parenting | Lessons from my daughter

I’ve never done this before but really liked the idea so I’m giving it a try!

I saw this challenge today:
Share Your World – 2016 Week 3

I encourage you to go check it out!

The questions this week are:

1. What is your favorite piece of art? (It doesn’t have to be famous)

Currently, this one:

My daughter Emily painted it this past fall. Emily is a wonderful young lady. She’s 17 years old and has Cri du chat syndrome. Over the last year, she decided to paint and I truly enjoy seeing her progress.

She wants to build up her inventory and sell her art eventually.

What do you think?

2. What made you smile today?

I make a conscious decision daily to be happy and smile. It starts first thing in the morning and I do my best to keep my smile on all day.

At night, when putting Emily to bed, I sing to her (like I do every nights) and tickle her nose with my hair. My mom used to do that to me 😊 It’s so annoying… and now I’m passing the tradition.

This makes me smile.

3. Which place do you recommend as a must-see? Please state which country, state or providence.

Percé, Québec, Canada

I grew up on the Gaspé coast and went to Percé Rock yearly as a kid. Either with my mom or with my school.

We took Emily when she was only weeks old, back then, you could still walkto touch Percé Rock when the tide was out. Nowadays, we can no longer walk to the rock, the stairs have been removed and the tides are no longer monitored but Percé is still an amazing place to visit.

This is Emily during our latest visit.

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To find more about Percé:

National Geographic

Percé

Side note, Percé is situated in the province of Québec. Bring a French dictionary and visit in summer. 😊The town shuts down in winter time!

4. When I was younger I used to…

Be a ballerina!

The Bonus question

5. What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the coming week.

I am always grateful for my hubsband and daughter.

Over the last week, I have been especially grateful for Emily’s cheer club and team!

In the coming week, I am looking forward to my mom coming to visit. We last saw her in July and I can’t wait to hug her. Just a couple of weeks before Christmas, there was a fire in her duplex. She lost all her material possessions. I have been wanting to hug her ever since getting that phone call. I am really looking forward to spending time with my mom.

I’ve told you about Emily’s desire to cheer twice already.

Fall 2013 : To be a cheerleader

Summer 2015 : Cheer Bows

This past summer, she found her place at Cheer Olympia and when fall arrived, a new team was formed!

The Pillars

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Our team, has 5 athletes, 3 coaches and 1 awesome filler 🙂

Our athletes are awesome and my fear on Sunday morning was that the other athletes and their families might not see how awesome our girls are!

The music played at a lower volume as to not overwhelm our girls.

The crowd was a little quieter to help them as well.

But that didn’t stop the other cheer teams from clapping and cheering for our team. Soon enough, the crowd joined in too!

Next time, I say we crank the volume on their music 🙂

After their first go at it, our girls sat back down and cheered for the other teams.

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Each team was performing twice!

Here are a couple of things you would not know by looking at them.

After their first number, one of our athlete had what her mom calls a “small seizure”. I don’t know how familiar you are with seizures but in my mind (someone who doesn’t know seizures), there is no such thing as small seizures. It’s a seizure or a big seizure. Well, would you believe that our girl was back on the mat for their second appearance? And she rocked it!
One of the other mom sitting next to me who was also emotional was telling me, “would you believe it took 2 years of physio therapy for her to walk?”. She was talking about her daughter.
This is also true of Emily, doctors and therapists agreed she would never walk.

If you were to ask me what diagnosis the other girls on the team have, I truly can’t tell you as I have never asked their parents and I will not asked them as to me, they are Emily’s team! None of them are their diagnosis and all of them are hard workers!

Those girls are amazing!

After the showcase, most of us went for a late lunch. One team! Which I suspect will soon be one big family!

It took at least 6 years of trying dance classes, cheer groups and looking at everything out there…. Emily never gave up on her dream to be a cheerleader.

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So today, Emily is a cheerleader, with the bow, the hair, the make-up, the uniform, the team jacket and a team where she is accepted, respected and celebrated!

A team where each member is accepted, respected and celebrated!

Emily is a cheerleader.

Thank you Olympia cheerleading

Thank you Colleen, Lorraine, Celine, Megan and Chloe!