I am so proud of my Amanda Jo, I could just bust ...

Yesterday, at her PT appointment, Amanda Jo, my five-year-old daughter, took her first steps.  Eighteen of them.  Of course, she used a wheeled walker to help her, but the fact of the matter is this: she walked. She actually walked!!

Amanda Jo was born four months premature.  Doctors said she wouldn't survive.  (At birth, Amanda Jo weighed only nine ounces, just a tiny peanut of a thing.)  If she did survive, she would probably be brain damaged ... or at least a vegetable.  Well, Amanda Jo does have brain damage, but she is certainly no "vegetable"!

Amanda Jo has cerebral palsy and learning problems.  She is a lot smarter than what people give her credit for; it's only by God's grace that she's overcome most of the odds pinned upon her by uncaring doctors who don't know her fighting "can-do" spirit!  Her walking yesterday for the first time is only icing on the cake; she is proof of "what doesn't kill you definitely makes you stronger!"

If Amanda Jo took her first steps yesterday, who knows what she will be doing at this time in several months, or maybe a year from now: for all I know, she might be walking on a pair of forearm crutches (or possibly even unaided)!  The possibilities are endless; the sky's the limit for our baby girl!!

We are Amanda Jo's support team, we being her parents (me and mommy), and her big sisters Kayleigh Grace (7), Kaitlyn Marissa (10), and Alaska Dawn (13), and her baby brother, Corwin Daniel (2).  All but Corwin have gone to her therapy appointments, praising her when she does well, and enocuraging her when she has a bad time of it.  We also go to her doctor's appointments and use any suggestions the doctor shares with us to help build strength or to help her if she has any problems.

It must have all paid off because yesterday was a "red-letter day" for our family: Amanda Jo Vijivich, aged five, took her first steps!!  It is a time of joy and celebration!  God is indeed good, and He's still in the miracle-making business!  Yesterday was proof of that in a huge way!!