At His Feet.

What would I do without Ford? Besides the obvious (less laundry, more sleep), I would also live with a void in my heart and many life-lessons unlearned.

Ford is now crawling (mainly army crawling). I thought that this new found independence would free-up some of my time, but I am finding that he is even more reliant on me. We sit on the floor and play together. He goes from toy to toy; however, every 2 minutes, he crawls over and climbs up into my lap. I hug him and hold him, then put him down and start the process over again. If I dare get up and leave, he watches me leave the room and then cries.

Well today, I sat him in his bedroom with a variety of toys around. Instead of sitting on the floor with him, I decided to sit in the rocking chair and play Words-With-Friends on my iPhone (as any good mom would do). Initially, he played just fine. Then, as usual, about two minutes into playing, he looked up at me and started on his journey towards me (poor guy, that 5 feet probably seemed like a desert of space between us!). I was curious as to what he would do when he reached me, so I continued to sit and play on my phone (again, being a great mom ;)) He reached me, touched my feet, and just sat.

Then it hit me. God gave Ford the same desire for me that we are to have for our Heavenly Father (our Heavenly Parent). In every situation, in every step of life, our focus should be on Him. We should know where He is at in every situation. And if comfort is needed, simply crawl up to Him and sit at His feet.

Perhaps my longing for Ford to have more independence is just a sign of my own desire for too much independence from God. Is it a sign of weakness? No! It is a need, a yearning. And we all have it from the moment we are born. In Matthew, Jesus tells us that unless we become like Children, we will not enter the Kingdom of God! I so-often think it is my job to teach Ford everything there is to know. The irony is, God uses Ford to teach me everything there is to know in my heart.

Matthew 18:2-6
The Message (MSG)

"For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me. "But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you'll soon wish you hadn't. You'd be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don't have to make it worse—and it's doomsday to you if you do."

Duane's Syndrome

We have noticed that Ford's right eye often crosses when he turns his head. For the first three months, this can be normal, but the pediatrician said that if it continues when he is six months old, we need to see a specialist. Well, six months came and Ford still crossed that poor little right eye. So, we made an appointment. We saw Dr. Sherman today (very friendly!), who is a pediatric eye specialist, and he dialated Ford's eyes. Almost immediately, he told us that Ford has Duane's Syndrome (aka DR syndrome or Duane's Retraction Syndrom). I will include two links to help explain, but from my basic understanding, what it means is that Ford's left eye has an inability to turn outward any further than looking straight on. Because of this, his right eye will often go inward too far to overcompensate. The cause for this condition is unknown. They do know that it happens during gestation, and the cause is either environmental or hereditary. Because the cranial nerves and ocular muscles are developed between the 3rd-8th week of pregnancy, that is when they believe the disturbance happens.

There is no simple solution or fix. Ford will just learn to cope. Instead of being able to "look" left, he will have to turn his head to see. Simple things will help him as he grows...requesting that he sit on the left side of a classroom, for example. And certain occupations are ruled out...surgeon, pilot, etc. Additionally, we need to get his hearing checked. Approximately 20% of people with DR syndrome also have hearing problems. (But, I think he hears fine.)

As a parent, I just do not want Ford to be made-fun-of. I realize that there will be times when his eye will cross, no matter how used to it he becomes, and kids can be cruel. But it could be worse...so we are thankful that God made it obvious enough to catch early, so we can get some other things checked out, and we can help him learn how to adjust to it.

Below are some links about DR Syndrome:
http://www.genome.gov/11508984

http://www.mrcophth.com/eyeclipartchua/duanesyndrome.html