Happy 10th Birthday Katie!

This is a couple of days late.  Spring Break has been wonderful, but it does change my routine a bit, so I haven't had the time to really sit down and finish this.  But I have to make sure to take a few minutes to recognize my sweet Kathryn for the blessing she is in my life and our family's life.

Katie was born ten years ago entirely deaf.  We don't know why or what caused it, but after having her tested several times the audiologist in Rolla explained that all of his tests showed that she could not hear anything in a normal range.  He told us to prepare for the worst as far as her hearing was concerned.  So we did.  We did tons of research and had a good plan to move forward, learn sign language, and get her to the best school available to help her reach her maximum potential in this life.  We were sent to see a specialist in St. Louis to figure out the extent of the hearing damage, and before we left we took time so that Herman could give Katie a blessing.  You read about the miraculous healings that Jesus performed in the Bible, and you hear about these amazing healings that take place in the world.  I have no doubt that those sorts of things do occur.  We had absolutely no expectation of Katie being healed at all.  We were ready and willing to learn to be excellent parents to a child with a hearing disability.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.  So when Herman was giving her the blessing he wasn't asking for the Lord to take away her disability.  He wasn't begging that this struggle be taken away from her or us.  We were just hoping that the diagnostic tests would go well and we would be able to leave the office with a clear plan for the future.  But in the middle of the blessing Herman quietly said, "I bless you that you can hear."  There were no fireworks.  It was not some massive voice of power from on high calling down the blessings of heaven.  It was just a passing statement.  When he finished I cocked open one eye and asked if I heard him right.  Herman said that I had.  It made him a bit nervous to have made such a statement in the middle of a blessing.  I mean that is a heavy promise to make when the top guy in Rolla had already explained that Katie would probably always be deaf.  We tried to justify the statement away a bit by saying that it must have just meant that she would be able to hear with cochlear implants or something like that.  Sometimes we show too little faith, I'm afraid.  This was one of those times.  Well, to make a long story short we headed to St. Louis where they did a brain scan while testing all sorts of sounds with Katie, and after everything they said that she had perfect hearing.  Hurray!  Maybe she was always able to hear and the tests were just failures.  Maybe not.  I don't know.  But I feel in my heart that, for whatever reason, Heavenly Father chose to have Katie be healed of this issue.  Her ears have never been perfect.  Of all my children she has had the most difficulty in hearing consistently.  It affected her speech and even after operations to try and fix some of the stuffiness in her ears, she still suffers a bit from lack of hearing.  But overall she has been able to function normally in this world, even with a bit of hearing loss, and I count that as a real life miracle of God.  I am grateful for that so much.

Today Katie has turned into an amazing young woman who is eager to grow up much faster than she should.  She has a joy for living that can be a bit contagious.  So in honor of her tenth birthday, here are ten things that I love about Katie:

1. Her beautiful singing voice.  Katie loves to sing everything -- especially Disney songs and good top 40 type songs.  She has one of those voices that really shows emotion when she belts things out.  Last year she got the opportunity of a lifetime when she was cast as Gretl in the high school's production of The Sound of Music, and I was so proud of her singing.  She showed absolutely no shyness at all as she sang her heart out in front of huge crowds each night.  It was wonderful!  I need to get her some voice lessons so that she can nurture this natural talent.
2. Her easy ability to interact with those in need.  Katie is best friends with a girl who has some condition that I can't name, but basically this little girl and her twin sister will not interact with others verbally.  To me it seems like extreme shyness, but it is actually much more than this.  But Katie has somehow found a way to communicate with these girls, and after a few months of one-sided communication, all of the sudden these girls started talking to Katie, and now they never stop.  They are great friends.
3. Her fashion sense.  I'll admit that sometimes Herman or I have to lay down the law and refuse to allow her to wear some of her more creative outfits, but it is fascinating to watch her roam a clothing store or go through her (and sometimes her sisters') clothes to come up with a new idea for an outfit.
4. Her enthusiasm for life.  Katie loves jumping into new experiences with gusto.  
5. Her phone manners.  I love to hear Katie talk on the phone.  She sounds so grown up in so many ways, but she also just sounds so full of light.  It's sweet.
6. Her great relationship with her brother Hyrum.  That hasn't always been the case, but they have recently bonded over their mutual love of Star Wars -- especially the prequels for some strange reason.  I love to hear them making Star Wars plans together.
7. Her love for me.  Katie seems much more attached to me than the other Blau kids.  It's not that they are attached.  It's just that Katie is constantly looking for reasons to sit by me or hang out with her.  She is very concerned about trying to do things like me.  It's a bit flattering and a bit daunting at the same time.
8. Her obsession with the color pink.  She is very concerned about differences between boys and girls, and right now boys are in the "icky cootie" stage in her opinion.  She is very concerned that she be all girl, and even though I explain to her that it is okay for girls to wear blue she will not have any of it.  Consequently, when I do laundry I always have a huge pile of reds/pinks to do in order to cover Katie's wardrobe choices.  I wonder how long this will last.
9. Her ability to roll with whatever life sends her way.  Now, to be honest, Katie isn't a completely laid back child.  She can get awfully unhappy if events don't go exactly has she has planned out in her mind.  But she also meets some of her biggest disappointments with a philosophical bent that helps her to work her way through them.  Ultimately I believe that this side of her personality is going to shine forth and allow her to make the best life possible for herself with a smile on her face.
10. The way that she expresses herself through her eyelashes.  I can always tell when Katie is telling a lie. Her eyelashes show the lie.  I can also tell when she is feeling an excess of emotion.  Her eyelashes tell.  I can tell when she is super excited about something or incredibly confused.  Her eyelashes tell.  It's hard to explain how, but I can just tell.  She is going to have to learn to be a very straight forward and honest young woman, because she is never going to cut it as a fraud in any way.  Luckily, she has beautiful lashes to tell her story.

I love my Katie Bell!

Katie leading our tour through the Forbidden City in Beijing