Kassidy Lenhart has faced many challenges in her young life. While her multiple surgeries and developmental delays are a part of her daily life, she has always kept a smile on her face while she stayed busy with multiple activities, including competing in the area Special Olympics events, even receiving many medals for her success in the competitions.
Celebrating a milestone: Happy Birthday Kassidy!
By Meagan Molseed
mmolseed@thefayettecountyunion.com
Last Saturday, members of the Lenhart and Lenth families gathered at the home of Eldon and Carol Lenth for an incredible celebration. Kassidy Lenhart was celebrating a milestone – her 18th birthday.
While any young person finds this milestone to be an exciting one, for Kassidy it is especially significant as during her first few years of life, no one was entirely sure the spirited young woman would live past her first few years.
“She has always not only defied the odds, but she has kept a smile while doing it,” said Kassidy’s mother Larene Lenhart of her daughter’s journey. “We knew she was strong from day one, but she had a lot of battles over the years.”
In August 2001, Larene Lenhart was nearly 34 weeks pregnant with her daughter Kassidy when something of concern struck the young mother.
“Up until then, everything seemed to be going smoothly,” the Elgin woman. “All of a sudden I realized I hadn’t felt her move in awhile.”
Realizing that the lack of movement could be related to any number of things, Larene decided to keep a close eye on what was happening as she followed her daily routines.
“I knew that sometimes when you are at that point in a pregnancy, movement can slow down the bigger the baby gets,” she remembered. “It just wasn’t normal for that pregnancy though.”
Larene, who worked at the Gundersen Lutheran clinic, mentioned her concerns at work that day.
“We decided to hook up the Doppler to listen for a heartbeat just to make sure everything was ok,” she said. “At that point in time, everything registered just fine. We found a heartbeat and it was right where it was supposed to be.”
Despite the reassuring Doppler results, Larene just couldn’t shake her concerns.