Zoey Elise Kello a.k.a Zoey B or Beanie Bear

John and I were blessed with our second beautiful little girl Zoey on February 24th at 5:05 p.m. She weighed 6 lbs and 8 oz and 19 1/2 inches ( the exact same as Natalie) and had a head full of hair. She had so much hair that she was wearing barrette at a week old because it was in her eyes!! She was absolutely gorgeous!! She reminded me so much of my Grandma Hertenstein, which we shortly lost after Zoey was born. I always say that God gave us Zoey to fill my Grandma's space. Zoey was much different than Natalie as a baby. I knew from the moment that we brought her home that there was something wrong. It seemed as if she couldn't hear anything that was going on. She never would focus on us when we were talking or smiling at her but she would hear loud noises and would scream. We tried to avoid car trips since Zoey would scream all the way there and all the way back on most trips. Zoey was crawling around the room at 4 months old and was getting into everything by 6 months old!! She was just a "different' baby. She was in the hospital once at 2 weeks old and she spent her first birthday in the hospital with Rota virus-- we almost lost Zoey because she was SO sick with it. At about 1 1/2 Zoey was still not making any sounds or attempting to talk!! Our pediatrician at the time just didn't seem to have the "time" to take to find out was wrong. By 2 John and I decided that it was time to switch pediatrician and that is when we meet Dr. Hayford and he has been an absolute blessing to us!! He got Zoey enrolled in First Steps right away, scheduled a sleep study with in a month and would call and check on us at least once a week!! Once Zoey started first steps she saw 3 therapist a week and started talking in about 6 months and was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction!! It was amazing to see the progress that Zoey had made in a year but the downfall was that when Zoey turned 3 she was no longer eligible for services through First Steps so once again we didn't know where to go! We tried to see if she still needed services by going without them for a month or 2 and it was obvious that she needed something and needed it fast! ( There were many days that I would have to call my mom or a friend to come and get her because I was going to lose it). We then ended up at Rylie for some more testing and hopefully for more extensive diagnosis. Rylie told John and I that there was nothing wrong with her and it was all behavioral issues. We knew that that was probably not the case but went with it to see what would happen ( We would take any help we could get). We started seeing a behavioral counselor every 3 weeks-- which was a joke because he was just telling us how to discipline Zoey and on top of that our insurance didn't cover the doctor and it was 89 dollars at least every 3 weeks. At this point I just was ready to give up. I felt that no one wanted to help and maybe I was just expecting to much of Zoey after all she was only 3. I did a lot of research and decided that we needed to have her tested for Autism-- she didn't fit everything for it but she was pretty close. This is when we got in touch with Damar Services and they re our second life saving next to First Steps!! After setting up and appointment they were out the next week and did an Autistic evaluation on Zoey and before they even left the lady looked at me and said " Honey she is definitely Autistic and we will be out next week to discuss where we go from here." I could feel my face getting red and trying so hard to fight back the tears. As soon as the door shut I whisked Zoey up and just sat and cried!! As much as we knew it, it was just so hard to swallow! I kept asking myself "how could God do this to such a sweet, beautiful little girl. She doesn't deserve this and neither do we." My mom kept telling me that "God, only gives us what we can handle and he knew that you could handle this!" So with that said, Zoey has made leaps and bounds and brings a smile to my face every single day!! She is now enrolled in Developmental Preschool and is loving it!! She loves riding the bus,cleaning things, the color blue, playing with her friends, and will be 4 in just a couple of weeks (she would love to skip 4 and go straight to5). I have to thank my family and my closest friends (you know who you are) for excepting Zoey and loving her to the fullest!