We made our annual trip down to the Shriner's Hospital in September for Grace. Six years ago we brought Grace home from India at 19 months old with bilateral club feet. It is amazing how fast time goes! Normally club feet are treated at birth with casting or even as simply as reversing the shoes on a child's feet. Being that Grace had no medical care for her feet they had become severely twisted by the time she got home. When she would try to walk she would actually walk on the top of her feet.
Within the first month of her homecoming we had started doctoring at the Shriner's Hospital in the Twin Cities. Before Grace came home I had done quite a bit of research on club feet and found that if surgery was need for correction there was often times pain that continued for the patients entire life. I specifically asked God to correct her feet without the surgery.
7 months of casting, several parasite treatments (parasites were what actually saved her from having any surgery ~ who would have thought we would be thanking God for parasites?!) an investigative surgery that resulted in only an achilles tendon release on both heel cords, no foot reconstruction, another few weeks of hard casts, and 4 years of braces later, we now only have to visit Dr. Aadalen and Chaz every year for a check-up. She was the second oldest child that they had treated for club feet using the Ponsetti method that did not need surgery for correction. One of these days I'll take the time to finish writing our
adoption story and go into more
detail, but for today we're just praising the Lord again for His amazing hand of healing and straightening these little feet.