{"id":153,"date":"2026-06-17T22:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/?p=153"},"modified":"2026-06-17T22:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:27:16","slug":"shine-lily-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/2026\/06\/17\/shine-lily-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Shine, Lily, Shine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lily had an appointment with her pediatrician today. It was just a check up. Our doctor likes to keep track of Lily since she is so complex. I sat in the doctor\u2019s office and braced myself for the inevitable. You see, doctor\u2019s appointments become like a laundry list of what is wrong with my baby. I was waiting there and Lily threw up. I tried to clean it as best as I could and then couldn\u2019t help but start to cry. Life has been so overwhelming. Of course, that\u2019s when the doctor walked in. We talked about Lily\u2019s recent hospital stays and our future plans with her. It was a normal appointment. But at the end, she turned around and told me that Lily looked incredibly well. She said she couldn\u2019t believe how spirited and spunky and feisty she is for a child who just feels crummy all the time. She even laughed that Lily scolded her for not doing exactly what she wanted in the moment. She also told me that she was so happy with how much Lily is vocalizing and when I explained her language skills and the words and sentences she\u2019s saying, the doctor told me Lily was advanced for her age in speaking. Advanced! All I ever hear about Lily is how behind she is in every milestone. What a balm to my spirit to hear the word advanced. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After our appointment, I walked out feeling a little bit lighter. We drove to Costco for some essentials and I got Lily in the shopping cart. That\u2019s when I really got to see her spirit shine. She laughed and clapped and smiled at the passersby. She was overjoyed to see all of the people and they were equally overjoyed to see her. Lily commanded those aisles and loved every minute. That is the spirit that I see every day, even when she is sick, and I am so glad that that is the spirit that our pediatrician got to see today. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6728\/2026\/06\/IMG_0235-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6728\/2026\/06\/IMG_0235-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6728\/2026\/06\/IMG_0235-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6728\/2026\/06\/IMG_0235-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6728\/2026\/06\/IMG_0235-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6728\/2026\/06\/IMG_0235-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lily had an appointment with her pediatrician today. It was just a check up. Our doctor likes to keep track of Lily since she is so complex. I sat in the doctor\u2019s office and braced myself for the inevitable. You see, doctor\u2019s appointments become like a laundry list of what is wrong with my baby. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2547,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shine, Lily, Shine - COTA for Lily&#039;s Light<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforlilyslight\/2026\/06\/17\/shine-lily-shine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shine, Lily, Shine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lily had an appointment with her pediatrician today. 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