Charlotte's Birthday

Over the weekend we had the awesome privilege to celebrate Sweet Baby Charlotte's 2nd birthday. It is so hard to believe that she has only been apart of this family for two years. In some ways it feels as though I was pregnant with her only yesterday, and then I can not remember life before her.

Charlotte has been such a little challenge in so many ways. She was so sick as a little baby. Taking medicine all the time and acting listless. All of that, without any answers from the doctors and specialist she was seeing. Developmentally she was slipping further and further behind and we were getting more and more worried for our little baby. That all changed during the summer of 2010. After doing a ton of online research and telling everyone in the world about her problems, a friend of ours casually mentioned something about Celiac Disease. Immediately, I ran home and researched pediatric Celiac Disease and Charlotte hit 4 of the 6 markers. Now, the real challenge began.

The specialist that was seeing her did not want to test for Celiac. They claimed she was far to young to be showing symptoms already. But, if I insisted she would order a test. Out a few that are available, she ordered the most expensive, not covered by insurance, and least accurate one. Now what? Well, although they recommended we did not change her diet. They also said it would not hurt her. So that is exactly what we did. And today I am so thankful that I followed my gut.

The poor baby was 16 months old, not walking, talking/verbalizing, or pulling up. Basically she sat there and let me hold her all day. Within three days of changing her diet we saw drastic results. She was making eye contact, verbalizing, skin was clear, and she was pulling up. And we were not the only ones who noticed the drastic change. We started the diet on a Thursday and on Sunday her Sunday School teacher made the following comment "I don't know what you did over this past week, but this is a totally different child."

I give you all that history for one reason. Charlotte is such a blessing. This weekend we truly celebrated her life and her health. Gluten free cake, monkeys (cake popsicles), hamburgers, chips and ice cream was the menu. And fun was on the agenda. The girls played and played with their cousins. Even the grandparents, and great grandmothers were able to be there.The last little birthday surprise was a trip to Build-a-Bear. Both Ansley and Charlotte had a blast. The girls were even able to see a rainbow as we headed home from our adventure. What a wonderful weekend we had. We are truly BLESSED!