It is time for the United Angels Walk. I am so excited and passionate to be apart of such a wonderful organization. This is my first year doing the walk and I could not be more excited. It will probably just be me, Sayler and a couple of my family and friends but hopefully it catches on and becomes a big celebration for all who know and love her. I hope it becomes something we all look forward to every year to celebrate our beautiful angel and all she has accomplished. So we are having a team in her name. It will be a small one but filled with loads of love. This is her story ...
We were so excited to receive our beautiful little angel Sayler on February 16, 2005. Her older brother Jaxsten had been born two years earlier with only half a heart and had already had two open heart surgeries. So mom and dad were thrilled to have a beautiful, whole-hearted, healthy little girl. When Sayler was a little over three months old, Jaxsten had to go in for surgeries three and four. He was in and out of ICU for three months. During that time Sayler was passed around between mom and either one or the other of her two loving grandmothers. When Jaxsten’s long hospital stay was over, next came months and months of recovery for him with several different therapies. With all that had been going on, we were surprised to find out we were expecting child number three. Sayler, just twelve months old, started showing signs of “falling behind“. We excused it as “middle child syndrome”. She was such a great baby and had not required as much attention as Jaxsten had. When she was about eighteen months old, we realized she was falling further and further behind developmentally, and what words she had been saying, she was no longer. So with the resources we already had for Jaxsten, we began therapy for her. It was from her speech therapist that we first heard that scary word—autism. We were absolutely sure that did not apply to Sayler, and we were on a mission to prove the therapist wrong. After consulting with a couple of different doctors and having her hearing tested--not once, but three times--we begin to look into that scary word and consider what exactly it meant. I tried to find anything that would prove my gut fear wrong. It was at her second birthday party, when it was all I could do to keep her interested in anything the other kids were doing, or even in her presents, that with a heavy heart I realized this behavior was exactly what it was: autism. My fears were confirmed with testing, and I began mourning the death of my dream--the dream of my perfectly healthy normal little girl, a lover of Barbie dolls, a dancer, a future doctor married to a wonderful man, giving me lots of grand babies to enjoy. After “getting over it!!” and opening my eyes to see that “it is what it is,” I realized that it wasn’t that bad. It hadn’t changed Sayler. This had always been her. Our hopes and dreams may have changed, but it hadn’t changed her beautiful smile, her fun personality, her loves, kisses and snuggles (all, of course, on her time). She was still our Disney-loving, often giggly, always busy, adventurous, courageous, curious, and stubborn beautiful Angel. The way we looked toward the future changed, and sometimes change can be good. For us it was better than good; it was--and is--wonderful. There is never a dull moment with our beautiful Sayler. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives. We are grateful to have our hearts and eyes fully opened to how important all the little things are. Thanks Sayler for helping us see!
