Diligence.


This year Gracie helped to open her( and other people's)  Christmas presents.  She needed prompting but she took an interest in it and tore at the paper. This might not be a big deal to most people but it was a big step for her. Last year, she didn't bother with them AT ALL. She didn't even touch the tree till it had been up for 2 weeks. This year, she gets into anything she is not supposed to!
I was all set to start the year on a positive note, but some odd looks at Christmas gatherings and questioning comments about her development put me on a bad path. But I am trying to transfer it into something positive. Gracie is NOT like every other kid. She has gone through things we can't even begin to imagine. Can YOU imagine what it was like to be in a crib with other children all around and be fed by having a bottle shoved in your mouth and left there till it was time to take it away? If you weren't able to eat what was in that bottle because of the hole in your mouth and it dripped out instead of going in your belly, well, that was too bad. Can you imagine?
She looks like a regular kid so people don't understand why she doesn't talk-Why she doesn't eat like the other kids- Why she wears a bib. They see that and that look at HER differently.
I know I should not let these things bother me... but they do. It's like when we were in China and whichever baby cried and the parent that walked around with it was the focus of EVERY eye in the place,chinese and foreign.
I didn't expect these kinds of challenges but I accept them with open arms. I wouldn't trade Gracie for another baby if I could. Chris and I can't figure out how you can go half way across the world, pick up something that doesn't belong to you, bring it home and love it like nothing you've every loved before. That is the essence of adoption. How can you NOT love her/him?
If you had told me 20 years ago, that I would adopt a special needs child from anywhere, I would have been shocked. I never thought I had the patience and diligence it would take to care for such a child.  But since Gracie, I have come to learn that I do. I am working on the diligence. That is this year's resolution. To give them both EVERYTHING they need to thrive. That is what matters. If other people don't see that is NOT what matters.
I am not perfect. (Chris thinks he is). I therefore, do not expect Gracie to be perfect. We will work through the ups and downs of life together, just like we have been even before she came to us... as a family.

I have said before that
I am writing this blog to keep a journal FOR Gracie of her advancements; the steps forward as well as the steps back. Joy's was on paper, Gracie's is electronic.  Some things will be easier than others but all will be worthwhile, because if I have learned anything this past year, it is to appreciate and VALUE all the great gifts we have been given because we don't know how long we will have them. I found out over the holidays that some of my more distant friends are creepers and do follow it That you think it is worthwhile to read amazes me, but I do appreciate your support.

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