The past few weeks have seen the fulfillment of a longtime dream for Jocelyn and I. You may remember over a year ago as I was thinking through the emotion of watching Julia’s Down syndrome becoming a little more evident and younger kids passing her by developmentally.
Well… it’s been over a year and a lot of work. I’ve watched Jocelyn settle expertly into her role as the mom of a kid with special needs, patiently working with Julia on strength and flexibility, gross motor skills and fine motor skills, and constantly keeping an ongoing conversation going to help keep Julia’s communication development on track.
There have been innumerable moments of joy and excruciatingly slow progress at times; but with the perspective of time, the progress has been most definitely there. We really do love the surprises that we often get when we realize Julia is using a sign to communicate what she wants and the wall of confusion and frustration between us crumbles just a bit more, or we see her determination as she works out a problem or becomes increasingly comfortable with her balance.
We also saw tantalizing moments of hope as we would watch her get up into a crawling position, only for her legs to sprawl out from under her for lack of strength. Hope began to build in the last few months as she made a few tentative motions – a hand, then another, a knee – as the movement became more and more organized. There were endless practice sessions as we did our best not to rush her, but to always encourage.
And then over the Thanksgiving holiday, it was as if a switch had been flipped.
One year, three months and sixteen days from the moment I felt that twinge of jealousy over another child crawling, our little girl crawled across the room.
Take a look:
http://youtu.be/TeB4FFjv2A4
I’ve said more than once that this whole adventure is on God’s and Julia’s timing, but this little milestone has been especially sweet. Thanks for sharing it with us.
One Response
Praise the Lord , He is always with us.As a parent I know how your feel this great movement.Because Jocelyn and you done a great patiently work to see this movement.we praying Julia will getting more and more strength and stand, walk,dance, run For God’s Glory. May God bless your family as witness of Christ LOve.