John McGivney Children's Centre

Today was our last regular therapy day.  It's an exciting day but also a sad day as this centre has been a central part of our lives since Evan was a tiny baby.  He began working with Tonia Bryans,  his speech language pathologist, Bonnie Darbyson - his physiotherapist and Louise Henry - his occupational therapist.  I met Tonia in Windsor when Evan was still in the NICU and only a few weeks old.  Both she and Louise came out to the house for visits.  When we first started out with them they were working out of the old St. Anne's high school in Tecumseh as their building (on Matchette) was being gutted and rebuilt.  We switched over to the new building about a year into therapy.

Julie Bially came on as Evan's OT for a short bit when Louise's caseloads were shuffled and then he was permanently placed with Carolyn Goodwin for the remainder of our time there.  These ladies were instrumental in helping Evan meet his early milestones - raising his head for tummy time, getting into 4-point and then commando crawling which led to 4 point crawling and then walking.  His speech has always continued to improve from day one.  Miss Tonia and worked tirelessly with them to get his placements right and prep him for school.

This place was like a second home to us.  Every Thursday morning we were off to "therapy" to see our girlfriends.  Evan will be transitioning to new therapists (still through McGivney thank goodness!) once he begins school but I know it will definitely be a new chapter for us.  I will never forget all that these ladies did for us.  They are truly amazing.