3-month-old eyesight

Katie had another appointment with the Retina Foundation this morning. They determined that, at five months old, she is now seeing at about the ability level of a three-month-old. So that's an encouraging improvement!

One of the ladies commented how much she has grown and how well she now seems to be "tracking" with her eyes. We've definitely noticed that, too. It's fun to watch her follow and reach for toys and faces that are moved around in her line of vision.

The nystagmus is still there. They said that it will likely settle into a pendulum-type movement rather than the random roving that we've seen over the last few months. This is predicted to improve slightly as she gets older and learns how to focus (i.e. reading).

We're planning to return home to Africa in mid-February, so we still have a couple of weeks at my parents' house in Texas.

We just enjoyed a visit from Steve's parents from Guatemala.


Here's a recent picture of Tim and Katie together.

Delayed Visual Maturation

Katie's opthamologist called today with the good news that her MRI came back completely normal. Since Katie came back with "a clean bill of health," as the doctor put it, her current recommendation is for us to continue to watch her and hope (pray!) that her vision continues to improve. The nystagmus may continue, even if her vision is otherwise normal. So we may have to address the nystagmus again someday if it causes problems with her ability to visually function, but we'll cross that bridge later.

We've already seen an obvious improvement in her visual responsiveness since we arrived here December 9th, and we attribute it to God's hand. We know that He has it all under control, and we continue to ask that He will heal her in His time. We would love to see her complete healing. We trust that His plan is best.