Many Reasons

Happy Lubird!

Wednesday, November 23rd.  The night before Lucia's first Thanksgiving, the day of my mom's birthday, and so many reasons to be thankful!  I started a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) course this week and in just 3 weeks I'll have my certification and be able to better take care of Lucia, and with her condition, the state will also pay me a bit to take care of her with this certification- pretty cool.  The class has 10 other students- including 2 other moms with special needs kids, 2 Canadians, 1 Russian, 1 Kenyan, 2 Puerto Rican's..so needless to say it's a very diverse group of people-all coming together for the beginning of nursing and so far its been great!
Lu has some special people looking after her while mommy is in class.  Monday-her nani- Jason's mom, Linda.  Linda came over on Monday and got to see Lu have her therapy sessions and she was so pleased!  Her physical therapist even sent me a text on Monday 'Lucia did so well today, it was almost as if she wanted to show off for her grandma!' !  Thank you Linda for being such as amazing grandma to Lucia..it means so much to us and at just about 7 months old its obvious that Lucia loves you so!
On Tuesday, Lucia is taken care of by her special auntie Kimmy and sweet cousin Charley.  Thank you Kimmy and Charley- I love knowing that Lucia will have two looking after her on Tuesday- at just 15 months, Charley takes care of Lucia like a little mommy...its sooo sweet.
And Wednesday- Friday, Lucia has a Private Duty Nurse, Angela, that we found through a highly recommended company.  Angela is very kind and just after 2 days is very loving towards Lucia.  I spent quite a bit of time getting to know her and felt like she was a great fit.   And as a nurse she has the qualifications that together give us the ease of feeling that our little angel is in good hands.
Lucia qualifies for Medicaid as her secondary insurance, so with that we have found out about many inclusions-CNA course, in home therapies, Private Duty Nursing, and medical bills that may not be covered by our insurance.  We feel so fortunate to know about all of these things...they don't make it easy for you to find out..but then again, its not easy to qualify..we are thankful to live in America to have access to so many helpful things for our daughter.
Thank you Summer Larson for helping us with the process' that I mentioned above.  Our thoughts and prayers are with your special son, Kingsley, as you all celebrate Thanksgiving at the Children's Hospital for Kingsley's surgery.  Love you guys.
Thank you Jennifer, Jeff and Araceli for another thoughtful and unique gift for Lucia-where do you find all these wonderful gifts?!  Can't wait for our girls to meet someday!  Thank you Lucy and Lizzie for your fun musical card!  Thank you Michael Richter and Leslie O'Donnell for purchasing Lucia Light T-shirts! Happy Birthday Mom!  Thank you therapists for helping Lucia with your love and professionalism!  Thank you Cheryl Rosenthal for the VERY special book called You Are Special,  that I'll have to share on the blog at some point- its great!  Thank you God for giving us our sweet baby Lucia and so many reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving!   We love you Lubird and tomorrow we are going to give you a couple baby spoonfuls of sweet potatoes...we'll have to wait on turkey and cranberry salad...

Happy Thanksgiving!  With much love and thanks,

The Dawkins

Tummy exercise with her awesome PT, Rebecca

Working on Sitting!

Lucia and her new friend and nurse, Angela