To the doctor who told us to expect very little from Lyra Jane…. I don’t have anything nice or appropriate to say.

Right after Lyra’s first surgery, when she was about 7 or 8 weeks old, we received the devistating genetic diagnosis. The geneticist sat us down, and without ever looking at Lyra Jane, told us she would have pronounced mental and physical handicaps. He implied that she wouldn’t be social or engaged. He acted as though she would never walk and possibly never talk.

He. Never. Even. Looked. At. Her.

The truth of the matter is that doctors don’t know what Lyra will be like because she is the first documented case of someone having both chromosome abnormailities. What he should have said was: “she will have challenges, but we just don’t know where she will land.” That would have been much more accurate and it would have been honest. However, I seemed like his ego got in the way and he had to have all the answers.

He never examined her, even though she was only 3 feet away. She was just results on a sheet of paper to him.

So to that doctor, Lyra Jane has learned:

• To use her hands
• Clap
• Eat (though not enough to ditch the tube)
• Roll over
• Sit up on her own
• Use a walker
• Babble
• And many more things

She is social, engaged, and encredibly loving. While she hasn’t quite figured out how to express herself with words, she is working on it! She also had a sense of humor and cracks herself up all of the time.

And she is one determined little girl.

So doctor who told us to not expect much, here is where we stand just over a year later. We expect nothing, and celebrate everything!