Madison's Mom and Nanna decided from the very start that we would let Madison experience as much of life as possible. We took her to New Orleans, where all of our family is, for Christmas 1999. Most of our family had only seen pictures of her up until then, some had traveled to St. Louis when she was in the hospital and had not seen her since she had been taken off life support. It was a good trip, our family was thrilled to see and be able to hold Madison, even though it was rather sad to know that she could not see us. That trip to New Orleans also gave us the opportunity to learn about hyperbaric oxygen treatments.

 Madison had her hyperbaric oxygen treatments in New Orleans. While we were there, we took Madison to Mardi Gras, she loved the crowds. We went to the park, and she rode a pony. She went swimming everyday for therapy. We never let Madison's disabilities keep her from experiencing things that all children love. We feel that Madison has experienced all the hate, all the anger and rage of a lifetime, and we make it our mission to make sure that she is surrounded only by people who will give her love and encouragement. She goes to the movies with us, to the baseball games, where we go, Madison goes. Madison has the sweetest personality ever. Her smile warms the hearts of all who see her. Madison is an angel, and she blesses our lives everyday.

Madison's disabilities do present quite a challenge for her everyday. She has done very well until April 2002. Because she has a spinal cord injury, she developed scoliosis of her spine. This has been our greatest problem. Despite surgery on her spine when she was 2 years old, her spine is curved to 90 degrees. That causes her lungs to be compromised. She can not expand her lungs, especially on the right side enough to exchange air. This caused her to have 5 episodes of pneumonia this year. Three times, she had to be on life support to breathe. In October 2002, we had to agree to a tracheostomy to help her breathe more effectively. Although this was tough for us to do, it saved her life. Since the surgery, she has been recovering and is beginning to to well in her therapies again. The sad part of having a trach is that we can no longer hear her little voice when she coos and "talks". We can, however, "read" her lips and we respond to her coos just the same.

In the Fall 2003, Madison started getting Botox injections in her back and spine to relieve the scoliosis. What a Godsend that was! Because of her young age, Madison cannot have surgery on her spine again until she is older. The Botox injections do not actually straighten her spine, it works to relax the muscles around her spine to prevent the scoliosis from getting any worse.

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