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Around September 2003,
when Clara was 12 months old, Chuck and I noticed that our
beautiful, bright-eyed daughter
had begun avoiding eye contact, she never pointed or waved
"bye-bye", she flapped her arms a lot and even though she
had just begun walking, she would walk around on her toes. We had
her checked out and our world suddenly got very small and focused
inward on family with Clara's diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental
Disorder (PDD). Or simply, autism.
Chuck and I immediately
began researching therapies and techniques for handling autism and
were overwhelmed by the enormous and conflicting amount of
information. Meanwhile, it was getting increasingly difficult to
have Clara in conventional childcare and we were constantly
exhausted between working full time and Clara's erratic sleep (or
lack of); so I quit my job with Hopkins School District in February
to stay home and focus on Clara because the one thing that the
experts can agree on is the importance of early and intense
intervention.
Clara is now 2 years old and
recognizes many signs although she will only use 2 or 3 consistantly.
And although she doesn't speak yet, she has begun to show us that
she can understand a lot! We have seen significant progress so far,
especially with Clara's eye contact and her personal relationships
with Chuck and I. She is still working on things like imitating,
following directions, stacking and sorting and of course, speech. We
have great hope that with continued intensive therapy, Clara can
close the gap between her and her peers as much as possible.
Although going down to one income is a
scary thing, we are determined to give Clara the best chance at life
possible. We continue to assert ourselves towards our extremely
oppositional insurance company and are taking advantage of the
programs that are available to Clara. We hope that you will consider
buying a CD, as a portion of the proceeds will go to help cover
Clara's medical costs.
Thank-you,
Sherri, Chuck and Clara Leyda
CDs are
$15 plus $2 shipping and handling. You can order CDs thru PayPal
(quantities are adjusted on the PayPal pages):
or
you can order by
email or postal mail.
Shipping information and number of CDs should be included in the order and with the check. CDs will be shipped when payment is
received.
For Clara Fund CD orders contact
Sherri
Leyda at
324 Second Street N.
Delano, MN 55328
(763) 972-2341
or
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