Friday, November 18, 2011

A little nervous!

I LOVE my blog!!!  I LOVE writing in it, especially when I am having "moment" good or bad, because I really appreciate my journey through this life, when I get to reflect how special it really has been.

IT IS REALLY hard to write when I know that people are reading it though.  I don't mind strangers reading my posts, but when I know that friends and family are reading it, it makes me scared and nervous.  I think that is because, I am usually the strong one and when I write here, I am sometimes not very strong.  I say things that I wouldn't ever tell someone in person and I don't like for people to worry about "how I am doing today".  I think that is why I haven't written very much lately.

I was reviewing some of my past posts and saw the comments that others have left and I realized that I may have positively impacted others.....AND it has made me realize that I should be writing more.  Both for myself and others.  SO, if you read this, please post a comment.  I don't think that I received the past comments, but it made me feel good to know that, there are people out there going to similar struggles. Reading your comments will help me to get back into writing and past the anxiety I have about reading my blog.

I would love to share with you, my newest excitement!!  My daughter, as you may know, doesn't talk.  We have been dealing with therapists for this her whole life (7yrs now) and this year, at school, she got a new teacher and speech therapist.  At first I was VERY nervous about this change because I have found that people who are new to her underestimate what she is capable of.  On the flip side, having fresh eyes is sometimes a blessing, as it is this time.  Her speech therapist, I will call her Shannon, ran into us one day and spontaneously signed her name to my daughter.  My daughter in return did the sign back.  We all watched this in amazement!! BECAUSE, up to this point we really weren't working on signing.  We were using a voice box, pictures (pecs), minimal signs and her body/face gestures to communicate.  We really weren't working on signs, in my opinion, because the people around her do not know sign language.

About a week later, we ran into the Shannon again.  Well to be precise, we were in a crowd and my daughter signed Shannon's name.  I was a little shocked and said "where is Shannon?".  Scanning the crowd I saw a woman stop and turn around and to my surprise, it was Shannon.  She heard me say her name.  I WAS AMAZED.  My daughter actually saw Shannon first and told me she was there!!!  We sat there excitedly talking about how many signs my daughter was attempting.  Shannon gave us homework to watch the SigningTime Videos.  I took her advise and guess what......WE HAVE ABOUT 20 new signs that my daughter has learned in the last 2weeks.  I can hardly contain my excitement!!  My daughter is starting to realize that she has a "voice", people understand what she is saying.  Her teachers, classmates and our family are all watching the videos so that we ALL can communicate with my daughter....AND SHE LOVES IT.  Her excitement is growing and so is ours.  TODAY WE HAVE HAD A SPECIAL MOMENT.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.
Cherishing Mommy