Unplanned, but still very loved.
I’ve always been told that the Stork dropped me off!
Wile I was not truly carried in a basinette and left on my families front porch, my arrival was just as surprising.
After several years of Social Workers evalulations and a few I’m sorry, but never mind
s, In the middle of the night, my parents finally received the call they had been waiting for.
Are you still interested in adopting a newborn baby?
Born in a Blizard!
I was born at the beginning of March during the huge 1994 snowstorm.
While my anxious mother watched me through the nursery window, my father still had to travel back and forth to work.
Babies birthing babies
I of course need to thank my biological mother and offer a ton of credit to her.
At 14-years-old, choosing to give your daughter up so she can have a better chance at success than you can provide at this time must have felt like an impossible decision.
She knew right from the start that I was going to sing though.
The name at the end of my Basinet was Miranda Rene Lambert
Yep, that’s right! For a total of three days (in 1994), there were two children named Miranda Lambert
in the US.
Surprise!
When I was about 6-months old, my mom was carrying me in the laundry basket down the stairs when she noticed that my eyes weren’t moving normally.
She saw that my eyes were tracking lights as we moved, but if she waved her hand near my face I wouldn’t follow her movements or react to them.
Of course, for a new mama this situation was nothing short of terrifying!
Things are different now, but at that time to have your child see an eye doctor early, you had to have a referral from your primary care physician.
After attending several appointments where my parents were dismissed over and over, we finally found a doctor who was willing to write that referral
Her reasoning was that if something is wrong, they will find it. If nothing is wrong, then you received reassurance.
Blind as a Bat
Mother knows best!
My medical team finally were able to give my worried parents an explanation.
Lebers Congenital Amerosis is the diagnosis I was given
All those fancy words translate to, I was born with not enough Photoreceptor cells in my eyes.
This means my eyes are perfectly healthy; look normal and could possibly be cured one day.
Legal Bureaucracy
Of course, the legal system had to make things scary and unfair for my family.
A Magistrate ruled that since my parents had only found out my diagnosis just before the final adoption hearing, they needed more time to decide if they truely wanted the added responsibility of raising a child with a disability.
As you can imagine, that ruling did not go over well; By this point my family already viewed me as their daughter.
And an official telling them that they needed more time to be sure was frankly offensive!
Early Intervention Saved Sanity!
After my family was made aware of my disability, Cincinnati Association for the Blind was reaching out to them the next business day.
Their Early Intervention Team was there and ready to help my family with services, resources and tons of advice.
One area this team helped my family the most in was school districts.
At that time, the school district my family was currently living in had a special education program, but my family did not agree with how the students were handled in the classroom.
So after a ton of research and interviews, my parents chose Finneytown Public School District. This decision did however require a change of location.
The Musical Journey Begins
Once we were settled in Finneytown, we started meeting some of our amazing neighbors.
One of these neighbors was Dr. Leon Lichtin, Read his Obituary here
For my second birthday, Dr. Lichtin gave me a tiny Casio keyboard.
Like most kids, at first I just banged on the keys and liked that they made noise.
As time went on, I started to figure out that sequences of keys could make prettier sounds!
The Day Dad Knew!
On a warm Spring Saturday, dad and I were chillin with the windows open and enjoying the beautiful sounds of a quiet suburban cul de sac. I was having a grand time exploring my keyboard and generally being a very noisy toddler!
Dad says that I was immediately distracted from my noise making by the Ice Cream Truck’s chimes. Like most kids, that sound could have probably woken me from a solid sleep. This time, I started trying to play along with the music!
Needless to say, dad was freaked out by this! He had never seen a child start playing a melody by ear like that without being taught to do so.
Being an avid aficionado of music himself, Dad devoted an entire wall of our garage to a massive colection of Records, Casette tapes and CD’s. And he just had to see if I would do it again!
The rest of that afternoon was spent with Dad finding the great hits that feature Organs and him and I having tons of fun seeing if I could play along with them!