Look at that smile! How can you not be inspired by that smile… Since Micaela (Miki) was a new born she has never ceased to surprise me… She has already defied the odds to get to this point, with her incredible determination and resilience. As a new born baby she used to push herself with her feet until her head was touching the top of her cot…she was already showing amazing strength and perseverance on not giving up until she had reached her goal. She had no problems latching on during breast-feeding and she always had this fascination with her hands.

Early on she developed glue ear but she didn’t let this stop her…she would still bring herself up to standing and attempt to take a few steps even when she was one and a half, even though the glue-ear inevitably meant she lost balance. This never stopped her trying and she became very good at climbing by clinging onto things to pull herself up. She would climb to the top of the sofa showing considerable strength in her arms and developed quite a strong pincer grip in her hands early on.

Over the years, she has succumbed to several operations under general, to have shah grommets inserted to help her hearing and improve her balance, and once she had the first set of grommets fitted age 3 her balance was so much better she started running, rather than walking. It was a joy to see her finally walking and expressing herself through movement and spinning around on herself for hours on end. From an early age, she has shown a love of music always keeping the rhythm and beat whenever a familiar tune comes on the radio, enjoying joining in with actions and clapping to some of her favourite nursery rhymes and songs. She loves dancing and spinning around to the music and her double-jointedness makes her very able at yoga and gymnastics too. She loves being outdoors and is extremely physical but music is what really makes her come alive!

Her love of water is also significant and she is a very able swimmer, particularly under water! She is able to physically pull herself out of the pool with the sheer strength of her arms and swimming dolphin and doing summersaults in the water are second nature to her. She bounces up and down on the trampoline with so much force and stamina, being able to sit and stand in quick succession too…

In recent years, she has become used to a daily growth hormone injection, as well as being used to having needles poked in her from an early age. She has never batted an eyelid and she takes these injections routinely in a very grown up way by even putting herself in position! Even when she was ill with sepsis she never once got upset and was such a brave little soldier in the hospital, even with the cannula in her arm and being put through so many blood tests and jabs.

Every day she has the ability to smile and clap her hands because she has such a joyful way of seeing the world. I am also incredibly lucky she has such a strong bond with her sister Julia who is only two years older than her…they are very close and spend a lot of time together. Julia even said a few years ago how Miki has taught her so much already, including being thankful and this just warms my heart! How can we not want more people like her to infect our world???

Miki’s incredible smile 🙂