First steps, can't be?!

3, that's how old Valencia is, just three years old. Already she has endured so much, casting, bracing, surgery, testing, you name it she had it. She had a medical record file equivalent to an eighty year old. She had a file full of all the things that make the next milestone possible. Valencia would soon be walking!

Up until now, Valencia hasn't walked yet. She didn't really have an opportunity to learn how what with casts, braces, and surgeries her legs were never really "free" long enough to learn. Developmentally we knew she would be behind, but considering everything she had to go through we were never really sure if she'd be able to walk or how well. Imagine our surprise to see her just kind of take off one day. She remembered the feeling from the dinosaur walker and she did it her way, Valencia's way. 

Now, it's awesome to be able to tell you that we have had both then and now an amazing village of supporters through all of her trials and successes. This was no different. I remember walking into work all excited to share that Valencia took her first official steps on her own, everyone immediately cheering, except for one. This one particular mom had a baby around the same age as Valencia and upon hearing of my news made the statement, "She just started walking at 3?, my daughter was 1 when she started walking." Y'all I'm not ashamed to say that I saved her life that day. Tehe.🤣 Just no sooner she said those words my village of supporters were ready to jump and take her down! They were shocked that anyone would be so oblivious to the fact of exactly how monumental this moment truly was. I stepped in the way of them and said wait, maybe she doesn't know all there is to know about Valencia and her trials, let's give her the benefit of the doubt. We've worked together all year, and anyone who knows me knows that I share pretty much everything about V, but hey, some people like to live in their own bubble and forget there is a whole world with other people in it. 

Yep, it was a double victory kind of week, Valencia started walking and I was out there saving lives. in the words of Ice Cube, "today was a good day." 😎

 We are "WALKING" and "ROLLING"

Fast forward to when she is 2 years old and she still isn't' walking, crawling sure but walking no. She would get around however she found a way and she was still small enough to be carried around or put into one of those little umbrella strollers when necessary. Until one day...

My mom and I used to love to go to garage sales, so we would do that on pretty Saturdays whenever we could. Well we came across a little dinosaur walker that doubled as a seat scooter exactly like the one pictured below, she bought it for like $5.00. When we got it home we cleaned it up and put it front of V. We showed her how she could scoot on it and then showed her how she could use it to push it, (she used to knee walk so we thought she could push it instead of use it as a "walker" since she wasn't doin that yet) or so we thought. She stood up using the dinosaur walking and took off walking, just like that. No walking behind so she wouldn't fall, no stumbling, nothing. She stood up and walked with that little dinosaur everywhere around the house. My mom and I just stood their in disbelief tears rolling down our cheeks because this was the first time we saw Valencia using her legs to walk. We were stunned and completely happy. 

That little 5 dollar dinosaur became such a blessing to us that day. Valencia was walking, with a walker (per se) sure but she was still up moving those little legs they way God intended. It was a beautiful day and one we do not forget or take for granted. One thing to remember when dealing with a disability is that you always need to focus on the abilities. The little points of movement that otherwise weren't there, the smiles that can come unexpectedly, just the small victories that most can take for granted. Yes, we've been walking and rolling through our abilities ever since.