Ari the Great

I thought i would take a few min. to give everyone involved in Ari's Gan Izzy Project a post of who Ari is. Ari was born with trisomy 9 mosaic,a rare chromosomal disorder. his diagnosis was a shock and took nearly a year of testing,medical scares and many therapists and doctors to diagnose. children with this disorder do not thrive,and most often result in death before the first birthday. From the moment Ari was born he struggled and worked every day, every min, and every sec. he couldn't coordinate his suck and swallow-( Alonna took care of that)and he had severe medical issues related to this. threw aris determination and perseverance he began to thrive. surpassing all the doctors expectations (when i first saw Ari one neurologist said- he was a lump of clay-) every time something threatened to take our Ari away- someone above watched and fought for Ari. tracht goot vet zien goot,easy to say -but hard to do,but when i looked at Ari ,his smile, all was good.by the time Ari was three he had been threw early intervention with step by step and the crew of chanie fiddle. and just a few weeks before his third birthday ari started walking-making him one of the only children with his disorder walking with out the use of a walker before the age of three (thanx to surgery on his spine and Leslie his p.t) his upsherin was a celebration! and a celebration of life- for in 3 years Ari had been put threw the ringer- many hospital stays ,procedures,surgery's and allergic reactions. he graduated that day- at dougies with all his family ,friends and therapists. It was time for ari to go to school and otsar became his school. words cannot even express the amount of love and care and devotion that the otsar staff showed to Ari-whom they all nicknamed little tzadik and Mr. America(due to his waving skills!) he thrived and pushed threw mountains and he conquered. his biggest test came when a simple bronchoscopy turned bad and he stopped breathing- even on a respirator Ari fought along with his zaidys and bubbys in himel to survive- and threw hashems kindness he pulled threw and went right back to school within a week! that's my Ari-(the weather helper) . when Ari turned 5 we faced a huge decision. with all of our family in Florida-and the school system changing we made a bold step and moved to boca raton Florida. leaving behind otsar,his friends ,his therapist and his doctors (thank u Dr. rosen) .we said goodbye to chayale and levi eckhous of the friendship circle and all of his friends (laimy,shuey,marvin,yisroel meir,and tova). but we moved forward -and that's how it went- Ari thrived and his health improved in sunny Florida. and best of all his quality of life improved by being next to his bubby and zaidy ,his great bubby rochel and all his aunts ,uncles and cousins. support is the biggest thing a special needs family can get- and that's just what we got! as hard as it was-we knew the right decision was made and Ari was enrolled in public school- bec. there were no available schools that would be the best place for Ari that were Jewish. and we were proud of our Ari- our very own shliach-going to school everyday with his kippa and tzitzis.!!! many teachers came for shabbos and.....my heart was filled because my little tzadik was flourishing. with in the year ari was sitting at a desk and making an x with a green crayon. but best of all he began to expand his sign language(Ari cannot speak and has a hearing loss in both ears he usually wears his blue and green hearing aides) he began communicating in ways that i only dreamed of. and we were happy, we were moving forward and we were proud of all the hard work Ari was doing. summer time was starting to arrive an i instantly knew that Ari needed to be a part of Gan Izzy- but how, where, a lot of questions remained. and so............(must cook for shabbos be back as soon as i can)