How other children react to a little hand

Amniotic Band Syndrome effects everyone a little different.  Not every child will have a little hand. Not every child will have nubbs. Not every child will even have their hands effected.  Some will have their feet effected.  Some will loose their whole or half arm or leg. But, no matter how they are effect there will be something that makes them look different.

The average adult will look, wonder what is wrong or how they got that way but never ask.  But not those sweet young children.  They will walk right up, touch it, feel it and ask why don’t you have fingers? What Happen?

We ran into the most precious thing this last Sunday.  We were at church and during service the minister called all the children up for Children’s sermon.  All the children went up and sat down. Haylee sat down on the steps and a young boy, probably about 2 maybe three, came and sat down next to Haylee.

At first he did not notice her hand.  Which actually happens alot.  But then after a couple minutes Haylee moved her hands around and he noticed.  Be began to hold her hand.  Touch her fingers and just softly play with her hand.

Haylee is a very patient person and a very kind and compationate person.  He let the little boy look touch and feel her little hand.  The whole time he was doing this Haylee did not frown or get upset.  Instead she sat up there with the biggest smile you had ever seen.

It brought tears to my eyes to see not only this young courious boy up there checking things out but to also see Haylee up there not being upset but rather letting the boy explore and figure things out.

I signed to Haylee good job.  I wanted her to know right then and there just how proud I was of her and what an awesome job she was doing.

We don’t mind if you ask us what happen.  Actually we prefer it over staring.  We want to tell everyone about ABS and how it has not only effected us but how it has blessed our lives and  made us the people we are today.

Devils Can be Beautiful

This Picture is a little fuzzy but boy is she beautiful.

Haylee Meets Cadence

Two weeks ago on a Saturday was a very special day for us.  Haylee got to meet a young girl that has also been affected by Amniotic Band Syndrome. Cadence’s Mom brought her down to meet with us.  We were supposed to have a Lincoln ABS meet up but Cadence’s family was the only family to RSVP.  But we liked it that way.  It was a nice time to get to know Cadence and her mom and brother.  Amniotic band syndrome effects people in different ways.  Sometimes people have very noticeable effects to ABS while others you can hardly tell.

Cadence’s effects were somewhat the same but different at the same time.  A few things the girls learned about each other was one that Cadence has had surgery and Haylee has not.  Cadence has partial fingers or full fingers and Haylee does not.  Cadence is very very shy and Haylee is not.

The girls (and Cadence’s brother) played together very well once they got past the shy part.  Jim helped open them up by giving tractor rides.  Although Cadence was not quite ready to do that yet.  It was still wonderful to see them together and interacting.  I also want to Thank Darin Sargent for spending us the book her wrote called, “Thank You Mr. Jenkins”, We were able to give Cadence a signed copy from Darin.

But at the end of the day both girls are true gifts from God that only a select few get blessed with.

Little Devil…..

This Halloween Haylee decided she was going to be a little devil.  When I asked her how come she wanted to be a little devil she said because mom, I am an angel every day and have to be something different for Halloween.  The things 8 year old’s think of.

When she was little I always worried about how she would handle being around so many other kids with a small hand due to Amniotic Band Syndrome.  But I have learned if you don’t make a issue out of it then Haylee does not make an issue out of it.

As you can see in the picture Haylee had a long weekend of Trick-or-Treating.  Friday night we were invited by the Shriners to an awesome Halloween Party.  They had tons of great games stations and Haylee just had an amazing time. It was nice that she got to talk to some of the different Shriner members and her favorite part was talking with a Shriner named Doug.

On Saturday we went to a few local friends houses then off to Hy-vee Halloween maze that had 35 different businesses handing out candy, sodas, ice cream, hotdogs, and tons of other great stuff.  Haylee had a great time and there were tons of people there.  After that we headed to Gateway mall to do some trick-or-treating.  Last year we went and Haylee came home with tons of candy.  This year we went and Haylee said she was ready to go after walking by about 15 stores and only 1/3 of those stores were handing out candy.  So we left and went off to Parkers for some good BBQ food.  Haylee’s Daddy loves BBQ and so Haylee and I decided to treat him for Halloween night.

On observation I did notice is how well Haylee adjusted to holding the trick-or-treat bag with her little hand and taking candy with her big hand.  The little things that she figures out to make things work.

What a Summer

Tire Swing Anyone

Daddy’s Little Salsa Queen

Nubbin’s

Haylee has Nubs. Nubs are just one form of ABS. Nubs happen when the growth of fingers is stopped at an early stage of development. Some children have small nubs like Haylee and other children have longer nubs.

Precious Girls Club Review and Giveaway

Little Hand Big Heart and Mom Select have an awesome giveaway. We were selected to be one of the lucky ones that got to review the Precious Girls Club Book Operation Kindness. Haylee and I choose to read a chapter a night until we finished the book and I have to tell you this is one of the best books I have ever read with Haylee.

Katie Bennett and the Precious Girls Club want to make some sad sick kids at the Shine Community Hospital happy. And the only way they can think to do that is by putting on a puppet show but something is stopping them. Mr. Boxer! Mr Boxer is the president of the hospital and he refuses to say yes.

Katie and her friends learn some important lessons along the way not only from another club member but also from Katie’s gaurdian angel Faith.This is a book you and your little ones will not want to put down until you find out just how the girls do on Operation Kindness.

So one luck winner will win the book Operation kindness and will also win a mini plush paws dog and even better you are going to get access to the companion website. www.preciousgirlsclub.com.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on who you would give the book and the plush dog to.

To receive extra entries:

• follow me on twitter and leave a comment
• Tweet about this giveaway

Plus everyone that enters will also receive a special web access code so that your precious little one can go and join the Precious Girls Club once the giveaway is all done. (I have to say my 7 year old loves the Precious Girls Club Website and there are so many great lessons that involve God!)

Giveaway Ends September 9th at 12 PM CST.

Tie My Shoes????

So how old where you when you learned to tie your shoes?  I don’t remember how old I was but I know I was not yet in school.  But now I have a better question for you and I want you to go try it.  Go try and tie your shoes with one hand.  HA HA HA.  Got you.  Much harder done then said right.  Well I was over reading My Best Friend’s blog and her son Bug is  also struggles tying his shoes.

So just because we have one hand, two hands or no hands does not mean we can all tie shoes the same.  Nan did an amazing blog post with a video that I want to share with you.

Sometimes things can be so difficult for little Bug.  We’ve tried for months to teach little Bug how to lace a shoe with a cardboard cutout, lacing cards even tennis shoes but with no luck.  This summer Bug took OT and his instructor loaned us a teaching tool that made all the difference in the world. He learned to lace his shoe in 3 days. Yes, can you believe it, 3 days! I was blown away and he was so proud of himself.  We are still working on the bow tying but we got half of it down so we are both so proud.  Just look at him go.

That is just a snippet.  If you want to read the whole thing and watch Bug tie his shoes and My BFF help her son then head on over to A Mom Blog and check it out.  She even gives the link to that amazing shoe that helped Bug learn to tie his shoes.  OH and….

WAY TO GO BUG!  WE ARE SUPER PROUD OF YOU.

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