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Showing posts from October, 2018

I Can Only Imagine

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I can only imagine my wife’s beautiful face.  Oh sure, I’ve touched it and kissed it many times.  I’ve felt the lines with the tips of my fingers, tracing our lives together, and I’ve heard her smile.  I understand that’s not really seeing it.  It’s not seeing her eyes as they sparkle with something funny I said; or, when she looks at me with love reserved only for those who are truly in love. She’s often tried to explain the flash and colors of a sunset and the cotton softness of clouds as they drift across the sky.  And, what about a rainbow made up of all the colors that somehow promise all of us that things in the world will get better. How amazing it would be to see my daughter Blythe skiing her favorite Colorado Mountain trail or my son Tom riding a California wave, both so secure and happy enjoying the sports they love. There is so much more I wish I could see, but it’s not going to happen because I am blind.  I am left with only imagining what it’s like to have the gift of s

A Boy with No Boundaries

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Last summer, Kai Wang devoured 12 audio books on science and engineering feats like the Golden Gate Bridge, atomic bombs, and the cotton gin. He listened to the books over and over — some as many as five times. One of his favorite titles was “Rocket Men,” a 400-page book for adults on Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon.  He finished it in a week. Kai enjoys talking with his mom, Mina, about everything he learns and reads. But it’s not just banter for him — he’s often quizzing her to see what she knows. “He’ll ask me about the order of elements in the periodic table or what’s happening to atoms on the sun, but he knows the answers,” says Mina. “I’m a molecular biologist, and any time I sit down and explain what I am doing in the lab, he understands it.” Kai is only five years old, and virtually blind from an inherited retinal disease called Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). Kai was 18 months old when he was diagnosed with the condition. Mina and her husband, Lingeng, nev

Beware of Costume Contacts

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Costume Contact Lenses such as cat eyes or zombie may make your Halloween costume a bit more frightful although wearing those lenses without a prescription can be more terrifying, as it could result in vision loss or even blindness. You can buy contact lenses, including decorative contact lenses, from your eye doctor or on the Internet.  It’s very important that you only buy contact lenses from a company that sells FDA-cleared or approved contact lenses and requires you to provide a prescription.  Even if you don’t wear corrective lenses you still need to get fitted properly. Remember — Buying contact lenses without a prescription is dangerous! Right now there are a lot of products that you can buy without a prescription but they may not be safe or legal. You should NEVER buy lenses from: street vendors salons or beauty supply stores boutiques flea markets novelty stores Halloween stores convenience stores beach shops internet sites that do not requ