Chris's Ramblings

HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY
MADDISON!!!!

Wow can you believe this...another birthday and this time my youngest son Maddison turns 11 today. Gosh how the time flies and they all grow up so quickly. What an amazing journey it has been for all of us.

I can remember being quite shocked when we found out I was pregnant with you. I always wanted 4 kids but having been so very sick with all the others I was hoping that you would arrive when Stephanie started school....just to give me and my body a breather and once again God had different plans and you were concieved somewhat 4 years earlier....lol

I knew you would be my last and so I hung onto every precious moment more with you in some ways then was even possible with your siblings before. I cherished breast feeding you and was quite successful and proud that finally I could accomplish this, what seemed to be the most painful time with all the others was the most unpainful and rewarding experience with you, and the fact that we managed it for almost 2 years was even better.

I tried to keep you as a baby longer but somehow that didn't work as here you are today and all off 11. What a journey. I can remember when you were first diagnosed with the horrible visual impairment you share along side your father and your sister Stephanie.

Best's Vitelliform Dystrophy..... a rare macular dystrophy of sorts that is genetic, degenrative and has no cure and nothing can be done for it. The fact that it is also fairly rare and you had been the youngest at the time of your diagnosis in the world according to all the research at the time. What a shock it was for us to take you for your 3.5 yearly assesment at the maternal health clinic and as Shirley was testing you and you said you could not see anything out of your right eye I knew there and then what was happening and even though I tried to prepare myself with all you kids I was still in shock.

Urgently we got you off to the specialist who knew us well and she only confirmed what we already knew and then I was in tears. I could not believe that you could not see as well as me and that you never would and that the condition would only get worse over time and you would have blind spots in your central vision which would only progress and you would see less and less as the years would pass.

But with all the help through the RVIB (Royal Institute for the Blind, now known as Vision Australia) and God's grace and mercy we have managed and come a long way. You have your own strategies on how to deal with things and work around what you can and can't see and we have never stopped you from doing anything you think you can manage. Yep you have it tougher then many peers your age, and so many people just don't and can't understand your visual impairment thinking that if you wear glasses you will be fine, little do they know the glasses do nothing and as you are longsighted, the sight you have left is being corrected with the many glasses prescribed and worn since you were 3.5 years of age.

But you know what I have always said and alot of the time it is what gets me through.....there is always someone out there that is worse of than us, so even though I have 3 visually impaired loved ones I need to be eyes for, someone else has no-one.

Life is too precious to dwell on what one can't do, grab life with both hands and live it fully, dwell on everything you can do despite the odds and if along the way you need another pair of eyes to help see with......I am here.

Have a great day Maddi, all my love mum xxoo