I have always called her Toad for short. I never realized that I was calling her a frog until Mr. Bob looked at me odd one day at church and asked me to repeat myself.
Anyway, let's start from the beginning. Tori was born 6 weeks early under horrible circumstances. I won't go into all of the details, but it was a mess. Weighing 4 1/2 pounds she still left the hospital in two days.
At the age of 8 months she came down with RSV. I had taken her to the doctor the day before because she seemed to feel ill and they told me she had a cold. The next night, in a blizzard of course, she seemed to feel better, but I noticed she seemed to be breathing awfully fast. I called the nurse line and they told me to count her breathes, I counted 90 per minute. She told me I must be counting the intake and the out breath, but I was not. We went to the hospital where they immediately put her on oxygen and IV's and all types of yucky stuff. It was really scary! When she was able to come home, we had to give breathing treatments ever hour. Most kids are caused to feel hyper after taking the medicine, Tori was struggling so hard to breath that the relief put her to sleep. For a year we struggled with this. She ended up on steroids for a year.
The steroids caused her growth to become stunted. In kindergarten, she was wearing size 3T. This really bothered her. Over the next couple of years, she caught up.
Tori had trouble learning to read. She would get so frustrated and cry. Writing was incredibly difficult for her and spelling was impossible. She was dyslexic and having a horrible time. It took a while for us to realize it. Once we did we researched and found every important historical figure we could and sat her down and explained to her that all of her frustration was caused not by her not being smart, not by her being lazy or not trying, but God created her sweet brain in a way that learned different from the way that we had been trying to teach her. We explained a little about what Dyslexia was and told her about all of the famous people that have overcome it. She was so happy and relieved! Then the real research began on how to help her. I spent hours reading text books where I would have to read one paragraph 5 times just to understand it! Through prayer and much research, we came up with an educational plan.
From what we had read and heard, the best thing to do for dyslexics was to allow them space to find their own way of learning, we did that. We read to her constantly. We scrapped the spelling books and writing books and practiced on chalkboards and in the sand. She worked and struggled sooo hard for a long time.
She now has recently finished reading Tolkien's The Hobbit and is now deep into Gulliver's Travels. She loves reading. If you could see the progress she has made in her writing, you would be amazed! She has worked through "friends" telling her she was not smart because of her spelling. She has worked through great amounts of frustration. She has worked through feelings of being less than. She is an outstanding young lady.
Praise the Lord, she also found gymnastics and found that she has a talent in that sport and a love for it!
Tori is so full of compassion and honesty! She is kind to those who others are unkind, she knows how it feels. She encourages those who feel unable, she has been there. If I sound like this is a bragging post, sorry, but it is!! I am so proud of where she came from! I am so impressed and blessed by who she is now! And the world will be blessed one day by who she will become! She is my sweet little Toad and I am so incredibly proud to be called her Mommy!
See her playfulness!
See her talent in gymnastics!
See her sweet, Godly soul!
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