April together with her family
A day to honor mothers everywhere for all they do to help love us, raise us and support us in life.
I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with one local mother, and my visit with her touched me greatly.
It might have been the connection of one mom to another, but I really think it was more than that.
April Gorman is a Lake Highlands mother of two, and in honor of Mother's Day, I'd like to introduce our readers to this special Lake Highlands mom.
I first met April during a meeting of the Lake Highlands Area Early Childhood PTA. Like many LH moms, in addition to caring for her family, she finds time to volunteer and was helping chair the group's recent home tour and auction.
As is so often the case in Lake Highlands, we realized we had a mutual friend - and in this case, that mutual friend thought so highly of April that I decided to get in touch and ask her to lunch.
I had been following the posts on Facebook and through other email groups about a new movie, Torey's Distraction.
Torey's Distraction is a documentary film that was made here in Dallas and chronicles three children with Apert Syndrome (a craniofacial condition) over a ten year time span.
It is a movie particularly important to April because her son, John, has a similar condition known as Crouzon Syndrome.
The goal of the movie, funded by a group called Filmanthropy, is to help bring awareness and generate funds to help the cause of particular a group, in this case Apert Syndrome and related craniofacial conditions.
After visiting with April recently, I can honestly say it's just a bigger budget version of what she's doing every day right here in our community.
As she puts it, "talking about all things craniofacial" is just a regular part of a lot of her days.
According to April and her husband, Tate, son John is a happy, silly, somewhat shy 3 year-old. The Gorman family currently calls the L Streets neighborhood home, along with John and his younger sister, Rory Cate.
John was diagnosed in 2008 with Crouzon Syndrome, a craniofacial condition characterized by prematurely fused sutures in the head that result in an abnormal growth rate of the skull and face.
Children with Crouzon's often have bulging eyes (due to this abnormal growth of the mid-face area) and may also have receding upper jaws and protruding lower jaws.
The journey to John's diagnosis was not a straight or narrow path, much like the journey the family is now on with his treatment.
After several visits with a number of physicians, and a chance meeting with Torey's mom - who introduced herself to the Gormans at a local restaurant - the diagnosis became official.
April and her husband dove headfirst into the world of craniofacial anomalies.
"It was so important that we start educating ourselves about all our treatment options," explains April.
"There were so many choices to make about John's care and intervention, and there are certainly more to come, as well."
