You don’t get to hold her, and you are told that she may not survive. She spends 20 long days in the NICU, where everyone learns that she’s a fighter. She has to have surgeries to repair a part of her skull, but then you finally get to take her home. There are stipulations; the hardest one is that she must have hospice, because the doctors still don’t believe she’ll make it.
Now fast-forward two and a half years. The little girl who was sent home with hospice is strong and leading a remarkable life. This is Kinsey, and she’s a miracle. With everything she’s been through in her short life, she always has a smile on her face. Kinsey is blind in her left eye and has bilateral hearing loss. She communicates with her parents through sounds and simple signs. She’s learning sign language, and so are her mom, dad and older sister. Kinsey isn’t nonverbal, but she isn’t able to use words because of a non-repaired cleft palate. Kinsey enjoys music and loves to hear her sister sing. She’s learning to stand with support, and she’ll stand for even longer if her family sings a song. She can also roll all around the living room, and if her mom tells Kinsey to roll the other direction, she does it. These simple things – so easy to take for granted – have become joys to Kinsey’s family.
As Kinsey’s Early Intervention Specialist, I have the privilege of working with this wonderful little girl. Because of the attention and care of her Primary Service Provider, Physical Therapist, Infant Hearing provider, and amazing family, Kinsey is achieving milestones no one thought possible. When she turns three in March, she’ll transition to preschool services and it will be a sad day for me. Every child I work with touches my life in some way, but there’s no doubt that Kinsey holds a special place in my heart. It’s not everyday you meet a miracle, after all.