I know that many of you have been praying for Noah & have been waiting for an update. The news we heard last has made it difficult for me to share what is going on. On March 5th we went back up to Buffalo to see the pediatric eye-specialist. The "wonderful" dr. spent about 7 minutes with us & told us this, "He's legally blind, he's likely to be retarded; won't ever drive a car... have a nice day." Jeff & I were left speechless - as we knew he had the nystagmus, but didn't know we'd ever hear "legally blind" - we had never even thought that, for Noah acts like any other happy lil' guy. After contacting our pediatrician, we now have this specialist's 2 reports on Noah: the 1st time he saw him he wrote his vision was 20/800, then this last visit was 20/200 - which is an "improvement of 600." We have a wonderful pediatrician & he has told us that because Noah is only 8 months old, that it's all merely a guess; Noah can't read an eye chart, tell us exactly what he sees, etc. So, the past month has been a whirlwind. A man from the NYS Commission for the Blind has been here, a lady from the county's department of Health, and a TVI (Teacher of the Visually Impaired) was here on Saturday. The TVI was very nice & said that Noah is doing VERY well - he tracks, he picks toys up, plays with them, crawls, stands up in his crib, etc - and we will just be working on helping him see distance better. Likely, when he is 3 or 4, he'll be wearing glasses. She also stated that Noah is a "learner."

It's a lot to take in. I've been doing research on colleges that offer Master's Degrees to become a TVI - which is likely what I'll persue. I'm thankful for Noah, the strengths he possesses, the joy he brings, & that his vision isn't as horrible as that "specialist" made it sound. We have learned that being legally blind simply means your vision is at 20/200 or higher. We are hopeful that his vision will improve; we have a God who is the great physician & healer. We go back up to Buffalo on April 24th to see a DIFFERENT specialist, for a second opinion. Please keep us in your prayers, as well as Noah.