The Fundraising Page of Sawyer Pittsley

Sawyer is a funny, sweet 6 year old boy who loves loves loves music (especially his daddy’s music and Stevie Nicks singing “Silver Springs”), dinosaurs, bath time, praying before bed and attending school at the Little Lighthouse. He is a happy boy who loves doing things that make people laugh. Sawyer was born on November 1, 2013. He was a week past his due date (stubborn!) so due to fears related to ingestion of meconium, I was induced. After 32 hours of labor they eventually had to take Sawyer by Caesarian Section. As far as my husband and I knew he was a perfectly developed newborn. However, at about 6 months of age we started noticing that Sawyer was not meeting some of the normal developmental milestones. We enrolled him in Sooner Start and he began Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy at home. His progress was slow. The Sooner Start therapists were the ones who first told us about the LLH so at 2 years of age we got Sawyer on the waiting list. In the meantime we were still searching for a diagnosis and trying to figure out what was causing him to be so far behind. He was not crawling, walking, pulling up, talking or doing most of the things kids his age were supposed to be doing. We were referred to numerous specialists throughout Oklahoma as well as Kansas, Arkansas and Texas, which included specialists in the areas of: pediatric neurology, endocrinology, developmental pediatrics, genetics, orthopedic surgery, audiology and ophthalmology. After brain imaging it was found that Sawyer had a hypoplastic cerebellum on the right side. Basically that meant his cerebellum was slightly smaller on the right side compared to his left. He was also born without a posterior pituitary gland. This still did not give us an overarching diagnosis so we just started treating each condition as needed individually and still continue to do so. We received the call in August of 2017 that Sawyer’s name had finally reached the top of the waiting list and he was invited to start school in October! He started at the LLH the week of Mini Laps so we experienced all of the excitement and hard work that surrounds this event right out of the gate. Sawyer is now in his third and final year at the LLH and we are so grateful for him to have had this experience. Since he began there we have seen him grow so much and make progress that he may never have achieved without it. He has developed so much socially, interacting more with others as well as making his first friend. As a parent that had to be the highlight of his time for us at the LLH so far. As most LLH parents know, being a kid that is considered “different” can be very isolating, so that meant the world. He has also progressed physically and is now able to stand with support, take steps with help, sit independently, “army crawl” and feed himself. Besides the LLH he has a wonderful support system provided by his grandparents, Bill and Vivian Martin and Jim and Vickie Pittsley. We could never had made it through these last 6 years without them. We still do not have an umbrella diagnosis therefore there is still no prognosis for what his future might look like. The only thing we know for sure at this point in time is that this is the way God made him and he is perfect to us. To those who volunteer, donate or support this wonderful organization in any way, we can’t thank you enough. To the teachers, therapists and all staff I hope you realize that most, if not all, of these kids would never achieve some of the things they do this soon without the interventions the LLH provides. You are changing lives. Period. The head start that they receive from attending the LLH is invaluable. As we all know, these kids are starting out life with the deck stacked against them. They deserve any help and support they can get and the LLH gives them that leg up they need so THANK YOU.