Sunshine

Having a child with special needs brings many concerns, and one of those concerns is, "Will my child have genuine friendships?" Last year I began to see a very special friendship blossom, and my concern in this area began to wither away. I now no longer lose sleep thinking and praying about Libby's friendships. In fact, last night I couldn't stop thinking about how thankful and blessed we are that this little girl has befriended Libby.

This little girl immediately bonded with Libby, and they've been two peas in a pod since. She's Libby's Sunshine, I'll refer to the little girl as Sunshine because that's a perfect description of her. She radiates happiness and love everywhere she goes. I've had the privilege of watching Sunshine in many situations, and I'm constantly in awe of how she responds in love and pursues bringing happiness to those around her.

❤❤❤❤❤

One of the things I love most about Sunshine is that she sees, treats, and plays with Libby as another little girl. She doesn't see the labels, hearing aids, braces, and other differences as red flags. She truly sees Libby for who she is, a little girl. Sunshine has an understanding and loving heart that I feel sure is made of pure gold, and I couldn't ask for a better friend for my daughter.

Libby loves Sunshine so much that we watch a video of her singing nearly every day. Libby talks about her often and lights up when she sees Sunshine. I know that Sunshine loves Libby just as much. Today I asked her if she wanted a printed picture of Libby, and she immediately did a happy dance and kissed the picture.

Sunshine cheering Libby on at one of her ballgames.

My mama heart is overflowing with thankfulness and love. I am forever grateful that Sunshine came into our lives and that she is my little girl's person. I'm also thankful that Sunshine has parents who are teaching her that special needs kids are, in fact, just kids. Her parents have been such an encouragement to my family, and we're thankful for their friendship as well. 

Punches

Didn't I just write about praying for strength and courage? Yep, I sure did. Perhaps God is indeed trying to teach us to rely on Him for both of those things. We're doing our best to continue to pray continually to avoid the funk that keeps trying to pull us in. Often we're in the fake it 'til you make it crowd.

In the last couple months each doctor visit, meeting, evaluation, etc. leaves us feeling like we've been punched in the gut. Sometimes repeatedly. We are blessed to have great teachers, therapists, doctors, and nurses helping us help Libby reach her full potential. Part of that is for them to sometimes deliver news that, for lack of a better phrase, straight up sucks. In almost every case, they feel the hurt and disappointment right alongside us. That helps. Truly it does. Sometimes we hold the tears in until we get to the car and other times we rush to sit/lay on nasty bathroom floors and sob uncontrollably. These pieces of news leave us awake until the wee hours of the morning researching, praying, and double checking to see if we can do anything else to help our little girl.

Bottom line... Libby is still progressing. It may not be at the rate we want, but progress is wonderful. Some things will be tweaked to hopefully help her out. We're thankful, oh so thankful, when plans are put into place after the punches are delivered. Okay, we're here. Let's give this our best shot to help her progress. That does so much good for our souls!

Sometimes when it seems like all we focus on is the negative, we try to fix our minds on the positive and the progress.

Today, Libby ate nearly 1,500 calories and is hovering at 30 pounds. She's gaining the weight back! She was able to control her impuslivity so much better for the hearing screening today despite the frequent mention of impulsivity from the audiologists. It was an improvement though so WIN! She was able to play at a small playground and verbally tell us when she was too hot. She's met some IEP goals this school year and gained a ton of new words, phrases, knowledge, skills, and friends. She has NOT disassembled her hearing aids in almost a week! She voiced that she ONLY wanted the "cute,sparkly Frozen shoes" at the Crocs store. Yep, I caved and bought Crocs because I was so stinkin' proud of how descriptive she was.

For now, I'm off to do a bit more research and spend some time in prayer.

Strength & Courage

I'm claiming this verse for our family. God is faithful and has guided us each step of the way. We don't always listen to Him like we should, but I'm so thankful He doesn't give up on us.

Truth is this journey of parenting a special needs child brings a degree of fear and discouragement. We try super hard to see the positive in everything, but there are times when it's a challenge. We've learned that it's okay to live in the moment, celebrate the victories, cherish each other, and to plan what we can. What we can't plan, we're learning to be okay with. God has used this journey to teach us that not everything has to be mapped out or just so. Our lives probably look like a hot mess, but it's a fun hot mess. HA!

Discouragement is also part of this special needs parenting journey. It just is. Sometimes we don't get results or news that we like to hear. It is hard to swallow and it hurts to the deepest core of our beings. BUT Joy comes in the morning. We're learning to mourn when we receive hard results/news and to do our very best to move on the next day. Our precious girl brings us so much joy that she often pulls us out of that sad place. We are so blessed that she's our girl!

So we will take on each day with as much strength and courage as possible and pray continually for both. We are so thankful for those who support us and pray for us! If you would like, will you help us pray for strength and courage?