Surprises

I love surprises. I always have--I'm a little girl at heart.
This week, I got a very unexpected surprise that made my heart sing...

My Olivia, who is now 11 years old, has challenges with her left hand, and it hinders her to complete many self-care tasks...we are getting there, trying to teach them to her...but it is a daily, ongoing, thing.

The other day, my husband and I were both at work, and she had to be home with her older brother. (Which they both do not enjoy to begin with...) And she was getting ready to go spend the day with her very best friend. Getting ready, that is, without any help.

She wears a brace on her left leg, that is kinda tricky to get on to begin with. Her occupational therapist, Linda Ankerman, and I, have not even begun to think about teaching her to put it on. She hasn't even mastered putting her socks on.

Until the other day.

She calls me and says she put her socks and brace on, couldn't master her shoes, and her brother was still sleeping. She didn't want to make him mad by waking him up.

The point of her call was to just tell me she wanted to wake him up, and didn't know how.

I, on the other hand, was in shock at her words and had to ask her, "Did you say you put your socks and brace on?" And in her matter-of-fact voice she said, " Yes, I told myself, well-he's sleeping, and you have to figure this out!"

And she did.

So as I was quietly crying on the phone, I encouraged her to wake up her brother, even though she was hesitant to do so.

As usual, she taught herself yet another task all on her own--because she wanted to..

And I got the greatest surprise ever.

~Maria