Springing forward

Life has been in fast forward these last couple of months. The introduction of the voice output device or "GoTalk" as it is named has been a welcomed and transformative addition to Scarlet's augmentative communication. Right now, I am the only one holding her back. As soon as Scarlet's speech therapists gave us the necessary pages to add to the device, Scarlet has sprinted out of the communication gate, never to return again. At first all Scarlet wanted was t.v. Now she is actively requesting, "eat", "drink", "ball", "brush", "book", "music" and "washroom". When Scarlet requests "book" I place a page into the device with pictures of her favorite books. When she presses those pictures, the titles of the book is said for her. She is beyond excited about this. At night, when we usually do our longer book readings she looks for the GoTalk as we near the end of her book in order to make another choice. It is funny, I knew which books were her favorite, but I didn't know which ones among those favorites would be her prefered books. It is just nice to find those little things out!
In addition, she is now able to choose which movies she would like to watch. She was getting horribly frustrated with her sing-along-song videos as they were always what we played for her. They had been her favorite for a while, but now, she wants Tinkerbell or Elmo. It is so exciting to watch her dance around with excitement at the power of choice.
If I were able to just let her request and immediately respond to her requests (which must be done in the initial stages in order for the device to be motivating) I feel sure that Scarlet would be communicating non-stop, just like her brother and sister. The great thing about GoTalk is that there is no whine voice... my silver lining.
An amazing thing is starting to happen with Scarlet this past week. As she is pushing the button she is starting to say the word represented on that button. "Ball" has come out very clearly and today she said the "T" part of the word "t.v." before pushing the button. We ran all the way downstairs to the "t.v."! I should also mention that she is using the GoTalk at school as well.
Scarlet is doing so well with the device that her speech therapist has ordered the next one up for her. She should be getting a better device in July and the great news is that it is leased through the government, so there is no cost to us. This device will allow Scarlet to have more communication capability. We have neared capacity with the GoTalk.
I can only say thank you to God for the progress we have been seeing, it is so exhilerating to watch Scarlet take off in this area.
Another great thing has been happening. Kinark, the government agency who will eventually fund Scarlet's therapy, has told me that she is now only number 10 on their wait list. This could still take months, but the end is near. Scarlet has been on this wait list since she was three years old. She will be six years old in July. This will mean that at least 20 hours of IBI therapy will be funded by Kinark!!! This is more therapy than we are now receiving. The more IBI the better for progress.
It has been such an amazing process to take each month and pray, saying "God, you know what we need!" then watch Him prompt someone to take care of Scarlet's therapy. He does truly take care of our needs through his people. We are humbled and awed every time.