Friendships are beautiful things

Mikai has been invited to two birthday parties this month.  The first was with a couple we became friends with as both of our kiddos were in soccer together.  C's mom says, "the boys are so excited for you to come over.  Mikai was the first kid he invited to his birthday party"!  C2's mom says " C2 would love to have Mikai over to play....he mentions Mikai often".

I was humbled and floored.  I know Mikai is special, but Mikai is also my child so I am biased.  It becomes a real parenting victory when children are mentioning MIkai in a good way, at home.  In life all you need is that one friend.  It's the friend that is by your side when you're having a rough day, the friend who gets into trouble with you and shares the discipline, the friend who plays imagination and passes no judgement, the friend that picks up the phone in the dead of night when you call.  I know Mikai is still so very young, but the fact that he has made such great friends gives me great hope for his future.

It also reminds me that Mikai is awesome outside of the home too.  He shows off his winning personality and others are attracted to him because of it.  I don't know how he behaves at school, but I imagine he doesn't let his inability to speak overcome his inability to have fun.  A lesson, I am certain, we can all learn from.   Inabilities do not equal a missed opportunity.  In fact, inabilities can give us many great opportunities.

The other great thing about this birthday party opportunity is Mikai's excitement to celebrate with is friends.  i phoned him this morning to tell him that I told C2's mom that we were coming and before C2's birthday we had to go to C's birthday.  The excitement he had on the phone was just as awesome as knowing people like Mikai.  Mikai loves people.  He loves to make them feel great about themselves.  He runs alongside them and hugs them when they are feeling sad.  I think he believes it's his personal mandate to help others feel great.  So this is Mikai's opportunity to show love and feel loved back.

Is this why we chose to become parents?  Because there is no greater joy than seeing humanity at it's finest - loving one another.

1 Corinthians 13: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Whoops!

Alright, a little bit of time has passed.  I have never been very good at journal writing - well, consistent writing.

We met with the pediatric neurologist.  He wanted an MRI done as he knew it was neurological and just wanted to see the activity in his brain.  Skip forward to July 2014.  MRI scan is completed.  This was an extremely difficult time for me.  They took Mikai in, got him to sit on the table, and they brought me through this experience.  The worker's at the hospital were absolutely wonderful!  They played a game with Mikai in trying to "blow up the balloon".  You see, he was getting put under for his MRI and they needed to put a mask over his face in order to administer the anesthesia.  He was having fun and enjoying myself until they put the mask over his mouth and had me hold his arms away.  He struggled to get free and pry the mask off and started crying.  He wouldn't inhale and gave me the look of "why are you doing this to me!!".  The anesthesiologist was reassuring me, telling me not to worry as he won't remember much after this point.  Sure enough, Mikai inhaled and went limp.  It was like he was sleeping.  I promptly left, huge crocodile tears in my eyes to my husband and second son.  My husband took one look at me and said "I thought maybe it was I  that should have volunteered".  Seriously, amazing guy this man is.  After the MRI we took Mikai for a treat for being so good.  He bought Baymax and Hero action figures.

Fast forward three months - we received the results of Mikai's MRI.  The doctor sat us down and explained that they know the cause of the drooling, choking, and lack of speech.  They told us that it was highly unexpected and they were quite surprised.  They told us Mikai has a brain disorder called bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria.  What this means is that on both sides of his brain, 3 out of 4 lobes are affected by areas of many small gyri.  The condition is apparantly quite rare and they aren't really sure what his life is going to look like, but they are hopeful because Mikai is so far advanced for having this condition.  We drive home, silent, for about 2 and a half hours.  It takes me until that night to become so over struck with fear that I feel like I can't breathe.  We were told not to google PMG so of course we do and the news is pretty grim.  The more I read about it, the more I want to stop.  So I do.  After about a month, we pick the pieces of our lives back up and learn to be thankful for what we know, thankful for how functional Mikai trully is, and blessed to be able to communicate with Mikai although it's restricted.

It has almost been a year since his diagnosis.  Our government has been extremely supportive financially of our situation,  Mikai has received his AAC (his communication device) and using it regularly at school.  Mikai's teachers have been so flexible and encouraging and it has been great to see him grow with them over this past year.  We are hopeful and blessed beyond compare.