Charity RayLynn

Charity is my second baby. I really thought she was a boy. Well before she was born. My aunt had a dream that she was a boy and I had a dream..When she was born there was no disappointment for me though, I was just glad she was healthy. That lasted all of two weeks. At two weeks I noticed she was losing weight not gaining. I would try to feed her more often but she kept losing. She was born at 6lbs 6 ozs. When she was 5 weeks I really started getting scared. I think god really protected me from seeing how bad she really was, but I saw enough to be scared. I could see her ribs when I changed her diaper and her stomach looked bloated to me. When she was 6 weeks old I brought her to Colorado to see my mom. My mom had me show her to an older Sister here in Colorado. She recommended that I try to feed her with an eye dropper, so I started that every hour as much as she would take and I started to see an improvement. We were at my moms for just a couple days and the authorities came out. They made me take her to the hospital, where they could find nothing wrong. They just diagnosed her with failure to thrive. Which meant she decided she didn't want to eat anymore, or that's how they explained it. A week later I had to take her to a specialist, where I was told she was born without a sucking reflux. She was 7 weeks old and they didn't know how she had made it that long. They started putting me and her together through classes so I could teach her to suck on her bottle. Finally at eight weeks she started taking to the bottle and eating. So I went back home to Kansas where once again the authorities came out. They asked me to take her to the hospital again, but she had gained two pounds and I saw her doing much better. I asked for a court order, and they removed her from my custody. She was gone for 72 hours before we knew where she was. Then we were able to go see her. The doctor told me she was so delayed in her growth that we would never have a normal child. She would be mentally retarded, and probably would not be able to attend school with other children. He also said we probably would never see her walk. Apparently a baby needs to gain so much weight in their first couple months for their brain growth. But apparently he didn't know my God.
Well at 15 months Charity proved them wrong, she started walking. Then I decided to teach her at home and surprise surprise she was able to learn. Finally in Kindergarten I decided to put her in public school. She did pretty good. She was a little slower, but she was getting it.
Charity is now 12 almost 13, she probably is not what you would call normal (ha ha joking) but she's deffinately NOT mentally retarded. She bakes the best cookies and brownies. Also cakes and she can make almost any meal on the stove top. She has been such an inspiration and light in my life.
Charity is a caregiver of the highest sort and one day that will be one of her gifts in the faith I am sure.
She has a faith that is so plain to see and she wants the faith in her life. I feel it's a gift to be her mother.