Isabelle

10 yrs and 2 weeks ago I began a year long journey of weekly hour long drives from our home in Gadsden, AL to the University of Alabama - Birmingham Children's Hospital for our oldest daughter Isabelle.  Isabelle was born with a Club Foot.  I had NO IDEA what that was when they first told us.  All I knew was that her sweet little right foot was scrunched up and twisted downward and inward.  And it was the color of a plum the first moments after she was born.  But honestly I didn't care.  She was perfect!  In months to come it would make us sick to hear people say they didn't care what sex their baby was going to be as long as it was healthy because we knew our baby girl could possibly never walk right and we loved her all the same!  When Isabelle was only 3 weeks old, I started driving her to the Children's hospital where I'd watch as they fitted her TINY little leg clear up to her knee for a plaster cast.  Babies grow so fast that it had to be switched every week so it wouldn't rub her leg raw.  So I made those trips ever week for almot 5 months! Sponge baths for 5 months except they would let me soak the cast off the night before her appt so I could give her a real bath...She LOVED her once a week bathtimes!  After nearly 6 weeks in a little splint thing that was basically a piece of plastic wrapped around her foot and molded to her that velcroed closed to hold her foot in place, she was big enough to have surgery.  They had to put several bones in the right direction by moving them and putting pins in and the surgeon (the best one in the world in my opinion) severed her achilles tendon so it could be stretched and sewn back together to make it longer. After the surgery they put her in a fiberglass cast that was tye-dyed!  Then we had to go back for 3 months every 3 weeks to have her cast changed because if she'd been awake and moved wrong or hit the table with her leg, she could have dislodged the pins and we would have had to start back over!  I can't write in too much detail about the time she came out of anesthesia and we could hear her screaming the whole way down the hall and how I had to crawl in the tiny little hospital bed with her to calm her down...I still get a lump in my throat when I think of that day...I can close my eyes and remember everything about the room, and see her tiny terrified face.  One of the things her surgeon said was, "She'll walk and maybe even run some and play with other kids like normal but she'll probably never be a marathon runner."  And she is my most athletic kid and can outrun any boy her age and lots older than her too!  I am blessed that she loves Jesus!  I am blessed that she is a sweet girl who is so caring and thoughtful of others.  I am blessed that she enjoys a passion of mine - running!  I am blessed that Dr. Killian did such an amazing job on her foot!  I am blessed!