Hi Everyone,
Today was not the best day. Corey’s day started with a good speech session but then the day slowly became more difficult for her. She had a great deal of mouth pain and she was very tired. PT didn’t go well and when Corey’s teacher was reading to her, she fell asleep. This is definitely NOT a reflection on her teacher or the book they were reading! Although when I arrived home and saw Corey asleep during school I said in jest, ‘well, nothing’s changed’.
Corey and I had a quiet night. Our time together in the evening is my favorite part of the day. Have you ever had a conversation with someone and when you’re looking them in the eye you feel the connection physically? Your body becomes warm and you get a sensation of being drawn closer to the other person but you’re not moving. It consumes you. That is the feeling I get most evenings when we sit with one another. Corey didn’t want to talk tonight, but I felt as if she was trying to tell me something. Rather than press her, we just kept each other company.
At one point she took her hand to tap the bed. She then said, ‘Mom’. I climbed in next to her and we sat quietly. My right hand was holding her left hand. As we silently sat in each others company, I felt her squeezing my hand. At first I didn’t want to react because I didn’t want to distract her and I also was curious as to whether she was squeezing intentionally or out of reflex. I responded pressing with a pattern of two. In a matter of minutes we were playing a game. She was squeezing my hand intentionally with her left hand! I looked over at her and she was smiling. “Are you trying to get my attention”? She began to laugh.
I held her hand up in front of both of us. I asked her to look at her hand, think about the motion to open it and watch. There was no movement initially. Corey’s eyes slowly opened wider, she was concentrating intently and then a small smile as three fingers began to move. Her thumb began to twitch and then lift. Corey’s smile became bigger and she made her “happy” sound. “That’s it honey, lift that thumb and we’ll play thumby wars”. Up it came. I cheered and Corey laughed. I began the song; “One, Two, Three, Four, I declare thumby war…now get me…” Ever so slowly, she moved her thumb down, pinned me and laughed out loud! We tried to repeat the motion but she couldn’t quite get the connections. I assured her that it was okay, we will play again. She lifted her right hand and we started Round 2. She is much quicker and more accurate with her right hand…but she also cheats using her pointer finger to hold my thumb as her thumb pins me! Needless to say, we giggled and laughed as she continued to “win” each round.
When Corey concentrates to make the smallest movement, I find myself holding my breath until it happens. When I hear her vocalize, excited to see what she has achieved, I get a rush of adrenaline; my heart feels like it’s been lifted and tears come to my eyes. You can feel the pride she has in her achievement.
Corey my sister sent me a motivational quote that perfectly describes what you showed me tonight.
-If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying. “Here comes number seventy-one!” ~ Richard M. Devos (founder of Amway)
I love you so much. Thanks for reminding me to keep picking myself up! You’re amazing honey, xoxo