In August 2011, our daughter Aster was diagnosed with a severe speech disorder, and was recently confirmed as having Apraxia**. At the age of two and a half she could only say fifteen words. At the age of three she could barely say five, and those five were very hard to understand.
We didn’t know what the future held; we just knew we’d been praying and waiting for two years to hear her precious voice. And now it was diminishing. I was in shock. And honestly my heart broke a little more each day for the first several weeks.
I knew God was in control and that He could completely heal her. But my mommy-heart hopes and dreams for hearing my little girl’s voice were shattered. And my world turned upside down for a while.
When we shared our story on Facebook and at some speaking events, many of you spoke hope, grace and truth over our hearts. You comforted us with your prayers and claimed God’s promises over our little girl.
Aster has been going to speech therapy two times each week for six months. Her progress has been very slow. In January we discovered her two year molars never formed enamel so a little over a week ago she had surgery, and little silver crowns were put on them.
What happened next was almost miraculous! The crowns must have relieved severe pain we didn’t know about because she couldn’t tell us. And she never indicated it either. (Her pain threshold is incredible!) Her progress in the past ten days has been amazing. Then last weekend, when they came to get me from the airport after a speaking event, Aster started babbling a ton.
So, I got out my iPhone, turned it to where she could see herself when it was filming and we witness a break-through on camera!! Here’s a sweet little peak into God’s faithfulness! {Note, she had never done this before!}
I can’t help but celebrate the “good things HE planned long ago” for a little girl who needed a family to help her find her voice – and for a family who needed a little girl to help them experience the depth of God’s love!
Thank you Lord for the gift of our precious little Ethiopian princess!
How precious, precious…what a ift for all!!! She truly is…Peggy
She is just too cute Renee.. loved seeing her and hearing her little voice.. she is such a blessing..too cute..Praying for her Thanks for sharing with us..
Bless God….this is the beginning of greater things to come for you and your family in Jesus Name. The best is yet to come!
Renee, when my son was 3 y 3 mo he only put two words together voluntarily, and one of the two was someone’s name! Last spring I had him in 22 speech therapy appts per month. I took him anywhere and everywhere that would accept him. (God paid those bills for us.) It was really hard to do that with my other 2 kids (one older girl, 5, and one younger, 1), but they never complained and never treated their brother any differently because he had special school to go to. Fast forward to a year later, and my son speaks in phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and NOVELS, and all non-stop! He says or tries to say everything now, and almost all of it is intelligible to almost everyone. He is still in speech therapy, but not as often, and the main focus now is on saying initial “f”s. His progress has been nothing short of miraculous! I tell everyone that this is one of God’s many miracles in my life! Once the little ones finally get the hang of speaking, look out! It is like many people told me, but I doubted: there actually will come a time when you will want your child to quit talking and be quiet! My son talks all of our ears off and if we don’t pay attention he will say, “excuse me” until we do. 🙂 God is soooooo good! To Him be all the glory! After watching that video I will think of your Aster often and always say a quick prayer for her when I do.
Yeah Astor…. What a great welcome home gift for Mommy! Renee I was smiling so big listening to that! Isn’t it just like God to place his hand on that dear child and loose her tongue! Soon the day will be here when you may catch yourself thinking… “remind me again why I wanted this dear child to talk so badly!” This video will be a great reminder of the joy of words! PTL!!!
Thanks Reene for share all your heart, soul and spirit with us. Your words always bless my life, i read you from Mexico City. I don’t have a very good english, but i make my best to write today. My best wishes for your beautiful princess, we’ll continue praying for you. Hugs and kisses.
Praise the Lord!! It is amazing to see how God is working in Aster’s life! I will keep her in my prayers and I believe God will develop her speech 100%!! It is exciting to think about the wonderful plans God has for this little, beautiful girl!! Thank you for sharing this.
This was 2 minutes and 17 seconds of pure joy; I smiled from ear to ear every second. Thank you for sharing this with us Renee! Keep up the great work Aster, you are such a blessing!
What a wonderful answer to Prayer may the Lord keep blessing you and your family abundantly. May the Lords healing keep coming.
Praise God for this report. Thanks so much for sharing. It makes my heart glad that God is doing a wonderful work in your precious princess. She is truly beautiful.
How wonderful! Thanks for sharing – this brought joy to my heart!
I rarely comment (blush) but this brought such joy to my face that I found myself smiling. Thanks for sharing.
All I can say is how sweet. I pray that God will continue to bless Aster with her speech.
She is precious, Renee!!
My little girl just had surgery on her feet. Her ankles were not growing properly and they put a screw in each foot to help correct the growth. Did not anticipate dealing with all that we have gone through ever since. She is now choosing to walk instead of sit. PTL!
As a Speech Pathologist myself, I love working with my little friends with apraxia of speech. THEY show ME the a fine example of hard work and persistence as they struggle to overcome this challenge. It is my blessing to teach these little ones and they bring such joy to me, especially as I have no children of my own. I am quite confident that Aster will continue to demonstrate great progress as Early Intervention, (this also includes help from Mommy,Daddy, siblings, yes, even talking ot the dog is beneficial :)! is the key. I’ll bet she’ll even follow Mommy’s footsteps and become a fabulous speaker and leader!
Blessings to your precious little one!
~Tina
You are such a good, good Mama. Just from this video one can see how you just pour love out all over her!!
May the Lord continue to surprise you with joy in the months ahead!
Hugs,
Katie 🙂
It is no secret….what GOD can do….what HE’s done for others, HE WILL DO FOR YOU….Breakthrough in prayer! GOD is SOVEREIGN and ALL-KNOWING and does amazing things. Sometimes when we don’t know what to pray, the SPIRIT intercedes with groaning not heard in ordinary words…..HE KNOWS OUR HEARTS…..MINDS….SOULS AND SPIRITS….!!!! We love your family stories and Aster!!! She is so beautiful….GOOD NEWS!!! Thanks for the precious video!!!
Oh Renee……How wonderful and awesome our God is. Aster is a delightful child and thank you so much for sharing part of your life with us. I too have tears of joy from seeing this video. This is without a doubt the best Bible Study I have done on line. And it is right up there with those I do here. I love the interaction from all our sisters on here and thank you so much for being obedient. With Love in Christ Jesus….Cheryl
Thank you so much for showing us you are a real woman with real problems and a you give our real GOD and SAVIOR all the glory in every day to day moment. I have underlined my book so much and written in the margins so much, I may have to purchase a new one!!!!
God is using your obedience and your transparency to help thousands of women see HIM.
I also have a “special needs” granddaughter from China. We know now it was her family in America that had special needs and God used her life to supply those needs.
Thank you so much Renee for sharing your life with us. Thank you especially for this video of beautiful Aster. I am just overcome by God’s love in our lives. Your sharing has had a great effect in showing me just how gracious God has been in my life!
Praise the Father for HIS never ending LOVE. I am in tears of joy just watching this video. Thank you so much for sharing this, I will be sharing this with some mamas that I know that are going thru various trials as well….
Love your heart Renee you are such a blessing!!
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing. God is so good to His people.
Thanks so much for sharing! Definitely made my day. God knew Aster needed you for her mama. Have worked with special needs adults some but mainly children so know what a blessing they can be. Part of my lack of confidence came from not being diagnosed until I was in college, which was especially interesting since my mother had a student she sent for testing who was the inspiration for Mother to get interested in special ed. I have a disorder called cluttering (very mild compared to Aster and others). It isn’t as common in the U.S., but is a speech disorder accompanied by learning disabilities. My family understood my speech most of the time, but talking with others was frustrating since I was mostly ignored. Speech therapy in college helped, but wasn’t given help with the learning disabilities since I had managed ok so far. School was challenging. Didn’t help that I compared myself to my sister (15 1/2 months older) who didn’t have to study & got straight A’s while if I put enough time & effort in got B’s. Working with children helped my speech (used some of their speech therapy techniques) but have noticed last couple years that have been home full time that speech is not as clear any more. Not sure why I shared all that. Anyway, enjoy your sweet daughter and each increment of progress no matter how small.
Thank you for sharing your story, too, Holly. One day Aster will be a grown woman so it’s good for me to hear from you on her behalf. Praying for you sweet Child of God. You are precious and valuable – just as you are. I”m so proud of you for persevering through your learning challenges and making B’s. That is still something to be proud of!!
{{HUGS}} Renee
Renee,
that was so sweet! How excited you must have been and are. I am a NICU nurse, I understand what you are talking about, and can imagine what you (and Aster) have been going through. Praise God that she is feeling so much better as well as the progress in her speech.
Much love and prayers,
Dannielle
What a blessing!!! Children like her and my friend, Brenda’s daughter, Elizabeth are so precious and give some much to us. what they give us is free, honest, light, has no obligation, and doesn’t cost them anything. They just give us Love true agape Love
Awwwwww…Adorable. I’ll never forget when my sisters and I were gathered around our little nephew. He was over one year old and didn’t seem to be able to hear us talk to him, didn’t respond when we clapped our hands. He was not making sounds the way kids his age normally do. Soon, my sister was faced with her young son’s apraxia, low muscle tone, and a number of other disorders. One pediatrician commented, “He may never speak.” The news was devastating. A number of therapies began right away.
That was 19 years ago. Today this strapping 6’4″ guy talks a blue streak! Honestly, the other day on a long car ride, over 2 hours, he did not come up for air. He just chatted and chatted, observing everything we passed by, telling stories. I was so quickly reminded of the miracles God has done in my beloved nephew’s life.
She is very quite and knows the cameral well.
Oh my goodness she is soooo precious!!!!! I remember when my son wouldn’t talk for the longest time! then when he did it was difficult to understand him. Sometimes he would talk real fast, i would tell him that momma is a bit old so you need to speak a little slower, that helped him to speak more and slower and i did start to teach him to speak spanish because he could talk so fast. His pronounciation is so much better than mine and it’s my first language! LOL My son is now 22 and speaks with a bit of an accent and is doing great he will be leaving for Job Corp. soon. He is very excited! oh and in a years time he will be getting his ordination for preaching ( i think that’s what it’s called)I hope this encourages you Renee. You have an adorable daughter and i was truely blessed by your video!
So precious to see the love you two have. God has given Aster a Momma who will help her through the minefields of life because she has walked the road before her. Caring for others because God cares for us!!!
I am so glad I clicked on the link to watch you and Aster. :O)
My heart has been very sad for the past few days and listening to Aster made my heart happy.
Children are such a blessing and it’s so beautiful to see her progressing.
Praise God for you and you husband for loving her and bringing her into your home.
How precious. We serve an awesome God.
Thanks for sharing Renee! Your little princess is so beautiful. And yes, it did bring smiles!
She is soooooooooooo adorable!!! May God continue to bless you and your family!!
Take Care, God Bless, and Stay Beautiful!!
You were right…this did make me smile…I LOVE little kids…they are such a great gift from God!
Blessings to you and your family!!!
My now 11 year old son has Down syndrome and Apraxia as well. Other than gross approximations and babbling we heard hardly a word from him until one night, when he was 5 years old, I tucked him into bed and heard a spontaneous but clear “love you” pop out of his mouth. I am sure you can imagine my joy and tears. When my son could not speak we would put his hands together at night and pray for him. Slowly, he would hold his own hands together and we would speak for him, and then he would put his hands together and get out a word or two of his own. Now, he prays all by himself and we never take a word for granted (although there is much we wish he wouldn’t say — wink, wink). Keep up the hard work and prepare to enjoy many more beautiful moments of triumph that are sure to come!
Renee,
I think that God’s favor is upon you, because yourbook has been a blessing and an answer to the prayer of lots of women. I praise God for His wonderful plan with your Aster. ( In Suriname, a flower is called Aster) May she also bloom like this special flower. God bless you and your family Renee.
your friend from Suriname, South America
Aster is so cute!! I will pray she continues to improve and that God heals her completely.
Thank you so much for sharing your joy with us! She is getting so big!!!
That was absolutely amazing! Brought tears to my eyes! God is AWESOME & AMAZING! He can do wonderful things! Thank You Lord for your healing gift! Continue to heal little Aster! Continue to form the sounds & letter to her mouth & voice, in Jesus Name! Thank You again Jesus!
Be blessed Swope Family!
It was such a blessing to see this video. Thanks for sharing this with all of us. It put a smile on my face. I shared what happened with my dear hubby and his response, “That is such a miracle”
Very exciting to learn of the progress that she has made!!!!
I AM CRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you both!
I was saddened to hear about Aster and then blessed to see what God could do. Aster is a blessing to you as you are a blessing to her. Keep up the good work Aster. You are truly blessed.
Girls I have to share this: Psalm 57:7 NLT
“My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises!” This is the Air1 radio verse of the day.
Today I got my AS degree in the mail. This is the mother of 4 (ages 16-21). My oldest daughter will get her AS in May (actually two: one is Diesel and the other is Welding).
Go forth and concur with courage knowing that the light is in front the shadow of death is behind you.
Renee,
Special needs kids are such blessings from above. Our God created them beautifully!!! My son has speech apraxia. God has had me take many steps of faith in the journey and He has it all under control. Since you have an iPad there are tons of applications as you know out there. Embrace it and love every precious moment and celebrate every mile stone…you will be amazed at God’s hand. My daughter who is older also has special needs with Sensory Processing Disorder (to the level of borderline autism) God has moved in her life since her premature birth and my child who stands before me at 7 is an incredible testimony to God’s grace, love, care, and direction and miraculous power. And to just encourage your heart my son 6 months ago said no words complete and at 2-1/2 he had just only begun to babble like a much younger baby (only like 5 1 syllable like ma da and sis and he had fits of rage and many behaviors to the level we thought he was autistic..he tested at 6 month old level at 2-1/2 years and that was barely) and now he is talking in sentences at home and in familiar settings and working hard on so many words I cannot keep up with his progress. And his behaviors and fits of rage have almost vanished. Pray and go with the resources God puts in your hand for your sweet girl!!!
..God’s love SHINES through you in this video Renee….
I join the team of saints who are lifting precious Aster to the Lord!
Also, I am praying for you and the whole family….
May God receive ALL the GLORY!
YEAH for Aster! 🙂 I, too, am a Mom of a daughter who had moderate verbal Apraxia. Good for you to get early speech therapy. That beautiful girl has lots and lots to say, I can see it in her eyes just by watching this brief post. My Ryleigh is now 12 years old and has come a long way. She has been blessed with, can you believe, a BEAUTIFUL singing voice and uses it ALL the time! It truly amazes me to hear her karaoke and watch the expressions of others around us too. At one time, my little girl had created her own “sign language” to be able to communicate with others because we could not understand her. How Awesome is Our GOD!!!! Sing Aster and Ryeigh, sing!!!!
Does my heart good to see this video! 🙂
As a speech pathologist myself, I wanted to jump in the car with you and get to work on her awesome progress, But obviously Aster has a very capable team including her therapist her parents, family and herself. Hang in there, it will work and God bless you all.
This was precious and my daughter and I enjoyed it…God works ALL things for good…my 5 year old was waving because she thought Aster could see us too, like Skype…too cute!