Horse-Riding Lessons

Savannah has talked about taking horse-riding lessons for a couple years. It used to be that she would ask us to buy a horse. We told her how much work it was and how fast the poop accumulated, but that usually didn't deter her. Eventually we said, "Well, how 'bout lessons, instead, someday?" Our mistake. From that point on, she had talked about lessons. This Christmas, her favorite gift was a certificate for horse-riding lessons. According to her, "It's the best gift I've ever gotten."

There is a horse riding club right here in town, just 5 minutes away from our house that we take her to. You'll notice in the picture that she has her coat on and looks bundled up. The lessons occur in a large barn but the barn is not really heated. She loves it all the same, though.

(It isn't extremely bright in there, so you'll have to excuse the graininess of the pictures.) When I took her for one of the lessons, I was kind of nervous, considering my horse-riding accident last spring. Watching her go around the fence without any help slowly built up my confidence in her.

Meanwhile, she goes on loving horses and still talking about a career centered around horses.

Savannah

For the next two days, I'm going to highlight our four beautiful blessings from God: our children. Today, I start with our oldest: Savannah. Savannah turned 9 this year and is too quickly growing up as you can see in this portrait below.

Savannah loves all things horses. Here she is riding Star at her uncle Rick's farm.
I'm not kidding when I say "loves" horses:
Savannah is also our avid outdoors person. She'll stay out all day if you let her. Here she is with her first catch of the day at our Elliott family reunion.
You'll also notice in these pictures a strange device she is wearing. We discovered this year that she has scoliosis and will have to wear this brace until she stops growing. I wrote a lot about this trial in our life earlier this year on this blog.

Savannah is also the leader of our little artists. Here she is below with a butterfly she painted on silk at an art camp at Sojourn Community Church this summer.

She also wanted you to see this large silk banner that she helped her class paint.

Savannah's accident was a big highlight of her life in November! If you hadn't heard, she fell off a diving board at our school's rec center pool and was taken to the hospital for stitches. Here she is being assessed by the medics.
Here's the Gurney Girl being rolled away!
Here she is being loaded into the ambulance.
And, praise the Lord, here she is with the only effects of the fall: 3 stitches in the chin.
All has healed up nicely and matches the little scar on my chin where I hurt it jumping off the stairs backwards at First Baptist. We've decided to start our own club. Not sure what to call it though: the chin club or the clutz club!

Scoliosis

Scoliosis is a condition where your spine has an unnatural curve in it and results in a misalignment of nearly every other bone in your body. The curve can be either an "s-shaped" (a thoracic) or "c-shaped" (a lumbar) curve.

At Savannah's last well-child doctor visit in Minneapolis, the doctor discovered that she has scoliosis and is bad enough that she should be x-rayed. After checking the x-rays, she recommended that Savannah go to the Twin Cities Spine Center. We went there and they did some initial checking and said that with her current degree of curvature, given her rate of growth, she could have a very bad case of scoliosis by the time she is done growing.

Once we moved here to Louisville she started going to the Norton Spine Institute and working with a doctor who trained under her doctor in Minneapolis. If the scoliosis is advanced enough there are only 2 treatment options--bracing or surgery. Surgery is reserved for very bad cases. Savannah's curve is not bad enough to warrant surgery but is enough to require a brace. There are different kinds of braces made depending on the type of scoliosis you have. Savannah has both thoracic and lumbar and was custom fitted for a brace that she must wear 23 hours per day (except for when athletic activities are too difficult to perform with it--then she can remove it).

Below you can see Savannah sporting her new equipment. The point of the brace is to stop the curve from getting worse while she grows--so she has to wear this brace until her body stops growing. It is uncomfortable at times and can be hot to wear in this humidity, yet if she doesn't wear it, the results can be dramatic.

Sabrina has also been diagnosed with this condition and is being monitored to see if she will need a brace. While being monitored she is undergoing chiropractic care to help her remain flexible and potentially help improve the condition.

This has been a very interesting trial in our life. If you read my blog at all, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you, though, that I believe there are connections between the Gospel and Scoliosis. I hope to expound in those in the coming days. In the meantime, you can read more about scoliosis at these links:

• WebMD
• KidsHealth
• SpineKids

Scoliosis and the Gospel Pt. 1
Scoliosis and the Gospel Pt. 2
Scoliosis and the Gospel Pt. 3
Scoliosis and the Gospel Pt. 4
Scoliosis and the Gospel Pt. 5