I can’t believe we are at our one year anniversary for the opening of L.I.F.E. This year has gone by so fast. The business has kept us very busy. We started with a staff of 35 and were seeing almost 100 children. A year later we have a staff of over 100 people and are seeing over 300 children each week. Praise the lord for the center’s success and all the little miracle’s we see each week. Every week, we seem to have something wonderful happen. A child is able to start walking or says their first word. Seeing a mom’s face the first time a child is able to say I LOVE YOU or a dad’s face the first time his son is able to ride a tricycle or catch a ball makes it all worth while!!! I am so blessed to have an amazing partner that works 60 plus hours per week. She is an answer to prayer because with the kids, I am unable to work near as much. I am able to work from my office at home. This was a huge blessing because Lauren gave us quite a scare earlier this year…
Lauren started having “seizure like” episodes during the night. As many as 15 to 20 were occurring every night. She continued to get weaker and weaker until she eventually lost the ability to walk. It progressed to the point that she couldn’t even hold her own head up. She was admitted to the hospital and they ran test after test on her and could not figure out what was going on with her. The tests did reveal that the episodes were not seizures. She was placed on IV antibiotics and had a surgery to remove fluid build up in her ear. Our prayer’s were answered and she stopped having the episodes at night and started walking again. She has not only regained all the skills she has lost, but she has surpassed her previous levels in all areas except speech. Lauren is able to sit at a table and feed herself for the first time independently. We used to worry that she was going to throw her food or plate. She isn’t doing that anymore. When we put her in bed now, she stays there and puts herself to sleep. We use to have to stay in the room until she fell asleep. We hardly ever have to change a poopie diaper anymore!!! Thank you for all of you that prayed for Lauren during this difficult time.
Lauren lost the ability to talk and sing during this time. Over the last few weeks, she has started saying a few words and singing a line or two of some of her favorite songs. Please pray that this continues and increases again. Singing her songs brought her and all of us so much joy as we loved listening to her. We have been so blessed since Lauren’s transplant having such a happy, healthy little girl. This experience has been a good reminder for us and how thankful we need to to be for every year we have Lauren. God has blessed us so much with this extra special little girl. She has this amazing spirit that is infectious. At least 90% of the time, Lauren has a beautiful smile on her face and you can’t look at her smile and not help feeling a little better.
Finally, after a long hiatus, our family has decided to start a blog. We will update much more often and maybe exclusively on this new blog. Our blog address is http://brianandcarriereed.blogspot.com. We hope to hear from you.
We pray that this post finds its way to our other Sanfilippo families and that your news is positive as well. We think of you all often and continue to pray for the Sanfilippo families.
With Love,
Carrie and Brian
