Sunshine

Friday came, full of cheer, and washed away the darkness in my heart. Fridays are a favorite day because they are Abbie's "school day" during the summer. Perhaps because I'd been in such a deep hole, Abbie's light seemed especially brilliant that morning.

The sun shone brightly as we headed out to "the beach" -- an activity center set up outside that includes digging in sand. I love so much that the students create playful learning experiences. Abbie dug through the sand to find shapes which she would then identify for us. She did great at the circles, but then also called a square a circle. I compared the square and circle and we talked about corners and edges, and then we tried again. This time she identified both of the squares. I got to watch her learn!! And, she picked it up quite quickly.

Then, we were on to her favorite...the ball pit. I sit in it with her and we use the balls to practice identifying colors. She was as fast as I have ever seen her, even when we tried to trick her. These kind of days are so sweet for me...it feels good to smile. We then got to throw water balloons, which unfortunately were ultra-strong and bounced like balls...but Abbie used a gripper hand to do it herself. Again, the students finding a way to allow Abbie to do as much herself as possible. She loved the gripper, and also used it to do her hall moniter duty picking up trash and moving activity cards to the "completed" side of the chart.

But, the best part of the day happened when I was not there (of course). I had run up the hill to pick up the twins from their summer program and missed about 30 minutes of activity. During this time they introduced the "feeling box" to Abbie, which contained shapes she could pick up but not look at. She was not at all keen to put her hand into a box of unknowns, which I can understand. However, they would place shapes in her hand and she could correctly identify the shape just based on how it felt in her hand. By this I was truly amazed...I had no idea she was capable of this!

We are still having difficult afternoons. Between 3 and 5 pm Abbie is generally unhappy, with prolonged bouts of crying/whining common. Because it keeps happening at the same time, and resolving at the same time it has all the markings of a meridian-related pattern. The encouraging news is that between these hours the bladder meridian is in high phase, and the brain lies on this circuit. So, while it still pains my heart deeply to hear and watch her suffer, I am profoundly comforted by the belief that this is a sign of healing and progress for her.

Tonight I told her that she has a swallowing test on July 12th, and that we need to practice. I got an immediate reaction, a huge smile and some great swallows. She is all about acing tests. I mentioned that we also have a "body test" on July 30 (a visit to the orthopedic surgeon at Shriner's), so that we need to practice having loose, stretchy muscles, and a strong body...we'll see if the Teacher's Pet part of Abbie helps us in this instance!

My mom arrived on Wednesday to spend a month with us. It will be a treat to have another set of hands, which so far have been kept quite busy by the boys...playing cribbage and cards!

Please continue to pray for our school decision. The principal of our home school wants to meet with us before we even start the process, which is curious but will give me a chance to ask some key questions. Several families have mentioned that they are not even allowed on campus during the school day, including when their children are receiving therapy. If I cannot be present to work with and learn from the therapists, this process isn't even worth starting.

As I close, I am looking at Abbie, and her beauty leaves me wordless. I am so very, very blessed!