Finally, I'm able to wright this "Blog"! It's been 20 long months since we got the news of Emmy's diagnosis and 18 months since we started "emmysprayerforsight". We are happy and blessed to say "we made it"! We finally raised all the funds to take Emmy to China! Our goal was to raise $35,000.00 by the summer of 2011 and we succeeded, thanks to all of you who help donate to Emmys cause. Thanks to all our friends and family that still continue to help and support us through this trial.

           Special thanks to our friends Blake Castetter and Connie Watkins for all their hard work in putting together the "Toss for "Emmy" cornhole tournaments and "Did for Emmy" volleyball tournament, thanks a-bunch guys we love you! Special thanks to Mike Cassinari for his "Tri-State Concert Series" musical fundraisers, thanks Mike your awesome! Special thanks to Chris Coplin for his musical talents, thank you! Special thanks to Berri and Louanne Cruz owners of "Cherry Blossom Design", for their Easter Picture fundraiser, thanks so much for your time. A very special thanks to Brian Biddle and Lexblog for creating "emmysprayerforsight" blog, thank you and last but not least our Church family at Bethel Baptist Temple for all their unconditional love and support for Emmy, also for letting us use the church for "Eat for Emmy", baking was never more fun! Thanks again Bethel for all your support and care for Emmy, we love you!

           Now we set off to China to get Emmalyn 7 stemcell treatments that will help her gain sight! What a blessing! We have all the faith in God that he will do his works in her and that no matter what the outcome, we know the Lord will provide! Thanks again everyone, we love you all!

                                     ***China here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

              We still have around $6500 to raise to meet our goal for China and we have until the middle of May to get the rest. If you have anyone that you know that doesn't know about Emmy's Story please if you could please take the time to share it with them, It could be that one person that would get her the rest of the way to China. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

                     First of all we want to say thanks to all that came and supported Emmy's cause. We also would like to send a special thanks to Blake Castetter for putting the fundraiser together, Connie Watkins for all the help she gave and Grand Sands for letting us use their facility.

                     Toss for Emmy was by-far the most fun out of all the fundraisers we have had, everyone that came and participated in the corn-hole tournament had a chance to meet with Emmy,learn of her condition and had a great time playing corn-hole. Everyone that came had a chance to win merchandise that was raffled like: Chick-fil-a baskets, movie tickets, Reds tickets, Bengals tickets, corn hole boards etc. Everyone that came was more than generous, people kept buying more and more tickets for the raffles which led us to raise a total of $2,416.00.

                   As parents with a child that has "ONH" we have been very blessed with all the support and love that our friends and family have shown and givin. Emmalyn is thirteen months old now and is very healthy! As of now "Emmy's Prayer for Sight" is at $19,416.00, we still have along way to go to get to our goal in getting Emmy to China which is a min of 35k. Again we want to say thanks to all that came and supported Emmy at the "Toss for Emmy" corn-hole tournament. Please continue to spread the word about Emmy and her story...Thank You :)

          When I was a little girl I loved to dance! Ballet was my favorite, I was the little girl that always was dressed up in the ballet outfit dancing around the room. I started taking lessons when I was about 4 and ended at age 16. I was what they called a “Pre-Professional”  I guess it’s because a was not old enough to be a regular Professional?!

The day we found out we were having a girl I remember thinking “I cant wait to teach her ballet and for her to be my little ballerina” I was so excited! This was one of many things that I had looked forward to years ago about having a baby girl! In another 4 or 5 months I would see my baby girl and then just a short while after that start teaching her to dance! I could not wait. This could be something we shared together, just like my Mother and I had when I was little. But little did I know that would be least of my worries.

Another moment I will never forget was the moment the Ophthalmologist looked at me and said “She was blind” everything went blank. I wanted so much for my precious little girl. Now she might not even be able to see my face, let alone be a ballerina! I was heartbroken. Everything went through my head! “How it’s  not fair, I Never smoked, drank, took all my vitamins, I did everything right!! How could this be happening to her! To us!  I felt as if my dreams for her were shattered in the matter of a moment.

She is 10 months old now and the light of my life! I thank God everyday for her! She is the most amazing blessing I have ever receive. Someone told me once that “God does not give us Children like ours to punish us but, because he trust us with them and it takes someone special to raise them”. I will never forget that!  I think about that statement often, to me it means so much but the main thing is that I will do everything in my power to giver her all the things she needs while we are here on earth! No matter what she will always be my little ballerina!
 

The Spring (Real) Bunny Photograph fundraiser went really well! We were able to raise right at $700  total for both days. All who had their photos taken were very happy with their picture results and had a great time, especially the kids! The star of of the show was "Bob" Bob the Bunny, the kids loved Bob, he put in 2 long hard days of sitting in a Orange Terra-Cotta pot for almost each shoot, poor Bob :(  No but really Bob was a real trooper and did a great job the entire time :) 

We want to thank everyone that came and got their pictures taken and supported Emmy's cause, and a Special thanks to Beri and Louann of "Cherry Blossom Design" for taking their time and supporting us in doing the fundraiser for us and also Madelin for being such a huge help with Bob the Bunny, what a Blessing from the LORD!

By the way we were wanting to let everyone know where we are currently at in the fundraiser upto this point.

As of right now we are at $13,700! thats over 1/3 of $35,000 that we have raise since the first of the year! Not bad, not bad at all.

We will continue to keep you posted through-out of future fundraisers and with Emmy's condition.

                        Thank You for all you prayers and support!

                                                                        May God Bless

This new Ophthalmologist was very nice and sincere through out the whole appointment. She made us very feel very comfortable and at peace. She thought that little Emmy was so adorable and funny because she would not stop “talking” and was making silly sounds; Emmy was in a great mood!

The Opthamologist started Emmy's evaluation and was very pleased and excited on how well Emmy’s eyes are performing. She turned off the light in the exam room and used a small pen light to see how well Emmy would follow it. We were all very excited! She started following the little light and she thought it was funny :] The Opthamologist continued her evaluation and Emmy did a great job! She had her tough times, but the Opthamologist thought “for the sight that Emmy has she did great”. Then it came time for the exam part of the appointment and we started to get a little nervous.

At this point Emmy was almost asleep in her Daddy’s arms, so the Opthamologist went ahead and put drops in her eyes to dilate her pupils to further examine the nerves inside her eyes. It took about 20 minutes for her eyes to fully dilate then the Opthamologist came back to start her inner eye exam. After the Opthamologist finished her exam she told us that the optic nerves in her eyes were pink and healthy! She stated that the nerves were about one half the size or a little less than regular nerves of a child her age, but that they were very healthy! (We were very excited!).But, we still will not know what she can see until she is old enough to tell us. Over all the appointment went very well, she’s healthy and growing great.
 

Emmalyn is so full of life! She is so eager to learn and do new things, trying her hardest at everything she does. We are very blessed to have Emmy in our lives and as parents we will continue to care and support her through this trial in her life.

Growth and hormone issues are something that is often associated with ONH,  So the fact that she is growing so well is a great sign and a very big blessing. We also scheduled her MRI, this will confirm whether she has just ONH or ONH and SOD (Septo optic dysplasia). Because she is only 6 months old and does not know how to "be still" they will have to sedate her, as a Mother I am very nervous about that part but I know she is in the Lords hands!

On the bright side her Pediatrician is very happy about how well she is progressing.  She is also very excited for us to take Emmy to China and see how well the stem cells work for her!

We are asking for any donation you can possibly make towards the miracle of sight for our baby.

We want Emmy to know that we did everything possible for her to see the beauty of God’s creations, so she can give the glory to the Lord Jesus and see the faces of the ones who helped answer her prayer. And if times are financially hard for you (we understand), and you are not able to give, would you please remember to Pray for Emmy, for God’s will to be done, and for the Lord to answer our prayer for Emmy to have sight.

We believe our prayer is being answered, and we now have hope for Emmy. God has blessed us with new information from Emmy’s therapist that she is able to see something, even if it’s dark images, she is believed to be in the better 50% of the babies with ONH!

We are seeing miracles take place before our very eyes!! And now, we believe we are being lead to a procedure that is having amazing results in helping ONH babies improve, many to the point of sight!!!

Researched and offered by Beike Biotechnology in China for about 4 years now, the surgery involves stem cell transplants. Being pro-life people, our first question was “Where are the stem cells taken from?” They are not from aborted babies, but from the umbilical cords of live, healthy births taken exclusively from an umbilical cord bank.

As can be read in Louisa Lim's NPR article, Stem-Cell Therapy in China Draws Foreign Patients:

So far, 10 patients suffering from ONH have received the same stem-cell treatment in China, and doctors there claim that the vision of all 10 improved after the therapy.

We have even communicated with others that have already had this procedure done with miraculous results! One of our new friends took her 9 month old son who could only see bright lights and now can spot his little blue train from across the room!! They give all the glory to the Lord!!

At Emmy's 3 month pediatric check-up that her doctor made a comment about her eyes and recommended she see a pediatric ophthalmologist.

It was at that appointment that we heard the most devastating words we have ever heard, “Your baby has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH), we can’t be sure what she sees or if she  can see anything at all, and there is no treatment”.

The doctor’s file went on to state:

10 week old showing no visual attention; severe, bilateral optic nerve hypoplasia--very likely to have lifelong, severe visual handicap

How do you respond as parents when you get news like that? We were numb. We did  the only thing we knew to do…. we cried together, and then we prayed together.

Slowly, we began by telling family, and then friends, about the lifelong sentence that had been placed on this innocent sweet gift from God. “What do we do now?”, was our  prayer, and we began to lose hope.

Family and friends could see our struggle and immediately began to cover us with calls, cards and precious prayer. Our Associate Pastor had the entire church surround us like legions of angels, and we all prayed together as one for Emmy’s sight, and so started “Emmy’s Prayer for Sight”.

We picked the colors for her nursery, lavender and pink-lavender, and hung her name behind her bed in big white wooden letters from pink ribbons. We had planned everything to the smallest detail…..or so we thought.  Emmy decided to make her entrance early at 36 weeks 6 days, no apparent reason, guess she was just as anxious to see us as we were to see her!

After a three-day labor she showed her beautiful face to us on July 12, 2009. She started life fighting, being delivered with forceps, having some difficulty breathing, and a low blood sugar count. She was moved into the NIC unit (intensive care for babies) , where she repeatedly endured being stuck with needles to monitor her blood count. 

A tearful Mom was only able to spend a few minutes with Emmy in her first 15 hours here on earth, as Kristen had difficulties too from delivery which made it impossible for her to get out of bed.

Those few minutes were a gift from the nurses as they came up with a plan to  wheel mom’s bed down to NICU so that mom and baby could have an emotional bonding time together. Emmy was surrounded with lots of love, however, from Dad and other family members that stayed by her side every minute. Thankfully, after a few days in intensive care, she was able to unite in the hospital with us, and we were allowed to go home a few days later. =)

First, a brief moment to introduce ourselves and tell you about our beginning. We are a typical family, just like you and your neighbor. We met in 2005, but didn’t “fall for each other” until June of 2007, and then we fell hard and fast! We were engaged 6 months later and married the next November. 

Then, surprise!  found out we were expecting a little one shortly after the honeymoon! We were SO excited to welcome a new little blessing into our family since we both wanted 4 or 5, or more =] children.

The pregnancy went great, Kristen was very careful about everything she did or ate, and she felt pretty good. We had no reason to suspect what was about to happen next.