Little girls giggles and high pitched squeals. These were the sounds our days were made of …
Oh how I wanted her voice to be the soundtrack of my life, but it wasn’t happening. Why isn’t she talking? Is this normal? I have two teenagers and can’t remember what is normal. Is it because she’s our third child? Why isn’t our bribery and insistance working??
“Oh don’t worry, she’ll talk.” “Einstein didn’t talk until he was 5.” “Just wait ’til she won’t stop talking! Then you’ll be thankful for these days.”
Their words were meant to be encouraging. And sometimes they helped to stretch our patience as we waited for our little girl to say simple yet precious words like “Daddy” and “bye-bye”.
In October 2009, we adopted Aster from Ethiopia. In August 2011, as she was heading toward her 3-year-old birthday, Aster was diagnosed with a severe speech disorder called Apraxia.
In the midst my deep sorrow over my fathers’s death, the joy of my book release and the heart-shattering shock about my little girl, all I wanted to hear was the soothing sound of my daughter’s precious little voice.
But Aster could barely say five words, and those were very hard to understand. It was determined that she could understand almost everything, but Aster’s mental planning paths weren’t connecting between her brain and her mouth, and no one knew why.
We’ve scheduled countless assessments, a brain MRI, hearing tests and more. And now after 10 months of speech therapy two times each week, we are celebrating an amazing milestone. Look how far God has brought our sweet and beautiful girl!
Although Aster still has days where she hardly says a thing, when she is chatty, she can say at least 50 words now! And her whole alphabet. She is super excited about her newest accomplishment – she can count up to 10!
We are so proud of how hard our girl is working that smart mind of hers, creating paths in her brain and building weak muscles in her mouth. And we’re over the top thankful for each little step of progress she makes. If you’d like to see just how far she’s come, the first time she EVER talked on camera was March 4, 2012. Here is that video:
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 1 Corinthians 2:9
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Woohoo!!! Praise the Lord. Such a sweet sound!!
What a beautiful sight and sound to see and hear!!! How proud you must be! Praise be to God. Thanks for sharing her with us.
My son Luca was born with Apraxia of speech, a phonological delay, and an articulation delay. This video warmed my heart so much!!! We endured many months of speech therapy as well. Luca is now 6 and you can barely tell he ever had a speech problem. Keep up the good fight – God will bring you through it! 🙂
This was precious to see. I have to share something. My daughter has Down Syndrome. She understood what she heard, but getting it out was a whole different story. She loved to babble in front of the mirror. One day she was sitting and babbling and in the midst of this I heard clear as a bell, “Jesus loves me”, then right back to the babbling. At 19, Jesus Loves Me is her very favorite song and when she was recognized on Senior day at church, she asked if she could sing her solo, “Jesus Loves Me”. If you had asked me 19 or even 17 years ago if I would see my sweet girl singing a solo at church I would have probably told you there was no way. But I have learned that where there is no way, God does make a way. By the way, my sweet girl can also sing John 3:16 in the African language of Wolof. There is no way that could happen other than through God.
So just wait, you will hear many things from your sweet girl. Just be patient (that word that we do not like very much).
Thank you for sharing.
Ronda
I love your story. Thanks for sharing. my daughter is downs and she is 15. She loves music and it is hard to understand her. She loves to pray in her own language and loves to dance. When she was 6 years old, I entered her in a regular beauty pageant. My friend taught her hula to a Christian song called ” show me your way”. Before going up on stage i prayed over her and said, Lord, used my daughter for your glory. When she went up on stage you could hear a pin drop, she danced her little heart out. As I was looking around at the crowd watching I saw many people crying. It was clear to me that the Lord had anointed that place. Not a dry tear was in the audience. When it was time to choose the winner of all those contestants, I didn’t expect anything. I thought, ok Lord you did your thing and I was blessed by it. But God had more! She had won first place in the beauty pageant. When they said her name, that’s when I started crying. I felt the Lord washing me with his awesome Love. These kids are such a blessing! And they teach us sooo much!
you are such an awesome mom. your story is so inspiring. blessings to you.
She did fabulous! Good job, Aster!
Beautiful girl! What a joy!
Awesome. God is so good to his children. She is so cute
Amazing! God is working His purpose out. You are so blessed to have each other. I am praying for you!
Awesome! How great is our God! Thank you for shaing this video.
God Bless you both! Aster, precious child! Thanks for sharing this video with us. God’s blessing are amazing!
That was awsome..thank you for sharing…such a Beautiful child.made me smile….know that your daughter will grow up to be a mighty woman of god…..GOD has a plan…Bless you and your family.
You were right, it did bring a smile to my face. I am amazed at how sweet Aster is and what great progress she is making with her s[speech. We do serve such a might God who loves us enough to help us succeed.
Praise God – she is just beautiful!
This is wonderful! My Aussie was so interested in Aster when he heard her voice! He was watched your videos 3 times! I know your heart is full of joy.
Thank you for reminding us that God cares about every detail of our lives! And He still
works miracles! So proud of Aster! May God bless Aster and all of your
family!
Wow, Renee, she is growing up so fast!! She’s just as beautiful as ever!!!
That was awesome! I have a smile from ear to ear! So very cool! 🙂
I’m so happy for Aster! What a cute video! God’s work is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
This brought me the biggest smile and such joy in my heart!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Praise God! Your daughter is doing remarkable! She is going to surprise you, you just wait and see.
Bravo! Praise God!
God is so good to us! Aster is such a beautiful miracle! God has “BIG” plans for her life! She & you are a blessing to me! Keep the faith!
O taste and see that the Lord is Good!. What a wonderful example of God’s Faithfulness and Grace, Renee. We serve an awesome God. I am so excited for you Aster and your family. Your online studies, stories and witness give me such hope in at a time when everything says I am a fool for believing the plans HE has for me.
Peace and Love and God’s Richest Blessings