My Izzybee

A daughter is a gift of love.  ~Author Unknown  (This is the quote I'd post about her)

Daughters are like flowers, they fill the world with beauty, and sometimes attract pests.  ~Author Unknown  (This is the quote my husband would choose.)

Some people aren't blessed to have daughters.  I have been blessed with three of them.  Today happens to be my middle daughter's 15th birthday.  This morning I took McKenna to school. Her hair was bouncing with curls and I just thought how stinking cute she is.  I LOVE that girl. I listened to her talk about all of her blessings and it warmed my heart.  

Yesterday at the store someone thought she was in 5th grade...she's a freshman.  Very typical for this tiny, baby-faced princess.

Things haven't always been easy for McKenna.  When she was little I suspected she couldn't hear.  The big given was when I stood behind her and loudly said, "McKenna do you want a cookie?" and got no response after 3-4 tries.

I took her to appointment after appointment trying to figure out the problem.  I usually heard things like, "She doesn't have a problem, she has 3 older siblings who are doing the talking for her."  or "She has selective hearing."  I couldn't get anyone to listen to me.  The Dr.'s I took her to weren't equipped to test an 18 month old.  

By 2 1/2 she was trying to talk but very few people could understand her.  She was frustrated and ornery.  So was I.  So, I enrolled at Idaho State University to be a speech and language pathologist with a minor in sign language.  I signed her up for a hearing test, geared toward kids her age, through Head Start.  There was a huge waiting list, 4-5 months out.  They let me know in advance that they'd give me a 2 day appointment notice and we had to come at the time they specified or we'd be put on the bottom of the list again.  I remember thinking I'd drop anything to get her there.  The time came.  I got the call.  The appointment was scheduled half way through my psychology final!  I talked to my professor, to see if I could take it at a different time.  I don't think he believed I couldn't change the appointment and he denied my request.  While I was going to school I met one of the audiologists there.  I told him my concerns about McKenna, who was 3 by this time, and my frustrations with Doctors and the Head Start appointment issue.  He told me to take my final and bring McKenna up to the department and he and a couple students would look at her.

Alleluia moment!  They did a tympanometry test on her and within minutes we found out she had 10% hearing in one ear and 2% in the other.  The good news- it could be fixed!

 Learning hasn't been an easy thing for her.  She was quite behind by the time she could hear again.  She had years of speech therapy for articulation, word use and cluttering (speed).  The cool thing about her though, is she's a fighter.  This girl works hard!  Many of her teachers have told me that she tries harder than any of their other students.  I've rarely had to remind her to do homework and she has an amazing drive to do well in each class.  I'm VERY proud of her!

The best part of all; she is turning into a young woman who's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

Fun facts about McKenna

1.  She wants to be a photographer.

2.  She loves to photoshop.

3.  She loves kids and babysits for many families.

4.  She loves to sing.

5.  She was Amaryllis in The Music Man 2 years ago and an orphan in Annie this year.

6.  She loves Zebra print and the colors purple and yellow.

7.  She hates nuts and loves chocolate (especially dark)

8.  She's a daddy's girl.  

9.  Her middle name is Isabelle after her great grandma.  I nicknamed her Izzybee because
     she was as busy as a bee.  Then she developed the cutest bounciest walk and I started 
     calling her Kenna-Roo (like Kangaroo)- It's stuck and that's what her friends call her.  

10.  She stands up for what she believes in.  She'd rather have no friends than friends who

     try to get her to lower her standards.  She loves sharing the gospel with her friends, too.

I lOVE YOU Kenna-Roo!!!