Nat at Bat

An update to the piece last week about Natalie finding her voice (here). While the jury is still out on what insurance will decide, according to her mother (Jill) Natalie was able to show that she is able to use the computer for communication. She is able to control her eyes enough to make selections. Right now getting on the computer and learning to use it is exhausting, both for Natalie and Jill. With her school schedule, physical therapy and other life chores, Natalie has limited time she can be on the computer before she is too exhausted to keep at it. When she is on she is sidetracked by exploring all the different options and screens available: learning is not lineal and it’s new. It’s very exciting but exhausting. And, our little Natalie, who has so few ways to exercise control over her life can be a little stubborn in following instruction. I mean think about it: if you are dependent on other people to do almost everything for you, and there are so little things that you are able to show you can do yourself, wouldn’t you want to be the one to decide whether you will comply or not? So, though frustrating when not following instruction, she is demonstrating strong character and spunk. Even with all that, it seems she has impressed the assessors at Children’s. Now we will see if they can impress upon the insurance company that this is one little girl who needs their help in getting her a voice.

Of course your prayers and God’s wonderful ways have shown up too. I’m not sure if I’ll get this communicated entirely right, but I believe the person at Children’s who agreed to do this assessment has told Jill that they have never done an assessment on someone as young as Natalie (or maybe as young and as greatly affected by CP as Natalie) and that it was highly unusual that they agreed to do it for Natalie on Friday. This woman told Jill that when the request came in front of her she was ready to just pass it over because of age, etc. But then she remembered Jill and Natalie from an assessment she did when Natalie was very young. I want to say under a year, but I’m not fully certain on that. If so, it was six or so years ago and surely this woman has seen hundreds, if not thousands of clients since that time, so it is huge that this woman remembered these two. The woman told Jill that something very strong was compelling her to do Natalie’s assessment. That she wasn’t entirely sure why it felt like she had to do it…just that she did. I call that a “God thing."

So let’s continue to pray that the request moves forward, that God will intervene and cause the insurance company to allow this wonderful young lady to have a voice, and that the needed funds will be provided.

Now this topic is not about me but it writing about it has brought me great joy and more understanding about why I write. I understand that the first message was passed along to many relatives and friends and friends of relatives and friends of friends. One group of readers opened up their wallets and donated money to go towards the computer. This is one of those occasions where God uses our gifts to do his work and maybe my writing is worth more than just the therapy I get from spewing my thoughts. The story was written because I am just so smitten with Natalie’s story, love her mom as fiercely as a good friend can, and want the world to know this little girl who has so much to say but, so far, no voice with which to say it

-J.