friendship | Lessons from my daughter

When Emily was little I worried about her future.

To put this in context, you need to remember that in October 1999…

Just days after the picture above was taken… Genetic counselors a at the Montreal Children Hospital told us that due to Emily having Cri Du Chat syndrome, her future meant…

No walking!

No talking!

No understanding us!

No showing emotions!

No eating solid food!

At no point did they say this was a worst case scenario.

There was no doubt in their mind that this was going to be Emily’s life and we could see them feeling sorry for us.

We decided to give Emily the best life possible and that we would adjust to her needs and limitations.

This past weekend, was busy…

We had a roofing company over, putting a new roof on our house…

Meanwhile, Emily was starting her Cheer fall sessions. It was time to talk goals and prepare a lesson plan She loved cheer this past summer so she’s ready for more. Remember this picture?

An hour after cheer was done, Emily was at her baseball’s team end of summer game and party.

Emily and all her team mates got team jackets! How cool is that?

We had 39 players this year, divided into 2 groups.
We concluded Saturday with attending a hockey game.

Sunday morning, Emily was volunteering at her riding club. When coaches are tested to move up in their certifications, they need riders and Emily wants to help.

Emily helped coaches from other clubs on Sunday and they loved her 🙂

We had a busy weekend!

None of these would be possible if it wasn’t for amazing people getting together and wanting to provide opportunities for kids with special needs.

Thank you Cheer Olympia

http://www.olympiacheerleading.com/mobile/en/

Thank you Field of Dreams

http://monctonfishercats.com/fishercats2015/index.php/field-of-dreams

And thank you Cavalier riding club

http://cavalierridingclub.weebly.com

You are amazing and although I was grateful for this busy weekend to be over, I am even more grateful for the opportunities you are giving Emily and many others.

Thank you to your board of directors or owners and thank you to the volunteers who give their time, energy and positivity.

All of you, are part of our family now!

In the coming weeks, I will share more about Emily’s riding club as she starts her fall session this week and I will let you know more about Emily’s baseball team and our fully accessible baseball field project…

Yesterday, my really positive self was having a hard time and I wasn’t allowed (by my computer) to tell you! Somehow my app crashed when I tried to publish my post.

I am not often down but last night, I was.

After dinner Emily wanted to do a puzzle, she started to divide the pieces than called me. She needed help.

That’s when it hit me. My beautiful, talented, smart, determine, courageous daughter needed help with a 100 pieces puzzle.

24 hours later, I realize it was never about the puzzle.

It was about the list of everything left to do before the beginning of school:

Verify Emily’s school supplies
Pack her bag
Make sure she goes to bed at a reasonable time
Get up earlier than usual
Get the 2 of us ready for our day… and I mean that literally.
Make sure Jon packs a healthy lunch and snacks
Take Emily to school and walk in with her
Confirm that all is in place for her
Go to work
Go back to school mid-day for our first IEP meeting
Go back to work
Go back to school a third time to pick Emily up at the end of the day
Drop her home
Go back to work

I don’t mind all of these things… but out of nowhere last night I remembered the summer I was 17, I had a job than moved away in the fall to go to college. By this time, I was living on my own in Montreal…

Verify school supplies, pack her bag, help her get ready, ….

This sucks

Not for me… ok, maybe a little bit for me but mostly for her, even if she doesn’t feel it.

This f***ing sucks!

So… because I don’t like being down and quite frankly don’t have time for it, I’ve been finding reasons to be happy.

My gorgeous daughter on her first day of 11th grade.

When we were ready for me to leave her at school this morning, she gave me a hug and tried to kiss me with those bright pink lips

My girl loves me and doesn’t care who’s looking. That makes me super happy!

The school agreed to make an exception for us to drop and pick Emily off in what we feel is the safest way for her. Most people don’t realize that she has mobility and balance issues because they see her in an environment that she knows. Emily only uses one eye at the time, her depth perception is not there and when she doesn’t know her surroundings, she can’t tell if the ground is flat or not which makes it really dangerous for her…

Try imagining the challenges this presents!

The fact that the school understands this, makes me happy!Emily’s friend B is in 9th grade, after 6 or 7 years in different schools, they are reunited. Today… they had lunch together 🙂 Emily who some people say is difficult to understand when she speaks and her friend B who uses sign language spent lunch “talking”

Those two are awesome and that makes me really happy too!

What else…..?

In a week, I am going to feel like a teenager again as Jon and I are going to see The Scorpions live in concert! 50th anniversary World Tour! I don’t care how old they are, I am going to have a blast!

I finally got my dogs a new pillow and it hasn’t been destroyed yet! Here’s to hoping the chewing is done because that would make me really happy!