When You Least Expect It.......

Have you ever been bogged down by doubt, disappointment, regret, and despair? Sometimes life just delivers blow after blow and it feels like it will never end.  I don't want to camp out here and the details don't need to be shared, but this has been my family's life this year.  We have had it.

But then, when you least expect it, there is more joy than you can possibly contain.  Things start to work out and slowly but surely hope is restored.  All of a sudden, or maybe bit by bit, you can imagine a day when you smile more than you frown and worry is no longer a constant companion.   Sometimes it takes a month and sometimes a year, but joy always comes after the storm, right?

We have found it.  There have been large and small developments that have moved us past the disappointment but I would have to say that much of the hope we have found is due to Angie's amazing accomplishments this summer.

I wrote about the TOP Soccer program for children with special needs in a previous post.  Angie was thrilled to play soccer for the first time this summer and I would not hesitate to say that the high school soccer players who taught her were equally blessed.  Tonight, Angie was able to be introduced as a special guest at the opening high school soccer game.  As you can see, she was pretty excited:

Angie started another series of Anat Baniel Method lessons this week and the results are far beyond our expectations.  Since her last series about four weeks ago, she has continued to surprise us with new skills and abilities.  It is as if the lessons have brought her brain out of a long hibernation and now anything goes.  She is using her right arm and hand in new ways almost every single day. But the motor changes are not the only gains she is making.  Her cognitive awareness and abilities are growing too.  She is naming sight words, using a much larger vocabulary, and interacting with us on a much deeper level.  Her provider, Kathy, is amazing and I could watch the sessions all day long........she is that good!  And, it doesn't hurt that she and Angie have formed a strong connection to one another.  Angie LOVES her time with Kathy!

We have crossed one more hurdle towards finalizing Angie's adoption.  This one was frustrating for me as our family's situation had to be presented before a neutral committee so they could decide if we could be officially appointed as Angie's adoptive family.  As the date of the meeting approached, we were contacted repeatedly by a DHS caseworker and grilled about facts, figures, and irrelevant information with the premise of "building our case".  To be honest, I was offended.  Angie has been in our home since the day we picked her up from the hospital over eight years ago and if we have not proven our devotion to her by now we never will.  We had already participated in a 3-hour home study months ago.  Angie is the heart of our family and facts and figures will never define our relationship.  The child welfare system is broken and the resources should instead be used to protect endangered children, not put our family under a microscope.  At the end of the day, we were "chosen" and now we can move forward through the remaining bureaucracy to become Angie's forever family.

Angie is set to start second grade next week and I feel that this could be her best year yet.  We have so much new information to support her education and she is just blossoming before our eyes.  So much joy.  I met with her school team to plan her schedule this week and she is one lucky girl to have such a caring, creative team to support her at school.  If you are a parent of a child with special needs you know how very uncommon this can be.  We do not take it for granted and we are grateful for another reason to hope.

I am grateful for the joy we are discovering and for the end of the dark days, at least for now.  The new school year always feels like a new beginning and for us this year it is especially true.  There is so much to hope for and the waiting, though hard, is worth it.