Hey everyone! 

 

We have been back home for almost a week now and I’m ready to share a little recap with the positive changes we have seen so far! ☀️ 

 

I couldn’t speak highly enough of AKAP, Dana, and her team. We instantly felt like we belonged to a family. We knew that their expertise in working with children like Amelia was extensive, but we quickly learned that it’s also their heart poured into Amelia for every session that ended up making our “see you later’s” a little tearful by the end. The hands-on therapy paired with their encouragement, creative problem-solving, and joyful energy for each session made a lasting impact on us. ❤️ 

 

Seeing how hard Amelia worked through frustration, uncertainty, weakness, and fatigue was almost too much for a momma’s heart the first week. 💔 But the team assured me to trust the process, and sure enough, by the second week she was more rested, physically stronger, showing confidence -- her proud accomplished smiles told me all I needed to know - we were right where we needed to be. 🙌🏼 

 

Some positive changes already: 

 

 
We are promised that over the next 3-4 months we will see exponential growth from the extensive input her brain received through the repetitive muscle patterns in therapy. We are excited to continue to update y’all over time as we see more come to pass!


There were usually 5 families that had the same time slot as we did. We would all congregate in the waiting area for about 10 mins or so before each session. This was a valuable opportunity for parents to connect, make friends, and share experiences and encouragement. 👏🏼 It’s so nice to feel the community of fellow parents in our same shoes. Not something we have back at home yet.

We became good friends with a family from Mexico who were bringing their son, Milo, for his 2nd intensive. I found a lot of encouragement and inspiration on their journey to give Milo the best they could, while resources like these are simply not available in Mexico. Their sacrifice and journey (being much longer than ours) was beyond inspiring to me. 🫶🏼 We hope to reconnect with them again next spring.

The best advice my new friend shared with me was that it may not be big moments of realization of progress after returning home, but rather life just gets a little easier over time. (Bath time gets easier, meal times are better, etc.)

Parents of a sweet 4 year old girl were on their 4th visit to All Kids Are Perfect. Each time making bigger leaps in her mobility than the last. Her mom shared that it’s amazing to look back at videos of where they started years ago and how far she has come. I sneaked a peak at one of their sessions in the shared gym and was amazed at her balancing ability and it only fueled my fire to keep fighting for Amelia’s progress and could only dream of where we might be in another couple of years. ☁️

It was right then that I realized, this journey is a long one — that years of trips like this would be in our future.


So we now have hopes to take Amelia to AKAP as many times as we can afford to while she is under the weight limit!


Love is why. Love and genuine care is why each of you helped get us to this point and why many of you have promised to keep raising funds for our trip next spring too. 

We simply couldn’t have had this experience without the combined effort of each of you. 

The sacrifices, generosity, and belief in our girl bring me to tears. 😭
 
Thank you for being at the start of this journey for us and for continuing to watch Amelia grow!
 
I am admittedly a tired Momma at nearly 33 weeks pregnant, but after some rest and reflection, I am inspired to keep going!
 
I created an Instagram page for her @growingwith.amelia - follow us on there to see more real time photos and videos of her progress! ☺️

 
Thanks for reading! 

I’ll be back with more updates soon 💕