Glasses with Personality

Hi there!

I’m Allison Barker, @albark. I have been married to my best friend for twelve years & we have four precious children (Jude 10, Sammy 8, Amos 7, Olive 5). Our oldest two boys are biological, we adopted our third son from Uganda & we adopted our daughter from China. We live in Louisville, Kentucky & we stay quite busy with our full house. We are so happy to be in the process to adopt a little sister from India! I’m honored & excited to share our story with you today.

We joined the “cute accessories for kids” club when our oldest son failed his vision test at his pediatric three-year-old well checkup. We took him to a pediatric ophthalmologist & we began to notice eye crossing. We got him the cheapest/cutest glasses we could find & he had to start wearing a patch on one eye for a couple hours a day. Jude was a champ! A few years after we got Jude set, Sammy also started having eye crossing.

We had a hard time finding affordable, yet cute/hip & quality kids’ glasses! We were paying about $300-$400 a pair for each of the boys. I really didn’t want my kids looking back at their childhood pictures hating their glasses & I think it’s so important for them to feel confident in their glasses. There used to be such a stigma attached to glasses & kids were even bullied for it. I think that time is over because other kids wish they could have these cute boys frames now, although healthy eyes are helpful. Our third son came along & has perfect vision. We took him to his first ophthalmologist appointment & when we left he asked when we were getting his glasses. I had to break the news to him that he had great vision & didn’t need glasses. :)

We began the process to adopt our daughter from China & we had to go through a list of “special needs” that we could accept. A few months before we traveled to China we got pictures & health info about the sweetest little girl that was born with cataracts. Olive had already had surgery at one year old while she was still in China. The Doctors & nurses cared for her so well, but when we got her home we found out that after her surgeries scar tissue had grown back where they removed the cataracts. Our ophthalmologist encouraged us to have surgery done quickly because her brain had already had too much time adjusting to low vision.

One month after we brought her home from China, Olive had her first surgery to remove the scar tissue in one eye. Olive Mae was a champ & was very patient with mommy & daddy while we helped her recover. We had to put a lot of different eye drops in her eye for a few months after the surgery. A month later she had her second surgery. She recovered well & we had to get the tiniest girls glasses for her sweet little face. Olive’s vision has improved so much & she is able to see way better than we had ever thought possible. Olive goes to a visually impaired preschool three days a week & it has been so helpful for her. Her vision has improved & our Doctor has hopes that Olive could possibly have lenses put in her eyes when she’s older or maybe a surgery will be developed by then to improve her vision even more. This little girl is so resilient & is feisty & spunky enough to show it. ;)

We are so thankful we found Jonas Paul Eyewear last year! Our crew gets the sweetest compliments on their glasses everyday & we are big fans too! The glasses are durable enough for our crazy bunch, they’re affordable for a family that has to buy 3 pairs (plus glasses for mommy & daddy) every year & they’re the perfect style for each personality. Our kids loved getting to pick out which ones they liked best with the . It’s easy to let them choose when they’re all cute! Thanks so much to Jonas Paul for making beautiful & quality products!

Thanks for reading about our story today! Follow along on my IG at @albark. Please feel free to ask any questions about our journey. We’re honored to share & be a resource for others.

Allison Barker

@albark